i would also suggest TIG welding all of your sheetmetal (after you tack it with the MIG) so you can hammerweld. if you tig it and then hammer-dolly it afterwards, you should be able to get it straight enough for a skim coat of filler. good luck!
i dont know anything about hammering the weld or dolly-ing. i have heard i need to get on the metalmeet site and get some learnin'. i think the roof right now is a little beyond my grasp. i am going to try to find another cab and just put a roof skin on it since everything else looks pretty good.
well i guess there is no reason to try to work beyond your abilities, you will just end up frustrating yourself. but if you can TiG weld your sheetmetal i would still suggest it, just cause its softer weld and not as much heat so its much easier to work with and less warpage of your sheetmetal. but, do whatever you are most comfortable with, and thats what will give you the best results. good luck with the roof skin, i want to see pics, when you do it, because thats most likely what i am going to have to do as well, since my roof was cut in quarters when it got chopped.
well, great thread! I wish I knew how to use the hammer and dolly method but I havnt let that stop me , so the roof isnt save-able? did it get too hot or what? heres a pic of my chop I hope that if the day comes when I want to paint I wont need more than a skim coat of bondo
no i dont think it got hot, i didnt weld on it for too long at any time. i did body work for a few years about ten years ago, i just didnt like it on a daily basis. i just think putting a skin on it will give me a better product in the end...
worked on the frame saturday, cut the p***. side k-member pieces and put them in. also cut some gussets to put under the front and rear kick ups, i had intended on cutting speed holes in these but after talking to my machine shop buddy i guess he's going to water jet them out of a new piece. so now i have an extra set. guess these will go on the '52 ford were doing next. other than that i just took the cab back off so i can measure how much 1" square i need to build a new floor... also gonna need a pair of cab corners, they were full of dirt and painted... pretty slow at the shop last week so not much extra $ to spend on the truck. ill put some pics in later.
I'm sure someone has pointed out that the orange truck is NOT a 54, but is a 51-53 with split flat windshield, vent windows in the doors and push****on door handles.
checked the door tag, its a red/silver st. louis '52 not ***led until '54, in ND. by the guy i bought it from, he then painted it omaha orange an put it to work in his highway construction fleet until the day i bought it this past sept 7th '08.
my shop has been so busy for the last week i have had no time to work on the truck, so no updates... i will be ordering up some air bags soon and buying some more steel to finish up the ch***is next week so progress is coming. prob order some 1" square to redo the floor of the truck too...
found a roof skin on Chev's of the 40's.... in case you been havin trouble finding a good one off an old truck. here is a link to the site. Good Luck! http://www.chevsofthe40s.com/detail/16078.html kind of a lot if you are just going to hack it up, but i just wanted to p*** it on anyways.
made some big sales earlier this week so ill be ordering bags, tank, compressor, valves tomorrow. i dealt with air ride technologies on my green truck for everything except bags (i needed to make custom struts for that one) i was wondering if they are the best around or if you guys have any recommendations.
Kustombuilder sells some air ride kits. He's in Lansing. I'm not sure of the brand. How bad is your roof skin? I've got a '54 roof that needs some repair but not too aweful.
Matt, sorry I took so long. Haven't been back to your thread in a while. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269446 This is the Autometer Gauges. I've got a '54 car dash. Just needs a glove box door!
what im planning for the gauges/dash is to move the two existing gauges to the middle and adding one more, will prob keep the steering column indentation for a clock. so there will be two stock gauges centered in the middle of the dash and one added to the drivers side of them. i plan to convert the speedo to elec using an aftermarket 5" speedo (autometer probably) behind the original face using the stock chevy needle. then the four gauge unit i want to do the same thing so it appears to be a version of the stock dash, maybe a concept type of thing. then the third will be a speedo converted to a tach using an autometer 5" 8 or 9k tach. i will try to use the odometer hole in this one for a trip function or poss dummy lights like high beam and turn signal with led's. after all this i want to add an old glove box door to the far left as trim so it matches the p***enger side. then if i get that far i want to continue the glove box door/speaker grille detail around the doors and around the back of the seats. as for the roof skin i will take anything cheap. i cant see spending the money some of these guys want for ad parts when i only pay $400.00 at most for whole trucks... ill probably end up buying another truck, or building an english wheel and making one in the end anyway...
yeah i figured that skin was a bit steep, but i ran across it when i was ordering a VIN tag for my truck... if you have the time and resources to build an english wheel, do it! it is an unbelievably good investment, you can do so much with them and i cant wait till i have the time to build one of my own. good luck with the roof and dash, cant wait to see more pics.
just cut the roof skin off a honda wagon, probably wont work but i thought id give a try, and it was a nice big sheet of metal so...
i have some progress to post but i was thinking of entering the baleigh winter project contest, since i got this truck in late sept and its definitely a winter (one winter) project. hopefully no one has a problem with that. so i would like to either re label this thread or start a new one
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3591444&posted=1#post3591444 new thread so i can enter the "winter project" contest...
any updates on this build as i am looking to see how it came out so far........ and also for some guidance
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