heres the progress of the build of my 57 chevy

[ChuckDriver]

Here's a way to do it and retain the factory door handles. I've been thinking of doing the same thing to mine.

[ChuckDriver]

More.

[yukon ratrod]

cool picts I get the concept anyway. I will have to wait till my latchs arrive to see how they look incomparison to thoughs ones. the more I think about it I dont really want to lose the handles. going to work on the truck tonight to get the cab blasted if I have enough time and sand. will take some more picts. thanks for the help!

[renegade6]

I did the same thing with mine. They make a kit to do it but, it is kind of pricey.

[yukon ratrod]

went out to work on the truck tonight after dinner. I had intentions of sandblasting the entire cab minus the underside, but my air lines were freezing up, so I concentrated on blasting the inside steps and the back of the cab. will try again tomorrow. cleaned up nice!

[yukon ratrod]

heres a few picts of the patchs. Ive made them run top to bottom inside the step because I intend to smooth out the entire step area.

[yukon ratrod]

sprayed both the truck and patchs with weld through primer. got all the welding finished on passenger side minus a small patch at the back corner of the jam. will update tomorrow night.

[OrrieG]

Nice progress and good fitment. I noticed the bar stock to keep everything from moving too.

[yukon ratrod]

My buddy John and I worked on the truck for six hours today and finished up most of the patch work on the top side. I did a few little tweeks to the cab corners to make the rockers and cab corners blend together. I always find that these are the details that get left out until the end and just when you think your ready for primer you find all these little unfinished details. I finished welding all the cab seams together in the door jambs and finished shaving off the drip rail across the back of the cab. to the point where Im ready to mount the fenders, but I have no rad support and im looking at three weeks to a month to get one if I was to order one on monday. kind of a bummer when a guys on a roll and your at a stand still without parts.but them the breaks I guess.

[Kim57]

Looking good. I like the smooth steps.
Kim

[yukon ratrod]

thanks kim! I enjoyed looking at your build picts. awsome project!

[yukon ratrod]

Began repairs to the right fender today. Im still needing a rad support so I dont want to go to far until I can bolt everything up solid. started repairing rear section of fender, but realized half way through that after thirty hours in the last two weeks working on the truck and putting in 40 hours a week at work that I was tired. lol need a break and its sunday so I cleaned up and went home.

[yukon ratrod]

just a shot of the fender hanging on the truck. just a little motivater for me!!

[Kabwe]

Looking good, keep up the good work.

[yukon ratrod]

got to do some more work on the pick up after only working until noon on friday and putting in a full shift today being saturday. Im still waiting on my rad support so I decided to start work on the box while I wait. the right rear fender was really badly stretched and looked like a rear tire must have fallen off and peeled the fender back. I had forgoten my camera on friday so heres what I got.

[yukon ratrod]

the bottom of the fender where the rear brace runs was in need of some repairs. I rebuilt the inside of the rear fender as well just to ensure no more rust issues. the lip that bolts to the box was in fairly good shape but had a little rust near the bottom at the back of the fender. the fender had been welded up before so I removed the cracked welded area and put in all new steel.

[yukon ratrod]

after hours of welding a shrinking with a torch, I finally had a fender again! It turned out really nice. not to sure where Im going with the tail lights yet, so I wont do the mud work until I finish the entire box.

[bobinbc]

Really nice work! When you shrink are you quenching with a wet rag or misting it or...?

[yukon ratrod]

when I do my shrinking I use a 0 tip on my torch. most guys make a dime size red spot, but I find by doing a smaller shrink I actually get a cleaner job. What I do is heat it to a small glowing red about the size of a pen body. then using my hammer and dolly I hold the dolly tight against the back of the shrink and give it a medium hard blow with the hammer. then what I find works great is to let the dolly float loosly on the back side and take my hammer and do small sweeps around the shrink pulling the metal in towards the middle of the shrink. then I quench it with a wet rag. I find the smaller shrinks and the sweeping with the hammer give you a really nice and even shrink that requires very little if anymore work with the hammer.

[yukon ratrod]

went out tonight after dinner with my friend John and decided to attempt to fix the right box step. the step was in really sad shape and after heating and beating on it for an hour I had decided to order a new one. but once I found out what they cost I changed my mind. not a lot of money, but its two hundred dollars I could use elsewhere. I was showing my lady the progress and showed her the old rocker verses the new and had an idea! I decided to cut a foot long piece out of the old rocker and blend it into the beat step. I ended up having to weld a piece of welding rod in to get the right roundness on the step, but it worked out well. my camera battery was dead, so I only managed to get a few picts of the process. I also smoothed the step to go with the smooth steps in the cab.! making good progress anyway.

[yukon ratrod]

heres some picts for you mike. hope this helps you with your 4 link!

[ChuckDriver]

Nice work!

[71'tahoe]

excellent!!! Im diggin it bro!

[yukon ratrod]

John and I went out and worked on the truck for a few hours tonight! John has been learning the body trade under my supervision, so needless to say he gets stuck doing some of the crap work, but its all part of the experiance. I swept many miles of floor before I got a grinder in my hands. so tonight john striped the left fender while I smoothed out the other box step. we only worked two hours but it seems to make a big difference at the end of the week a few hours at a time.

[yukon ratrod]

and heres Johns progress for the evening! he will be a pro in no time!!