My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU

[CHIZZLER]

Looking good.

[jonzcustomshop]

finished welding up the inner structure, will wait to finish up the drip rails after I get the roof skin ready.
left hand door post is welded solid!

[jonzcustomshop]

the cab is almost done!, next I have to stop by the metal shop, and see if they can bend me a center roof skin, I also need to get the edges of the inner headliner bent.
drilled a bunch of spots, and got the high hump installed.

[66Z71]

Thats looking great.

[CHIZZLER]

Cab is looking great. How do the door gaps look overall. Also how straight is the body line down the doors. Mine look horrible.

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by CHIZZLER

Cab is looking great. How do the door gaps look overall. Also how straight is the body line down the doors. Mine look horrible.

other than the top of the rear left door they are pretty nice, that rear left is quite an enigma, since it is all pretty much square along the other gaps on the door, and the rocker to drip rail measurement is even from end to end....
all I can think is that since the top of the front of the door originally curved inward, and now it is pushed up flat, is that is the reason that the gap is close in that section....
I even thought maybe the whole cab sags in the middle where I welded it together, but I ran a straight edge from end to end on the rocker and it is level-also the driver front door gap is perfect front to back top to bottom.

regardless it is lined up great for a driver, as I don't have the money or time for a show truck!
the body line down the doors is perfect, lines up with the cab and cowl extensions.

there is actually quite a bit of adjustment on those rear door hinges.
...and I would say I probably have about 3- 5 hours into getting the doors adjusted

[clemdaddy]

really nice work... that will be a extra nice driver and a show truck in my opinion. good job.

like the '50 convert behind the cab, thats the one i would be building. reminds me of the car in that Steve McQueen detective movie, though i can't remember the title.

[doobiebro]

Awsome job John!! Motivates me to replace my damaged cab with the donor GMC cab I found...

[Justin@EntropyRad]

awesome project you got there

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

really nice work... that will be a extra nice driver and a show truck in my opinion. good job.

like the '50 convert behind the cab, thats the one i would be building. reminds me of the car in that Steve McQueen detective movie, though i can't remember the title.

thanks guys!
when I pulled the sectioned 60 out of the garage it was so I could finish the 50 convert... I even said nothing else was going in until I could drive the 50 out!
....and this crew came along, and I ate my words!

[creep]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

thanks guys!
when I pulled the sectioned 60 out of the garage it was so I could finish the 50 convert... I even said nothing else was going in until I could drive the 50 out!
....and this crew came along, and I ate my words!

At least words are fat-free.

[jonzcustomshop]

I talked to the lady that is going to roll out the center roof section for me today.
ended up getting a 4X10 sheet of cold rolled 20 gauge , so I will have a bunch left over for patches and other stuff on other projects...
the piece I need for the roof is about 5X3.

as of now the roof skin is cut in half side to side about 4 inches from the back of the door. I will have a new 30-32 inch long, by 65 inch across piece rolled out to put in the gap, there will be 2 seams running side to side.

on another post a member mentioned gluing his roof skin back on after replacement, and after it is all one piece again I am thinking of doing that as well

so I have options on putting the 3 pieces of roof skin together and would appreciate opinions if you have 'em!

1) but weld and hammer weld: I have a guy that can do it, but it is probably around $40-$60 an hour, and maybe a 6 hour job?

2) slowly tack it together with the mig: I could do this, and do about 6 half inch beads a couple times a day until it is done.

3) flange it and use glue to glue it together instead of welding: the first guy also suggested this, he mentioned putting a few holes to weld it as well, but the glue would do most of the work

4) the sheet metal lady mentioned that she has a spot welder with a 24 inch reach: she suggested flanging it and spot welding it , then lead on the seam ( I don't , and don't know anyone that does lead, or solder around here) the 24 inch reach wont quite get the center of the front seam as well,about 12 inches short, it could get the entire back seam.

[Captainfab]

It sounds like you have found a good sheetmetal shop over there.

If money wasn't an object, I would go with #1. Welding it yourself is cost effective, but if you're luck is like mine, you'll end up with warpage or an oil can. The panel adhesive probably makes the most sense these days, I just have not used it on a large panel like a roof.

[wahl4m]

them 2 panels can be welded ! go to the site -metal meet . com. then go to the forums and look up rod doc postings -this is a good site about doing metal skin welding ! most people use 18 ga. ?? good luck

[Nobby]

Great job Jon...Have you thought about trimming a 60-66 burb roof skin to fit? If you could find one to cut up.

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by Nobby

Great job Jon...Have you thought about trimming a 60-66 burb roof skin to fit? If you could find one to cut up.

I have 2 'burbs, ...not gonna cut either up, but I did look at it to see if it was a possibility...
the burb roof is much taller than a truck (from the drip rail to the crown), so to use it you would have to cut it all around the perimeter and pancake it.

mentioning this brings up another bit of research I did the other day:
I looked into using 2 or 3 steel stock inner headliners.
I was thinking I could cut 15 inches out of the widest part of a couple of them, and splice them all together.. problem is , the little rectangle shapes that are stamped in them are all different sizes, they follow the slowly narrowing contour of the roof, they are all about 1/2 to 1/4 inch narrower front to back.

so then I looked at the 'burb headliner and braces , since I do have access to one of those, but after looking, it was a no go, all the inner sheet metal is taller to fit the different suburban roof...

[65sub]

Hey Jon if you decide to weld your roof panel yourself check out this build by mp&c http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=564201&page=5 post 107 to 134 and post 192. This is the technique I'm going to use on my suburban roof

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by wahl4m

them 2 panels can be welded ! go to the site -metal meet . com. then go to the forums and look up rod doc postings -this is a good site about doing metal skin welding ! most people use 18 ga. ?? good luck

Originally Posted by 65sub

Hey Jon if you decide to weld your roof panel yourself check out this build by mp&c http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=564201&page=5 post 107 to 134 and post 192. This is the technique I'm going to use on my suburban roof

thanks guys... that stuff is INSANE!!!, man I wish I could just whip stuff like that out.

I will have to cut a couple pieces of metal and give that method a try, and see what happens..

I will have my piece made a little oversize, so I can trim it to fit the hole if I can successfully do this method.

[flashed]

Cool build ,just went through it all.

[Modges'66]

When you say "flange it and use glue to glue it together instead of welding" do you mean to put an offset into the panels & overlap them, then glue them with panel adhesive?
I personally think that this is a great idea, and if you aren't totally comfortable with this you could always drill a few holes in the outer panel of the "overlap" to plug weld in designated spots to add strength.
They glue entire van sides on from the factory with this stuff to avoid warpage, why wouldn't it work on your roof?
Go talk to a major collision repair shop in your area, and I am sure that they can point you in the correct direction.
I randomly spot-welded, and finished a lot of the seams in my truck with a panel adhesive made by SEM that is used for this specific purpose...Not cheap, but easier to deal with than warped panels.

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by Modges'66

When you say "flange it and use glue to glue it together instead of welding" do you mean to put an offset into the panels & overlap them, then glue them with panel adhesive?
I personally think that this is a great idea, and if you aren't totally comfortable with this you could always drill a few holes in the outer panel of the "overlap" to plug weld in designated spots to add strength.
They glue entire van sides on from the factory with this stuff to avoid warpage, why wouldn't it work on your roof?
Go talk to a major collision repair shop in your area, and I am sure that they can point you in the correct direction.
I randomly spot-welded, and finished a lot of the seams in my truck with a panel adhesive made by SEM that is used for this specific purpose...Not cheap, but easier to deal with than warped panels.

yep , that is the other option the hammer weld guy had for me, and still might be an option I will go with.

[piratexpress1369a]

this is a wild job you are doing ....thanks for the tip heating it up and hitting it with water

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

this is a wild job you are doing ....thanks for the tip heating it up and hitting it with water

isn't that just amazing? I had an old body shop guy teach it to me when I was helping him do a 38 Buick I was astounded the way after the heat cool cycle that the frozen bolts just came right out!

I only had the one screw break on me, and if I had been a little more patient, and done a couple more heat/cool cycles, and tapped it with a hammer a little bit, I probably could have saved it.

[CHIZZLER]

I will be doing the same thing to the back doors very soon.

[jonzcustomshop]

here is the inside of the post for screw access, and the round leaded edge that you don't want to heat from the inside if possible

you can see all the little tack welds on the edge, pretty easy to remove