Roadster Pickup---the end is near

[brianrupnow]

The end of welding on this old cab section anyways. I have been welding and grinding for the last 4 weeks, and the end is in sight. I have installed new cowl bottoms, new door bottoms, new floor, new kick panel at front of floor, bearclaw latches and strikers, and modified the windshield frame to accept a glue in windshield (this was originally a sedan body), and capped the windshield posts with a 1/8” plate welded into place with a 3/8” hex nut welded to the inside to accept bolts to hold on some kind of header for my Carson style top. The goofy looking eye bolts are screwed in there to keep the threads from deforming during all the welding. None of this has cost a lot, but man, have I spent a lot of hours. What you can’t see in the picture is the humungous gussets inside that connect the back of the body section to the floor sills, to keep my door gap from closing up and taking a bite out of my arm when I drive over a curb and the frame/body flexes.---these gussets almost follow the profile line of the seats, from the side. Next week I will be finished, then I have to decide will I do the countless hours of mudwork required, or farm it out to the kid down the road who does excellent mudwork for $25 an hour, but can finish it 25 times quicker (and probably straighter) than I could.

[Don Shillady]

Wow! That's a lot of work! Some vacation!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder