My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU

[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

[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

[piratexpress1369a]

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

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

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

no that is this gmc:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=384491
I am not sure if he ever finished it.

[jonzcustomshop]

today the rear wheels arrived!
they are the 15X8 6 lug from the 73-87 trucks, I found a guy on facebook, on one of the 60-66 sites , that had some extras.
they look great with the hubcap.

I had to cut a portion of the sheet metal off the bottom of the pillar because it was rusting in between it and the hinge pillar brace. I initially cut a small exploratory triangle out, but then after inspection, just went big and got behind all of it.

in the last shot you can see where it was starting to come through..

[jonzcustomshop]

The passenger side "B" pillar is on! ,and it all fits!
I have some more welding and grinding to do, but now I can get started on the left side.

[jonzcustomshop]

some more shots from today:
The rest of this cab is really starting to make that pass. rear door skin look bad!

[awbrown]

BRAVO , you may end up being the first one to complete a working crew cab on this site .. Next time you do one of these you need to make the center pillar and rear door !!

You have done some real tough work and completed it in a very short time ..... also
i think your posting of the photos will help anyone else attempting to do the same job complete it ........
the photos you have posted of the roof and the center pillar are worth a great deal , kind of like a instruction manual ...... Keep up the good work !!

[piratexpress1369a]

awesome work ..stay at it

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Nice work so far..

[awbrown]

Updates ??

[jonzcustomshop]

cut the lh post out of the yellow cab today

[jonzcustomshop]

ok...back at it!
got started on the left hand post
a couple before/after of the post to roof rail patch.
I learned after the first one that I want to try to do all the welding from above, so I was a little more careful on drilling the spots, and this side I should be able to get most of it welded in from the top. Overhead welding is not easy, and in a couple spots on the pass. side it looks like a sloppy mess!

In the 3rd pic you can see the hole that is drilled (upper left) for the door bumper, you can also faintly see the original hole above it that is partially welded and leaded over on the outside. You can then see the hole in the 4th pic on the new patch piece.
I was glad to find the remnants of the original hole, so that I could get it lined up exact easily.

* also in the 3rd pic you can see the top of the front roof post that was used for the upper rear portion of the door pillar, it is trimmed off at an angle, and the inner structure is still factory welded to it., the piece that is not there is the interior part of the roof pillar. I am curious as to how the coach builders received this piece from gm, and how big it was before they cut it down.

last pic is the bottom front of the post, just as I did on the rh. side I will drop it down in the rocker and use the bolts to secure it like the factory did. The coach builders just cut this part off flush and welded it to the top of the rocker, and as you could see from the pics in the beginning of the thread that both sides had rusted or broken loose.
I went a little higher with the patch on this one: the metal was a little warped from the strap that was welded to it by some previous owner, to hold this thing together.

[jonzcustomshop]

here are a few pics of the rear door hinge.
out of the 12 screws I was able to get all of them out except for one that broke.
I used a method that a guy taught me:
You heat the bolt, or nut, or both until they are cherry red, then you hit them with a stream of water from a spray bottle. The rapid cooling and contraction helps break the rust free and they come right apart almost like they are a new bolt. Sometimes you have to repeat the process until they can turn easily.

I was on pins and needles doing this, because I was right inside the post and near the back of where it is all leaded together on the edge, I didn't want the post metal to get hot enough that the lead might melt off...

I was not able to find an "Oval" Phillips 5/16 24 thread, the bolt shop did have an oval Phillips 5/16 18 thread, so I cut the strap that lets the plate float, welded on the 18 thread nut and then welded the strap back together. Luckily I was able to do all this while I had the bottom of the door pillar cut off for rust repair/replacement!

The guy at the bolt shop said that they probably used the fine thread bolts because they are less likely to loosen up than a coarse thread bolt; especially in a high use area like the hinge.
since there are the three bolts holding the hinge and two of them are still fine thread, he thought that loc-tite would probably work on the one coarse bolt that I have.

[awbrown]

You are doing an awesome job !!!

[jonzcustomshop]

todays progress...
I did this same thing on the passenger side to get the drip rail straight and level, but didn't get a shot... this is just a mock up to get everything to fit right.. I'll probably have to pull it all apart and get the pillar in place before I weld this up..

[CHIZZLER]

Progress is looking great jon.

[Palf70Step]

[jonzcustomshop]

well, today and yesterday was spent undoing some stuff I did the other day.

In the first shot: progress, I got the lower part of the pillar cut off , cleaned up the inside support and put on some new sheet metal- you can see the bad rusty piece below.

unfortunately both the patches I put on the end of the pillar turned out crooked, on the rear half : (picture # 1 on post #142) the piece was off coming toward me, if you put a straight edge on the flat yellow part the gap was a 1/2 inch at the door edge, but only a 1/4 inch at the end of the piece, so I pie cut that, and got that fixed.

next, the front piece: (same picture) this one raised up about a 1/4 inch too high at the front end , so this was also pie cut and fixed. Then the frustrating part: now it was too low!!.. and hit the door. so I cut it again, and this time mocked up and clamped the whole unit to the truck (pic #2) , now I have a nasty little gap to fill!

(pics 3&4 ) another little problem showed up with the mock up:
the pillar wants to naturally sit with the door edge a little too far back (about a quarter inch), so with the strap pulling on it, it twists it enough so that the rear edge of the door doesn't hit the bolt heads of the striker, and the raised surface around the wedge receiver.

I will try to get a pic tomorrow, as far as I can tell the coach builders had this same problem. on the yellow cab you can see where the whole jamb on the drivers side rear was hit hard enough (with a sledge hammer?) to push it in a little bit and turn the flat door edge into an angled one.

I looked that part of the cab over, and it really doesn't look like the jamb was messed up from a crash or any other thing...

(pic 5 ) this should be almost all my vise grips!

tomorrow I weld it all up!

[65sub]

I enjoy seeing your work Jon . It inspires me for my project

[aerotruk63]

Great progress Jon

[jonzcustomshop]

!!!! wow! been wrestling with this rear door for a hour!

the passenger side pretty much fell together, this side.....no.
after a bunch of frustration, I remembered the wedge on the rear of the door, loosened that up and got it pretty close, the upper gap still falls off to the rear, and the edges are straight, and the measurement from the rocker to the drip rail is uniform..... but the wedge was definitely pulling it out of shape...
the wedge also has a nasty groove worn in the bottom, so I will try to find a better one and see if that tightens up the gap.
in the last pic , you can see a little inward bow on the drip rail, after I took this pic, I went after this area from the inside with the friction jack, did some pushing out and up, and got it pretty straight, and got the front of the top of the door gap to open up a little too.

[Grizz1963]

What a great build you are doing.

Love the updates.

[Palf70Step]

Great job. I would have just gotten my biggest hammer and started whacking!