I just started to do the rust repair on the cab so I though I would start a new thread. I will post the pics as I get them.

I just started to practice on the spare cab and so far its actually easier than I though it would be.

I have to do the following repairs:

Indent the firewall for the Big Block that is setback. So I have to create a firewall recess.
Fix the cab corners, inner and outer.
Replace the sepand rocker
Replace the lowe hing mount
Replace the pillar packets

Good luck man you can do it.

SWEET!
Please take lots of pics. We are going to be doing a lot of the same work on the cab that is on my truck now before it goes on the 1 ton. I am sure with your fab skills this won't be too tough.:)

thanks but the first panel didn't go so well.

I attempted the cab corner and it turned out a bit disappointing. The welds were bad and the fit was just not there and the bottom of the corner was wrinkled badly from the stamping process.

I did some more research and found an article by Martinsr about welding panels on. It laid it out in clear language. Clean metal, good parts and take your time. If the weld starts looking nasty stop clean it and start again. Work slow and spot every inch or so and go back a spot again until you have it done. Leave a gap about the thickness of the mig wire so you get good penetration. Make sure the parts fit well. Sounded simple enough and it was.

Below is the first attempt on the cab corner and the second was the hinge mount with the gleaned knowledge of others.

I'll make sure I take a step by step on the other side. This side is a pratice on the practice cab. I'm waiting on parts so I can do the pillar pockets which I am not going to weld in permanently so I can use them on the other cab.

better late than never, sorry again I didnt post this sooner

http://brotherstrucks.com/techarticlesdetail.asp?techTitle=1955-59%20CAB%20CORNER%20PATCH%20PANEL%20INSTALLATION

Thanks, I saw that one. The part of fitting wasn't a problem due to the fact that the panel wouldn't have fit at all anyway it was just to poor a quality stamping. I bought it several years ago and things have gotten much better in the stampings they sell today. Brothers info was helpfull in the corner and replacing the hinge plate.

The panel welding technique was the major problem. But once I read the article by Martinsr it seemed much easier and the hinge plate looks better than the corner welds. I'm going to try the other side with the last of the bad panels I have it should be much better

I finally got my parts in from several of the board vendors. everything looks good and seems to fit close enough that I can adjust them without much work. This is the pillar pocket clamped together so I could see how everything fit in the cab. The assembly manual was most helpful in determining which pieces go on first.

I started to patch some rusted thru spots on the cab. I patched the air box just below the inlet grill. You can see the floor pan in the corner needs a patch as well. I am going to attempt that tomorrow. This is the piece I made for that section. I bought a 18" "Mighty Mini-bender" from Northern tools, if you were looking at that bender don't bother is blows badly.

This is the wire I used most often. Its great stuff. It cost between $24 and $34 for a 10# spool. Its made for sheet and panel welding.

One of the interesting things I found out from talking to Rico-rods and mbgmike is that even tough the parts may say Key parts or Triplus it’s the same company. I think Triplus is the Taiwan company and Keyparts is the American arm for distribution. The logos are identical except for the name. DII is American but also gets stamped in Taiwan from a different stamper. All the stampings were actually much better than I thought they would be from past experience. The cab corners bottoms were not wrinkled and the pillar pocket parts were just as good.

That patch looks pretty good. I am starting to second guess the idea of doing my own patch panels however.

I started the rust in the floor/firewall where it meets the side in the pillar post and air box. I cut the rust back and made some replacement pieces. I'm going to weld them in when the sun goes down a little. I took a bunch of pictures so I know how it goes back together.

Whoa dwcsr! That's a bold move, that is what I like about your project. You fear nothing! You are a real go getter. I admire that, fear is all that is keeping my project simple.

I think if I didn’t have that spare cab I might not be so bold and I really don’t want to have to send out my cab for body work if I don’t have to. So nothing ventured is nothing gained. If I can do a reasonably good job on this one then I will know what I should send out for repairs and what I can do myself. So far it looks like cab corners are going to be done at a shop, but I still have one more practice side and one more old cruddy corner I can use.

Nice work dwcsr! Keep the pics coming.

I got the pieces fitted and welded in. Its to late to grind the welds so I will do that in the morning. Here is what I did tonight.

From the looks of your first attempt to the last pics of the toe board corner (that's a tricky piece!), you have come a long way in a short time. Having a spare cab to learn on is a great way to get proficient without going through the painful learning curve on your "keeper" cab. Great job!

looks good keep the pics coming

Nice clean work there buddy! Keep em coming, we can all learn something:)

Thanks Guys, These are the before and after pictures. The welds aren't as good as they look in the pictures I've got some pin holes to plug up and I couldn't get in close on the kick panel area below the air grill with a grinder. I also didn't get the sheets exactly flat with each other on the floor. They looked flat but were ever so slightly off and only showed up when I ground off the excess weld. Their very close and I was able to hammer and dolly them closer. But I think with that spot being covered with floor mats and kick panel it should be alright. Fortunately that spot on my good cab is solid.

I just bought a 36" 12 gauge sheet metal brake with stand from harbor freight for $199. It seems to be the same one as the Northern tool brake. The major difference is $99.00 shipping that Northern wanted verses the $9.00 from Harbor. So I should have it fairly soon and I can start on the firewall engine recess. I need to go back 4" to clear the distributor and vavle covers and still leave some clearance.

I made a template for the left firewall and toe board and cut out the pieces. These are the pics of what I have done so far. I'm going to make a panel behind the dist removable so I can get at it without acrobatics.

To stiffen the panel a little I made an indent by tack welding a 1/2 x 1/2 angle iron to the back and hammering a piece of round stock from the top side into the angle. It work pretty well I don't think I would want to make floor board that way but for this small channel it was fine.

Steering column mounted

A little more progress. To busy at work to get it all done quickly. Made some templates.

I got the right side fabed up and now I just need to fill in the middle and top. I'm not bothering to fit the sides to closely in this cab.

I notched the column foot so it would be straight with the column hanger and steering shaft.

Looking good, its coming along nicely.

looks like progress

I did a little more just need to get the top on and make the access for the distributor

You are my hero!

calm down now its only a piece of metal.
I got the upper center and top done now I have to fill in the side panels and finish the welds and put in some bracing. I think thats it for now on this until i fit it to the other cab. it looks like an old boiler or reactor.

Nice. You can come do my cab next :D . Like they always say, you can never practice too much.

Thanks, I would come do yours but South Carolina washed of my map during Katrina or was it Rita or....... wait a minute didn't we sell it to Mexico maybe thats why its not on my map ;)

Here are the latest. I decided that rather than weld in a brace at the top curve I would attempt to round that seam for strenght with a hammer and dolly. It actually came out ok. I split the weld hammering on ot so I had to redo it on the back side. I primed it with Bloxide the aluminum weld thru primer.

You are quit a fabricator my friend. I am impressed!

well done

The part of South Carolina I live it was never on the map to start with lol. And I have to agree with Jebb you are a good fabricator.

Thanks,

Man dwcsr, you do some really nice fabricating! Nice work!

I appreciate the compliments, Its finally as done as it can be for this cab. It was made with 13 cut pieces of 18 ga sheet. It wasn’t really as hard as I thought it would be and maybe I will be able to tackle the other cab corner with better results than the first one.
The rounded back pieces were bent on a wooden bar stool seat laid on the gorund and the rounded edge at the top and the rounded center were done with a hammer and dolly, which was actually the easiest part of the whole thing.

Here are the last pictures for the firewall recess project.

I got my 36" brake from Harbor Freight today. The weight was 163 lbs and they charged me $9.99 for shipping. Northern was $99.00 for shipping the same item which is closer to what it should be.

The Fedex driver was moaning about it being a freight shipment not ground shipment. I wanted to say shutup and drop off the box you get paid enough. But.... I said, no kidding heavy huh... He said ... whine, moan, whine... something freight.. wood ...nails sticking out...,I think he realized I didn't care and he left...

Anyway it is a nice heavy piece built well for the price, it bends 12 gauge up to 18" wide and 16 gauge up to 36". It seem to be fairly accurate and I don't think theres any sheet metal on this truck thicker that 18 gauge so this unit should do fine.

I want to try to make some inner fenders that are smoother than the originals. We'll see how that goes now that I have my courage up.

any updates on this project?

I have moved to a new shop and been waiting 3 months for the power co to connect me. Every time they come to do it they find a new problem or a permit I need. I will be starting on it again as soon as they get me connected.

The cab above has been cut up and parted out. I will be working on the cab I intend to use, it needs pillars, corners and the inner roof panel in the front. I'll be sure to post as many pics as I can.

awesome thread. thank you! i have been looking for a thread showing this type work and just haven't found one, i can't wait to see the hinge pillar - pocket areas. that is what i am tackling next.
the wire you use makes a huge difference. i used to use lincoln wire and it just wasnt doing the trick. i now use hobart wire and it is like night and day.

I use a wire called "Twenty Gauge". Its by JW Harris and its a .030 cored wire, not to be confused with fluxed wire. This wire has a power core rather than solid. Its really nice stuff.

I got my electric service connected today so I'm back in business and should have some pictures after the week end.

I might be misreading your welds but it looks like you are using flux core MIG wire with a MIG welder set up for gas.

If this is the case then you just have to reverse the polarity applied to the wire. Then your welds will come out looking really smooth.

What do you think?

Zeke

I use a metal powder cored wire not a flux core wire. What your seeing is shaky hand welding. Some days I can't weld anything and some days its perfect. As I remember I also used CO2 on this which is ok but leaves a taller weld bead. Usually I use C25 on it usually looks good.

I'm making the lower fender brackets that weld to the cab pillar post. Its the part that the lower fender bolts to. Below is the original and a fabricated one.

I'll post pictures of the actual process of making them incase you need to make some yourself. You will need some way of bending 14ga mild steel plate and a way to cut them out. Its a lot of hand fitting but not as complicated as they look. There are 2 pieces welded together. One piece has 3 bends and one has the rounded part. The trick is bending the top piece in the right order.

dude! nice work. i checked out the site for "20 gauge" welding wire and well too say the least found the site infomative. have you ever tried "E-Z GRIND" wire? the low alloy content makes welds softer and requires less grinding. friend of mine swears by it, says welds much easier to work with hammer also.

great work

dude! nice work. i checked out the site for "20 gauge" welding wire and well too say the least found the site infomative. have you ever tried "E-Z GRIND" wire? the low alloy content makes welds softer and requires less grinding. friend of mine swears by it, says welds much easier to work with hammer also.

I'll have to try it thanks.

great work

thanks,

Taking an old bracket and cutting it apart I flattened it to use as a template. One benefit of flattening it out was it kept the bend lines making it that much easier to make the new bends correctly.

Using the template I scribed the new parts on a 14Ga shhet of cold rolled mild steel. Netsx is cutting them out. I used a plasma torch so I could get nice clean cuts. Next is drilling the holes and drilling the reliefs for the bends.
Pic 1 is the blank roughed out
pic 2 is the plasma cut
pic 3 is the drilled bolt hole and bend reliefs
pic 4 is cutting the front bend reliefs on the band saw
pic 5 is a finished blank ready for the bending.

The tricky part is the bends. I can't tell you how many time I've bent these pieces backwards and made junk. It may be helpfull if you have an orginal to use as a guide.
The first bend is the part thst welds to the front of the pillar post.
The second bend is the part that welds to the hinge pillar panel.
The third bend shapes the top portion of the bracket
If you didn't drill the bolt hole out you can do it now.
3/4" hole saw works great. The relief holes are 3/16.

Now for the bottom part. We need to make a curved triangle to form the underside of the bracket. This can be done on a brake or on an anvil. Its much easier on a brake. I made some guide lines on the triangle piece so I had something to follow while bending.

The reason for the lines is that this piece is an odd shaped triangle and we want the bends square to the short side with the notch. If you follow the bottom it will curve left or right while bending top curve. This bracket when done will look cockeyed but it actually goes slightly outward in the front when welded in place.

Next is the weld up. Make sure you bevel the mating edges. This way you can grind smooth the weld and still have good strength in the joint. After beveling you need to do the final fitting and clamp up. You'll need some small clamps and a spacer of some sorts. I used some machining wedges.

Run the bead on the outer edge and don't weld the inner side. Clean up the welds and finish the edges and your done. I also use Bloxide weldable primer to coat them.

Finished product

any more updates?

D. C. you do nice work!!!!!