My 50 roadster pickup build

[oldman3]

Two months had passed during this time, but not all in the shop, had others things going. Tomorrow I will post up about the cab bracing Attention 62chevyII and Indian113 your session is up next

[Indian113]

That's what I wanted to hear!!

[62ChevyII]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Two months had passed during this time, but not all in the shop, had others things going. Tomorrow I will post up about the cab bracing Attention 62chevyII and Indian113 your session is up next

I've been patiently waiting on this I have some ideas of how I would possibly do it but am interested to see how you tackled it.

[oldman3]

Had not talked much about the bracing of the cab. So that's what we will discuss and show today. First I want to say I got a lot of this info many years ago from a Scott Baker in Van Nuys, Ca., when my son and I were going to do his pickup. I just changed up a few things to fit the way I wanted and how I was going to do my interior. First thing you want to do is install your doors, and get the best gap around the opening. At this point you can move the back of the cab around a little. Once you have it in place tack a couple braces in place to hold it where you want it. I don't have pics of my initial braces I installed but they are needed. If I ever knew I would be posting this on a site I would have taken a lot more pics of this years ago.

Now on to the pics.

[oldman3]

This pic shows the 3" by 1/4" thick strap (flat plate) I put in for stiffing the bottom opening. I cut down into the floor by door area, slide this inside about 3" to 4" at the back and about 1" to 2" at front.

[oldman3]

This drawing may help clarify. After you have the plate in place, put in several good tack welds, at back of door across the top of floor and at the front door opening. Later this will all be welded solid.

[oldman3]

This is all finished here, so I'll walk you thru it in steps. Here you can see that I added a 2"X2"X1/4" wall square tubing along the back of the door opening. This piece run from the top down inside the area of the inner cab corner, and will tie into the 3" plate you installed above. This pic also shows that I have removed my floor brace that the seat riser attached too. If you keep your brace you will have to trim it for the 2"X2" tubing to fit down inside the pocket.

[oldman3]

This drawing may help clarify, if not ask for more detail. Now tack the 2"X2" tubing to the body in several spots, and also to the 3" plate that you ran inside the body. Tube should be flush at the outside top cab brace, and also to the floor.

[oldman3]

This is how mine looks covered with material (more on that much later). I just wanted you to see how yours should look.

[oldman3]

Brought this pic back, as you can see I also used 1"X2" by 1/8" wall rectangular tubing along the back (two rows). You can do this however you want to get this attached to the cab braces. What I did was weld small angles on the braces level from one side to the other. Cut my rectangular tubing a little long and clamped in place. I then took 2-1/4" I.D. exhaust tubing bends (I think they were 45 degree) (or bend to match curve of cab), sliced it in several places on one end, moved the slices around to overlap the rectangular tubing and the other end butted to the 2"X2" tub (may have to shorten the 1"X2" tube to get this to fit. Once everything is fitting good, tack it in place At this point you should have both sides tied together. Now go back and start welding everything in solid (this also includes the 3" plate at bottom of door opening). Move around a lot to keep from pulling anything out of shape. I then added the angle pieces for additional support. Little overkill on my part, but I didn't want it to move. Now we have both cab rear door openings tied to the rear of the cab, nice and solid.

[oldman3]

Basically you are taking everything you removed from the top, turning it upside dowm, and putting it at the bottom, if that makes sense. After I had this all in I could crab the back door opening and rock the whole cab and frame on the suspension. It was as solid as a rock. No flex and no give.

I'm going to jump forward to show you how it worked out. If you look real close you can see how nice the gap is around the door. Even after it was painted, because of the bracing done to the cab, this has never changed in 7 years. No paint chips from flexing or anything. Doors always close the same. (would show a painted example, but I dont't have them loaded yet).

[oldman3]

Not to many pics, (sorry) but lots of info to digest, any questions or comments (good or bad), let me know. Jim

[Indian113]

Jim,You'll never know how much I appreciate the pictures and details of what you did to get this done!
Ray

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by Indian113

Jim,You'll never know how much I appreciate the pictures and details of what you did to get this done!
Ray

I hope this helped you, in what you want to do to yours. It's hard to explain sometimes on how you did things. When you get ready for yours let me know, we can look at pics together to decide how you want to attack yours. Jim

[Indian113]

Thanks!

[62ChevyII]

Looks nice, especially the finished product, your interior looks very nice! So did you add anything up front other than tying it in together with the strap in the door opening and the angle iron under the dash?

[bensimmons_05]

Very nice truck, great ideas and the workmanship to make them happen. LOOKS GOOD!

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by 62ChevyII

Looks nice, especially the finished product, your interior looks very nice! So did you add anything up front other than tying it in together with the strap in the door opening and the angle iron under the dash?

No that was it. The A pillar as a whole is fairly rigid, with the extra material for hinge, etc. Depending on the vehicle if there was room, it wouln't hurt to add some type of bracing.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by bensimmons_05

Very nice truck, great ideas and the workmanship to make them happen. LOOKS GOOD!

Thanks for kind words.

[oldman3]

Sorry for posting late tonight guys, it's been one of those days. Todays post will also be short, but meaningful, I hope.

Now back to the windshield header. I went back and got a piece from top and welded in the part that had been cut off earlier.

[oldman3]

This doesn't show to well, but I had cut small triangular pieces of 1/8" thick metal and was welding to the header, to make an arch to this corner.

[oldman3]

Here you can see how I tacked this all together to form the shape I was after for the header.

[oldman3]

Should have mentioned that the rusty part of the header, is the original inside header with the 1/2" lip cut off. This allowed my pieces to sit at the angle I wanted.

[oldman3]

Also not shown is the mounting system for the removable top. I welded a piece of pipe in the header with a washer part way inside, to act as a stop for a bolt.

Pic 1 A couple of pics I took today showing them in the header with the top in place.

Pic 2 Shows the socket head cap screw that goes up inside to secure the top. The cap screw stops at the washer, the threads are thru the header, and line up with the top, and pulls the top down until tight. The top has a nut welded in it's top frame. Note: I also built the top, but that doesn't come up for about another 5 or 6 post, sorry.

[oldman3]

Once all the header piece was welded solid, the center stripe was removed and the windshield area was even across the front.

Well that's it for tonight, tomorrow we start on the doors Part 1.