Kinda looks like a scaled down version of Dianes green monster. I gotta start watching ebay more closely, didn't see that one. Question about your rear doors: You aren't going to leave that slanted post, are you? I looked quickly back thru, didn't see mention of the plan for that.
That 1937 304 is fantastic. Deluxe cab too. Love the spoked wheels under the fender skirts, looks like a side wheel paddle steamer. The slanted posts will go, but that's the last step in the double cab project. Right now the focus is on finishing the roof. Then the back panel gets fabricated. Then I'll stand up the door corners using corners from the scrap doors.
After seeing the truck bed on Ebay I did a bit of CAD work... Might be a bit too short of a bed to pull this off, but it adds some flavor.
I like how on the pics of the truck with the flared bed there seems to be a body line or a reveal that continues the belt line behind the doors & that the top of the bed rail is even with the bottom of the window. flows really nice. in your cad drawing the top of the bed & the bottom of the window do not line up. IMO changing that a little to line up will help the look and flow a bunch. just my .02 Cool build no matter what. one question, how long is this sucker?
Good point, the bottom of the windows should determine the height of the flared section. That back window there in the CAD model is way big, was thinking to enlarge it from stock to get some visibility. I'll probably keep the stock rear window size as you can't see much back that direction anyway. Picked up a set of NIB west coast mirrors at a garage sale last weekend for $5. Felt like a thief. Gonna be using them for figuring out what's behind me! Length: ~21.25' when done.
All right, now I'm thinking a bit more about continuing the belt line at the door sash back through the bed to make something of a top rail detail. Of course that would require building a pair of dies for the bead roller to be able to roll that sucker into fresh sheet metal.....
The box on mine looked MUCH better with the additon of the stainless grab/tie down rails. The top of the box is a couple inches below the character line on the door. While it looked better at that height than level with that, it was still "wrong". Adding the stainless rail, which lines up exactly with the lower edge of the larger bead, makes it flow. I'm breathing a sigh of relief knowing you're going to straighten up the post of those rear doors! http://flynbrian48.wordpress.com/ Brian
Great thread, I was thinking the same thing as Toner. Not that familiar with Diamond Ts, but they do have a presence.
Tweaked the rear window to be closer to realistic and moved the curve in the bed side down to the cab window sill. Not a lot of detail there, can either drop the sides down a bit to get more relief or eliminate the curve and bring the sides up to match the windows.
I know you'd like to put a window in the space between the doors but what if you lessened the space between the doors? I think it'd help the overall proportions of the cab.
It would help from the outside, for sure. But it's planned to be used as a long distance tow vehicle- the inside is laid out the same as a long wheelbase W126 Mercedes. Plenty of legroom in the back, just enough in the front but more than the stock cab. I'm 6'3", that plays into it. So I'm trying to keep the length! But keep the ideas coming...
Got a good amount of work done on the roof today. The wheeled sides are formed to shape and the inner folds are bent. The B pillar on the driver's side needed to be moved in a bit and rewelded, now it fits correctly. Laid out the center portion, a coworker stopped by to help out running the beader. Got the forward lip flanged and bent the front edge 1/2" in front of the flange to provide a lip to run the shrinker and provide a way to arch the roof from side to side. Rolled four 3/8" beads to stiffen the large section. Darned bead roller only goes in 18" and I don't feel like modifying the english wheel to accept the bead roller dies right now. Will need to spot weld some center ribs on to keep the left to right bow in the roof. That's a whole nother project...... (Up in both pictures is forward in the cab, and the left and right rolled sides are reversed)
Got the center roof section welded in to the existing roof this morning and quickly primed. Gonna rain at 9AM they said and guess what... They were off by 10min. Good thing it was on the other side of the hour. The spot welder made it's first appearance between the sides and center of the roof, though I'm unable to get consistently good welds. The test welds on scrap worked very well but the sides and the center weren't happy. Not sure what the deal is so I MIG welded the panels together every few inches to ensure a good bond. Seam sealer from Eastwood shows up Wednesday... The beads were intended to stiffen the center panel, but I still need to add some support as the center section is still quite floppy. Figure to make some full width supports and tie them into the 1x2 framework around the rear doors. The roof sides are not welded to the cab sides at this point, just held up with 2x4's cut to length. Need to form some channels to blend the doors into the cab. Some sort of a Z bend, which wouldn't be difficult except that nothing on this build is straight! The doors of course have some curvature to them that I need to match. Still trying to figure out how to make it all happen. Probably start by making a simple L bend and work both sides of it on the shrinker-stretcher to get the compound curvature. Then I'll do a simple L bend for the inside, run a flange with the bead roller and spot weld together. Been chasing the work in CAD to both document what has been done and help plan the next step.
Some days are just productive. Rain went away and I went back outside to play. Got the rear two sections of the roof fabricated and tacked to the center roof portion. Complicated sections, I rolled the curve out in the english wheel first, then flattened the side and made a flange. Took that to the shrinker to put the curve back in it. Same thing again with the other side flange. Then put some bow in the front flange where it connects with the main section of the roof to help form the roof curve from side to side. Tacked both sides into place and now am trying to figure out how the heck I'm gonna form the corners. 18" shot bag arrives Wednesday.....
Had a bit more time before dark and more rain and need to think about how to handle the next parts on the cab so I assembled the frame for the bed. Corner supports are 3" radius formed out of 18ga flat stock. Shrinker brings the flange around, and I used a cooking pot to verify my radius. (it was handy)
Questions right now for the cab are: 1. How to best form the rear corners? Thinking to use the shot bag, couple of hammers and a lot of banging. 2. The rear panel is lacking in width by about 12" or so. I don't have any good parts for the rear trim sash. Could make a set of dies for the bead roller but there's a lot of time as I need to set up my lathe and install the electrical. (gotta be done anyway but maybe it can get put off a bit) Other thoughts are to roll the shape a little at a time on the break, problem is it's a compound curve. Or perhaps hammer form it. Ideas?
One remaining cab corner needed to finish the cab roof. Really kicking myself at losing the rear cab corners. Got my 12" beater bag in this week and filled it with lead shot. Grabbed a 20gage panel and started having a whack at forming corners. Literally. Alternated hammering with smoothing using the english wheel. Shrunk a bit around the edges using my foot operated shrinker. Starting to come together, still needing some edge trimming but not bad for a first try.
The roof corners are pretty darn close to finished and I've realized that the rails above the doors are required to be fitted before I can really do much more on the roof. Gonna have to take off the side sections before it can progress. Oh well, not the first time nor probably the last. Formed the door channels in 2 parts to aid construction. Outer half and inner half. There's a good bow from the front to the back, about 7/8" or so over the 33.5" length. Bent the angle in the brake, then shrunk and stretched accordingly to fit the cardboard template. Welded the two halves together to make the channel. Doing it again I'd probably use 18ga instead of 20, it was hard to weld even with a backer.
Some days you're the bug, others you're the windscreen. Was measuring from the firewall instead of the back of the cab just as a double check on my numbers... And it turns out that one of the assumptions I've made was wrong. The 211 cab is much shorter than the 614. Knew it was not as wide, didn't think to check the length. Off by 8". And of course all of the drawing work was based on that datum. Doh! Took 10" out of the B pillar to give enough room for the bed to look proportional. Not going to be quite so roomy in the back of the cab anymore. But the bed will be balanced over the rear wheels. Up til now I've been trying to work top down, last week it became apparent that you need to work from the beltline on the doors up and down. Roof is last! Made some templates to bring the curvature of the doors in line with eachother and mercifully it means that the rear doesn't need to be wider, it can stay stock width. There's two panels I hadn't wanted to make that no longer need to be made- and the rear is already done. Thank goodness. Squared up the rear passenger door, that was a bit of a relief to know it can be done.
Whew. I'm glad you went this way, and not keep the cab widening towards the rear. Had me worried there for a little while!
I know you hate to give up the interior space but the thinner B pillar looks good. That truck is going to look great!
Appreciate the comments and support. It gets frustrating at times, like when you realize that you have to tear it halfway apart and start over. Y'all are right, it looks better with the thinner B pillar. Solves my rear sheetmetal headaches too... Have a pair of dies rough turned on the lathe for pressing in the rear detail with the bead roller. These two days of reworking the cab saves me at least a week's worth of work. After a lot of time pondering I cut the rear passenger door and squared it up. Not bad after all. Drivers side probably later this week after the rain goes away. Then to get the rear sheetmetal together and glued to the frame. Picked up a camper on Saturday that will slide in the rear- 1955 Kamp King Koach.
Trying to get the 'bow' on the doors to flow front to rear. I've a 5' long cardboard template made up to be able to match the front and rear doors over their span. I'm hoping that the rear sheetmetal will flow to the rear edge of the rear doors as they are now- gotta check the angles again when it's together. Else I'll have to pull the bottom stiffener off and recurve the rear corners. That also means reworking the roof corners, which I am not wanting to do.
Well, everybody agrees the B pillars are better thin. Guess I like it better now too. Sometimes you are just too close to the forest to see the trees. This is why forum member's comments are important... So the doors are both squared up now- nothing like 3 weeks til the show to keep you motivated and a nasty cold that makes it so I don't care about much. Been dreading this step for a while, turns out it wasn't that bad after all. Pucker factor? Yes. Took me 3 years to get enough sets of doors to be cutting some up for parts. But now I can continue assembling the upper door rails and framing.
The Jalopy Journal
