10-04-08: Well today I spent most of the day just trying to get to the 1/8" steel plate I had squirreled away. When I finally got it dug out I did some measuring and made a few cuts and had the plates ready to test fit on my inner rockers. The driverside fit pretty good but I noticed a peice of the cab structure hung down at the front of the inner rockers. So I notched out an area on each plate to clear that. Tried the driverside again and it fit like a glove! So I go try to test fit the passenger side plate. It's a no go. Grabbed the BFH and made some minor adjustments to the inner rocker. Then I tried again and the plate fit great.

I'm hoping to have some dry weather tomorrow so I can get them welded in.







Next I did a little more trimming on the rear floor section. Got it to fit a little better.







Then I did some measuring and a little trimming on the transmission tunnel. I did a little test fit to see how much more material I'll need to remove. I can see the finished picture of the floor in my head but I've got a ways to go to get there. :lol:






This coming week isn't looking good weather wise. I need some more nice dry days to make some progress before the snow flies.

 

Yesterday I did more trimming on the floor. I also found out the opening in the back of the cab isn't straight. So I'll have to do some cutting on it too.

Today I finally got a chance to start to weld the plates to the inner rockers.

I cleaned off the back of the plates and sprayed them with some weldthru primer. Then I started welding the driverside plate in. Then when I was about half way done I decided it would be better to hammer the bottom lip of the inner rocker up and wrap around the bottom of the plate. Well I didn't think about the welds I already had on the bottom of the plate. So the driverside came out kind of lumpy looking. I'm still trying to decide if I want to mess with trying to smooth it out some ( and the best way to do it ) .

The passenger side went much smoother. I clamped the plate in place. Then I hammered the bottom rocker lip up and around the bottom of the plate. Next I started to do some welding on it. So far it looks quite a bit better then the driverside plate.

I still have some welding to do on both of them, but atleast it's a start.

 

That is going to be sooo sweet.

 

Thanks.

I'm hoping it turns out ok.

 

Nice job the floor is coming out good so far, I am just about to start welding up a new floor in my 46 so looking at this gave me some good pointers.

BTW how does that little Hobart Airforce plasma cutter work out for you, I've been thinking of getting one for the shop.

 

Thanks.

The Hobart plasma cutter works good. I actually haven't used it that much. When I need to cut stuff I usually just grab one of my sawzalls or portable bandsaw. It's a little less hassle for me.

 

My brother and I picked a hobart plasma cutter up at tractor supply today unfortunately it was a floor model and it did not come with something in the tip because it cannot even cut through 1\16 inch sheet metal cleanly, so back to the store tomorrow to complain.

 

10-15-08: Today I did a little more work, Nothing major.

I brought out the grinders( one with hard grinding wheel and the other with a cut off wheel ) . I did some clean up on the top of the rockers. I removed the rest of the old floors that were welded to the rockers. And I also ground down the rest of the welds that were there and also cut off the old front cab mounts.









I also started to lay out the rear crossmember that I'm fabricating to support the rear floor section. The crossmember piece is the bottom tube sitting on the jack stands. Tomorrow I'm going to cut out the down tubes for the crossmember. I'm building it out of 2"x2" - 1/8" wall tubing. So I shouldn't have to worry about falling thru the floor! :lol: Nothing like a little overkill!! There is a channel in the bottom of the 78 rear floor section that the 2" tube fits perfect in. I'm going to weld the crossmember to the rocker plates and then weld the floor to the crossmember.

 

Today I did some work on the floor.

I started out cleaning up the ends of the floor with the grinder. Then I made up a template for the patch plates. Then I cut them out of the same plate I used on the inner rockers. Then I sprayed the backs with weld thru primer. Then I welded them in.









Here's a picture of the groove that the crossmember will sit in.







Next I cut out another small section of the floor. I did a little more welding. Then I broke out the grinder and ground the welds on the top and the front of the plate flat.






Then I decided to do one more test fit of the floor. Looks like it might work. I didn't get the crossmember pieces cut so I'll have to do that tomorrow. :roll:

 

I've been stuck working on everyones vehicles but my own the past few days. So today I finally was able to do a little more on the 54. I was finally able to cut the end pieces for my floor crossmember ( took a couple trys before I got it right ops: ) . My band saw was refusing to make a straight cut And I didn't have a chop saw so I used my 4 1/2" grinder with a cut off wheel to make the cuts. Once I made the cuts I used the grinder to clean up the edges and I also beveled the edges. Then I finally got the crossmember welded in!









Then I tried the floor section again and it fits the way I want.









Next step will be to start welding in this section of floor. Then I can start making templates for all the diamond plate and start filling in all the gaps.

 

Today I pulled the windshield out of the cab and tipped the cab on it's back panel. Then I finished the welding on the rockers and the bottom of the crossmember.

The picture is a little blurry my batteries are getting weak.





If it's not snowing too heavy tomorrow I'm going to weld the rear floor in.

 

Well after another small delay ( repairing another vehicle :roll: ) I'm back to work on the 54. I started out by cutting out some more metal. The area around the front cab mounts wasn't the greatest. So I decide to cut it all out. I'm going to weld some more plate ( same as I used on the inner rockers ) in that area. That should be a little stronger. I also removed the entire windshield wiper system.

Here's the before pics ( got new batteries for the camera so any crappy pics are all my fault :lol: ) .




And here's after I cut it all out.





Then I flipped the rear floor section upside down and broke out the 7" craftsman sander with a large wirebrush cup on it and cleaned up the area where the floor will be sitting on the crossmember. I also cleaned up the rear crossmember in the cab and the ends of the front floor crossmember with the 4.5" grinder with a flap wheel on it. Once it was all cleaned up I sprayed it all with weld-thru primer.




Once the primer dried I set the floor back in the cab for the final time. I measured, squared it up and then welded the floor to the rear crossmember ( just a couple plug welds for now ) . This wasn't anything big but I've been waiting a long time to do this!




I ordered a new hand shear from Woodward Fab a while back. I'm going to give it a work out this week! I've got a lot of diamond plate steel to cut for the floor. I'm going to try and get the floor and firewall recess done by the end of this weekend. I want to get the cab structure finished before I have to put the cab in storage for the winter.

 

it looks good. why are you stopping for the winter? i cant be THAT cold. lol!!!

 

If I had a shop to work in I wouldn't stop for the winter. But working in the driveway kind of puts limitations on when I can work on the truck.

 

Well today I started out by doing a little measureing . I needed to extend the floor front crossmember so I could weld it to the rocker plates. So I cut out 4 pieces 1/8" plate. For now I'm just welding a piece of plate on the top and bottom of each of the crossmember ends. When I tip the cab again ( to do the final welding on the bottom of the floors ) I'm going to box the crossmember end exstensions.

I started on the passenger side.





The I started on the driverside.





Once they were welded in I went over both sides with the grinder. While I was at it I did the edge of the floors and the top of the rockers.





Then I cut out the floor for the transmission tunnel.



I did a little test fit. I've got some more work to do on this!





I also broke out a sheet of tag board and made a couple templates for the floor pieces. By this time it was getting dark so I decided to call it a day. The saga will continue tomorrow.