The back panel of the cab at the bottom between the 2 outer cab corners has a lot of pin holes so I formed a piece of 18 gauge that will replace the damage. I was trying to figure out how I was going to press the grooves to match the back. All I did was place a piece of 1 1/2" square tubing in the vise which was the widest point of the groove and a depth of 1/4" and use a piece of scrap steel and a hammer to simulate the groove and some hammer and dolly work.









I'll sandblast the cab in the areas the D/A sander never reached and install the outer cab corners before I attempt installing this patch..

 

Nice ingenuity John.

 

Man, good thinking on that panel, John!

 

I was kind of worried I'd screw it up but it worked out pretty good. Started sandblasting today, is still hotter than I like and once the sweat starts the sand sticks pretty good to the body. I quite today after I got the floor panel cleaned up

 

Well, at least you have a fancy orange suit to sweat in, mine are plain white!LOL

 

Left overs from the mine but they don't get much use anymore...lol

 

Nice work John!

 

Just finished reading this build thread. Very impressive metal work!

 

To quote BTO, "You ain't seen nuthin yet!" You should see how John rebuilt his 56 pickup! Read that thread.

 

Will do thanks

 

Last Friday I started to do some of the sandblasting on the cab be was far too hot out there in the sun so didn't get it finished

today I decided to start the repair of that rotted out roof brow


I wasn't completely sure what I was getting into so opened up a section to see how all the layers pieced together..


At first I left enough metal to weld to if I had decided to trim the patch panel. From the factory the under brow is spot welded to the drip rail
and I have no access to weld the new piece like it originally was. After digging in deeper I decided to remove it all and will use panel adhesive
where it attaches to the drip rail.


All these pics will appear upside down because I'm working off my rotisserie


cut out the biggest chunk to get a better view..
here's a few of the cut outs






Trimmed the metal flush to the underside of the drip rail , the rust wouldn't allow me to see clearly where the spot welds were so had to do some digging
then proceeded with the grinder to remove the rest..



Drilled out the spot welds where the window lip is.


and then started to separate the two header pieces



This is pretty much where I left off for today, still trimming out the spot welded metal, will be away for a couple days so won't be back to it until the end of the week.
That patch panel includes the window lip which is slightly different that the way the original pieces all fit together..

 

Here's an illustration of how the pieces fit together

 

John, I see you're as big of a glutton for punishment as I am!LOL

 

All fitted in and ready to weld in place after I sandblast what's under it or properly stated what's above it...

 

wow john that turned out nice !!!