roof not lining up

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bkvail

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 16, 2011
Messages
243
We reached a snafu in our project.

The back of the Diamond T is in 3 sections, originally bolted together and held true with wood. We decided to weld the sections instead and also weld on the roof section.

We got the back panel tack welded and it is nice and flat and looks great! We put some temporary boards to hold it true as we continue to build. It was wobbly and wavey with it bolted together, so I am really glad we welded it.

So, we started cab assembly......We got the roof section on and started to tack weld it in place and the drivers rear corner fit great, but the passenger rear corner looks like this:

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I know I stretched the metal a little taking out the nails that held it to the original oak, but I'm thinking that maybe sandblasting and just generally moving it around stretched it some more. We are at a loss what to do. It is probably about a 3/16" gap.
 
I went back and looked at a few of your other build pics. Is that edge (where the clamp is in the last pic) up lined in the correct place? What I see is either try to push the lower metal into the corner more, heat shrink the top corner - ( (not easy), or cut the top section somewhere and reweld it. The heat from grinding on it probably stretched it a bit too.
 
I went back and looked at a few of your other build pics. Is that edge (where the clamp is in the last pic) up lined in the correct place? What I see is either try to push the lower metal into the corner more, heat shrink the top corner - ( (not easy), or cut the top section somewhere and reweld it. The heat from grinding on it probably stretched it a bit too.

Yes, the edge is lined up where the clamp is - we used nails as we clamped to line up original holes where the old nails were.

Here are some more pics:

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I actually just realized that the driver's side doesn't fit as snug as I remembered after working on it until 8pm Saturday. Maybe I was looking at it through rose colored glasses after a long day. I think it will be much easier to coax into place though as it seems it's just the last 3/4'' that is flared out on this side.
8735473195_69d45a9b9e_c.jpg
 
Not much to be afraid of. To start, make a single cut and overlap it to where it needs to be. You'll probably need to take the cut all the way up into the compound curve. Making a 1/2 to 3/4 circle cut at the end of the pie cut should help keep it from forming a point. Trim the excess and weld.

It's only a little more welding. [;)

Those nails originally probably didn't have the metal as tightly together as your welds. So there was probably a little looseness all the way across and you pushed it out to the corners when you tightened everything up with welding it.
 
Not much to be afraid of. To start, make a single cut and overlap it to where it needs to be. You'll probably need to take the cut all the way up into the compound curve. Making a 1/2 to 3/4 circle cut at the end of the pie cut should help keep it from forming a point. Trim the excess and weld.

It's only a little more welding. [;)
Ah, yes, I was thinking if we did a pie cut, we'd need to drill a hole at the point. So, do you think the initial cut should be on the back side of the corner just where it starts to make the corner?



Those nails originally probably didn't have the metal as tightly together as your welds. So there was probably a little looseness all the way across and you pushed it out to the corners when you tightened everything up with welding it.
Yes, probably so - that, and I think we might have made the back 'narrower' a bit by clamping those rear seams so tightly...
 
Someone on RRR said they continued the cut into a spiral and that worked better than just a hole. Wish I knew who it was and where to find the picture of it. As for where to cut, kinda hard to say, but it is probably going to be the same anywhere in the curve. It kinda looks like the bottom inch is kind of flared out, so you might not have to go too far up.
 
a pic would be stellar - maybe someone knows who it was or remembers what post it was on. There are so many posts here, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.......
 
Looks like an alignment issue to me. How do your doors fit?

I'd be tempted to push the back wall out until the corners close up, unless it creates a huge door gap.

.
 
Looks like an alignment issue to me. How do your doors fit?

I'd be tempted to push the back wall out until the corners close up, unless it creates a huge door gap.

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we have no frames in for the doors yet to even test fit. The old door frames were wood clad in steel - so we will be remaking it.

I am pretty darn sure we put it where it came apart though - as we lined up the original nail holes before clamping. It was nailed together at that seam to wood on the inside......
 
I am pretty darn sure we put it where it came apart though - as we lined up the original nail holes before clamping. It was nailed together at that seam to wood on the inside......

Fair enough. I was just suggesting that the total length of the cab may be different than it was originally, so the roof skin may need to be "stretched" to bring the corners back in line. If that's the case, your door opening will be too narrow. All I'm trying to say here, is make sure you need to slice and dice before you do it.

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I know you dread doing it....

but relief cuts around that curve will allow you to bring that metal out without much problem to line it up...it looks to be the thickness of the metal that is overlaping...I'd make the cuts with a body saw.(panel saw or whatever you call them) or a thin cut off disc.... so they are thin / narrow....move the metal out to line it up and weld them up....I think it will be easier to do..and should work out well...jmho..
 
That cut is done by Cornfield. I had the same thing happen to my DT, I used a flat dolly on the outside and hammered from the inside till the corners lined up.
 
Fair enough. I was just suggesting that the total length of the cab may be different than it was originally, so the roof skin may need to be "stretched" to bring the corners back in line. If that's the case, your door opening will be too narrow. All I'm trying to say here, is make sure you need to slice and dice before you do it.

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Yes, good suggestion. We will be working on it tomorrow (hubby has no work for the day), so we'll do tons of measuring - and also measure the '40 we have in the field that has the same cab/doors (we will be using the doors off that truck anyhow since our doors off the '36 are too far gone to repair)

Thanks everybody for the suggestions! Hopefully by tomorrow evening we will have at least decided how we will go about it
 

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