[OrrieG]

Progress is being made slowly. I have finished the passenger cab corner, it took a long time to get the inner panel rust areas taken care of. It is now nice and solid. Yesterday I started on the drivers side, found that the inner panel rust was much worse and spent the whole day fabricating a new one from 18 ga. stock. Sure wish I had a small metal shear and brake. Wife said I sounded like the village blacksmith using my handy railroad tie anvi and big vice to bend.

Half way through the process I had the thought that I am putting in a lot of work on stuff that I will only see. I have to wonder how many corners get replaced without the attention to the underlying inner panel? I did "improve" on the original GM design so water cannot get trapped between the panel and rust out again. I think a lot of the rust came from hosing down the cab after getting the inside pretty dirty and from a couple of gas spills I had inside when a fuel line broke. Any water on the cab floor that does not flow out the door opening goes into the gaps at the back corners and ends up trapped between the inner and outer panels.

Here are two photos, first is the inner panel patch, second is outside panel after welding and first grind.