With the framework and engine work mostly done, I am finally going to be able to concentrate on more body work clean up. Obviously, the first item (and likely the most difficult to do) will be the cab. I need to get this thing jocked out to see how the motor alignment with the firewall is going to work out. Trees recently suggested trying to get the motor lower into the frame. That would be great, but I think I would have an even more serious problem with the steering linkage with the motor mounts I've devised. He said it would definitely help the cornering of the vehicle and help the firewall/motor arrangement. He is dead on with his suggestion, but I need to see how the cab will align with the set-up I devised with my 3" rake anticipated with the suspensions and the 4 degrees of drive-train rake I've built into my design with the rear tranny (lower) cross member. This dictates the height of the motor from that point with the suspension and drivetrain rakes opposing each other.

I got the cab out, blew it off with my pressure washer. I cut out the existing fire wall by squaring off the cut that some Neatherthal (please excuse my lack of sensitivity to dumbasses with a blow torch in hand!) did to this poor thing some time ago. The cut turned out great and I used an old oil can to get the radius I want in the corners. The plan will be to get some similar gage metal sheet (about 32" x 14") and roll the ends with an old driveshaft I have. This should tuck in pretty close to what I was able to cut out with my saws-all and a jig saw for the top corner radaii. I am anticipating a decent weld of this new section of firewall after I verify the fit with the motor, once I re-mount the cab for some mechanical mock-up.

I dried off the cab and ran some 60 grit on a jitterbug to start cleaning off some of the corrosion. I took a side winder with a wire brush to start cleaning out the inside better. I put some penetrating oil on the trim screws inside and the door hinges in preparation for their eventual removal. I removed things like the choke and idle-up linkages that come through the firewall, the glove box cover, the gauges and the sheet metal screws someone used for the saddle hood buffer strip on the cab.

One problem I noted was that the box for the seat was bent up some, but it looks like it can be removed cleanly via a few rivets. I am planning on bucket seats or captain's chairs with this rig, so the bench seat is really not a likely scanario. The problem I am foreseeing with this is that the floor is not structural like this vertical piece of sheet metal for the bench seat. I think this can be overcome by developing some small box tubular framing with some 1/8" plate over the frame rails of the cab. I am hoping that I might be able to make this removable too for ease of mechanical service for items under the cab floor (Shifter, Tranny access, etc.)

Another problem I noted was the rotted rocker panels. I've Bondo-ed worse panels back into shape in my past life, but I am seeing some nice replacements for these on e-bay and such for about $75 each. I think that will be worth the time saved and the weight that would be added with Bondo filler.

Yet another issue was the rough nature of the back of the cab. Man I hope I can make this look ok. It's been ages and just teenage experience in the bodywork arts. I am not sure if I am up to this task.

Need I go on with problems, but the back of the cab attachment to the floor looks weak and the rear braces are de-laminated from the back wall of the cab. I'll check my other 36 to see if this is a major concern. I think I might be able to tack weld these units to the back wall, but this metal looks thin and I am not the greatest welder.

Later in the week, I stopped by Metal Supermarket and picked up some 1/8" plate for the flooring. The guy there took my measurements for the flooring and cut it out accordingly. I just brought the pieces home and set them on the floor and it all looks pretty good. I have some minor fitting to do, but I think I can do it rather than have to bother Scotty or Feiss with borrowing a plasma cutter to get things to fit.

Here are some shots taken of these things

This weekend I got the old metal under the seat area removed. It was too corroded to save and I had some 1/8" plate metal rough cut for this area. Actually, under the seat, this metal was more that rough cut, it fit pretty well and I only had to remove a little notch in the back to fit square with the driveshaft hump out the back of the cab. The floor metal area took some minor grinding to fit nicely into its area. It appears that I will have to rework this into a piece with a hump as preliminary measurements are showing a hump to be necessary to clear the Turbo-350 tranny. The pedal section of the floor fit nicely up to the firewall from what I could tell, but this will need to be humped too for the bell housing of the tranny.

What I was most happy with was the preliminary fitting of the firewall itself. Using an old driveshaft with some C-clamps, I bent a 90 degree, 3" diameter curve that fit pretty well to the oil can curve cut I made in the firewall last week. Usiing a ball peen hammper to get the last few degrees out to get the full 90, everything came out pretty well and I am feeling better about knitting this rotted cab back together into something that is going to work.

Here are some shots taken of these things

Floor pieces fit in after old seat metal removal
Set up to bend the curl in the firewall sheet
After the bend
Fit #1 of the firewall sheet metal
Fit #2 of the firewall sheet metal

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Body Work - Day #5 (8-6-06)

I had to get the cab set back onto the frame to get mock-up of the motor clearance. I had to re-work the rotted wooden wedges that go under the cab and onto the frame. Some of the cuts on this piece were interesting. The pictures below will show you that if I had a straight line to cut with a circular saw, I'd have problems, but give me a curve and I can hit the mark just fine. These turned out pretty well with a little jack plane fitting to the frame so they would fit solidly.

I recut the the firewall hole in the cab deeper (3") and that required me to flatten out the nice curve bends in the sheetmetal I made last week and re-bend these to fit. This allowed me the clearance I would need for an HEI ignition I have laying around for this project. I found the stock flooring for the pedal deck of the floor. I had to beat out the hump higher. That turned out pretty well again with the use of that drive shaft to make the hump transitions smooth and straight.

I beat out the bottom of the firewall sheet back into the floor hump to shroud over the floor piece. The floor piece will need to be cut back in order to fit and clear the motor/tranny bell housing area. I got this all pretty well mocked up, but I ran out of time before I could start welding this all into place.

Here are some shots taken of these things

Matching up the pattern with a new wood shim
Cutting a curve with a skill saw
Fitting the wood wedges to the frame
Cab on the frame
Trying to get clearance for the HEI Ignition
Building a hump inside for the tranny

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Body Work - Day #6 (9-28-06)

A lot of time passed since last. Vacation, craziness at work, meetings, swim lessons for Danny, etc. I tried to dedicate this week to working on the truck and still other things got in the way. I got to the truck today and I welded the fire wall mock up all together.

I took the cab off the frame and put it back on after doing the work. This was in an effort to keep all the welding and grindings from getting into the motor and frame. I hand fit all the edges as best I could. I also patched in the old pedal holes in the pedal board of the floor. For a novice, I am not ashamed of how everything turned out. Take a look:

Welded up engine compartment firewall
Welded firewall from inside the cab

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Body Work - Day #7 (10-7-06)

Scott Reed helped out again by cutting out my front floor piece with his plasma cutter. I took good measurements and he did a great job with the cutter as it took very little finish work to get the piece to fit. I then took some cardboard and mocked up some patterns for some steel to extend the transmission hump up to the floor pedal section of the flooring. I plan to make a flange under the new hump where it will attach over the top of the pedal flooring with some screws like the rest of the perimeter of this piece I am fabricating.

I got by Scott's house and got the mocked up pieces of steel for the hump cut out with his plasma cutter. I got them back to the shop and with some minor grinding, I got the pieces to fit pretty well so I tack welded them into place. I will take this floor section out to weld it all solid and grind down the seams.

Here are a few of picture links:

Transmission Hump Cardboard mock-up in truck
Danny in the truck by the Garage Door
Tranny Hump tack welded together
Solid welded tranny hump outside the truck on the shop floor
Tranny Hump in the truck
Little tidbit welding work for floor board perimeter
Welded back brackets of the cab

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Body Work - Day #8 (6-3-06)

I hung a pair of doors my cousin chopped for his 36 Ford pickup years ago. This is the truck that I most of my fenders and extra parts came from. He (Lloyd "aka Skinny" Searcy) did an excellent job on the seams of this chop. I eventually found them under some lead he used to smooth out the area. I worked on some of the mechanisms of the doors and some alignment issues with the passenger door.

I am now in a quandry as to whether I should consider chopping the cab again. Scott Reed thinks I should. I got a call into Skinny to see how he liked his truck after he chopped the cab on his. The doors that came with my cab are roached, but Skinny's are chopped. I'll make something come together out of the combination.

Here are a couple of pictures taken today:

Old roached door that came with truck
One of Skinny's doors mounted into the cab

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Body Work - Day #9 (6-24-07)

Quandry solved. Skinny never returned my call. I worked on the fit of both doors to the jambs of the cab. I then took out all the window hoist hardware and door latches, cleaned them with a wire wheel and painted them with some black spray paint and set to work on the passenger door as the first refit. I decided not to chop the cab so I unchopped the passenger door. Care with layout and use of a simple Saws-all and vice-clamps for fit and it was time to start welding.

A resident of Sunset Hills by the name of Wayne Godall suggested using .024" wire on the MIG welder for the body work. It was a good call. I had a lot of trouble rigging up a spool arrangement. The spool I had would not work with the feeder of the welder. I set it up with a rebar for an axle and set it in a metal box to feel into the unit on the floor by the welder rack. The next problem was I had .024" wire and .023" tips. I used a torch cleaner and reamed the .023" tip out and the wire fit fine. I got this all together and worked the feed speed up and the voltage down low and got it to where I could weld the sheet metal just fine.

Here are a few pictures taken today:

Cutting the old door
Fitting the piece in the door jamb
Clamps holding door in jamb
A view of the welded door
Another view of finished ground welds
Yet another view of the ground welds
A view of the reworked door closed on the truck
Passenger unchopped, Driver's door next

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Body Work - Day #10 (7-8-07)

This weekend was the repair of the fender wedges at the front of the cab. These areas on both sides of the cab were badly corroded. I took some paper to make a pattern, cut some similar gage metal from the old doors and made these pieces up. The metal from the old door had some undercoating that Henry Ford placed on them. I remove the bulk of this with a putty knife, but old gas would cut the rest. I bent these pieces from an old hand saw vice my dad had, using it like a box & pan break. I also had to cut a couple of holes in these and pre-weld some nuts in place to receive a fender bolts on each side of the cab. There were welded into place and ground down to maintain needed clearances for the fenders.

I also found that using a hard wire brush on a side winder worked pretty effectively at removing old paint and corrosion. With that, I took off paint on the area around the firewall, the front window posts and the doors. There's more silver metal showing now.

Here are a few pictures taken today:

Jack & Clamp holds material in place
Wedge welded up
A view of front of the truck

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Body Work - Day #11 (9-1-08)

OK, I know it's been over a year since my latest entry. I have been working hard on a band project putting together an ELVIS tribute group. That work is pretty much in stasis right now as the band is ready, but the ETA's are having trouble landing jobs right now. We are in a hold pattern as I am posting a ton of video from a couple of jobs we did with Bill Cherry to help him and Eddie Falcon go sell the show to producers, organizations and music purchasers. So, for now, it is back to the truck.

I hung on the radiator, and grill. I cleaned up the lower splash pans and mock bolted everything into place. It looks like we will have to cut out more room for the suspension in the splash pans, but I am about ready to start selecting from all of the front fenders that I have, the 2 best to start cleaning up for this truck. You'll note in one of the pictures below that I did get in a couple of days of bondo on the back of the cab. I haven't worked with this stuff since I was a teenager. It's all coming back to me now. I want to send out a thank you to my ELVIS drummer (Steve Scott) who took my 2 front leaky knock around tires into work fixed them up to hold air for me. It will be nice to eliminate the need to get the compressor out to be able to move the old truck around.

Here are a two pictures taken today:

Front mock up of the grill and radiator assembly
Bondo-ed rear cab.

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wes@excelerators.net

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Return to the 36 Ford Main Page

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Start ..... LINK ..... Last Entry

(4-4-05) ..... Getting the Truck ..... (Finished 4-4-05)
(4-6-05) ..... Getting Ready ..... (5-6-05)
(4-8-05) ..... Deconstruction Work ..... (Finished: 4-19-05)
(5-1-05) ..... Frame Work ..... (11-19-05)
(4-24-05 ..... Rear Suspension Work ..... (12-23-05)
(4-24-05) ..... Front Suspension Work ..... (7-15-06)
(3-18-06) ..... Drivetrain Work ..... (5-27-07)
(7-11-05) ..... Body Work ..... (9-1-08)
(7-15-07) ..... Shop Visits ..... (7-15-07)
(4-24-05) ..... "Feiss" Vette-mobile ..... (4-24-05)
(4-4-05) ..... Acknowledgements ..... (6-12-05)

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