The second time around I wasn’t going to repeat the mistakes, so this time around I used a step die combination rather than the usual half round dies. I also made sure to not go in as deep to avoid distortion. The effort paid off this time around.
The only downside with doing it this way is not being able to finish the ends of the swages. I may end up using some pipe to punch a half round radius for the ends.
Once I’ve figured that out, I will move onto doing the actual ones. A couple of observations, the swage along the bottom was added to give the piece more rigidity. The top half is left open to allow for the upper half to be added at a later stage. The other thing I need to figure out is how to do the raised area that accommodates the winder and handle.
Looks good. How thick are those panels? If they're not too thick, could you find a washer in the shape of the raised part for the handles, tape it to the back side, and then hammer them with a dead blow from the front to stamp the raised shape in? I've done that before with fair results, if the steel isn't too beefy.
Hey Guys. I was keen to add in the raised section on the upper part of the door skin today so the first thing i needed to figure out was my combination, I settled on this. I have specific step dies but they don’t go in as deep as this combo, I also wanted a deeper offset.
After trying out some scrap I was happy with the results and ready to proceed, I was considering doing a test one on a smaller section, but decided to wing it and add it straight onto this one. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but surprisingly it wasn’t horrible.
Tomorrow I start on the real deal, this is the steel I’m using and it’s top quality. It’s been cut out of the roof from a mid 1970’s Ford Falcon Station Wagon. These were the third generation Falcons produced by Ford Australia from 1972 until 1980 and used a heavier gauge steel than their later counterparts.
The main flaws were the length being about an inch too short and the triangle being too far to the right. I will flatten out the right hand flange to get the correct length, as for the triangle, I will see how it looks with the correct length.
I have begun making one 34 cab out of two very rotted cabs. Its a big deal, I've duplicated all of the metal for the floor but happily, there's no wood in mine. You are doing a mountain of work and I like your results. Keep at it!
Hey Guys. Another long overdue update. The triangle was flattened out and re-done in the centre. And I began work on making the upper frame. This has been a tedious process with a lot of mistakes to show for it. Ideally I would be making this section in one piece, but due to a lack of steel from the roof skin remaining, I’ve been forced to make it up in off cuts. The flange on the right hand side was tapering out at the bottom past an eighth of an inch so it was pie cut and re-welded to get it in line with the edge of the door. The skin now sits flush with the door, to the point where it’s no longer being clamped and it’s being held up on its own.
The hardest part so far is getting the returns on the inside of the frame, these needed to be the correct width for the Bailey channels to fit.
The other thing I have to do is figure out the capping at the top and bottom of the skin. The American doors have a 14 gauge panel that unscrews to allow the glass to be installed, I will be doing something similar with mine.
Once I have completed this one, I will take a reversible pattern from it to reproduce the other side, which I expect will take far less time. And with that one completed, I will move onto making up the rest of the doors for the other truck. These are just bare skins, they don’t even have the flanges the outer skins fold into, so I will have to make them as well.
And speaking of doors, I purchased this bare 32 Roadster Pickup cowl years ago that’s also in need of a pair of door, so I will be fabricating a full pair of them before moving onto the rear cab. This one is the test one made up from the same shelving I salvaged from work. I expect to make up the pair of them in under a couple of days.
Hey Guys. I finished the welding on the driver’s side door skin last night and ground back the welds, this is how it’s sitting this morning.
The top is open at the moment while I figure out how to cap it, the American doors have a flat panel that unscrews to allow the glass to be installed. I will most likely do something similar. I saved this framing from the scrap bin at work, the blue RHS lengths are 3/4 inch, so these will be used as the framing the panel will screw into.
Beyond, the purchase and shipping price I don’t have have a lot of money tied up in these trucks, I don’t have the money to put into them, so I’m looking at other ways I can raise the funds. Bartering is another way to get what I need. I have my eyes on another cab, this one an American 32 cab. The owner is about to purchase a complete 32 pickup, so he no longer needs the first cab. I will use the American cab for the subfloor and all the hardware from the doors. The pickup he is getting needs a new bed as the one on it appears to be Model T Bed. He recently purchased a 33 Pickup Cab and all of them need repairs to the cab and doors. I’m doing a trade where I make the pickup bed for the 32 along with the repair panels for the other cabs and a set of doors the other 33 he has. Here is what I’ve made up so far.
One of the patch panels, wasn’t quite the right profile, so rather than scrap it, I will use it on the bottom of cab. I was going to repair all the rips and fatigue on this section until I realised it would be more trouble than it’s worth. This what I will be doing next weekend.
I'm seriously impressed by their skill in building a car from scratch. I will continue reading with curiosity, thank you for that. Whenever I MIG weld such thin and rusty sheet metal, I place a piece of thicker copper sheet or a thicker piece of copper behind the welded area if I can get to it. This prevents it from burning away; it should lie flat. Greetings Harald
I normally butt weld panels, but this time I decided to try lap welding it in. I put a 5mm step in the panel on the inside. The biggest challenge was marking out the section for removal, I had to make sure it was even all the way across, I did this by using my ever trusty combination square.
One thing I didn’t like was the crease in the swage, so rather than grinding it down which would lose too much metal, I decided to planish it instead.
After planishing, I used a flapper disc and wire brush on my impact driver to smooth out the blemishes.
Once clamped up I was ready to start welding. The first instinct was to weld from the front. after some careful consideration, I decided to weld it from the inside first. The reason being, the inside weld would penetrate better due to the fact it’s upside down. Then once added in, I was able to flip it face up to start adding in the front welds.
Hey Guys. I haven’t got much done on the cab lately. I was away camping last weekend at a music festival and managed to bring back a horrible cold. I was then over in Wagga constructing sub rails for a guy putting together a 29 Model A Roadster, I’m back over tomorrow to start work on the floor pans. I was up at the house yesterday and had just enough time to mark out the strip that fastens the turret to the cab. The original ones were half inch wide half round aluminium strip that wrapped around the full perimeter of the cab.
The Jalopy Journal
