96 GMC rat build

[sgtpontiac]

Already done....

Are you lowering the seats too or do you still have head room after the chop? I'd be leaning over trying to drive.

I removed the bench seat and riser.... had a couple of nice buckets from a plymouth sundance...(don't even remember where I got them)... matched the interior nicely.... cut off the ply mounts, rewelded some basic Z type mounts ot the tracks and made 2x3 box mounts to sit them on...lowered the seats over 4" so the 4" chop was zero'd out... so to speak.....

 

[sgtpontiac]

Was only able to get a cab corner on but,

welded in a new cab corner.... came out good... getting better with the lighter gauge sheet metal.... anyway... it's not much but something got done.... hopefully I can keep the FIL out of the hospital long enough to finish the roof....

 

[earthman]

progress noted

 

[sgtpontiac]

Got the front end together last Saturday...

Lowered the front by about 4" over the stock height.... the front and rear are now level and from the top of the roof to the road will be just slightly over 60" I am pleased with the drop but I as I said before, I would step the control arms the next time over doing the spring buckets...

 

[Sam_Fear]

Much better.

 

[sgtpontiac]

Thank you.....

Much better.

I think so too.....

 

[PORTnPOLISH]

Thats looking really nice!

 

[sgtpontiac]

thanks man.....

Thats looking really nice!

feel a little like the tortise.... moving a bit slow but moving...lol Appreciate the kind words.....

 

[sgtpontiac]

OK..... screwed up but can fix it....

Don't know what I was thinking..... should have waited to weld on the a and b pillars until I was ready to do all the fill in's pieces too..... too big a hurry and thought I could tweak things to work out (isn't off much but should never have fully welded the B pillar posts)..... no such animal as I had fully welded the b-pillars (Cab corners) they don't tweak anymore.... so cut/took off the a pillars (windshield pillars) again and will wait until I have this thing firmly planted on the suspension before I reweld them and add the filler sections....
I don't even know why I did it that way.... [S so, will only set me back a bit.... don't want to jinx it too much... right now I have the entire weekend to work on it.... God willing and the creek doesn't rise.... so I'll let you know how this one goes.... Man...what was I thinking...... one step forward, 10 steps back.... [

 

[Neverdone]

any updates on this?

 

[sgtpontiac]

Wish I could tell you that I've got it done and

any updates on this?

On the road.... but.... NOT....have all the suspension done and back on...brakes done and plumbed, fuel lines plumbed.....mocked up the shifter...which worked out well....the bend in the lower portion of the shifter is right at the reverse lockout for the B&M lever...anyway...since the photos from last weekend..first I've worked on it in 2 months...(work / vacations/ obligations and other such high priority matters...lol)
I've since hung one of the doors, and will be working on finishing the rough in of the roof.... then I'll make the door frames (which are off) fit the roof line... had to cut off the a pillars after I had them in.... thought I could tweek it to finish weld but was surprised at how UN flexible it was....so cut the windshield pillars back off and will redo them this weekend....decided to rake the roofline a bit more.... by the way....got an old windshield and tried the sandblasting thing...worked....used a LOT of sand.... another guy told me to pick up a hand held wet tile cutter and use antifreeze as the coolant...supposedly much faster and less mess than sand.... not really to the point of cutting the glass but thought I'd try the sandblast thing on an old windshield I had that was already cracked.... surprised it worked but was extremely slow and messy....even doing it outside...it was nasty.....but cut down a 3" cut without a crack...even with a small crack at the lower edge..
When I get the a pillars back on an the fillers tacked in, I'll send pic's of that....[

 

[Sam_Fear]

You really need to keep us a more informed! Any pics of the glass practice run? Or the a-pillars? Or....

 

[sgtpontiac]

Yeah....like I said in another post....

You really need to keep us a more informed! Any pics of the glass practice run? Or the a-pillars? Or....

I have been remiss in my duties to not only work on this thing..but keep people informed...
I have shots of the a pillars on as well as the b posts too.... problem came in when I thought I could "move" them a bit to make the filler strips fit...awww..no....they were off... High on the a posts and the b posts were lower... not much but apparently too much...so easier to cut off the a posts and bring down... .... if you look at the older photo I attached, when I had the a posts on, you'll notice that it was higher in front....thought "how hard will it be to bring the things leveled out??".... short of cutting wedges out to bend something to match..I cut the a posts out.... now I can shorten slightly, make a bit wider filler and make it match without cutting, bending or forcing...
Also, didn't take shots of the sandblasting..I guess I went brain dead..sorry, gotta quit thinking about myself so much and start thinking about you all...or is it y'all? Either way, I will be sure to document or have someone else take pic's while I'm pretending to know what I'm doing....lol

 

[sgtpontiac]

OK.....so here we go again...I hope...

Now that the crap has stopped hitting the fan and the miscellaneous has calmed down.... I finally got back into the barn to try to accomplish something.... as I stated before, I screwed up welding the a and b pillars back on thinking I could "tweek" it enough to make it work....as I'm sure many of you thought...I was wrong...not the first time and probably not the last..LOL...
It actually was a good thing as after I started to look at the top I didn't like the way it looked....flat...so, I took another inch from the A pillars.... got the look I liked....a slight forward rake.... almost looks like I laid the a pillars back but I didn't...also got the b pillars and a pillars in good alignment....
So I welded in some round bar in the a pillars for strength and got everything in place...used some angle to line up all the gaps and re-welded on the A pillars....everything looked good so I made up the fillers for between the doors and for the roof and got that tacked in.... all that's left is to cut and tack in the filler strips for the middle and two short sections between between the front and rear...finish weld it and then start the dreaded body work.... felt good getting back to it.... hopefully will be able to continue on....without so many interuptions.....and by the way...excuse the shot of the youngest boy...he was trying it on for size....

 

[Snake Farm]

Glad you're back Sarg, just the other day I was down about 8 pages deep in the builds section and noticed a bunch of you guys hanging out down there and thought to myself I'd come back and flush a few of you out in a day or two [ddd
You and Shakey resurfaced today but I'm still going to have to drag a few others back to the top
Your cab is looking good, glad you got it sorted out [
[P[P

 

[Sam_Fear]

More pictures!!! [P

 

[sgtpontiac]

Yep.....you got me.....

Glad you're back Sarg, just the other day I was down about 8 pages deep in the builds section and noticed a bunch of you guys hanging out down there and thought to myself I'd come back and flush a few of you out in a day or two [ddd
You and Shakey resurfaced today but I'm still going to have to drag a few others back to the top
Your cab is looking good, glad you got it sorted out [
[P[P

Now you're going to have to put up with me....LOL That is unless my wife finds me and adds more to her list of things to do...

 

[GJunktionMike]

My hats off to you. I have a hard time with 18 ga on a rounded cab, I would not even try to do that cab. It would end up a rounded lumpy cab. looken good so far[P

 

[sgtpontiac]

Thanks.....Mike

Honestly, it's probably good that I walked away from it for a while....(probably didn't need 2 months but .....) things went much easier this time.... I had a donor roof that I've cut the filler sections form and the old doors are giving it up for the new door shells... I even filled "shaved" the gas tank door and plan on doing the door handles and the rear view mirror areas too.... thinking about using those peep mirrors...thought it would fit the bill...Thanks again....it's good to be back in the saddle again....[

 

[sgtpontiac]

Here are some more pics...

shot of the fillers welded in on the door jam.....shot of the top getting filled and the filler for the gas tank door on the bed..... didn't get them all finish welded..........but all the sections are in and tacked....I thought about trying to butt weld all the fillers but.....went the easier route....flanged and lap welded them...ran out of 75/25 which I got today before work...also went out and got some magnifing inserts.... Darned bifocals..... hopefully this will stop the problem of tilting my head to the point i'm out of view of the welder lens.....to save myself time, I got a +1, +2 and a +3 to avoid making another trip...I also bought another tank of 75/25 so I've got two all the time....sold a couple of transmissions and rear ends so I had some "mad" money to spend....otherwise Mama would have been PO'd.....