Hi Jeremy, Bob, Ken and others,
What an amazingly well-planned and executed restoration job. Now comes the tricky bit with the cab panels and you asked who else was doing a similar job.
I had to build a complete new angle frame floor to roof and make both frames for the rear window. This was all sandblasted and primed before the skins were fitted. I was able to do this ok and I wanted to do the panel work myself but with no mig welder or experience I decided to take it to a local panelbeater. A real tradesman and the result shows it. He used a method similar to Kens description with the swaged edges to make the joints.
He welded in a dummy frame made from 1”box section to align the roof joint to the upper rear panel and cut it out when the job was done. The roof needed extensive panel work with new drain channels over the doors and lots of rusty holes over the windscreen cut out and patched.
I made the new hatch frame and lid.
Non standard are the angle gussets I just had to put in the corners of the frame and the vertical seams in the back skins. He did this to draw each side together under tension.
For the spot welds he punched evenly spaced holes in the top sheet, marked the hole on the other then dismantled the joint, ground the primer off at each mark (for the mig to work properly) then reassembled it and welded up each hole. Once ground off the weld is invisible. The skins were glued with epoxy resin to parts of the frame and the diagonal braces. It is supposed to be stronger than welding with the advantage of no distortion.
Here are some before and after shots.
Terry
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