Finally found a cab near Boston Mass. so we can get started with the build. It already has a 6" chop with the roof just tacked on. I'm more into motorcyles and no fabicration experience so I'm having my new found friend Koz build it for me. After seeing his work, I know it'll get done right! Here's Koz with the cab:
Koz is da man. The cab looks pretty good...nice find. What sort of end point do you have in mind? It looks like about a 4" chop already...did the seller give you any history on that? Welcome to the 32-34 Ford truck club...there are a lot of threads here on these, so check them out & keep us apprised of your progress. Good luck to you & welcome aboard!
Yeah Koz said it's one of the nicest he's seen in awhile. Nice thing is I got it for a great price. I'm going for the traditional look, maybe adding some "rat rod" embellishments. I was told by the seller it was 6" but I think you're correct at 4" Some of the cut was left in the cab and does look like 4" As far as history all I know is the seller got it as payment for money owed. He has several rods and was going to build it himself but decided to sell. Thanks for the welcome and Koz will be updating me with pics so I'll be sure to post.
Be kind to Kess. He's new to this stuff and his idea of "Rat Rod" is actually closer to what we refer to as "traditional". This cab is super nice and very rust free. I can't remember the last time I had one in with subrails this nice! We're setting it on a set of fabbed '34 rails with a ghost channel, ( center drop on the frame, the 6" rails become 4" under the cab), that will retain the full height inside. The frame is layed out to have a straight tail after the rear axle centerline that always looks odd to me on the stock frame. I've also templated the frame to have a 106" wheelbase, the same as a deuce, to set the wheels at the right place for the look we're after. We're also going to section the windshield rail above the cowl that always looks too rotund for my liking which will bring the windshield into PA. legal compliance. It doesn't look it in the pics but the chop is actually 6". Whoever did it did a fairly decent job on the cut but just messed with some details. In a week or so everything will be fine with the world. Kess is a kind of big guy who still has plenty of headroom with this chop if we're careful with the details. Kess scavenged his 92 Firebird for the small block, trans, and rear, all of which we're using to keep costs in line. The truck will be a very traditional build that will set "right", run like stink, and have "look". I'll keep this thread updated as we move along and there will be a load of very cool details we have planned that I'm sure this Forum will appreciate. I'm very happy to see another younger guy turning to the dark side and becoming afflicted with this incurable desease the rest of us have suffered from since the '50's!
After getting the cab nto the shop taday and having a little time to get it measured up there is some minor tweeking we need to do. The chop is just a bit off left to, right, so I'll correct that when I finish the welding up. Some of the work looks like they got stuck when it came time to split and piecut the doors and frames. Ain't no way these windows were going to work! You can see how they dropped the top but didn't get to any of the "A" pillar work. I'll take the front apart and fix the doors to work properly, Not a big deal. Also there are some minor issues with where the back of the cowl was whacked. Whoever did the cut was very diligent to provide all the cut out pieces which will save me a ton of grief in fitting everything up. Gonna require a bit of work to get the beltlines right. Nice body that will finish out nicely. I'll continue to post as we progress this week.
The body is done at the blasters and will be on the assembly table by the weekend for all the metalwork. I have a fab frame made up that the body bolts to and holds the body dead on. It's drilled for all the early pickups. Frame fabrication will start as soon as the body is in squared up and I can get some good dimensions. Kess has been sourcing a lot of parts and this build will really move once we get on it. This truck will have a really specific "set" to it and as such frame geometry is critical as there is no fudge room whatsoever. I have the muse truck scaled out and I think I can hit within 1/8" on all the critical dimensions. I'm looking forward to this build more than most as the truck will be real unique. Definitly not a bellybutton. I'll post up daily when we get it rolling.
Finally getting a minute to post up a few pics. The cab is back from the blaster and as usual has a few ills but nothing terrible. The chop was started by the last owner but just tacked up. Much easier that cutting one apart. They included all the cut out parts so putting it back will be a lot easier. Kess want to add an inch of headroom so the parts are invaluable. 34's always have that kind of odd rail at the bottom of the windshield. In an effort to get the body lines a bit nicer and add a little glass to the front we're dropping the windshield 1 1/4" and adjusting the door glass to reflect this change. I've done this a few times before and it's one of those things you don't notice at first but just looks "right" when you look at the finished truck. You can see me cut lines here. This drops the dash a like amount and makes the interior better looking as well, ( the dash lays in against the doors a lot nicer). I'd also like to sneak the visor bask about 3/4". I'll speak to Kess about this when the shell is in metal. This is the next project in the fab bay so I'll be posting most days on progress.
A couple pics of the rails just clamped together on the shop froor and ready for the fixture. As you can see the rails are press braked and them being boxed. The part under the cab is boxed with a piece of 10ga. braked to fab a 2x4 section. The body is channeled 2" over this section and the floor dropped between the rails which follow the sills to provide extra foot room. The seat will be fabbed to mask floor rails and the interior should be plenty comfy. As we progress here I'll use the '34 style frame horns to give the appearance of a stock frame that was reworked. These pics are a bit old while I sort my New Photobucket but I'll continue to post as the x member and crossmembers are fabbed up.
Much progress this week. By the weekend it will start to look like a truck! I'll let you post the pics when you come here. They're better than mine anyway.
Sounds like the same front windshield treatment i'm planning for my pickup. Wish I could see the pictures. Seems like a nice build though.
Somebody moved all the photos off of this thread. I would like to see whats going on. Whoever stole them....but them back please..
I've been wondering about the same thing. It's happened to some of my shots before, for no apparent reason. Things will be going along hunky-dorey & then, blam, the pictures disappear with the note "This person moved or deleted this image," which I did not do. What up?
Just joining this thread and want to clarify, did you cut a section out from under the windshield? Could not see first set of pics. And did you pie cut the doors for this?
Yeah that was my bad. When I was over at Koz's last week I was organizing his Photobucket. He had all the pics in the Library and I created a new album and placed them there. The reason they disappeared from the HAMB is because I changed the location of the pics by moving them. I'll reload them this coming weekend when I head over Koz's place. Sorry 'bout that!
On the windshield chop, I removed 1 5/16" under the lower windshield rail. To do this I split the windshield posts vertically from my lower rail to the top of the post. This is pretty easy to do with a 1/32" cutoff wheel in a die grinder. As the '34 roof unbolts it is obvious where this ends. You need to reach down from the top with a long thin chisel. (I use a gasket scraper I sharpened to fit), and cut four rivets on each side near the windshield pivot. With these loose you can drill out the spotwelds under the windshield frame and cut the dash mounting angles loose as well. You can then remove this section in one piece. With the corresponding strip of metal removed the loose piece is now welded back in at the lower position. Removing more than 1 5/16 will not allow the windshield to close properly. The windshield pivots stay at the same place and you can chop the top if you desire to the proper height. I have the advantage in having done four of these before and the first one took some head scratching. If you do this the windshield should visually line up with your side glass, You can run a 5" chop and still meet Pennsylvanias inspection law and it just plain looks cool. The dash drops and equal amount as well which means your line of sight with a lower seat is much better. The steel duece dash which is readily available for a '31 closed car goes right in is you salvage the top rail of the '34 commercial dash as a subrail. More on this later in the build, but it looks like it grew there and perfectly sets your steering position if you use one of the Offy 1 1/2" '32 column drops. This does not affect the doors at all. On this cab we are flush fitting the doors so I will be sliding the B pillar back about 3/4" to make this work. Once again, pics will follow as we progress. As built the '34s just look a little too "train like" for me. This simple mod makes this year cab just drop in the pocket and look deceptivly elegant. When it's in primer I welcome your input. I'll have some more pics up soon. Let me know if any of this is a bit muddy.
A couple more updated images with the cab fitted on the frame. The cab sits as low as possible within the scrub line limits for Pa.
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