C8 progress in Texas

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

David,

Did you find those Hand brake cables in the meantime? I am also looking for replacements for my C8, but can't seem to trace the partnumber to an civil equivalant at any of the parts suppliers.

Alex

I found hand brake cables from a late 1930's chevy commercial vehicle fitted perfectly , correct length . I think it was a 1/2 ton pickup . But Im not 100% sure .

Mike

[Alex van de Wetering]

David, Mike,

Thanks for the responce. It might even be harder to find an Isuzu axle here than replacement cables for the handbrake

Mike, will see if the 1/2ton Chev cables match, thanks
Alex

[aj.lec]

It will be good to know exactly what model fits as I also need some right now
Unfortunately I am not close enough to a Chev parts dealer to compare lengths and fittings as to get the correct ones

[David DeWeese]

Hi,
Got tired of walking past the C8 roof panel sitting on saw horses at my shop for several months, and decided to devote the weekend to some repairs. The blistering heat here has sucked the fun out of any un-necessary shop activities, but some progress simply had to be made...

Tackled the bent lower angle iron brace on the roof panel first. Measured carefully and found that not only was the back of the panel caved in severely, but the damage had spread the sides out by nearly an inch.
Took a hand winch,(we call it a come-a-long here), pulled the sides together gently, and the damaged rear angle iron popped back straight without barely a fight. Some times you just get lucky I guess....

more to come....

Thanks, David

[David DeWeese]

With the damage on the rear of the roof panel repaired, I got motivated to do the wood structure next.

Since the front wood roof structure on these cab 11/12 was known to be very weak, I made a pair of brackets from 1/8" plate steel to strengthen this area, and bolted them in. Hard to see once installed, but a lot stronger than original I would think....

Also dug around and found enough of the outer trim pieces for the roof to make it complete. All pieces came from Dodge trucks of the same vintage. With a little butt welding and....

Feels good to finally make some progress again!

Thanks, David

[Bob Carriere]

Hi David

Love how you sneaked those steel reinforcement plates. I assume you had no clearance problems.

What about the 90 degree corner at the top rear most corner.... that seems to be very weak as well..... where you not tempted to hide a steel plate behind the wood or is there no room for that....? all cab 13 have a nice L shape reinforcement in that same area......

Always watching your progress and learning at your expense.

Bob C.

[David DeWeese]

Hi Bob,

I don't think there will be any clearance issues with the plates as they are above the wood,(when the roof is inverted), and out of the way of the front angle iron piece that attaches it to the windshield frame... will find out for sure soon...

Hadn't even thought about strenghtening the rear upper pieces.

edit: After looking again at the clearances above the wood structure, it would be possible to add a continuous bracket around the entire roof wood if someone really wanted to stiffen it up...

I do figure that with about two dozen or-so bolts to line up perfectly to get this roof installed, I better leave a little wiggle-room somewhere, or I will have a fight on my hands.....

Thanks, David