Projects In Over My Head

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but the Mrs. ALWAYS gives vehicles names. She currently drives Babe, her '07 Acura TL which she may keep forever!

 

Thanks! More progress today. Got the spot welded two-piece inner cab corner separated today so I can actually put it in place.

 

So true. My across the street neighbor is a woodworker - does amazing stuff - but when he screws up, it's start all over again!

 

Thanks for the encouragement! Definitely manual. And, nice to hear from someone in the UK! Had a great time in London earlier this year. Maybe the top highlight for me was the tour of Churchill's WWII bunker. For the Mrs., it was the Diana dress exhibit at Kensington Palace.

 

Picking up where we left off, turned one part into two. No way it fits as a single piece


But it does as two pieces! Just drill out the spot welds and we're good. One piece goes in from the front, the other from the back


Now to get the door jamb back where it belongs. When I drilled out the last spot weld (to get the old inner corner out) the jamb popped out and, with nothing to support it, dropped down just a little bit. Gotta line up the hole in the jamb with the remnants of the spot weld


A floor jack to lift it up ...


and a ratcheting cargo tie down to pull the jamb in. (Nice to have a hole in the jamb from a drilled out spot weld to pop a bolt through for the S hook)


Perfect!


Inner cab corner goes in next!

 

Lookin Good Pop!

 

Thanks, my boy! Not any real progress over the holidays, but back at it soon!

 

Why are holidays so busy? Well, they're over and we're back at it! Inner piece of the driver's side inner cab corner went in today.

 

Outer part of the inner cab corner is in! (It ain't pretty, but it ain't going anywhere, either!)

From the other side

Outer cab corner goes in next!

 

Good progress today on the outer cab corner! Here's where we started - not a good fit at all!

Here's the scribe line showing (at least) how much has to come off.

(Kinda slipped with the scribe a little bit. Also, learned too late that the folks who know what they're doing cut only an inch or two into the good metal when welding in a patch piece. It really was only the bottom third, at most, of the corner that was bad.)
And here's where we left off today. Getting very close!

 

And looking good Sir.

 

Looking good, one step at a time.

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks! And looking forward this summer to getting the hell out of hell (Arizona) and back to New England for a couple of weeks!

 

Almost ready to weld the new outer cab corner in place. The vertical match of the crease in the two pieces is actually pretty good. The reflection in the photo is a little misleading. And, don't worry about that big gap on the right. I'm becoming an expert at fixing screw-ups!

 

Keep chewing on the elephant !

 

Fixing screw ups is how you learn. I fixed a lot more than I like to admit to
Tom

 

Looking good.

 

Thanks! Took a break to show my brother and his wife the Grand Canyon over the past week. Back at it real soon!

 

And there's no way to cheat! Either it fits or it doesn't!

 

Big progress today! The outer cab corner is tacked in place. A big challenge was matching the crease in the cab to the crease in the new metal -

Duct taped an appropriate diameter phillips screwdriver (because of the round shaft) to the inner crease and used a drift and hammer to work the old metal out to match the new. And remember that big gap between the old and new on the upper right? A part of the lower flange on the inner cab corner was providing a pivot point for the outer corner. A little persuasion with a crescent wrench brought it up and let the new piece fit properly -

(Can't figure out why initially I thought the scribed line for the cut on the outer corner was off.) Anyway, got the new piece tacked on -

Hard to see, but thanks to shrinkage (of the metal!) and their location, I couldn't hammer and dolly that part of the seam to get two of the intergrip panel clamps out. Hmmm ... If heat shrinks metal, will cold expand it? -

Yes! It worked! How crazy is that???

 

Physics is your friend. Good stuff dad.

 

Thank goodness!

 

Back at it finally, after a great visit from East Coast relatives. Continuing to button up the driver's side outer cab corner but took a break to do some checking on what's next - the driver's side step. Of course, it doesn't fit:


The space (and step) are a trapezoid - but the step is wider at the back than the opening. Look like I'll have to open up that corner of the step and trim to fit.

 

Pro tip! You can't weld dirt. And also, the original 1959 steel might not have been the best. All the burn throughs were in the old steel.

Anyway, got most of the mistakes filled and now have to work on flattening the seam again.

 

I wish I had the experience and talent do work metal and not need Bondo, but we gotta deal with what we got. So here's the driver's side outer cab corner with a little Bondo as kind of a test to see if there are any high spots that have to be lowered

I THINK it'll be OK. I'll have to do another skim coat because there are a few spots that don't blend smoothly into the metal. (BTW, as an indication of how long I let things sit with this project, I had an unopened quart of filler from who knows how long ago. Not usable, of course, but the price sticker was still on the cover - $18.60. Bought a quart of the same brand at the same store today and paid $34.48!)

 

Another coat of Bondo and some sanding. Not perfect but good enough I think to show that the new piece will work when the cab finally gets to a pro body person

Next, plug welding the bottom of the outer cab corner to the inner.

Two mistakes here. Measure twice, drill once. I'll have to fill that "extra" hole. And, someone neglected to clean the spots on inner cab corner where the welds will go. I'll steal an emory board from the Mrs. and see if I can slip that between the two pieces and get the paint off.

 

OK. Driver's side cab corner all buttoned up so it's on to the driver's side step. As mentioned earlier, I did a little test fit with the step and found (big surprise) it didn't fit. At first I thought the thing to do was trim the step, but a dent in the piece of the cab that forms the front of the open "box" for the step led me to think maybe it was the existing structure and not the new step that was the problem. Banged out the dent, which helped a little, then remembered that the rear door jamb popped out when I freed it to prepare for replacing the cab corner. Maybe the opposite happened when I took the original step out and the existing structure popped in? Couldn't remember, but thought I'd try to expand the opening in the cab and see if the step would slide all the way in. (When all else fails, try brute force!)


It worked! But when the rear of the step snugged up against upright flange of the new inner cab corner, the outer edge of the rear of the step did NOT line up with cab corner. Crap.


I guess the only thing to do is slice most of that inner cab corner flange free so the outer edge of the step will line up with the cab corner. Wish me luck!

 

I like checking this thread. Keep up the inspiring , for us at home type guys, work. One little suggestion: you may want to google image the following... ‘56 Chev Apache and Austin Healey. I don’t think you avatar pic is what you think it is! LOL

 

Steel was fine, from the looks of it, you hit thin spots from 60+ years of weather (rust). But like you did, sometimes filler is the way out...or you have to replace a whole lot more stuff than intended.

You cold braze up those holes...easier to control heat with a torch than a welder, but you're past that point now.

Make sure you seal the inner side well, so moisture doesn't get sucked in though the filler.