Getting started on the choptop truck...

[mrsnicks]

Keith, while the chop is looking good... I have to ask the following...


Where are the updates on the OTHER project before you started this one? You know.. the 1967 swb project????


Patrick

[Calvin Gunter]

Sorry Keith but my vote is to at least paint the engine flat black.

[FORDification]

Keith, while the chop is looking good... I have to ask the following...

Where are the updates on the OTHER project before you started this one? You know.. the 1967 swb project????

Patrick

I haven't done any work to the '67 since last fall. The body is about ready for paint, and since it was getting too cold to do that, I decided that this choptop would be my winter thrash project. It was supposed to be up and running by springtime, but as you can tell I'm a little behind schedule....too many other things vying for my valuable time. And I can't really paint the '67 until the choptop is done and out of the shop, so at least for the time being I'm going to keep working like crazy on this one to get it done and out of the way. THEN I can get back to the '67.

[FORDification]

Sorry Keith but my vote is to at least paint the engine flat black.

Knowing me, I probably will make a last-minute decision on painting it the day I go to drop it in. I don't know, we'll just have to see how it goes.

[FORDification]

I got done at work about 3PM this afternoon, so I headed to the shop since I wasn't going to get a shop day this weekend. Worked until about 9PM.

Finished getting the tailgate mounted, and then got the outside stripped to bare metal.

Then I got started fabbing up the rear rollpan. That really wasn't on the list of things to do right away, but I'm not going to be mounting a bumper, and it just looked too bare back there, so I decided to go ahead and get that done. I'm using the top part of a bedside as the rollpan. Got it 90% trimmed up, still have some more trimming to do, but I'm taking it slow, so I don't get it too narrow. I'm kinda thinking that it's actually going to go together pretty fast...I think I can have it done with another full day's worth of work.

Unfortunately, no camera with me today.

[69bumptruck]

Unfortunately, no camera with me today.

No camera?!?!?



,Sorry, just had to do it.

[FORDification]

OK, I stopped by the shop for a few minutes this afternoon with the camera and snapped a few shots of yesterday's activities.

Here's one of the mounted tailgate, 99% stripped and ready for paint. The area in the middle of the tailgate was dented up (or rather, OUT) from inside the box, so rather than trying to straighten out the letters, I've decided to just mount a very nice tailgate panel I have instead, to cover it up. That's why it's not stripped down.



And here's a shot of the trimmed-down section of the upper bed side which will be the main portion of the rear rollpan. (This is from my red '67, the one in my sig file):



In the following shot, you can see how the curvature of the bedside is virtually identical to the curvature of the back of the bed:



The angled steel just to the left in the above picture is what the top portion of the rollpan will be welded to. This will be welded to the back of the bed, and the rollpan will then attach to this. The top part of the rollpan (where my hand is) will be trimmed off and then bent into a 90-degree angle, kinda like in the following shot. This one is a template I made, to use for trimming/shaping the top side of the rollpan. The only bend I made in this is the 90+ degree bend at the top, which will rest up against the bed.




...and here I am holding the template against the rear of the bed...you can see how nearly perfectly-matched the curvature of each is:



You can see how I'm going to have to trim away some of the lower bed panel as well as notch the ends of the rollpan, to allow me access to the lower tailgate bolt on each side once it's welded into place.

That's where I'm at now...I'm thinking I have pretty much have the rollpan completed when I can get another full shop day. I stopped off at my local Harbor Freight store today and stocked up on cutting wheels and grinding stones, so I'm pretty much set.

[layedout72]

i am more or less wondering why exactly you cut into the red one?

[customcrewcab]

[FORDification]

Well, there wasn't much that wasn't completely rusted-out on the red '67. There were a few salvageable parts, but not many. The frame was saved and powdercoated for my other project, the left-front fender (which is now on the choptop), the hood and lots of little odds and ends. But the lower bedsides were almost paper-thin from rust, from the inside out. The top portions of the bed were the only sections that were even semi-useful.

Yeah, I paid WAY too much money for the red '67 when I got it, but back then it was going to be a simple cab swap and then into daily-driver status. (You know how that normally goes, right?)

[customcrewcab]

[layedout72]

Well, there wasn't much that wasn't completely rusted-out on the red '67. There were a few salvageable parts, but not many. The frame was saved and powdercoated for my other project, the left-front fender (which is now on the choptop), the hood and lots of little odds and ends. But the lower bedsides were almost paper-thin from rust, from the inside out. The top portions of the bed were the only sections that were even semi-useful.

Yeah, I paid WAY too much money for the red '67 when I got it, but back then it was going to be a simple cab swap and then into daily-driver status. (You know how that normally goes, right?)

haha yah, kinda like my 800 dollar running truck, thats now a 3000 dollar non runner!

[69bumptruck]

Make to sure to take your camera with you on that roll pan! I'm thinking I might have to do something like that myself. I never would've thought about using part of a bed for that! Could you take a few pictures of the bed the piece was cut from? Mostly so I can visulize exaclty what part of the bed it is. Thanks!

[FORDification]

Here's the area of the top of the bedside that was cut out to mold the rollpan from:



The very top of the bedside becomes the very bottom of the rollpan. I'd already popped the spotwelds holding the lower bedsides on, and pitched those. I saved both upper bedsides specifically for this project. IIRC it was 67-1/4" between the two bed endcaps, where the rollpan will go...and the upper bedside was only an inch or two longer than that between the stake pockets, so after I cut out this chunk there was virtually nothing left over.

[SmokeyBear]

Keith, may I make a suggestion. I did the rollpan bedside on my truck. You'll have to leave enough room at the ends at the top where you make your 90 degree angle to bolt the bottom part of the tailgate mount like you said but instead of cutting away the structure of your bed, trim the bottom off the rollpan. It's so far underneath the truck it won't matter and if you start trimming the back of your bed it may start to sag in the middle.

I made a very crappy illustration to show you where I cut mine and I have plenty of room to get to the bolts and you still can't see the bottom edge of the rollpan from the back.