My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU

[CHIZZLER]

Thanks for the pic. I wll check it in the morning. I see your front door is also shy of the rear just like mine. Im not expecting everything to be ridler award winning gaps but pleasing to the eye. CHIZZLER

[jonzcustomshop]

I made another parts run, this time it was from my yard, so it didn't cost anything!
all the windows from the crew were broken or shot out, except for the right rear door.
my "new" front doors were stripped 62/63's , so I had to source parts out of all my 60-61 doors, luckily I had just enough. (62-63 have the tempered non metal frame side glass)
at some point I will need to get a 60-61 glass weather strip kit for all 4 doors...$$$
So, I grabbed 3 or 4 of everything, and got to work putting the doors back together. there were a few broken screws that I had to drill and tap, and then I have been running a tap through all the threads, and keeping them all lubricated so that I can pull it all apart again without any trouble..

I discovered the window mechanism down/stop under the door control on the rear door, it is intertwined around the vent window/window track as well, and I might say quite sloppily done too! The screw was long enough that it had pushed into the window track, so I used a shorter screw when I put it all back together.

sooo lucky that I found the passenger side door stop in the bottom of the passenger door, it fell through the rust hole in the bottom corner when I had it off, and must have been laying down there for years. As you can see it is a bit longer than the front , it shows no signs of being spliced together, so it is either custom made , or sourced off another vehicle.

the door side of the door stop mechanism is pretty crude: looks to have been cut in with a torch, and just left that way.

I was able to unscrew the mirror bracket off the yellow truck. I have another left hand one of these, and the bottom is universal, the top is left/right only, so I am going to try to reverse engineer the top left piece and make a right.
these brackets aren't as aesthetically pleasing as the standard 60-61 bracket, but I like the different rugged look that they have....usually they had a mirror arm that was about 2 feet long, they were used on big trucks and stakes mainly... both of the ones I have came on cab/chassis trucks, so maybe they were standard on them?

[hotrod66]

Wow never realized the 60 hoods are different from 61!would you post pictures for comparison?

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by hotrod66

Wow never realized the 60 hoods are different from 61!would you post pictures for comparison?

first pic is the 61, second is the 60... 61 has a sharp defined edge, while the 60 is soft and smooth...

[jonzcustomshop]

got the roof panel today, not much to look at, it is just a flat piece of 20 gauge , we rolled it through a roller, and then spent a couple hours doing some bends on the edges to get the right shape for the drip rail.
the piece is the right size and shape, but it will take some massaging to get it together.
the factory inner headliner holds up the factory roof in the center, the stamping and ribs in it hold it rigid.
since this can't be used in the crew conversion, they formed some bracing to hold up the roof.
the bracing in the yellow cab is a little beat up, the front one is bent from something heavy on the roof, so I might have to figure out how to make a new piece, but for now I will need to use them to support the center of the roof.

[jonzcustomshop]

I needed to make the part of the inner headliner that goes in between the doors.
I thought the flanging tool would make it , but the bend is much deeper than that.
So I got out an assortment of metal and made a poor mans metal brake.
first I clamped it with some vise grips in between some angle iron, and then put that in the vise. then I got out the Bfh. and bent a 90 degree bend in it.

[jonzcustomshop]

next I got another piece of angle and some square tube that was laying around, and clamped it together with the vise grips. then put the whole piece back in the angle iron/vise and bent it over.
pulled it out and did a little straightening with pliers and a hammer, and done!

[66-PMD-GMC]

I'm really enjoying this thread

[flashed]

Me too and constantly amazed at all the fab skills .

[jonzcustomshop]

so, yesterday was pulling the old roof off without damaging the structure.. I worked on this for about an hour and a half, and I recommend this for those that are pulling a bad roof skin, and replacing it with another.


this worked for me since I am using the front section of the green roof, as the orange roof somehow had a mouse nest right in the center between the roof and headliner, and both pieces were rusted through!..

first I cut around the perimeter leaving about an inch of the old roof.
next I went over the top and bottom looking for evidence of the spot welds: I was able to run my finger underneath the drip rail, and whenever I felt a divot I would mark it on top, then I looked around the top near my marks, and could see about 75% of the spots.
another method that works is to sand under the drip rail, or brush the paint off with a rotary wire brush to find the spots.

next I grabbed the pliers and started at one end and started wiggling the piece back and forth. as it loosens up you can see the spot sticking as the surrounding metal rips away, as I was able to see the exact locations of the spots I ground a little metal away with the cutoff wheel to make it break apart a little easier. when I got to the corners I cut some vertical cuts so that I wouldn't bend the lower metal.

the middle 2 photos are staged: I didn't take any during the progress

then after it was all off I ground off what was left of the spots,, and had to spend some extra time in the corners, since they are kind of double spotted where the little gutter joining clips are welded on, and now have a nice clean unbent surface to work with, most important no holes!

as I was pulling the green skin to use on the front I was trying to save the lower metal, (practicing!) and inadvertently at some point you go too deep with the spot weld cutter, and leave a big hole, or the pilot bit catches and pulls through before you have a chance to stop.

[jonzcustomshop]

ok: back to work!
welded in the inner headliner side panel sections, and got the B pillar upper plates welded back on.

I had to make a template for the front roof support since it was bent down on the passenger side.. I traced the good side, then flipped it and traced it again, then used the vise and knee and about 10 bends and I got it back in shape..

got the inner structure all clamped in.

you can see in the last photo right next to the ear protection the rust holes that I have to fix before I can put the roof skin back on-previous mouse nest location....they look like 2 little black dots... about 8 inches of the metal is very scaly, there are about 5-6 holes, so I am going to try to weld them up, but I might have to just weld in a patch panel if they are too hard to weld up.

[jonzcustomshop]

inner structure is in and I set the front skin on to see how the fit is:

[DakotaKid]

wow, alot of work going on here, i love it.

[CHIZZLER]

Looking very good.

[1963c-10]

Nice addition Jon, sorry I'm so late to the party, but just caught up on the thread!!!

[piratexpress1369a]

great work

[rwade]

I like your method of getting the old roof panel you are replacing off. My question is how'd you go about getting off the "good" donor section your going to use (the green one)? I've got a 61 I need to do this to.

Thanks, Wade

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by rwade

I like your method of getting the old roof panel you are replacing off. My question is how'd you go about getting off the "good" donor section your going to use (the green one)? I've got a 61 I need to do this to.

Thanks, Wade

The green one I used a spot weld cutter, however if I was to do it again, I would cut the roof off at the posts, and flip it over and drill all the spots from the bottom with the spot weld cutter..., this would give you a nice clean smooth surface to work with , then you could glue, or punch smaller holes and plug weld, or even re-spot weld it- this is if you had 2 roofs to work with...

[rwade]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like what we NEED is for the aftermarket folks to start making a lot more sheet metal for the 60-63 era trucks! Anyway, I love the work your doing, keep on keepin on

Wade

[66Z71]

That's impressive work. Looking forward to seeing this one on the road.

[jonzcustomshop]

point of no return #5!

I decided to replace the inner and outer upper windshield panels.
there was a spot where a mouse nest had been and both pieces had pin holes all through them. after I got the windshield out and ran the wire brush on the grinder over the area, even more appeared, so I am glad I decided to replace this piece.

I ended up using the panels off a 66 roof that I had cut off.

some studying showed 4 spot welds in the pinch weld, and 1 (2 on the 61) on the sheet metal on each side.

the 4 spots hold it to the "U" shaped brace, and the 1/2 are for the tab that comes off the top of the door jamb piece.

there are no welds in the seam, but the little joiner clip between the rain gutter for the side to the front has about 3 spot welds on the bottom portion- it was pretty much impossible to remove this clip without destroying it.

[jonzcustomshop]

I marked all the roof spots on the rain gutter from the bottom so that they would be easier to find on the top.

the patch panel is now ready.. I took this opportunity to drill out and mount the passenger visor as well.

clamping it in and measuring... I pulled it in and out 3/4 times to get the inner panel trimmed and fitted, I cut the patch big, and the body small, and then marked the best fitting spots to trim, and then finally clamping the 2 panels together and cutting through both at the same time to get a nice uniform cut to weld up.

[jonzcustomshop]

all ready to go, I tacked it in a couple spots, and I will set the windshield back in the opening before I finalize the fit and weld it up.

** another reason for the inner panel replacement -vs- trying to save... you will notice where the coach builders cut out the headliner (with a torch!!), they left about 2 inches from the edge of the ridge, that gave them a spot to mount the cardboard inner headliner...well when I cut the headliner out of the orange cab I cut right on the edge and didn't leave the extra metal to mount the headliner...
this new panel fixes that-

**another note the outer upper windshield panel is the same 60-66, and will work- the patch panel that is being sold is only listed for 64-66, but it will work on all years.
the inner panel is different, but only on the corners, where the different year windshields go in different directions... so if you trim inside the posts like I did the inner patch panel that they sell can be made to fit on all years as well.

[Idallan]

Wow.....wow.

[CHIZZLER]

Progress is looking great.