Turn your project upside down!!

[Hilandr451]

It was one of those days when everything was crystal clear. I walked out into the shop like I owned the place. (oh yeah, I guess I do huh?) I knew exactly what I needed to do and it all worked out perfectly.

For months my son Brian & I have been dreading finishing up that seam along the back of the headliner. It all started when I had done a big back window conversion without removing the roof panel. I decided to just weld the headliner to the back panel and fill in the seam. It sounded like such a great idea - until I started to stitch it back in along the top.

Brian & I had finished the dash R&R, shaved the fuel filler opening, we had smoothed in the new back window opening & seam, we had patched, filled in amd sanded every inch of that cab except that back seam & the headliner. it had kicked our butts on previous occasions so we just moved on to other stuff. The only thing standing in the way of paint was the headliner work.

Then it hit me! I was driving home from work one day in heavy traffic, and I had a crazy idea: why not turn the truck upside down so we can work on that headliner from a vertical angle of attack? The solution was simple, cheap and easy to execute. It cost me about $50.00 in angle iron and took about an hour to put together. And the best part? It's re-usable!!!





The front legs were easy - I just cut a piece of angle iron off at 66", drilled 2 holes in it to line up with the door hinge mounting holes on the cab. The back legs were a little trickier, I bolted an old set of striker plates upside down using the two holes that will be accessable after the angle iron support is welded in. Then I clamped the lower end of the angle iron to the inside door jamb with welding vicegrips. I welded a couple of diagonal supports in to stiffen things up and a cross piece to tie the two sides in. once everything was secure, Brian & I just rolled the cab over onto the new stand - piece of cake!!!