This is a '67.
So is this.
Lots of '67s, apparently.
I just looked at mine to see if I could get a better idea... there isn't much left.
This is a '67.
So is this.
Lots of '67s, apparently.
I just looked at mine to see if I could get a better idea... there isn't much left.
I hope this thread lives on for a long time. The daily progress idea is very motivational. Keep it up!
JohnInKansas wrote:
This is weird. The cab corner is open to the rocker panel without a B pillar extending between them like is seen in this picture. Perhaps the wall is located on the rocker stamping with the repops, because I can't imagine butting two pieces of sheet metal against each other without a single spot weld (there appears to be none there in the picture). Thus, if I assume only one wall vertically between rocker and corner, I have one, but it's on the rocker... hmmm...
xflowgolf wrote: I hope this thread lives on for a long time. The daily progress idea is very motivational. Keep it up!
Thanks, I will keep updating as soon as I get inside from the garage and get grunge clothes off.
In reply to tuna55:
What about Part # 9?
In reply to JohnInKansas:
Crap, I don't have a part #9. I guess I am making one next.
Well I had an odd night. I decided to try and get a good feel for the rocker/corner/B pillar/A pillar/door alignment. Thusly, I mounted the door. I am not sure this was productive, but hey...
hmm, move it a bit...
move it a bit more
move it some more, again
move it some more, the sequel
move it some more, the breakfast cereal
(yes, that's indeed Murilee Martin's hat from Lemons South 2009, he signed it for me)
OK, I have it roughly where I want it. Colin Chapman spoke to me and I thought I'd save three grams of weight.
Or maybe I drilled that hole so that my broken 3/8" extension became an excellent alignment pin. I added a similar but much smaller hole in the bottom hinge mount.
The striker and the latch look blue, meaning GM was probably the last one to mess with them, so I only adjusted those in a small way. I really will have to add the weatherstripping to get the right idea, before any final welding goes on, anyway.
The cab corner looks like it's able to fit with some mild adjusting. Nothing too catastrophic. I have to make a part #9 now.
Hmmm
hrm
Ahh, now we're getting somewhere. Tomorrow I cut it out in steel (going to use the roof panel I ruined) and tack it in. I had to take the door off because you can't put the rocker panel on with the door there. Hence the pin, it will be on and off 100x before this side is through.
The top gap of the door looks uneven because it is. Some idiot shaved the drip rails about 4 years ago and there is welded metal there. I am not positive how to make it flat yet. Any thoughts?
I'm not sure where you mean by the top gap of the door. Maybe its a 10-footer, cause I can't see it.
That cab corner doesn't look half bad either.
you do daily, i try to do weekly.
im enjoying this thread. your writing/working/picture/style is similar to mine.
keep it up. every little bit makes it better.
and sheetmetal isnt hard, just time consuming, aggrevating, tough to weld, and easy to mangle. that being said, a good body man males it look good no matter how bad you did.
where are you at? i amy be able to reccomend a guy or threes.
Dusterbd13 wrote: you do daily, i try to do weekly. im enjoying this thread. your writing/working/picture/style is similar to mine. keep it up. every little bit makes it better. and sheetmetal isnt hard, just time consuming, aggrevating, tough to weld, and easy to mangle. that being said, a good body man males it look good no matter how bad you did. where are you at? i amy be able to reccomend a guy or threes.
hehe, thanks for the compliments.
At my current budgetary estimates, sticks hand in empty wallet, I am the body man.
I am in Greenville, SC, you?
Yet another satisfying post to read with my morning oatmeal! 
im in albemarle, nc
roger hatley, a guy in my church, does bodywork on the side. hes who fixed and finished the bodywork on my duster. good man, reasonable prices.
if you need anything when it comes to electrical/chassis/brakes, let me know. i do side work up here, and wil more than happily share advice and knowledge for free. been around for a while, so i have a few things to pass on.
been a while since ive been to greenville....
I love this thread and these trucks. I drove a '71 all through high school. Your pictures really make me miss that truck again. I am glad you decided to sick it out on this project. If I lived closer, I would come over and help you every night.
Dusterbd13 wrote: im in albemarle, nc roger hatley, a guy in my church, does bodywork on the side. hes who fixed and finished the bodywork on my duster. good man, reasonable prices. if you need anything when it comes to electrical/chassis/brakes, let me know. i do side work up here, and wil more than happily share advice and knowledge for free. been around for a while, so i have a few things to pass on. been a while since ive been to greenville....
I appreciate that - I will be asking lots of questions when it comes time for final bodywork prep. My focus right now is pretty simplistic. I eventually want it to look good in paint, which is a giant can of worms. I also hate sanding. With a passion. So I'll need some help there.
The thing that made me hang on to this truck at all is how solid everything else is. Brakes are awesome, all factory wiring is 100%, engine runs great, etc etc... At any rate, stay tuned, after the arcs stop, the focus will shift into other interesting things.
dlmater wrote: I love this thread and these trucks. I drove a '71 all through high school. Your pictures really make me miss that truck again. I am glad you decided to sick it out on this project. If I lived closer, I would come over and help you every night.
Thanks, I appreciate the motivation!
This evening was quite abbreviated. Spoiler alert: I didn't get it tacked in. I had some... how shall I say this... marital strife. Several hours were spent cleaning up the mess. And three bathrooms and the downstairs floor. Ok, so, onto things I can understand.
I got angry at the iffy reliability and quality of my ghetto blaster and hijacked the laptop.
Now, John, here is a better shot of the shoddy roof/door line
Any easy ways to make that straight?
OK, onto the patch.
Step 1: cut a shape out much larger than cereal box shape:
Step 2: Cut it a bunch (including one cut I welded back shut)
Step 3: try it on the truck
Notice the tack weld on the cab corner
Once I trimmed it, I test fit the rocker panel and trimmed around that. I don't think the gap between the rocker and the corner is acceptable, but I am not sure how much more I can snug in the cab corner. Please suggestions if you have them.
I'm no body man, but can't you put a small 90 degree bend in your "piece #9" to close the gap on the inner flat part?
As for the external rolled rocker portion, it looks like you'll have to make that rocker repair panel longer somehow. Either add material to the end, or cut it it all the way through and position the end where you need it, and patch in a rolled piece of sheet metal to close the gap (might be easier to fab?).
Hmm... that looks like a tricky place to work with (drip rail/door fitment). Booger welds (low voltage, high wire feed) then grind flat, or body filler (bondo or lead, pick your poison).
I took about a dozen pictures of my rockers/sills/corners/floorboards/doors. I won't hotlink all of them, so here's a link to the album.
You will have to close up that rocker/corner gap. I'd go with xflowgolf's idea of forming a 1/2" or 3/4" strap that matches the rocker's cross sectional shape and tacking that in between the end of the rocker and the cab corner.
Its Saturday. I don't really have anything pressing to finish on any of the project cars. I'm going to attack some rust. You've inspired me. Will post pictures later in the day.
I had about ten minutes in the garage today. I spent ten minutes, though, and didn't skip it. My wife was angry and confused, but I did it anyway. No music. We have house guests and my 3 year old threw up starting around 11, so that's my excuse.
Re: the gap from the inner rocker to the #9 piece. I didn't even realize it was so big. I have before and after. Before is about 1/8" gap, and by trimming that bit against the inner rocker to a steeper angle, it fit much better:
Before
After
The vertical alignment of the #9 piece was off, too:
Before
After
Much better. Five minutes very well spent. Now that will fit and work much better, and be easier to weld on. Thanks for noticing it initially.
Then I decided to look into the cab corner alignment a bit better. I am worried about the corner/rocker alignment still. I need to do some research and see what the pieces look like when they are right. Here are some internet grabs:
Those seem to indicate there is a very small gap, but not filled or welded. Is this an area for seam sealer? I don't want it rubbing when the cab moves, and it seems like something ought to bridge that gap a little.
Anyway... Onto my alignment.
It's hard to see in this picture, but the body line crease sticks out from the vertical plane and heads into the door opening a bit, which makes aligning the cab corner to the vertical line defined by the rear door opening line a bit tough, but I held this square up there and it looks way off, so I think I have to un-tack and move the cab corner a bit before I worry about welding material onto the end of the rocker arm. The issue is that the cab corner is basically touching the cab support in the rear, and rotating the cab corner in this direction (to make the cab corner more straight up and down) will not be possible because of the support. I can only assume that the repop corner is a bit off, and I'll have to rework it somehow.
Sorry for that wall o' text, but I hope it makes sense.
Until next time...
from oersonal experience, dont let the projects get int the way of the family. i spent two years in marriage counseling to save ours from divorce. the first year was saving, and the second was learning how to keep it saved.
thats the reaon i only make weekly progress. my wife and i have iunstituded mommy and daddys nights off. my wifes is tuesday, mine is friday. not only does it give me a daddy daughter night, but it also gives me a shop night thats inviolate.
just remember: family first. we didnt marry/spawn them to not spend time with them.
and im sorry if this is unwarrented, but ive read two posts about the family/marriage, and felt like i needed to share my experience, strength, and hope. just seemed like the right thing to do. if this is unwelcome, ill delet the post and never metion the topic in your thread again.
on some of the pics of the cab corner, it appears that the bottom is hanging much lower than the rest of the rocer area. is it, or is that just me?
Dusterbd13 wrote: from oersonal experience, dont let the projects get int the way of the family. i spent two years in marriage counseling to save ours from divorce. the first year was saving, and the second was learning how to keep it saved. thats the reaon i only make weekly progress. my wife and i have iunstituded mommy and daddys nights off. my wifes is tuesday, mine is friday. not only does it give me a daddy daughter night, but it also gives me a shop night thats inviolate. just remember: family first. we didnt marry/spawn them to not spend time with them. and im sorry if this is unwarrented, but ive read two posts about the family/marriage, and felt like i needed to share my experience, strength, and hope. just seemed like the right thing to do. if this is unwelcome, ill delet the post and never metion the topic in your thread again. on some of the pics of the cab corner, it appears that the bottom is hanging much lower than the rest of the rocer area. is it, or is that just me?
The lowest part of the cab corner is about even, maybe as much as 3/16" lower, so I still have some work to do with that.
The marriage difficulty isn't because of this, or my time in the garage, I promise. I don't go out there until all of the kids are in bed asleep and the dishes are done, food is ready/put away/kitchen is cleaned/laundry is done/house is vacuumed etc. She had a rough couple of days. No worries. Also no worries about mentioning it. Keep me straight. Someone has to...
Thanks
Much progress was made today. First, the non-car related stuff: My four year old rides his bike now with no training wheels, and has been leaning it on things with cute little reasons. Today he leaned it on my bike "Daddy, I parked my bike on yours because I love you" Awesome.
And we finally got to launch the model rocket we had been building.
So here are the tunes:
So back to the truck. I was getting upset with the rocker panel alignment. It seemed like it was too short, and that's in addition to the cab corner not being straight somehow, so a large portion of this evening was spent there. See how the front alignment seems way off.
and it's time to switch tunes. For extra credit, without looking it up, tell me why this band is named what it is:
So out comes the strap, maybe I can move stuff around.
Ok, now most everything lines up, but that one gap. I think I can slice it up and change the ramp to match the A pillar. I'll obviously check the door alignment first, but I am fairly certain that this will work.
Now to address the cab corner. Man this looks crappy.
I can push it up even with the bottom of the rocker panel, but it still looks crappy.
really crappy
And then I got pissed off (not really, but I took drastic action)
Some grinding on the cab support (the side that borders the back of the cab) and some reshaping of the inner rocker panel and...
BAM
That looks much much better.
So now that's good, and the rocker panel is good, and with the strap, everything works pretty darn well. Now, there is one little issue that is preventing me from displaying the tacked on rocker panel right now. The A pillar patch. I cut it off again. I cut off the old one and cut the patch to match. Everything should be fine. With the A pillar patch like it is, the rocker panel doesn't fit over it. I can mount it much farther down and it fits, or much farther up and it fits, but it should require that. I may have to reshape the front of the rocker panel to make it happen, but the fender alignment will become super-critical. See below for the picture of what I'll be attacking Tuesday. I suspect Monday will be an off night because I'll be at job #2 until 10:00.
BAM!
Tuna, keep up the good work. Slow and steady. I've got no idea about Steely Dan.
In other news, there was a rust-through about half the size of a pack of cards where the passenger rear fender bolts onto the Beetle, and that was what I decided to attack the other day.
Ignorance is bliss. The whole passenger rear quarter is Bondo over badly swiss-cheesed steel. I'm going to shop repair panels today. If unavailable, I'll need to cannibalize a Beetle shell for a patch.
JohnInKansas wrote: Ignorance is bliss. The whole passenger rear quarter is Bondo over badly swiss-cheesed steel. I'm going to shop repair panels today. If unavailable, I'll need to cannibalize a Beetle shell for a patch.
Ugh, that sucks. That's exactly what I had. I thought the corners were solid until I tried to strip them. My wife was there, she saw the look on my face, I wish I had a picture.
In reply to tuna55:
No picture of my face either, though I imagine it was the same expression. "Oh e36m3... what has been seen, cannot be unseen."
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