I've been quite busy the past few months. A friend found this 62 truck for me that he said would save me 3 years of my life. I think he's right. I was planning on doing all the rust and shortening up the 61 Merc I bought at auction a few years ago. This is gonna be way way easier and way faster.
Turns out, the short box had some roof damage and a small back window. The long box Merc was really rusty, but only the bottom of the big back window sheet metal was rusted out, and that was good on the other truck. It worked out fine, at least so far.
I don't want to waste a bunch of pics on the cutting apart of the two trucks. It did turn up some interesting stuff though. The unibody A pillar has an extra piece of reinforcing steel inside it that the 64 cab I used for parts did not have. I didn't take a pic of the red unibody truck A pillar, but it also has the extra reinforcement steel.
Next up are some pics of the donor red roof from the Merc truck. It had a lot of sins on the surface, and I spent a bunch of hours with a slapper and dolly. The one side needed a patch to repair an area where there had been a mouse nest. Other than that, the red roof metal was in good shape.
There were multiple oil cans all over the roof as well. The hammer and dolly work fixed all of that.
I started out sanding to reveal the highs and lows and there were a lot of both. Hammer and dolly mostly, but I did have to shrink a few areas. It wasn't damage that was very deep, but you could definitely feel it running your hand over it with a soft cloth. I decided to measure how deep the depressions were, and the one in the pic was .013 deep. The .014 gauge would push the ruler up when I tried to push it under, as per the pic.
My point is that you can get it pretty much perfect with hand tools and a shrinking disc. It is very very smooth now ( not in these pics) so some primer and more sanding will reveal any further sins.
I'm going to add here that it was a LOT easier to metal finish the roof so I could swing a hammer sideways and hold the dolly correspondingly, as opposed to having it mounted on the truck where the outstretched arm tried to push up on the dolly with 67 (yesterday) year old arthritic hands. Way easier doing it on the work bench as pictured.
Even doing it a second time as once I had the roof nice and smooth with a bunch of hours in it, I was fitting the A pillars, and bumped it, and it fell off the truck, making a few new dents in the roof skin as it made its way to the floor.
Back up onto the work bench to fix a few more dents, then fit it again, this time with help.
Turns out, the short box had some roof damage and a small back window. The long box Merc was really rusty, but only the bottom of the big back window sheet metal was rusted out, and that was good on the other truck. It worked out fine, at least so far.
I don't want to waste a bunch of pics on the cutting apart of the two trucks. It did turn up some interesting stuff though. The unibody A pillar has an extra piece of reinforcing steel inside it that the 64 cab I used for parts did not have. I didn't take a pic of the red unibody truck A pillar, but it also has the extra reinforcement steel.
Next up are some pics of the donor red roof from the Merc truck. It had a lot of sins on the surface, and I spent a bunch of hours with a slapper and dolly. The one side needed a patch to repair an area where there had been a mouse nest. Other than that, the red roof metal was in good shape.
There were multiple oil cans all over the roof as well. The hammer and dolly work fixed all of that.
I started out sanding to reveal the highs and lows and there were a lot of both. Hammer and dolly mostly, but I did have to shrink a few areas. It wasn't damage that was very deep, but you could definitely feel it running your hand over it with a soft cloth. I decided to measure how deep the depressions were, and the one in the pic was .013 deep. The .014 gauge would push the ruler up when I tried to push it under, as per the pic.
My point is that you can get it pretty much perfect with hand tools and a shrinking disc. It is very very smooth now ( not in these pics) so some primer and more sanding will reveal any further sins.
I'm going to add here that it was a LOT easier to metal finish the roof so I could swing a hammer sideways and hold the dolly correspondingly, as opposed to having it mounted on the truck where the outstretched arm tried to push up on the dolly with 67 (yesterday) year old arthritic hands. Way easier doing it on the work bench as pictured.
Even doing it a second time as once I had the roof nice and smooth with a bunch of hours in it, I was fitting the A pillars, and bumped it, and it fell off the truck, making a few new dents in the roof skin as it made its way to the floor.
Back up onto the work bench to fix a few more dents, then fit it again, this time with help.
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lol
