[B]65 Stepside Frame off Resto[/B]

[Alan's Classic]

Originally Posted by da_bears_da1

Thanks. Yes, we did mount the doors and front fenders to fit the rockers while holding the outer floors in place before welding and after. I am hoping to buy some better doors from a guy in Kansas (mine are pretty bad once I got them back from the sand blaster). Will weld the rockers after I get the better doors and check them for fit.

By the way, love your build thread. One of the best I have seen.

That's good too hear about the prefitting.

BTW, glad you are enjoying my build.

[da_bears_da1]

Been working on the floorboard. It's great to have the new metal in place. Now we are working to get this all smooth.

Found a new tool that I love. Its a small sand blaster that my "Neighbor" has that allowed us to clean up small spots and get in the small groves on the back of the cab. We were able to get our first coat of fiberglass filler applied to the seams to start smoothing things out. Nice to see it looking like it should!

Had to take a shot with the beer, havin fun as we go!

[Zane'sMom]

I like your build: subscribed!

[da_bears_da1]

It's amazing how seeing a cab bottom with solid metal and primed can make you feel good! We have filled the seams and primed it. Was my first paint effort, not bad but room for improvement!!

[Strodder]

Lookin good.

[da_bears_da1]

Now that we are done with the floors we tackled an area we were worried about. There was cancer above the windshield, shown below, that needed to be replaced. As you can see there are some bends that just seemed tough to replicate with a patch. Using our new shrinker/stretcher we were able to get a good patch put in. We were also able to weld up some holes on the drivers side and get them ground down.

[WhippinSaw]

Ok, I had to google "shrinker/stretcher" and I want one. Great stuff. Are you using a commercial grade shrinker/stretcher or a diy one?

PS: I looks like you are going to be done before me!

[da_bears_da1]

I used a more simple one. Below is a picture of it. I bought it from TP Tools. Its called the Economy Shrinker & Stretcher Kit and comes with the stand.

[CRGRS 66]

Subscribed, great project, great progress!!!

[da_bears_da1]

Originally Posted by CRGRS 66

Subscribed, great project, great progress!!!

Thanks a lot! It is very nice to get positive feedback.
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[WhippinSaw]

Originally Posted by da_bears_da1

I used a more simple one. Below is a picture of it. I bought it from TP Tools. Its called the Economy Shrinker & Stretcher Kit and comes with the stand.

Thanks for posting da_bears, I didn't think I needed anything fancy. Did you use it to make the roof patches?

[da_bears_da1]

Originally Posted by WhippinSaw

Thanks for posting da_bears, I didn't think I needed anything fancy. Did you use it to make the roof patches?

Yes, all of the roof patches required mostly shrinking and a little stretching. Wish I had bought this earlier in my project.
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[da_bears_da1]

We have finished the roof metal repairs. As you can see we had some holes in the forward corners of the roof on both sides. We were able to fix some of them with the welder but needed patches on both sides and some rust encapsulator on the supports. The shrinker/stretcher again helped out a lot. We now have a solid floor and roof.

[66C06]

nice progress!

[da_bears_da1]

Originally Posted by 66C06

nice progress!

Thank you!
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[da_bears_da1]

Didn't realize it has been so long since an update. My daughter is moving back to our area so spent a week house shopping. We finally got back to work yesterday. As you will see we have been cleaning up the firewall and fixing the back of the cab.

As you can see the PO hacked up the firewall putting on a brake booster. He also drilled a number of holes all over the firewall.


Got the firewall cleaned up. I love the look of a very clean firewall so am going to go with an economy/recirculating heater. Have been looking for 64-66 heater delete plates and only found one bad set for $80. Decided the heck with it and cut patches and welded them in. We also got all of the holes we don't need filled.


We then moved to the back of the cab. We had previously put on both cab corners but had cancer next to them on the bottom. The driver's side was only 3-4 inches but the passenger side was about 8-9 inches. Spent a frustrating day making patches for the bottom of the cab. Had to throw away a couple of attempts on the drivers side, just had a hard time getting the radius right and then the bottom return the right length.


Here are both sides. The passenger's side had some thin metal around the patches so it took a day of welding, grinding to get it all filled in.



Now we are going to get the rockers attached. Bought a set of doors off of another guy on this site. Mine were a patch work of filler and rust. Now that the doors are back from soda blasting, we can put them on today and get the rockers done. It has been 2.5 months of work on the cab so it is nice to see an end to the metal work on it.

[aggie91]

I like your progress and the attention you are putting into it. I borrowed a HF shrinker/stretcher from a friend, but not used it yet. I need to get back to it and get the parts made...

Looks great!

[da_bears_da1]

Originally Posted by aggie91

I like your progress and the attention you are putting into it. I borrowed a HF shrinker/stretcher from a friend, but not used it yet. I need to get back to it and get the parts made...

Looks great!

Thanks! I am surprised how much the shrinker/stretcher helps on some patches.
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[da_bears_da1]

We have finally gotten the outer rockers installed. We got different doors from a fellow forum member; mine were half filler that I got with the truck. Got them soda blasted, finished our other work and got to the rockers. The fun part on the driver's side was that the inner rocker I bought from Classic Parts of America was about 1.5" shorter on the front side than the back. We had to fabricate a piece and weld it on to the inner rocker to get the necessary length to be able to weld the outer rocker to it. Here is the driver's side.
[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

On the passenger side it was no fun at all. The PO cut off both the inner and outer rockers and attached a new outer rocker with filler. He apparently drove it that way for a while so when we put our new outer rocker on we were about an 1" off length wise. It turned out that since the floor was so full of cancer and the rocker was held on with filler the passenger side relaxed about 3/4 of an inch. We had to pull the door pillars together and then weld a brace in to get the cab back in shape. Once we got through that, it was pretty smooth sailing. Just had the normal adjustments to get the parts to fit. Here is how it turned out.


For any other newbies out there that read this, BRACE YOUR CAB BEFORE YOU CUT ANYTHING!

[Chad215]

Your firewall looks great- I didn't like the look of the heater delete plates either so I did the same thing. Great progress!

[groundbound64]

Great work ! Looks like you learn fast for not turning a wrench in 20yrs

[da_bears_da1]

We finished our final patch on the cab yesterday. Went back and counted and its been 80 days we have been doing metal working on the cab; seems like forever.

We are going for a clean look and are going to mount speakers in a custom wood box behind the seat. So we decided to take out the speaker grill on the dash and put in a solid patch. We went real slow to make sure there was no warping.


Here is a picture of the cut out speaker grill.


We also replaced the passenger side rain guide (guessing that's what it's called) on the front door pillar. Ours had a fair amount of cancer so we formed a new piece and put it in. This was another challenge to form. It has a flat side an inch long to attach to the door pillar, then and reverse bend and then a 90 degree bend. Lots of tinkering around to get it right.


So today we are will be putting away the saws and welder for a while and finally get to start doing some body work and priming on the cab.

[Ta2Don]

Awesome Progress!!!

[da_bears_da1]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Awesome Progress!!!

Thank you!

[Strodder]

Looks great. I did the same thing with the speaker grill.