After being distracted with a lot of home projects, I finally found some time to get back to the truck on Monday and this evening.
I decided to turn the cab around and work on the right side first. On the left side, I need to install the inner cowl panel; the best way to do it is to drop the front of the floor. I decided to work on the right side before messing with the floor.
Worked on the right side inner cowl panel. Came out okay, there is a gap at the top, but not the worst thing in the world.
The front pillar was the "great" part. I originally bought the part from Classic Parts, cut it too short and decided to get one from Tabco. So this is how it went:
1. Cut the Tabco part too low and screw it up.
2. Tack weld the cut piece from the first CP part to make it whole again. (And no, my welding has not gotten any better after not doing it for over a year).
3. Cut the CP part in a shape that is completely different from the actual shape I want.
4. Give up and order another part from CP.
I did decide that at least for this part, I like the CP better than the Tabco part. I felt that the shape of the CP part was a better overall fit than the Tabco.
Here are some pics, then I'll make a separate post about my attempt today.
This is the shape I need to cut:
This is me screwing it up. It might look like the right shape, but the center is cut too low. Thanks to Dan, I know the large hole on the bottom should be 7.5" from the center of the top hinge screw hole. It's not. So either I rebuild this one, or I get a new part (opted for the latter).
Now the mistake I made with the inner cowl I don't think is that difficult to rectify. The part lined up pretty well. I realized a bit later that my floor was not lined up quite the way I needed it. From moving the cab around, and lending my friend the lift, the back of the floor shifted up, which altered the cowl panel lining up in the front. In the end, I have a gap like this:
(Somehow the gap does not look as bad in the pics as it does in real life).
You can see the other side in the first pic above.
And here is my still crappy welding skills. (it did the job though). I thought I had a pic of the really bad cutting job I did, but I can't find it.
