Well, I'm at my end of the year update. Not much in the way of progress, due to being sick for three weeks following Thanksgiving and receiving 40+ inches of snow in December, between cleaning snow and trying to stay healthy, truck time took a bit of a hit. I did order some sheet metal though and should be back on track again. I ordered a new cab floor, rockers, cab corners, front fenders, inner fenders, front/rear bumpers along with brackets, LH door shell and a RH door skin.
It was advised that I test fit that door shell, before I started cutting any of the factory floor or rockers apart, due to known fitment issues. So today I mounted the drivers side shell. I'm not a body man at all, so this truck is going to be my learning curve. However out of the box, I had it bolted up and after twenty minutes or so of adjustments, I think I have it sitting relatively decent. The hinges were still bolted to the cab in the same position the factory doors were hung, so any adjustments were done on the door to hinge location. My hinges definitely need to be rebuilt though, and I know that will require more adjusting, but I think it fits decent for the most part. The only major issue I had was the top hoop hitting part of the drip rail in the dead center, but the drip rail itself was sagging in that spot, once that was clearanced, the door was able to shut fully without hitting anything else and resting on the little rubber bumpstops. The rear door to cab gap is about 1/4", I think I could slide it back a hair more, however I looked at my '69 GMC with stock doors and it had about the same gap, so maybe it's acceptable? All of my door pics can be seen
HERE.
The repro door discussion can be found
here.
The following is the main reason I decided to go with a door shell. First and foremost is finding good original sheet metal in my region is really hard, if not impossible. The patch panels to repair this door would cost nearly two thirds what a new shell costs. Third, and probably the most important reason is, I really lack the body working skills to attempt such an endeavor. I am going to try to reskin my passenger side door, any pointers in that department would be appreciated.
Obligatory shot of my helper. The last lab I had when I was in high school was about the same age as this pup (3 yo) when I first ripped this truck apart, so although I've never driven it since I've owned it, there is some sentiment attached to it.
New cab floor, the high hump floors weren't in stock any time soon, so I'll be cutting this one out for my high hump cover.
I took a few pics of my trouble spots on my cab. I know worse has been fixed before, but I'll get through this. You folks with the California cabs are not aware of how good you have it. Not only is it rusted out, it was an old farm truck, so it's had antennas mounted on it, been hit by various things, had some shoddy cab marker lights added on at some point, been out in a few hail storms, etc. I guess that's why its called a project truck.
