Thanks for the compliment!

HA! I doubt I would do this again unless I just couldn't find a good cab or the rest of the cab was in immaculate shape, both of which aren't probable. I look at it this way, It was a great learning experience on a surrogate that could be replaced if I butchered it beyond repair. It is neat to dissect these old trucks and really see how they were manufactured, but it is sickening to see that once the cab was assembled and spot welded together any metal that wasn't visible had no paint or secondary coating on it. Literally rotting from the inside out.

 

crrnchris, on a side note and thread hijack (although i think it is ok since it is my thread) what fuel economy do you see out of 78 with the 460 and 5 speed unloaded? Rear end gear ratio and terrain? If you don't mind sharing? I have a line on a 460 and I know I'm never going to see much above 10 MPG, but I'm still curious.

 

Not sure...when I was younger it was my daily driver in the summer. Back then gas was $1.04. I put the 5 speed in cause I drove to Cape Cod every weekend and wanted overdrive. I have been meaning to try and calculate what I am getting. I will try to do it before winter hits here in Boston. I would guess 8-9 mpg. I have a mild comp cam and I believe 3.55 gears. I will double check that too. Right now I have 33x10.50x15 TSL Thornbirds. I hate them.

 

I treated myself to a new paint gun for Christmas so I figured i better make use of it.



Stripped the passenger side door and did the usual epoxy primer, filler, more epoxy, 2k urethane build primer, sand, more epoxy..... etc.


I ended up sanding the drivers side door down and respraying the whole door to fix some overspray issues from when i sprayed it previously. Also finished off passenger door, and sprayed the door hinges. I need to press in some new bushings and pins into the hinges then hopefully i'll be able to hang a couple doors if a warm day comes along.


A couple of weeks back as i was putting my dash back in the truck i decided that it would be a good time to pull the heater box and fix my noisy blower motor. Like many other unseen parts of the truck i found bare metal with plenty of surface rust and apparently Musky changed the heater core in 1999.


Drill out the rivets and disassembled the heater box.


Cleaned up the metal covers.


I bought a new heater core and blower motor. I was pleasantly surprised to find "Made in USA" stamped on the blower motor.


I epoxy primed the covers,installed all my new components, layed down some RTV, and riveted it all back together. Much better!

 

nice work.

 

.. added to the Tech Thread Hyperlink Compilation sticky.

Nice job.

 

wow awesome and extensive, i "simply"(<--haha, yeah) did the whole chop off two trucks and weld on way, pissed off the windshield shop! ended up just a little bit tight for the windshield seal, o well. cant tell now anyway!

 

Great job....I wish I had that type Lookin' good.

 

Thanks for the compliments! Quite the honor to be added to the Tech Thread Hyperlink Compilation sticky I must say!

7636074460 - I thought heavily about doing the roof that way, cutting at the post and welding it on. Ultimately I'm glad i went through the trouble of dissecting it. The inside seam where the drip rails were spot welded on were pretty rusty on my donor roof. As I'm sure most of these trucks are, it was rotting from the inside out, but was still salvageable. I sure wouldn't call the approach you took "simple" by any means though!

 

This convinced me to find another cab at all costs.

 

wow, that was awesome, I wish I had the body work talent that I see time and again on this site, love the work your doing, subscribed

 

yeah wasnt all to simple, fairly fast to do though. we cut low on the donor cab and high on the 'graft-ee' after measuring the windsheild hole and everything really carefully. slowly cut off from the bottom until it was as close as we could. on mine you can see a lil bit of welding in the A-pillar inside the door jamb. the door seal covers most of it.

i dont know what i would do if i had to replace a roof again. i should've went all out and actually hot rod chopped it. we even thought of making a convertible out of it lmao.

 

I've been making slow progress lately. I disassembled the door hinges, stripped them, then primed and painted them. I bought 4 door hinge repair kits from bronco graveyard. They came as steel pins and what i think was cast aluminum bushings. I stripped the paint down to bare metal where the bushings seat and pressed the bushings in. Upon pressing the pins in, 6 out of the 8 bushings cracked vertically. The excess bushing hanging out of the door hinge for each broke completely off. I should have stopped and called BG, clearanced the holes etc, but all the bushings were already pressed in. As of now the hinges are holding the doors on the truck. They are tight and working as they should. Long story short, I'd avoid these cast bushings and look for brass ones like the originals.


I thought i had taken a picture of how the bushings broke but i can;t find it. I will get a picture next time I'm out at the truck. I ended up having to sand and respray the outside of the passenger door due to some impatience when painting. I learned my lesson last time with over spray on the drivers door and masked this one off better.



I've gotten both doors on, aligned, and windows/gaskets in. I had originally planned to take it too a glass shop for the windshield, but decided that I would try it myself. They wanted $260 (parts plus labor), I picked up a decent one from a local wrecker for $75. It took over an hour, but with some patience and finesse my self and a buddy got it in there. I used a precision seal which appears to fit great. It was dark by the time we finished, so the pictures I had of it weren't worth posting. I'll post some here soon along with pictures of a few other things. I also dissembled the rear slider and rebuilt it with some U channel rubber from Mcmaster. I've got to rope it in still, hang the fenders, strip and paint the hood, then on to the fun stuff; engine, suspension, and figure out what I'm going to do for a bed!

 

Nice work Rossta. Seeing you do this is what made me do the same to my supercab. You are right in the fact that these roofs are rotting from the inside out. I had to replace two sections of my drip rail on my passenger side. My added bonus to this is that I am now gaining factory roof lights and cargo light.

 

I don't know if that makes me happy or sad to inspire someone to do such "foolish" things! Haha, just kidding, in the end you will be proud and sleep better knowing it was done right! I know in my own head that i cut some corners on things, but I'm still very happy with the outcome. I actually lost my cab lights and cargo light, but i may add them back in if I sand the cab down and spray another couple coats of SS urethane on it. My new paint gun and improved painting skills really makes the cab paint job look like **** compared to the doors and fenders. 5 feet away it looks pretty damn good though if i might say so myself!