1942 dodge ambulance resto

[jack neville]

lucky we haven't read the Dodge forum Bob. Haven't worked out those patches yet. They curve in both directions.

These photos show what I needed to do to square up the roof.

[jack neville]

The roof is now welded back on. I also added the small step that drops down from the rear floor to the front cab. The cab has been put back in place to check its fit and alignment with the floor and roof. All looking good.

[Mike K]

Wayne is detailed here

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/w/wayne/wayne.htm

[jack neville]

The rear body corners have quite a few small dents in the panels and some awkward damage at the bottom corners. The problem is access to get inside the corners to hammer them out. The bolts that secure the door hinges have all been cut off as the caged nuts had seized. The easiest way to address both problems is to cut the welds holding the folded sections (which contain the caged nuts) and remove them. This way the caged nuts can be accessed with heat to remove the broken bolts, The section can be sandblasted before refit and I can get into the panel corners and fix the dents.

[jack neville]

The front cab lines up well so I removed it to weld four small cracks in the front of the roof. First opening up the crack the width of a narrow grinder disc and then placing a small piece of metal behind so when welded it has some reinforcing behind it.

[Mike K]

That's neat work. Because of today's " bolt on replacement " standards most panel beaters would not have the skills or patience required for a job like yours

[jack neville]

The cab was then welded back to the body. I used all the clamps and locking pliers I have to pull the roof to the top of the windscreen and then a porta power to push the windscreen upper cowl back to the roof to get it snugly together before re welding back together.. The B pillars were then clamped and welded back to the body. All looking good so far.

[jack neville]

The rear door sections have been sandblasted and refitted after I tapped out all the dents. The rearmost floor cross member was missing so I had a new one folded up and tacked it in place to the floor. After knocking out the dents on the lower right corner side it was a bit out of alignment and wouldn't fit up close to the new cross member. I tacked a couple of small pieces of angle iron to each to pull them together.