To all those rebuilding the floor, cab supports, corners and rockers. Know that patience is a virtue. Hang your doors for reference, cut what has to go and then trim and position your parts till everything fits perfect. One side takes me about 3 days of triming, pulling, pushing, clamping, screwing in place and then doing it over and over till it is all perfect. I won't even think of striking up a welder till I'm happy with everthing dry fit. Test with a front fender in place as well.

Pass side all done

drivers in progress

another

Nice work, everyone is asking for pics like this of progress in motion.......

Yes..very nice work.
Just a thought.....if I had to ever do that I just wish somebody would stamp out those patch panels in stainless so it wouldn't have to be done again.

Mike

Very nice work!! :cool:

Sweet job there Ray. I wish mine was going that smooth :D Patience dubie....patience :D

Nice work on those panels, great fit too :D

Thanks for the pics.

StingRay...exceptional work...you almost hate to cover it up...hell just clear coat it...LOL!

dear lord, I'm jealous. :)

:( I wish I had half the metal left on my cab when I started that you did?

3 days of screwing aint done that since i was a teenager.....
seriously nice work guess i gotta farm mine out cause i aint got that kind of patience

nice work.... i would sand mine down all the way like you did except my truck has to sit outside so it would get messed up. good luck... i need all that done too!

Was that cab acid dipped ? What kind of welder do you use ? Thanks......Zoomy

Zoomy I'll answer your PM here. I use an older Miller 90 amp 110 volt mig welder with .023 wire. My welder is about 12 or 13 years old now but is more than capable. It only has 4 heat ranges but with a bit of practice it's all you really need. I can weld anything from about 28 ga to 1/8" quite capably. Something to remember about body work is that you are really just tacking or spotting over and over. For the most part you really don't get to actually weld a bead.

The patch panels were bought through Scott's Super Trucks in Penhold, Alberta Canada. I believe the corners are probably Tabco pieces and they came in a zinc coat or what I would call satin or wipe coat. The Rockers are NOS. The rest I'm not sure about but I'm positive that Paul,Wes, Tim, Ed, etc can get you equally good tin. My corners were a very nice fit and I'll try to post an earlier pic of pre-weld fit up later. In my opinion corner and rocker fit is crucial to a good job. Don't try to find a bargain on patch panels buy the good stuff.

The back sides and internals of all parts and supports is coated with a cold galvanizing such as Devcon Z or Zinga. Weld through primer is basically the same.

The cab was soda blasted and then acid washed with oxysolve (Eastwood) to etch and provide a light zinc phospate coating to protect it from surface rust while I work on it. It's been sitting 2 years (inside) in bare steal like that now with not a trace of even surface rust. It'll get epoxy primered when all of my metal work is done just prior to starting on filling and priming.

Hope this answers all of your questions.

Ray

Thanks alot for the info. Years ago (80's) the panels were junk, but we still made them work. The guy at Motherstruckers told me that the quality has improved drastically. I'm also probably a little smarter at putting them on now too. This whole mig process is new to me though. What's the best primer around these days. I always used DuPont Corlar or an aviation zinc chromate epoxy primer. The Corlar is easier to get, so I used that the most. The DuPont tech sheet said it was excellent for city buses etc. running around in salt conditions. It's an epoxy also.....Zoomy