We tacked the front, side and rear to hold it in place.

After tacking, I added a few more tacks to hold until I can finish the seam. We also drilled several holes directly over the supports to "fill weld" the pan to the supports.

Then, I welded in the A pillar patch. Yep, it's very hard to weld thin sheetmetal with rust on the back!! But, I was successful.

So here's where we sit on progress...

Next week I'll finish up the beads on all sides.

It was nice to see my two sons working on the project!

Nice job with that cab, it looks great. Your metal work is sweet

You have alot of work into that truck...I bet you could damn near make one from scratch by now...and blind folder at that. Looks great.

Thanks, guys. I'm learning something new everyday. I tried to put a penny held by a pair of needle nose pliers behind a hole in the body (trim hole) in order to weld it shut - copper, you know. Not gonna happen Johnboy! I melted the penny and the pliers went straight through. Yep, I need a copper spoon, duh.

But I'm having fun.

Progress May 4 and 5, 2009.

Monday I welded up across the seams of the floorpan.

Tonight (Tues) I cut the sidewall piece for the left floor.

Here is the piece after tack welding it in place.

I'm working on my "stitching" method to keep the heat down while welding sheet metal. Welding 18 ga. to 18 ga. helped a bunch.

Here is the piece welded together.

After wire brushing, I noticed a few missed spots, so I fixed those.

After grinding down the welds, I touched up a few spots. I also ground down too much on the "nose" of the piece and had to re-weld it. After welding, grinding and brushing this is what I ended up with:

I still have to drill more holes to attach it to the supports more securely and open up a hole to access the body mount boss, but that is for another day. I also started on the right side pan, but there are a few issues I have to correct on the body before I can install it.

4speeds4me, that is a great idea! Thanks for bringing that up. Now, where have I seen some spare copper pipe around here...

Mark

Just remember that heat travels VERY quickly through copper, so if you're holding this by hand, it's going to get uncomfortable VERY quickly! DAMHIK!

I hear ya! It reminds me of that story of the guy that picked up a hot horseshoe right after it was forged and set to cool. After he threw it down on the ground quickly, the smith asked him if he was alright. He said, "Yeah, it just doesn't take me long to look at a horseshoe."


May 16, 2009 Progress

My family and I left for a wedding on Friday night (May 8th) in Tarkio, Mo., so I was gone last Saturday. Consequently, I did not get much done until last week. Since that week was busy, too (personal things and ASE certification tests (8) on Thursday - 3 hours in the fightin' chair!), I wasn't able to do much until today.

I did, however, experiment on ways to close up those pesky trim holes in the "B" pillar area.
Here are the holes:

I used a piece of 18 ga. behind the holes to back up the thin sheet metal. The only mistake was using a magnet to hold it in place. Still, it came out OK with a minor amount of panel warping.

I also had some "A" pillar rot down at the floor pan area, so I cut the damage out.