Attempt/Mistake #2

[El Campo]

Got all the spot welds cut. This spot cutter is sweet, never really cut welds before so don't know how it compares but cut 68 welds in 40 minutes. This included having to find and center punch them too.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Only used a single cutting bit and it cut the last one as well as it cut the first. I hit it with the lube stick after each spot weld and you cannot tell by looking at it that it cut even a single weld. Feels just as sharp as the ones that haven't been used yet. Go USA!
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[knomadd]

Damn, that's amazing for a spot weld cutter. Some of the cheap ones can take 5 minutes to drill through one spot weld. I've used one that took about 30 seconds on the first one and nearly doubled that for the second and barely finished a 3rd before I tossed it.
Posted via Mobile Device

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on the roof! I need to get one of those cutters.

[El Campo]

One of the reasons why I love a body saw versus anything else. This is how thin the cut is!
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Different view of the cut. And did I mention it is super fast? I'm telling you the body saw is body workings best kept secret. (Coming from a novice)
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Oyster:
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Aaaand it's off
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Top
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

And the bottom
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Flange looks pretty good and healthy
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[Xeen]

Wow man great job, you are right that body saw worked like a charm on the rear seam.
While you have the roof skin off after you clean up the rust on the inner roof skin one thing you might want to seriously consider doing is installing some metal film backed thermal barrier before you button it up to eliminate the heat transfer from the sun on the roof, I bet it will drop the radiant heat inside the cab by 25 degrees.

[El Campo]

Xeen you are exactly right about the thermal barrier. DEFINITELY going to do exactly that. In the process of measuring clearances now on other cab. Pictures to follow. I'm back to working on the back panel. First I have to grind and sand off about a gallon of filler
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[knomadd]

WOW! That's nice and clean on the inside.... Compared to a lot I've seen on here anyway. It's amazing how much clean steel sits under that sound deadening pad. Nice work getting the roof skin off.

[Xeen]

Oh man I know exactly how you feel about the bondo.
It never ceases to amaze me how people just slather on the bondo even when it isn't needed.

[El Campo]

These Mirka sanding discs came highly recommended by the astronaut and hugger 6933. It seems to work really well. Can't remember ever using another product made in Finland before..
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Gaaaah u gotta love these old trucks and their "loose" quality control. Welding in the back panel and apparently the distance from body line up to lip of bottom of window channel was different on the two cabs!!! Measured several times to be positive and there is no doubt that the cabs are 3/16 inch off from each other. So even though the body lines are perfectly straight I have this gap! On the inside everything looks correct and everything else (including the flange) lines up just right but this gap remains. Oh well that's what a welder and some 1/8 inch flat is for I suppose... Already went and measured it compared to my all original unmolested 72 and the weatherstripping will cover all ills. (Still going to fix it correctly though with some weld action)
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[Xeen]

Yeesh no kidding that really is some poor quality control.
Chevrolet full size pickups, Like a rock!

Chevrolet Trucks "Like A Rock"...

[El Campo]

Had some welder trouble. Switched to 0.23 from the 0.35 that the welder had in it 99 percent of the time and had a terrible time getting it to feed correctly at first. My younger brother working on it..
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

And finally got it all straightened out and got back panel tacked in. This is all I am doing for now (as far as welding is concerned) because my auto change helmet is broken and this is too meticulous to do in my opinion the old fashioned way.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Anyone have any idea what these holes are for? There were 4 holes approx 3/8 inch diameter immediately inboard of where the windshield would sit. Cannot for the life of me think what they would be for.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Like a rock!! Haha good video. Speaking of holes... A while back I asked if anyone knew how much space was between the upper and inner roof skins. No one really could give me an answer so I went about finding out for myself! How do you do that you ask? Well I'm not sure if I did it the best way or not but this is how I did it. I drilled holes every 2 inches from the front to the back and measured with a caliper how much clearance was present. Then at the two smallest clearance holes I marked from driver to passenger side and drilled holes every 2 inches that way! Came up with some suprising numbers. Oh, the reason this is important to me is because as has been discussed earlier I plan on installing some sort of thermal barrier/sound deadener in this space. The panel measured 0.03 inches thick so I subtracted that number from all my measurements. The minimum clearance that I measured was 0.22 inches in the region not on a rib (you will recall the ribbing on the inner roof panel) and 0.15 inches on a rib. Measurements this small were only present in approx 4 regions of the roof and the rest were substantially larger. Food for thought! And my Swiss cheesed old cab:
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Was wire wheeling some holes so I could weld them shut and wasn't watching what I was doing and caught cord. Wound cord around wheel no less than 2 times grinder still works though and the cord miraculously escaped unharmed.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[El Campo]

Nothing interesting here, just an example of the 30000000 holes in the cab that I have to fill.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[NewType72]

Wow talk about being thorough in your findings the measurement of distance in the roof panels should definitely go somewhere here on the forum where it'll be known forever. Great work!
Posted via Mobile Device