I'm making a roof for my pickup, started by making the rear bow across the back of the cab...radius like stock. Now coming forward to the header panel...I don't know if they were radiused slightly, or just totally flat pieces. Some pictures look like the roof line rolls slightly towards the front, others look like a straight shot. I can make em any which way..not sure what to do... Opinions? Facts? Haha Thanks... Dubbs
Here's a few pics of a original. The original was not a folding top on the early pickup but might be later. Best i can do.
I made the rear and front bow out rolled 1x1 steel tubing. Today I made a centre bow outta the same tubing. Just put a real nice mild radius in it, rolling toward the front of the cab. That centre bow is permanent now. Next step will be making some removable wood bows to finish up the structure. Finished product will have a removable top...when I wanna let my hair blow...I'll take off the top and remove the wood bows....viola... T-top!
Pics!! ***This is a scratch-ish built cab using a sedan/coupe cowl and doors, custom cab corners and a restamped rear window panel and a basic rolled bead lower panel. You may notice the cab corners are modified...that's because I bought them already chopped, then decided to un-chop them after doing a pretty heavy motor setback. Photo 1 - overall skeletal structure of the roof. There's temporary x bracing in the cab still. It's all 1x1x1/8 rolled tubing. Most of the rolling was done using a combination of an old hand-crank wagon wheel roller, a jig for measuring symmetry, the odd bit of heat and the ol' armstrong method — putting one end of a long piece of tubing in the vice, standing at the other end and pulling on it gently with your hands, in pulses, until the tube starts to develop a radius. I started by making the side tubes above the doors that go from the header/a-pillar to the back of the cab. Next came the straight tube across the back of the cab. The rear sheet metal comes up and wraps over onto the tube and was spotted on. The front bow tube was radiused to match the roll in the header. The front tube is welded in front of the header to create that stock looking roof overhang above the visor. It's welded to the side tube, the a-pillar, gusseted and had some initial metal finishing work done on it. Then the rear bow tube was made to a radius that I thought looked right. Next comes the centre bow...which I also thought looked right...just a slight armstrong radius in that tube. Photo 2, 3, and 4 are pretty self explanatory. Photo 5 is the rear corner gusseted and put together. Still needs metal finishing. I used a piece of plate to make sure I had a good section of weld holding the rear bow on. Here you can see how the rear sheet metal wraps over the flat tube...the sheet metal was in the way of securely welding that rear bow into the cab any other way. Photo 6, front corner gusseted with initial metal finishing done. Photo 7, where the centre bow connects to the front bow. I made a crude notch in the header for now...because I'm not sure how I will finish this area. The tubes are only welded on one side at the front...across the top. I may end up gusseting this joint, or remove more of the header on the front side, weld the tubes on 4 sides, then piece the header sheet metal back in. The windshield mounting part of the header is all rotted out, so I'm half considering cutting out the entire original header now and making one from scratch out of heavy gauge sheet metal?? not sure... Like I said...still needs metal finishing...so don't be too critical on the cosmetics just yet.
The Jalopy Journal
