Pics!! ***This is a scratch-ish built cab using a sedan/coupe cowl and doors, custom cab corners and a restamped rear window panel and a basic rolled bead lower panel. You may notice the cab corners are modified...that's because I bought them already chopped, then decided to un-chop them after doing a pretty heavy motor setback. This steel frame roof build is part of making a removable top. Photo 1 - overall skeletal structure of the roof. There's temporary x bracing in the cab still. It's all 1x1x1/8 rolled tubing. Most of the rolling was done using a combination of an old hand-crank wagon wheel roller, a jig for measuring symmetry, the odd bit of heat and the ol' armstrong method — putting one end of a long piece of tubing in the vice, standing at the other end and pulling on it gently with your hands, in pulses, until the tube starts to develop a radius. I started by making the side tubes above the doors that go from the header/a-pillar to the back of the cab. Next came the straight tube across the back of the cab. The rear sheet metal comes up and wraps over onto the tube and was spotted on. The front bow tube was radiused to match the roll in the header. The front tube is welded in front of the header to create that stock looking roof overhang above the visor. It's welded to the side tube, the a-pillar, gusseted and had some initial metal finishing work done on it. Then the rear bow tube was made to a radius that I thought looked right. Next comes the centre bow...which I also thought looked right...just a slight armstrong radius in that tube. Photo 2, 3, and 4 are pretty self explanatory. Photo 5 is the rear corner gusseted and put together. Still needs metal finishing. I used a piece of plate to make sure I had a good section of weld holding the rear bow on. Here you can see how the rear sheet metal wraps over the flat tube...the sheet metal was in the way of securely welding that rear bow into the cab any other way. Photo 6, front corner gusseted with initial metal finishing done. Photo 7, where the centre bow connects to the front bow. I made a crude notch in the header for now...because I'm not sure how I will finish this area. The tubes are only welded on one side at the front...across the top. I may end up gusseting this joint, or remove more of the header on the front side, weld the tubes on 4 sides, then piece the header sheet metal back in. The windshield mounting part of the header is all rotted out, so I'm half considering cutting out the entire original header now and making one from scratch out of heavy gauge sheet metal?? not sure... Like I said...still needs metal finishing...so don't be too critical on the cosmetics just yet. The outside tubes above the doors will be permanently capped with wood, milled to roll off into the roofline. I will also be adding 2 or 4 removable wood bows from front to back in the roof. When the top is on the truck, the wood bows will be in....when the top is off, the wood bows will be out.
Looking good. I like where you going. Removable top would be different. It might cause some headaches before it is done.
Lol...strong was what I was going for I kind of consider this my soft option to a roll cage.... I'm also aware of the pains that are in store to make a removable top that functions good and looks really cool... I've always wanted a closed cab truck and a roadster... This is my compromise ... I'll post more after I fine tune stuff and add the wood
Hey Dubb, Keep up the work and let us Old Farts see more. I have been laughed at more than once for building Old Chevy Trucks with steel tubing. I am almost 66 and still farting around with a 33 Chevy Ext-Cab Truck project. Cab is extended about 12 inches and now is a five window. It takes a hell of a lot of thought and welding to do what you are doing. Continue to follow your Dream!!! Jeff
Glad to see you are going with a model sedan/coupe door project. I did a similar thing a few years back. Keep up the good work.
I like it, you won't have any cracks develop in the body, thats for sure. I've done the same thing on my 28 chrysler three window, its now got a full steel skeleton inside it, so stiff now it will kill me if I ever crash it. Full firewall between the seat and trunk, full cage in the p***enger cabin, strong is good, no movement, no squeaks.
Nice truck! I see you extended the header up to match the original pickup height. I decided to stick with the coupe header height...gives it a little bit of a lower profile look without actually chopping anything.
Trollst and 33sporttruck.... I'm 31 now...but in my mid-20's I did quite a bit of fabrication work building portable skateboard parks using....you guessed it...1x1x1/8 tubing... lots of radius work and structural engineering involved. The engineered designs also included alot of 1.5x1.5x1/8 angle iron. You could drive a truck up the finished products. The ramps really could have been used to jump cars off of...lol So, in a way I'm just doing what I'm comfortable doing. And, strong structures just inspire so much confidence in safety. I tend to picture the worst kind of crash happening, and imagining how to minimize the dangers. I will be traveling with friends and loved ones...so minimizing their risk is especially important to me. If it's just me in the car...maybe I'm not so worried. For example...if we're rearended, there will be a concession behind our heads and necks to make sure we don't smash our coconuts off the hard steel in the back of the cab. Or, if I need to veer to avoid a head on and end up rolling it on the roof (total flukey made up scenario...but **** happens) then I'd like to have more between our heads and the road then some sticks held together with screws. I can imagine that an original model A truck cab would be particularly crumple/twisty friendly in the event of a roll over... However, I don't see me being as concerned in a 32 and up closed cab truck/car...as the sheet metal and pillars interconnect for a more complete, unified structural package
Do you have any pictures on how you built the cab corners and bead rolled the bottom of the doors and cab? I have a '30 that needs some lower repair work...
My cab is a stock 28/29 coupe cowl and doors....no bead rolling. The cab corners came from an aftermarket sheetmetal company. Kind of hard to explain how they made them. A break, Shrinker/stretcher and a bead roller with a stepping die and a half round bead die...but there's obviously more to it than that. They make them to mimic originals... The rear lower cab panel (below the window panel) is an easy home jobbie. Just a flat sheet with a 1/2 inch 90degree lip the whole way around. Then a few small horizontal beads rolled across the middle of the panel, and one vertical bead rolled down each side...just to keep the panel from flopping around. It doesn't resemble stock, but it does the trick. The 1930 cab is very different. I would just recommend buying some cab corners and patch panels for the door. You also buy lower cowl patches.
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