66 GMC Long to Short LS Swap

[Duncan K]

Back to work on the cab. Finished up the driver side floor, fit the rocker, all is great. Hung the door to make sure all the gaps were good and.............CRAP! Door doesn't fit in the opening. Looks like the front part of the floor is about 5/8 of an inch too high. Not sure what happened, there wasn't much left to measure off, everything was completely rotted out. had to cut the pillar, kick panel and across the floor, and then bend the floor down 5/8". Nothing like hacking up stuff you just finished replacing. I hung the door and what was left of the original fender to confirm fitment of the door this time. ended up having to push the rear pillar back a little as well to get the gaps right.



Pushing the floor down changed the angle of the firewall so I had to remove a piece of the kick panel to make it work. Took a lot of work to fix this mistake. Added the 5/8" to the pillar, kick panel and firewall and welded everything up, .....again!



Got the rockers welded in on both side, and patched a hole in the cowl.



This was a really frustrating mistake to make but I am moving forward again and I learned what not to do for next time.

[Duncan K]

Welded up a bunch of holes inside the cab. The holes from the old gun rack were pretty nasty and had pulled the metal out. I made some sheet metal plugs using the core left over from an annular cutter. Drilled the holes out bigger with a step drill and it was a perfect fit.



Getting closer to having a rust free cab. Still have to fill and bunch of holes in the floor and firewall. Then tackle above the windshield and take the roof off to rust treat and sound deaden.Hoping to have it ready for blasting in a few weeks. Can't wait to see this cab in primer!

[Captainfab]

Nice work, you are coming right along despite a little setback. That happens to all of us.

[Duncan K]

One of the holes in the floor pan for the cab mounts was way off. I had to put the cab on the frame and put the bolts and bushings in for the other three to line things up. Then I drilled up through the bushing from underneath to locate the fourth one. Couldn't resist throwing a fender on while the cab was on the frame.



Cut out and relocated the hole in the floor pan.



Cut out a bunch of plugs and filled all the unnecessary hole is the fire wall.



Got the cab flipped on its back and finished up some welding underneath. Ready to start working on the top of the windshield area and take the roof off.