It’s Just A Pickup

[pat 70/71]

Bruce, you my friend are gifted no mater what your age. do you have a back ground in aerospace? I thank you for for the pics. and, looking for more! wonderful job! (don't think about the time) projects like yours would never get completed with out people like you doing them. real impressive! ...Pat

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by pat 70/71

Bruce, you my friend are gifted no mater what your age. do you have a back ground in aerospace? I thank you for for the pics. and, looking for more! wonderful job! (don't think about the time) projects like yours would never get completed with out people like you doing them. real impressive! ...Pat

Yes Pat, 35+ years as a flight engineer & mechanic in the Air Force and manufacturing aircraft at Boeing. I guess some of my aerospace experience finds it’s way into my build but I still classify myself as a somewhat novice and backyard mechanic trying to build my truck in my garage. Glad you like the build presentation.

[Bruce88]

Baby its cold outside
A cold front has moved in dropping temps into the 20’s kind of early for this time of year. Where’s the global warming when you need it (yes a bad joke depending on your opinion --- O well). Time to head down and pick up some kerosene for the garage heater. A good day to stay warm inside and generate this post.

Installed the front fender close to its final position to help set the door and fender lower mounting bracket. I measured across the hood and added the gap on both sides and cut a board to this length. Marked the center of the fire wall and the board just cut and clamped the board in place to figure out how far outboard the fender needed to be shimmed out board (you can see the board clamped to the fire wall in the picture below). Along with the cowl in position this should get the fender close to the final outboard position dividing any shimming between both sides of the cab (there will still need to be some fine tuning of the shims on final installation, but it should be close). With a four foot straight edge laid between the cab corner and onto the fender adjusted the fender and door to be in line.

I’m lucky the garage floor is really close to level and with the cab on my stand the cab floor is really close to level. This makes it easy when checking the rear cab pillar at being 90 DEG to the floor and with the door rear edge gap set all the door body lines are level.

Yes there are problems with the door fit to the cab and front fender to the door is not an exact perfect fit and some of the problems I might just have to live with concerning fit and fair. Will talk later on how I’m going to correct them and what ones I’m going to live with (I have them all written down so not forget to check them).

Was able to save the lower fender mounting bracket from the old pillar. Used a long bolt with a bushing to help locate the mounting bracket with the fender set in position. The bushing is used so on final installation I still have up and down & forward and aft adjustment capabilities.



I think the pictures speak for them selves before welding and after welding lower pillar repair panel. If it ever needs to be repaired or taken apart the next guy can cuss me out it’s welded in solid.



I have a small 4 foot x 8 foot flat bed trailer that I’m planning on using to transport the cab to the sandblaster and to the painter when that time comes. Made some cab mounts out of scrap angle iron & plates and along with some 2 x 6’s I now have a way to load the cab on the flat bed without damaging it.



That time of the year has come, stay warm & healthy and enjoy your build

[VA72C10]

like the mounts for transporting.

[Bruce88]

Ready to pull my hair out (can’t afford to loose any more I’m bald enough)
Frustration is at a very high level, rocker panel is not sitting right

The lower edge of the door is riding on the rocker panel (no gap exists). Had a friend over and we where looking over the problem and checked all the dimensions that we could to include door opening compared to the standard opening measured at the beginning of this area rebuild and the height of the aftermarket door to some stock original truck doors. All dimensions are within 1/16 of an inch I was hoping to find something out to point to causing the problem, even if it was something that I installed causing the problem (none was found). Had another rocker panel from a different manufacture made out of thinner material that I looked at trying to fit and it had the same problems.

Possible solutions we came up with was cutting .20 off the bottom of the door or cutting the rocker panel in half and adding .20 material to have the rocker edge sit lower to obtain the gap. Neither one of the solutions is something that I want to do and will look a little more to see if I can come up with some other solution.

Don’t read too much into this post just venting some of my frustration. Of course the thought that if I had a bigger hammer I could make it fit (HA HA). Hopefully I can find a simple solution, but if not the build will go on. These are the times when it’s hard to enjoy a build, but I will get past this and it will just turn into a small downward blip in the total enjoyment and satisfaction of the build.

Have a nice day and a better one tomorrow

[VA72C10]

Keep at it. I know you will beat it into submission

[sourkraut]

I had the same problem with my driverside. I had ended up cutting the the rocker were it sits on the A pillar to allow it to open up and sit lower so the door did not hit and had a nice gap. I had to do this cause my door was as high as it could go to have a respectable gap the whole way around the door.
Before and after pics, hope this helps.

[pat 70/71]

I had to make the same cut in my rockers. the cab corners are also challenging to fit. ( aftermarket fitment deal) we are all very lucky to have the repop companies making all these wonderful parts for our trucks. The time it takes to fit them is worth it. (to me anyway) make it fun! ...Pat

[Bruce88]

Thanks for the info (sourkraut & pat 70/71) doubt that this is my hole problem but it might help, I will take a look at it tomorrow.

[vk_chevy]

if the new repop door is measuring the same or with 1/16th, I wouldn't cut it, I'd be looking at lowering the rocker panel...

how is the rest of the gap around the door?

[lax54650]

that is exactly what i did to my rocker. sliced it to sit lower. i also had to slice edge of cab corner to move it back to obtain gap. sliced it with thin cut off wheel then welded it back shut. no pics but got idea from here. maybe lfds post

[mcbassin]

You find out what was different the rocker or the door? I am going to be doing some rockers this weekend.

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by vk_chevy

if the new repop door is measuring the same or with 1/16th, I wouldn't cut it, I'd be looking at lowering the rocker panel...

how is the rest of the gap around the door?

The door is positioned as high as it will go and the gap is fair. Definitely agree I’m going to be staying away from modifying the door all modifications will be with lowering the rocker panel.

Originally Posted by lax54650

that is exactly what i did to my rocker. sliced it to sit lower. i also had to slice edge of cab corner to move it back to obtain gap. sliced it with thin cut off wheel then welded it back shut. no pics but got idea from here. maybe lfds post

The lower corner was giving me the same problem and I definitely did some major slicing of the rocker to lower it. Hopefully I will be able to show some of the problems in my next post with pictures.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

You find out what was different the rocker or the door? I am going to be doing some rockers this weekend.

I was still unable to point to one thing that was the problem and decided to stay away from the door and build around it. With all the repair panels used in this area it might just add up to what I would call tolerance buildup, where everything could be a little out and when brought together can cause a major problem. Hope your rocker installation goes smoother than mine.


Sorry about the delay in getting back with all of you, will gather some of the pictures and try to put a post together tonight to show where I’m at and how I got there. Still some work to do but maybe you will be able to see what’s going on.

[mcbassin]

Yes, I am very familiar with stacking tolerances up to end up out of wack.

[Bruce88]

Slicing and dicing
The old vegamatic has nothing on me and doesn’t have to put it back together (smile)

I hope no one has to deal with this problem, needing to lower the rocker panel to obtain a gap and clearance to the lower edge of the door.

There’s still some work and finishing to do, but I think you can see some of my progress on the path I’ve taken to solve the problem.

The only thing I can think of to add, not included in the pictures is that I did cut the gap wider between the upper & lower rocker sections to make a little easer of filling the gap with a larger peace of fill metal. That gave me something to hold onto and position when welding; it still was a two man job to tack it into position.











Will be finishing it up in the next few days. Again I hope no one has to go thru this problem I’m just dealing with what I have.

[sourkraut]

I am glad to see you got it figured out. I know it is a pain in the butt, how ever it will be worth it when you are done! Looking good!

[Bruce88]

One side done and one to go
Driver’s rocker and associated repair panels gathered together complete

Another step forward in completing the build. The next time this area will see any attention is when it’s off to the sandblaster and painting.





I hope the rumors are true, that the passenger side is easer to rebuild. The passenger side has all the same repair panel requirements as the driver’s. I’m not planning on posting any pictures of the passenger side rebuild unless there’s something that is different or unusual to note.

Mary Christmas and Happy New Year to all

[gcburdic]

Bruce,

I appreciate your attention to detail and hope the passenger side goes much smoother for ya!!!

Merry Christmas to you too....and a happy, health, prosperous New Year too ya!!!

[lax54650]

bruce, if you keep the focus you will have one of the finest trucks here.

[1sik52]

Its the opposite for me. The passenger side was worst than the drivers. Good Luck!

[Bruce88]

That once was lost has now been found
I misplaced some pictures that I wanted to include in this build thread and they where just found.

The metal under and around the bed rail to the bed side definitely had plenty of rust and pitting. If I would have sent the bed side out for sand blasting there would have been holes and thin metal in this area to attach the bed rail to.

Not looking for a pristine repair to the bed side just getting rid of the rust and having a solid bed. There’s plenty of dings and dents in the bed side that I’m not going to try to eliminate and when the trucks back on the road I’ll probably put some more in there when I’m hauling things. The bed will be getting a spray in bed lining.

I had a local metal distributor cut me a 3 inch x 8 foot strip of 16 gauge cold rolled steel to be used. Used the strip as a template and guide to cut out the bad metal and have a constant .040 gap at the butt weld. A few things that I learned from this repair is to use plenty of clamps to hold the butt weld in alignment when welding and I should have welded the top seam complete before any tack welding of the bottom seam. The butt weld seam can grow a slight amount and if it’s attached on the other side could cause distortion and waviness in the panel. Ended up cutting the bottom edge again to relieve the tension and obtain a .040 gap for welding the bottom area.



On the MAR-K web site I found and used the angle strip installation instructions to aid in positioning and installing the angle strip. Very good information and I like the option of using bolts to install the angle strips, this should help prevent further corrosion with bed liner between the angle strip and the bed side. http://www.mar-k.com/installation_hints.html and http://www.mar-k.com/54-72anglestrips.pdf

Hear are a few of the things I did to install the rail (angle strip) to the bed side.



The repair strip welded in and the stainless steel floor rail and tie down rail all drilled up and can be set aside for final installation after sand blasting and painting.



It’s been a little over a year since I started this build thread and it’s not as far along as I wish it would be but have enjoyed sharing what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. Also seeing what others are doing and how they are accomplishing it, gathering answers to questions and ideas to incorporate into my build. A very special Thank You, Marry Christmas and Happy New Year to Administrators, Staff and Moderators for all the work in starting and maintaining this outstanding forum.

Enjoy your build

[Bruce88]

Time flies by before you know it, where did it go and what was accomplished.
It’s been a few weeks since my last update to the build, not a lot new to show just working on the passenger side floor and rocker.

The passenger side is coming along with the floor extension and floor supports Fwd and AFT welded in. Forward kick panel and AFT pillar lower panel plus the rear corner panel welded in. Very similar to the drivers side installation shown in previous posts. From what was learned from the driver’s side repair the passenger side is going smoother but does have its own problems.

One of the problems that cropping its ugly head is that the door to rear pillar skin fair is a lot worse than the driver’s side. Where the gap is good and the body lines line up good the contour fair (step between the door and cab skin) is all over the place inboard in some places and outboard in others, no apparent adjustment to bring it down to one area on the line to work on. Will be looking around to see if anybody has had this problem and how they dealt with it.

The splitting of the rocker to get it to fit right as done on the drivers side is starting to look like it will be needed to be done on this side too.

It just didn’t feel right to post a progress report without a picture (smile). Nothing that hasn’t been seen on the drivers side but there is progress.



I always try to keep the attitude that there’s nothing that can’t be overcome and made good. But some times I just have to live with the imperfections and this build is no exception. Will be posting some pictures of the misfair problem in the future and what I’m doing to correct it and what Ill just be living with. Overcoming some of the problems with a build makes me feel very good and self pride can be at a high level. Enjoy your build

[VA72C10]

Bedside looks good. So does the cab. Nice work. Looking forward to continued progress...

[Bruce88]

Brace it, Clamp it, & Strap it, what ever it takes to keep it from moving
It probably can’t be said enough to any one dealing with welding in skin repair panels, especially a novice like me.

As noted in my last post problems can crop up. During welding there is always a slight amount of distortion, moving, and warping, anything that can hold this to a minimum is well worth the time and effort. For the lack of me adding a strap to hold the corner panel body line inboard where it needed to be, it moved outboard causing 99% of the misfair problems. Correcting this after it’s welded in is a lot harder than checking and making it right before and during welding.

I had to cutout the lower rear pillar repair panel I welded in to bring the body line inboard and bring the misfair into acceptable tolerance. After putting a strap on it to bring it back in line the door to pillar skin gap will have a slight taper that I’m going to live with. Wish I would have caught this earlier.

May all of your gaps and misfairs be good and any thing that you can garner from my mistake help in preventing problems in your build.





It’s always interesting to me how two panels can look similar and fit so differently. You might have seen the green cowl in previous posts. I planned on using on this build, it was in good condition and had no antenna holes to weld in but it’s fit to the doors and pillars was bad and was going to need a lot of rework to make it look right. I have another cowl in my pile of parts with no real damage just some antenna holes to weld up and the last coat of paint that was applied to it probably came out of spray can with plenty of runs. Just out of a lark I set it on the cab and it was a so much better fit to the doors and pillars no rework in this area will be required.

Maybe the previous owner of this cowl needed more than one antenna or just decided to mount a different stile and leave an extra hole in the cowl. What ever the reason it left me two holes to deal with, so I set about welding them both in. The ugly duckling turns out to be the best choice for this build with less rework. Who would of thought?



Enjoy your build

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Looking good!

Bruce, i sent you a PM on the seat.