Project 55 on 77 frame...

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Had to make cages for the body mount nuts, used pieces of the 2"x2" tubing... i made these so that the body itself will still have movement in case it ever needed adjusted down the road.



welded in:

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in order to weld those in i had to cut out access holes in the top of the 2x2 so i could weld the other side...

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and after i welded up the holes and grinded it all down...

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after putting it back in it's place and bolting it down.

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then added a piece of 1x1 tubing to make part of the floor structure

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then added another piece of 1x1 for more floor structure... i also cut out a
piece of 2x2 and tacked it on in the center, this is where the factory step
support bracing will attach to from the underside.

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after removing this for the last time, getting it all welded up and then grinded down,
i finally installed it and bolted it down for the last time, then got it all welded in solid
with the back cab supports as well as the side step. done the same to the other side
too

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then after i done the other side, i added two 1x1 tubing to tie both sides together...

the reason why i didn't build the 1x1 floor section all the way to the rear of the cab is
because i still have to cut out some of the rear wall to section to mold in those lower
wall sections i had cut out towards the beginning, plus i have to cut a small section of
the floors out and put new metal... so i will build onto this 1x1 after i get all that done.

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since now that the cab itself is solid and square, and welded into the new floor... this is where i temporarally stopped on the floor itself, i needed to get the doors figured out before i go any further... so next pics will be messing with the doors, i ended up going with suiciding them, since the front door hinge mounts are ate up pretty bad, figured since i would have a ton of work to get them to work and mount right, might as well put that same time and effort into suiciding them - just for the hell of it.

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i got the drivers door sat up in the hole to see how it all fits, it looks ok, but the door itself is in bad shape, rust/rot and the door skin really isn't attached to the inner door at all in most places... the door is just sitting up on there in these pics

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pic from the inside... this is after actually bolting the hinges on as best as i could... you can see the door damage, kinda bent up... on the outside there are all kinds of dents and kinks that i will have to straighten out.

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door opened after bolting it on... hell of a lot of sagging - lol... this is where i done a lot of thinking, and decided to just suicide it.

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in this pic, you can see that the door skin itself really isn't attached much anymore, so my idea is to mold in the hinges on the back of the cab pillar, and cut out the entire inner door structure from the window down... and build the whole inner door structure from scratch, then cut the sheetmetal to remake the sides and inside of the door... i cut it all out, i have a few brand new power window kits sitting on a shelf... i will be using them so the truck will have power windows and i will just have to make it all work together.

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so.. i cut out the inner door structure, cut out everything down to just the door skin itself... even though there are still some pieces of the sides to cut off, but this will be enough cut out for now

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then... got whats left of the door sat in place on the truck and tacked it on in place, so i could get an idea of where to mount the hinges and not have it effect the window going up and down and the power mechanism...

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view from the inside... note: the bottom door skin wasn't tacked on, only the top part of the door, so this bottom comes in about another 3/4" than this

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another from the inside... this is about how it sits in there

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then, removed the door and rough cut a hole about where the hinge needed to be, then
tacked it in place after making sure it was level and straight... it has good range of open/shut and doesn't hit the body... and i tested using a couple pieces of metal to make sure that this position would allow the door to swing open WITHOUT the door skin hitting the cab... took a bit to get it just right though.

closed


open

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also in the two pics above, you can see that i cut out and plated where the og door latch was... made it smooth with no indentions.

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showing how close the hinge comes to the edge, but not touching...

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both latches in and solid... still need to add in some supports in back, but is strong enough as it is... also showing it all plated to get rid of the indentions... not fully grinded down or anywhere close to smooth here yet though - lol.

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at this point the shop was getting messy, so i decided to clean it all up, got the truck pulled to the front of the shop and started cleaning... had to move alot of wood, and parts that was sitting in front of my sheetmetal, so got it all moved and swept, so i could get one of them pulled out cause i will start to use the new sheetmetal very soon.

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then... setup some wood on the back of the truck so that i could get the 4' x 10' of sheetmetal sitting on the back of the truck, basically will be using the truck as a table for now - lol.

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that is all for the moment... so far from thiat last pic all i've done so far is moved some stuff around in the shop to make more room in the middle... and unwired my shop heater and wired in some a/c... and just basically cleaned up more and got the truck moved to the back of the garage... tomorrow i plan on getting it moved back to the middle of the shop and get back to work on it... i will hang the door and get it tacked in place again and then i can start on the framework for the new inner door and get it all attached and working... then i can get the front pillar shaved smooth and figure out what kinda of latch i will end up using... i have tons of vehicles to get the latches from, just will have to walk around and see which ones would work the best for the truck...

more pics in a few days.

[Kim57]

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That's a ton of work you've got going on there.
Building new inner door skins is going to take some real talent. Good luck.
Kim