Believe me, a lot has been accomplished on this restoration project in the last two months. The cab is 100% primed – the whole enchilada, everything, todo completo. This milestone is akin to reaching the summit of Loveland Pass, the view is great and everything is downhill from here.
It was a long climb to the top; you remember the total replacement of the floor panels, the kick panels, the cab front patch panels, and everyone’s favorite shaving the gas cap filler hole. Not to mention sanding the rust from every frigging inch of the cab. The last welding task left is the cab corner patch panel.
The cowboy that owned the truck before me modified the bed for some kind of ranching task that involved crushing the left corner of the cab. Just like my daughter crushed her Jeep’s front fender trying to turn into the parking space at thirty miles an hour. The truck she hit was undamaged.
A crushed cab corner is apparently a common ailment since the part suppliers conveniently have a replacement part just for it. So here I go, one last welding task before the summit. The first step was to cut out the crushed and rusted corner. Next, I had to fabricate the inside corner support piece.
I am always surprised how quickly I can make the new part and have it closely resemble the original piece. Note the term closely - exactly the same would save me some last minute sledge hammering to make it really fit.
In order to prevent the newly fabricate panel from rusting I needed to spray on a coat of primer. Since the temperature in my unheated garage was freezing, I sprayed it in the back bedroom – Stephanie was conveniently out shopping. My daughter, who was home and has an OSHA certified nose, went nuts over the paint odor. She did not call the inspectors to arrest me but did spray about two cans of Fabreze in the house. I called the inspectors to report her.
With the old cab corner removed, I had to install the truck door in order to get the new corner panel properly aligned. This sounds so simple but I must have agonized for several days before figuring this trick out. Once everything was clamped in place it was time to butt weld. My welding technique is improving, but I did manage to warp the panel so I will get to practice my body filler skills a little bit later.
Now that the welding was finished the only task left was to remove the rust from the bottom of the cab. Enlisting the help of my lovely wife, we tilted the cab over to rest on the front firewall. This exposed the underside of the cab, which to our surprise was in pretty good shape. We also figured out that it was a female truck – no I am not showing these pictures. In no time the undercoating was stripped off. I sanded off most of the rust and used POR to encapsulate the bad spots.
Once the weather cooperated, I broke out the spray gun and primed it all. Yippen Farcheesy! Ain’t life grand.
