The Last Touches Before It Goes to Paint

         Wow where does the time go? I can't believe it has been almost three months since the last update. That being said, we have been working hard on getting all the final details finish up on the cab. We have been making a lot of brackets and bracing for seat belts, interior panels, hood, and the new grill just to name a few. Also drilled holes in all panels for wiring and retrofitted for the new power windows. I'm hoping we got all our bases cover, but you never know till the final assembly.

 

We needed to come up with a solution for making a transition between the fiberglass and the cab. We came up with making some custom garnish molding. This would also give us a place to mount the windlace. 

We used two sets of garnish moldings from a fleetline to start with. Chris cut, heated, bent, and welded them together to make the custom molding. 

Still need to do some adjustments, but it's close.

The final fit.

We cleaned and fitted all the parts before we get ready to send the cab off  to paint.

Since we added four inches to the fender and skirt we added a step to give better access into the cab. 

We also needed to fab up some new lower running boards to meet up with the box.The wood is a mock up of the shape of the box so that we could get the radius for the running board. The plan is that we will work on the box while the cab is at the paint shop.

We inset some aluminum casting into the steps for looks and some protection for the paint. The casting where made for a battery cover that we shaped to fit the steps.

Also milled in the Ford emblem to give it a little more wow factor.The plan is to have them painted black and then have the tops polished. It will save me from having to polish all the little groves.

Chris also made a frame for the cab to make it more portable.

It's loaded up and ready for its new home. The only lose ends on the cab are mirrors and the grill.

I'm not sure if Chris is smiling because he's happy to see it go or if he's really happy on how it has turn out. I think it's both. Thanks Chris and what a fantastic job!! Looking forward to start on the box. 

Front Bumper

We wanted a big looking bumper to fit with the over sized box and to give the cab a more aggressive look. We added 9" to the bumper to get it to fit to the outside of the fenders. 

Chris used 1/4" plate steel and cut it to size for each of the profiles of the bumper.

Then he and shaped the 1/4" stock to the bumpers profile. 

Next up was to make some mounting brackets. We incorporated the bumper bracket with the sway bar bracket, but fabricate a new sway bar bracket to hold the extra weight. We still used the stock location and also used larger hardware.  

Used 3/8" x 3" bar stock for the bumper brackets and used a mechanical brake to get the shape that we wanted. Before we bent our brackets we made templates out of  3/8" square bar to get the shape we were looking for.  

We also machined three slotted holes for some adjustment if needed.

The first test fit.

Getting things all leveled out.

A look at everything mounted up.

We also finished the ends of the bumper to give it a more solid look.

Had to put in the mocked up grill to get the over all look. Still need to fill in the old mounting holes that we didn't use.

And some photoshop work.

The Grill Surround

This is the start to fill in the side panels to the new grill. We used 1/4" material for the grill surround and will be filled in with 3/8" bars. 

We lowered the gravel pan down 1"and need to do some work on the bumper bracket openings to match up with the gravel pan.

This is one of the new side insert that will fill in the body to the grill.

Starting the welding in process. A lot lot lot of some tack welds. The first of many.

The new grill will part of the body unlike the original.

The bottom gravel pan will also become part of the grill surround. We also decided to lower the bumper brackets. 

The gravel pan with a new body line that matches the sides and the bumper brackets lowered. With a lot lot lot more tack welds.

Close up

We didn't like the straight body line on the top so we decided to add some curve that would match the body line on the truck. 

This is the actual line that we used.

When Chris started to work on the new body line we ran into the factory lead seam. this is after he removed the lead. 

These are a series of shots of the new metal work to achieve the new body line. Also had to rework the lower corners of the new hood.

One side done one more to go.

Needed to do some work on the hood to close up some of the gaps.

The next pictures are of the new look. We are anxious to get the grill done to get the final look. 

 

More Work Done on the Dash

More work being done on the new dash trim. This will be the home for the clock. Our Friend Paul did the machine work on metal tubing to house the clock. Here Chris is welding it to the trim piece. 

All sanded and ready for a test fit on the dash. 

This is the dash trim before Chis started his work.

The finished parts  

When we test fitted the dash trim we noticed that we needed to do some more metal work on the dash. We felt that the dash had to have a better radius in the corners.

We are very pleased at how the dash and trim work turned out. We had to fill in the holes on the trim piece for the knobs because they did not line up to where we needed them.

Can"t wait to see it in chrome.

Had to see it with the gauges. We also put the A/C vents in behind the trim piece.

Okay not to toot are own horn but WOW!! We have just a couple of thing to finish on the dash and it will be complete.