My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU

[Lokin4AReason]

nice progress .....

[piratexpress1369a]

nice work ..rhino lining will work ..make sure you do the perp for it

[66-PMD-GMC]

I thought the cops got the perps?? LOL

[jonzcustomshop]

well, some steps forward,back, and forward again.....

next, before I set the "B" pillars I need to get the doors on and lined up.
Of course I let the driver door freeze to the ground... so I was waiting for a thaw, and then remembered that I had brought a few sets of doors home a few years back, when I was ambitiously thinking of starting my own crew build... lo and behold, the front set I have behind the shed were not frozen down, and much better than the green set I was going to use.....

so now I get the doors hung, and I see that the driver rocker is definitely not going to work...I checked it with a straight edge, and it was pulled in about a 1/4 inch where the orange , and seafoam green piece meet up., the passenger side is perfectly straight.

so, I ripped all the tack welds on the edge of the new floor panel, re-drilled my spots on the green piece and used a friction jack to push the rocker out to the right place.
now it is all straight and the door fits, so now I can get started on the "B" pillars...

[Captainfab]

I hate it when that sort of thing happens. Glad to hear you got the issue fixed. Looking good Jon

[ChiefRocka]

Looking good Jon ...


I know this will turn out to be an awesome crew !!

[piratexpress1369a]

looking good ..stay at it

[jonzcustomshop]

wanna see some scary sh--??

I couldn't see in there , but the camera could.. this is the spot above the driver door.

I am trying to figure out how this roof piece was made. Unfortunately it is so rusty I can't tell if it is 2 pieces, or 1.
If it is 1, then it starts (as a cross section) 12 inches from the edge of the roof, comes to the drip rail, and folds in: like a 1/4 inch tall backwards "C", then continues in as the top of the door jamb, and down, to end at the edge of the weather strip.
It seems like a rather complex piece compared to some of the others that were made. if it is 2 pieces-which would make more sense for the ease of forming, it would end at the "C", but I can't find the weld if it is there due to the rust.....

in other news, I did get a rear axle hung in there so I can roll it around. It is resting on the bump stops....

picture 3 is inside the door jamb looking forward to the seam with the factory roof skin
picture 4 is looking towards the back.

[Captainfab]

I don't know for certain but I would think that the easiest, simplest way to fabricate that piece would be how it was done back then. And probably the easiest and less costly for you as well.

[awbrown]

You should make some patterns of the pillar once you get to that part of the project , I am wondering what gauge metal they used for that ....

[jonzcustomshop]

here is the upper portion of the "B" pillar, you can see the stock windshield pillar from a 61 that was used, and the little filler piece that they fabbed to tie it together.

[jonzcustomshop]

here is the lower inside, it is all wet, because I have soaked it down with Lysol, there was another mouse nest in here about 8 inches deep at the bottom.
this shows the support plate that was used for the hinges, it also shows the "cages" that were put in for the hinge bolts to make them adjustable.

the last shot shows a cross profile of the outside edge, judging by what I can see from the inside , the rear portion of the pillar that they fabbed (front of the back door jamb) had a 90 degree bend on the outside edge. it was about a 1/2 inch in from the edge of the front portion (which is a rear door pillar), the nice curved portion that you can see is all lead.

[jonzcustomshop]

1) at the bottom of the pillar , the coach builders just cut it off level with the rocker, since mine is going together a bit differently in the rocker area I was able to use the factory brace that bolts to the mount/rocker, this also solved a rust issue.

2) at the top my upper roof rail will go together a little different, so I used the orange piece, since it wraps under the gutter.

3) the white piece was used in the back to fix a rust issue, and to better mount it to the jamb- when I took this piece apart, at the top there was just lead, 1/2 inch X 1/4 inch thick molding all this together, and covering the hole!

4&5) here is the rain gutter/ upper door jamb that I had a metal shop bend up for me.

[jonzcustomshop]

here it is mocked up:

pic 2: the lower rear portion is going to need a new piece fabbed, there is rust in between the inner plate and outer sheet metal, and the part that welds to the rocker must have busted loose and been re- welded several times when this truck was being used.

[awbrown]

Your friend did a nice job on that upper sill plate .. how thick is the metal they used to reinforce the hinges inside the pillar ??

I guess you wont be using much of the original cab , you needed it mostly for measurements and the pillars .....

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by awbrown

Your friend did a nice job on that upper sill plate .. how thick is the metal they used to reinforce the hinges inside the pillar ??

I guess you wont be using much of the original cab , you needed it mostly for measurements and the pillars .....

here are those gmc pillars I was telling you about, they are a little thinner, and the hinges are mounted on the outside of the pillar, not mounted inside like mine

[wutnxt]

Wow...About the only thing i haven't built is a crewcab.....but your doing some good work there . Steel replacement is one of those things ya can't rush and it eats up a bunch of time....good job

[padresag]

looks good Jon. they had lots of lead in that ambulance to
ron

[CHIZZLER]

your metal work is looking good.

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by wutnxt

Wow...About the only thing i haven't built is a crewcab.....but your doing some good work there . Steel replacement is one of those things ya can't rush and it eats up a bunch of time....good job

thanks!

Originally Posted by awbrown

Your friend did a nice job on that upper sill plate .. how thick is the metal they used to reinforce the hinges inside the pillar ??

I guess you wont be using much of the original cab , you needed it mostly for measurements and the pillars .....

yeah I wasn't sure if it could be bent, but I gave him a cross section, and he whipped it up in less than a half hour!
as far as I can tell it is 1/8th inch, or maybe 1/32nd less than that, the sheet metal part is the thicker gauge, like what gm used on the pillars and braces, 16 gauge I think?
... and it killed me to cut that pillar out of the cab!! kind of a point of no return. I'll use the doors too. However just seeing how it is/was/can be done was worth it.. lot of stuff that I just couldn't figure out from the pictures I have.

Originally Posted by padresag

looks good Jon. they had lots of lead in that ambulance to
ron

I pulled the door/pillar off as one piece, and I couldn't believe how heavy the unit was ! I could barely lift it.

Originally Posted by CHIZZLER

your metal work is looking good.

thanks! hope some of this helps you as well, you have about 1/2 the repair I have to do

[65sub]

Great metal work. Inspiring to watch

[clemdaddy]

man oh man, just read your thread and what a project. big kudos just for undertaking this beast. your work looks good but the noodling you've done to fix stuff is beyond me.

great job... now i want a crew too...

[awbrown]

Question for you Jon , did they straighten the rear doors by the vent window so it did not curve in?? and if so can you see how they did it ??

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by awbrown

Question for you Jon , did they straighten the rear doors by the vent window so it did not curve in?? and if so can you see how they did it ??

yes they did straighten it a little bit, it is not completely, I am thinking just with a piece of wood as a dolly and a hammer from the inside?
I don't see any lead or other marks in this area

[piratexpress1369a]

was the back door suicide or you just change it ...no matter what i like this direction