In order to get the framing lined up correctly, I took a pattern from the inside of the door. This will be used to line up all the RHS for welding the frame also for the door cards.
Hey Guys. I have moved onto repairing the doors. I was finally able to pry out the last remaining piece of timber without destroying it. This one being the frame that houses the latch housing and striker plate. I assembled the pieces on the ground to resemble the way they sat when they were attached to the door.
With that out of the way, I moved onto repairing the door itself, the main bit of damage being the outer skin that sits around the lower hinge being bent out of shape due to the door sagging.
The game plan was to hammer on dolly the folded back section back into place and weld up the tears. I noticed the metal was thin so knew I had to turn the settings down on the mig to the lowest voltage and feed rate. And then this happened.
I checked the settings and realised I had turned them up to full by mistake. So after turning down to the minimums, I looked again at the sheetmetal and realises it was too thin anyway. So I cut it out and added the new section in, ready to butt weld.
It was a slow process welding it in. The heat of the welds starting burning the surrounding paint, I should make one thing very clear, I want to preserve the patina on the doors and cab so in order to minimise the burning, I wet the surrounding areas to keep it cool, this also minimised distortion. I then welded the inside as well. But there was something that was annoying me.
I was almost going to ignore it but it kept playing on my mind. The very edge of the folded over skin was missing, so I cut a strip out the piece I had used to repair around the hinge, folded it and welded it into place.
I re-assembled the frame inside the door to get an idea of what I need to do with the steel one. This is going to be a lot more complex than making the B Pillars and floor. Both vertical frames have cut outs for the windows and bailly channels. The leading one has recesses for the hinges.
Hey Guys. It has been a few weeks since I have done anything substantive on the truck. I was intending to replicate all the framing in the doors with steel tubing, but went cold on the idea when I realised how heavy it would make them, once the covers were placed over them. I’m veering back to the idea of using American style inner skins. I have a mate with several US cabs and I’m hoping he can take a pattern from one of them. I’ve been tasked with fabricated a new set of doors for one of the cabs that’s missing doors, but that’s a whole other story.
Needless to say until I get a pattern from him, the doors are on the back burner. The other thing I have been trying to figure out is the framing for the roof. I had already fabricated the header panel and the two frames that sat above the doors. Luckily the timber framing that fastens the roof to the rest of the cab was still intact, and originally I was going to have the side frames fasten to the header panel like the original but a a re-think. I figured it would make more sense to weld all three sections together.
The other thing I need to do is replicate the corner gussets, I’m thinking 3 mm plate for this. Another important thing to keep in mind when reproducing framing is to insure the pieces are not only flat and clamped in place for welding, but symmetrical as well. You can see the new frame above the original and a tool I made up to check the symmetry. I call it an angle checker, it’s two lengths of 3/4 wide steel strips that pivot on a bolt, that’s tightened or loosened with a wing nut. I also used this tool when I was checking the symmetry of the B Pillars and sub rails.
And here is the frame sitting inside the roof. The original has bowed timber to follow the contour of the roof edges. The roof was fastened to the timber frame with tacks and screws. I could have used 3x1 RHS and cut a radius into it to replicate the shape of the timber, but it’s a messy process. The steel tubing is formed under pressure, so as soon as you cut a side away, the upper and lower faces shrink in. So I have come up with a much simpler approach. I’m just going to use 1 inch wide 3mm thick strips and bend them to the shape of the outside radius. Before welding them in, I will mark out and tap and drill 3mm diameter holes at one inch intervals along the length of the strips and test fit the frame inside the roof to make sure it lines up. With that done I will tap and drill the same holes to the inside edge of the roof panel. I will then get several dozen 3 mm diameter full thread stainless steel nuts and bolts with allen key heads fasten them to the 1inch wide strips, then weld the nuts in place place. I will then weld the strips to the the RHS frames. The roof sides will then be able to fastened into place using an a,Ken key or Allen key socket in a screw driver or impact driver.
The other thing I have to figure out is what kind of drip rails to use. This is what a restored one looks like. These trucks are very rare, not counting the two I own, I’ve only ever seen four other ones in my life, all unrestored, I’ve seen one that was turned into a pickup and this one that was fully restored.
The strips appear to be 10 mm wide half round aluminium. To keep the clean look of them, I will only be fastening them every four holes.
The other thing I did was pop the roof back out, I did this by flipping it upside down and jumping on it. Because it missing the centre bow, it’s oil canned. Like every thing else on the truck, I will be replacing the timber bows with steel ones. I’m going to use 1x1 RHS that will be bolted into place using the existing holes in the roof. All three bows will then be welded to the frame, once the radius has been cut at either end to match that of the originals. A radius gauge and contour gauges will help determine the correct shape
Hey Guys. I’m on holidays now, so I can finally get stuck into getting the cab repaired. Last weekend I bent up the flat bar for the band that will fasten the roof to the cab. Originally I was going to do it in three sections, but when I realised the strip was long enough, I was able to do it one piece.
Keep on going...I appreciate your problem solving acumen! I'm more of a "problem causing" kind of guy!!!!
Hey Guys. After carefully removing the remaining timber roof bows, I was able to use them as patterns for the new ones. The hardest task with making the new ones was getting the tapers at the ends. To do this, I took a cardboard pattern from the originals and traced it onto ends of the new ones and notched them and welded them up. To get the radius I simply placed the lengths on the edge of the steps and stood on them until they bowed in the middle.
It was getting dark out, by the time I had tapped and drilled the holes. The bolts are just temporary ones for the moment. I want to get shorter ones 1 1/2 inch ones that will sit flush inside the bows as these one protrude a mile.
The other thing I did was work on the top edge of the cab, where the turret fastens, directly above the b pillar. It features a stepped inward facing swage, and the leading three inches had separated. Due to the thin nature of the steel, I only welded it from the inside, I also kept the voltage and feed rate at the lowest settings, to minimise heat and distortion. I keep hearing from the experts that you can’t weld thin sheetmetal with Mig, that you need TIG to get a controlled weld, I’m calling bs on that. My welder only cost me $200, is gasless and doesn’t need three phase like the ones at work. I haven’t ground down the welds yet or backfilled but the results will speak for themselves.
The other thing I’ve been wanting to do was finish the frame that incorporates the header panel. So I dragged out the original one to compare it to the one I’d welded up. On closer examination I realised I would need to add two full lengths of 2x1 RHS to bring it into line with the timber original ones. I didn’t want to waste time and add extra weight to the steel one, so I simply turned it upside down. The sides now sit directly above the doors in-line with the edge of the roof, where as before, it was sitting one inch above the roof line.
With the frame now running parallel with the edge of the roof, I was finally able to bend up the strips that follow the contour of the timber ones. These strips will be tapped and drilled and the turret will be fastened to the frame and held together with 4 mm allan key style bolts with the nuts welded to the inside of the of the flat bar. The other thing I need to reproduce are the strips the doors butt up against, they are setback one inch from the edges of the frames. This will be a little more complicated I’m thinking quarter inch thick flat bar for the stops, as I will struggle to drill anything thicker. To fill in the gaps between the outer bands and the frame itself, cover strips will need to be made up.
Hey Guys. I didn’t get much done over the Christmas New Year break. I wanted to finish the header panel but realised I couldn’t square it up without putting it back together. So I fastened the turret to the cab and placed it onto the cowl.
I outlined earlier that the A Pillars are not square but couldn’t figure out what could have caused it. Looking at how much the cab had sunk down on the left hand side, it looks to be at least two inches possibly three, I came up with a theory. Being a farm truck, the roads were mostly rutted and dirt. The vibrations from the corrugating led to the separation of the timber sub rails from the back of the cab.
The farmer seeing how badly the cab had sunk at the back attempted to counter the problem by fastening diagonal struts to the tops of the a pillars but it was too late by this stage to correct the problem. And the rigidity of the struts actually forced the cab to sink even further. I know it’s just a theory it would explain why the passenger side A Pillar is pulled back and the driver side A Pillar is leaning forward.
The Jalopy Journal
