Crewcab build

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

if you understood what was i getting at in my ^ past post, align the cardboard cut out with the front passenger door with the minimal gap you need for clearence. i understand about the pillar, are you going to cap it off then to give it a clean look.

What you are saying about the cardboard was exactly what I did. I glued a piece of thick card paper of the exterior surface of the door and ran a razor blade down it

[pugs]

ok so are you happy with the angle of the b-pillar for the rear doors, you could then just split the doors in half and weld them back up

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

ok so are you happy with the angle of the b-pillar for the rear doors, you could then just split the doors in half and weld them back up

I'm not following you on this. My plans are to have all of the pillars and door angles match the windshield pillar angle, to provide clean lines and flow where the two cabs are mated together.

[pugs]

ok my misunderstanding, well maybe at this point, not telling how to do your truck, but i would get the front doors and the b-pillars the way you want and then mate the cabs together with the distance you want rear doors to be. that way you can take a door skin andtrim to get your desired look you are after

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

ok my misunderstanding, well maybe at this point, not telling how to do your truck, but i would get the front doors and the b-pillars the way you want and then mate the cabs together with the distance you want rear doors to be. that way you can take a door skin andtrim to get your desired look you are after

I see what you mean now. The rear of the front door is going to be re-angled to match the rear's front(the doors will now be parallel on the angled part) and the trailing edge of the rear door alligned to match. All of the door angles are going to match the windshield angle to maintain a uniform look.

[pugs]

yes i understand now. on the rear door, from front to back whats the measurements going to be, or a desired measurement you would like

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

yes i understand now. on the rear door, from front to back whats the measurements going to be, or a desired measurement you would like

It's going to be 28" from edge to edge, so from the rear door jamb on the cab to the edge of the front door should be 28 1/4", allowing for 2 1/8" door gaps.

[pugs]

so basically you are taking a door and cutting it straight down from the bottom of the window at the a-post, again not telling you how to do it but for me i would think the front doors need to done 1st, get the b-piller the way it needs to be and then get a skin cut down for the rear doors and work off of that, once you have that done then mate the cabs together to finish off the rear doors, again with the front doors done it will be easier

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

so basically you are taking a door and cutting it straight down from the bottom of the window at the a-post, again not telling you how to do it but for me i would think the front doors need to done 1st, get the b-piller the way it needs to be and then get a skin cut down for the rear doors and work off of that, once you have that done then mate the cabs together to finish off the rear doors, again with the front doors done it will be easier

Believe me, I would rather hear helpful suggestions or alternate ways to do things, then be halfway through cutting and realize why I can't do it my way.

I'm doing it this way so I can align the lower portions of the door including the body line, before I touch the upper door sections. My fear is if I do the upper door portion first, it may not line up exactly where it needs to be. In theory, all the doors ever produced are identical, but I'm not so sure. If I get the rear cab doors swinging, I can then cut away at the cabs to bring them together. I'll then slant back the trailing edge window pillar on the front door to match the rear door, hopefully eliminating any variances in the doors being manufactured. This is also all in theory, so I'll keep you posted on how it's going!

[jonzcustomshop]

good call on the variencies, through the years, I have noticed different sheet metal from different plants fitting different.
they all had thier own sets of tooling,and though the same they were probably not exact.

the tolerances that the factory used were quite liberal too,when i was measuring for the section on my 60, I noticed that the passenger rocker was welded on a little crooked, twisted up 1/8 of an inch as compared to the driver side. made it a little tough to do the measurements to get it the saame side to side.

another thing that I experienced, we were putting modern door handles on my friends 70 firebird, we did all the measurements off the existing door handles, welded them up and started working on the linkage,it was then that we found out that the passenger doorhandle was 1/4 inch closer to the rear of the car than the driver.
we checked and double checked all the stuff that we welded up, and it was just that the passenger door skin was a little different than the driver...
from GM's standpoint, it wouldn't matter... because you can't look at both sides of the car at once!

So I always keep that stuff in mind when I measure, and measure more like 5x then cut!

[pugs]

another reason i say about getting the front doors and b-pillar done, is that it will help to keep the cab square

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

another reason i say about getting the front doors and b-pillar done, is that it will help to keep the cab square

My only fear of doing the front doors first is that I have no control then over the angle of the rear edge of the front door in relation to the angle of the front edge of the rear door. I just don't want to angle the front doors twice if I am not happy with the reveal between the doors. When I get close to being ready to put both cabs together, I'm going to build a sliding rail that is plumb, level and square to allow the cabs to slide together and apart again. It would be awesome if I could have both cabs ready completely, and then just slide them together and get to welding, but I am pretty sure there will be some fitment issues(don't even get me started on the inner roof!), and I would rather have the cabs squared and flush together befor I attempt to re angle the front doors to match the rear.

[pugs]

whats the distance of the door at the top of the window, and is the angle the same front and back at the window frame

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by pugs

whats the distance of the door at the top of the window, and is the angle the same front and back at the window frame

Not sure on the distance, but in theory it should be the same top and bottom where it comes out of the door. The angle of all the upper portion of the doors will all match the windshield angle(the leading window edge of the front door).

[PrerunnerRob]

Yes! Just got my suicide hinges, and have been working on a new plan of attack over the last week. Pictures to be added later today!

[ChiefRocka]

So your still gonna have an inside pillar behind the door seams right ??

You had mentioned not wanting to latch the front door onto the rear door.

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by ChiefRocka

So your still gonna have an inside pillar behind the door seams right ??

You had mentioned not wanting to latch the front door onto the rear door.

Yep, just got back from the shop and forgot my camera again. The way I see it working is there will be an inner pillar, with the exterior door edges covering them. I'm seriously thinking it might be time to invest in some slip rolls for the sheet metal fab, I'm going to be making alot of filler pieces.

What have you been up to John?

[ChiefRocka]

I have been working on the "Z069"....my father-n-laws '69 Vette with the '07 Z06 LS7 engine.

I went frame off with powder-coating....5-speed, custom hardlines...You can check it out by clicking the link in my signature.

Check out the deep-sump on the fuel tank I just made:
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[ChiefRocka]

Updates ??

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by ChiefRocka

Updates ??

I'm stalled on any further work right now, I'm looking at buying a house. I'm still trimming down more and more metal to mate the cabs together, but they are VERY close. The rockers are finish cut, the door pillars are done, so I'm cutting the roof back now.

[PrerunnerRob]

Ok, since I have been slacking off with this build(work always getting in the way!), I decided to post some pictures of my latest parts I picked up for the truck...


I weighed the cost of building a 383 with all of the associated parts vs. doing this swap, and this won out in the long run. Turbocharging has been a major thought once I see how well it fits, but that is much further down the road. I'm really thinkning about buying the porterbuilt dropmember for the front, I'm not about to make another crossmember to make this swap work. Any opinions?

[ChiefRocka]

I weighed the cost of building a 383 with all of the associated parts vs. doing this swap, and this won out in the long run. Turbocharging has been a major thought once I see how well it fits, but that is much further down the road. I'm really thinkning about buying the porterbuilt dropmember for the front, I'm not about to make another crossmember to make this swap work. Any opinions?[/QUOTE]

Whats wrong with the x-member you fabbed up ?? Are you have'n some clearance issues or what ??

I would say keep it...it lays rocker now, and you could use the money for something else.

[PrerunnerRob]

[/QUOTE]

Whats wrong with the x-member you fabbed up ?? Are you have'n some clearance issues or what ??

I would say keep it...it lays rocker now, and you could use the money for something else.[/QUOTE]

Yep, the motor mounts are in a different spot on the ls1 I picked up. I'm going to have to re-figure alot of stuff out, but hey, thats how it goes right?

John, is there any way you could give me a measurment from the bottom of the oil pan to the top of the engine on the vette you are building? I think the corvette intake manifold setup is alot shorter then the truck one.

[PBFAB.COM]

You will also gain a lot of clearance if you switch out to the F-body oil pan and pick-up tube.

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by porterbuilt

You will also gain a lot of clearance if you switch out to the F-body oil pan and pick-up tube.

Funny you shoud metion that, I was just looking at them on ebay. Please excuse the ignorance, but what is an f-body? Camaro and Firebird maybe?