mattb73lt
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Posts posted by mattb73lt
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On 3/12/2019 at 2:43 PM, Freightrain said:When I bought my B, the rear mount area was weak. The PO had run a piece of angle iron across and just let the cab sit on it. Ya, you could wiggle the cab around. I cut the rear cab patch off and welded new pieces across tying it into the rear of the cab structure. Wow, the cab is rock solid. Not quite as purdy as your repair, but functional!
I lucked out with my B-42. It was owned by a tree company and was mostly used in the summer months and garage kept. It had a shag carpet covering the floor that was soaked in chainsaw oil. The floor and cab back were like factory new, with a sheen of oil on the factory paint. It also had less than 100K on it. It was a really easy clean up and repaint after I converted it to diesel. The B-73, not so much, used hard and then abandoned outside. That definitely took its toll. I had thoughts of getting it on the road, but I think that would have destroyed what I did have. This will be like new if I can keep going and get it done.
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A little before and after showing the reconfigured floor.
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I've been posting a lot because I've had a lot of time to dedicate to this over the Winter and I'm trying to get as much done on it before things pick up at work. The cab structure is done, with only a few minor things to complete. I test fit all the sheetmetal this morning, before I take it to the stripper. It all looks pretty good, but I'm sure there are a few headaches awaiting me. I stacked up most of pieces that have been replaced, plus a bucket full of other scraps, as I was cleaning up the shop. Amazing when you line it all up as you lose track of what you've done, as you fix each issue. The rear cab structure really came out nice and clean, as all the damaged and crushed pieces were fixed or replaced. A lot of strength has come back in it with very little flex, compared to how it was.
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On 3/6/2019 at 2:43 PM, mrsmackpaul said:WOW
That's one heck of a job your doing
Im not sure I am brave enough to get this far into a cab
Great stuff and thanks for sharing it with us
Paul
Thanks, it's been a lot of work, so far. Looking at using Lizard Skin, like you mentioned for soundproofing. Under the cab, inner doors, roof, cab back wall and firewall. Pretty much everywhere that won't get standard paint.
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13 hours ago, j hancock said:Absolutely Outstanding Matt! You are making some good progress.
As a super triple check on the door fitment and operation, verify the dovetails on the door and jamb and the door seal retaining strip with a new seal in place. Much easier to make an adjustment while still in primer.
Ask me why I know....
You mentioned you were having some issues with your cab, after getting it back from the shop that did the work. What did you do with the door seals and the metal retainer that holds them in place? Mine are not usable and I was thinking about using a self adhesive strip to seal the door. I'll be doing a lot of assembly/disassembly as I go before making things permanent to make sure it all fits.
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And one more from the bottom of the cab, after welding it all together and priming, before turning it upright. It looks so nice, considering what I started with.
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HUGE sigh of relief today. I cut out the cage and test fit the doors to check my work. Everything lined up and the gaps appear very even around both doors. I've been so worried about shift, having cut so far into this cab to save it. Like I've been saying, this is the worst part and time consuming. But, being careful and thoughtful about how I've gone about it is paying off.
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It's official, March 1st, I turned the page and started re-assembly by putting the cowl back on and today welded in the new sills and lower back frame. It was very helpful to remove the cowl and rid the pillars of rust. It also allowed me to put the cowl up on a temporary bench to work on it and repair the right cab mount, which had completely blown through and left a fist sized hole. Lots of other small, time consuming repairs were made all over the cowl/pillar area. Overall, I'm very happy with the results and alignment looks good. Not that far off from removing the cage and test fitting the doors. Once that's done, it'll be back to the sheet metal and re-installing it.
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That is a lot of work and a lot of information. Thank you for taking the time and providing it to us. It should help a lot of people.
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After finishing up the mock-up and marking everything for disassembly, I was trying to figure out how to get at the front pillars to get at some rust. Well, I guess I wasn't done taking it apart. So, I removed the cowl completely.. I can definitely get at them this way.
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10 minutes ago, j hancock said:Lots of puzzle pieces but it sure looks like it is going to be better than new!!
I'm very optimistic about this. Alignment seems good and I keep using the old pieces to check. It'll all come apart again for finish work and heavy priming. I still have to attend to some issues with the lower A pillars.
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Seems like it will all fit together. Finished all the modifications to the right sill/jamb, then test fit it all together along with the new rear floor panels. Lots of assembly/disassembly, test fitting, fitting the old parts back in, seeing if it will all line up. Still a ways to go, but it's getting there.
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6 hours ago, blackdog2 said:Did you ever deal with MaGee welding in Oakville Conn.
Yes, the aluminum castings were welded there. The guy that did these is close by, MaGee’s is farther away and running back and forth would take too long.
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7 hours ago, Red Horse said:Matt it will be a show stopper for sure. You should feel good about all the progress you have made. Easy for me to say but I do believe its all downhill from now on. Brooklyn 2021 for sure!
Thanks, I'm trying to make it my best one yet. I really like the style of this truck. Trying to be patient and get it back together right. I've had to drop it several times and walk away for a breather when I found myself frustrated or rushing/
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6 hours ago, Vladislav said:Wow!! Looks much more exciting now!
I'm sure you know what you do by my fingers will be kept crossed. What is the plan for that big 3" U-channel at the bottom of the back wall? Are you going to make a new one? Right at the moment I'm waiting for such part from fabrication but that one will be a straight piece. Hope to get it in the shape by cutting-welding-grinding. My new sills (or rockers?) are also in that order. At least I hope the shop folks will be able to bend what I have drawn
I had another fabricated locally from a donor I picked up and cut apart for a pattern. Mine was too far gone and broken from the accident. The fabricator did a great job, considering how complex it actually is.
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On 2/5/2019 at 4:56 PM, h67st said:You've got that thing torn apart!! My H67 cab didn't look too bad until I had it blasted and all the bondo was blown out of the rust holes...then it looked a lot like yours.
Luckily no surprises when I got it back from the blaster. The areas that were slated for replacement opened up a little more, but the rest was solid. And no real bondo, several layers of paint was about it. Now to start putting it back together so it doesn't look like a rolling jigsaw puzzle when I'm done.
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1 hour ago, AZB755V8 said:That is simply incredible!! The work that has been done and to just start to put it back together now. WOW!! It will be perfect I am sure. Are you keeping track of the hours and cost so far, what is the estimate on the total time and expenses you planned on? My L cab was in great shape to start when I restored it. I had a lot of money, my time and outside labor in it and NO body work was required, You are making a whole new body, just incredible. Is the frame, engine and all else being done to this level as well, it will be priceless!! I am starting to restore an 88 Superliner and almost ashamed to post the project compared to this.
Outstanding!!!
It's hard to estimate the man hours due to how long I've had it. It's always been a back burner project, as I was about to start my other B just when I found this one. So, I've done and collected what I needed over the years in between other projects. A lot of items are already done and stored, ready for assembly. This is the part I've dreaded, it's just dirty, time consuming work. I have the knowledge and experience to go this deep, just not all the equipment to do it. Fabrication is adding to it's cost, but it would be even higher to buy the equipment for what I see as a one time restoration. The cab has always been the roughest part. The truck was used hard up until, from what I could figure, around 1987 when the engine was removed and it was essentially abandoned outside until I found it in 1998. With that and the typical New England climate, rust has taken it's toll. Almost all of that is gone now, with new panels to go back in or existing ones repaired. It would have been nice to find one from your area, but getting it home would have been cost prohibitive. This style cab is somewhat rare and not easy to find. I saw one for sale up in Canada, but a close look at the photo's it looked like it might need similar work and again the cast of getting it home. This is certainly the most in depth restoration I've attempted and there won't be hardly anything that hasn't been touched.
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OMG....What have I done!!!!
Final cutting today and the most serious. The cab is where I need it to start the repairs. Sills are carefully cut apart and completely removed. On to working on the new panels to fit and modify them. My framework seems to be doing it's job and nothing seems to have shifted. It'll be a while before I post so there's more significant progress to report.
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Got the cab back quicker than expected, like less than two days. I was expecting at least a week. No big surprises. Got some primer on it late today, tomorrow I'll start cutting in to the sills for their replacement.
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2 hours ago, terry said:love that P/U haven't seen one of those for a long long time!! that one might be a little newer that I was thing of, what year? seems we had some of those in Viet Nam. terry👍👍
good luck on the blaster!!
It's a 1968 Kaiser Jeep M715 5/4 (1 1/4) ton. Not quite stock, SBC 350, p/s, p/b, 12 Volts and 4.10 gears (from 5.86 stock). All so it's drivable. It's been getting a good workout helping with the restoration.
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A quick test drive to see how the new ventilation system works.
Actually, off to the dry stripper. We'll see how much comes back or if disaster awaits!!
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3 hours ago, Vladislav said:Thank you for the reference pictures. I see your story is moving along. Glad to observe the pogress.
Those side cowl panels also present on my cab. But of easier style having no vents. So the plan is to order them completely new. The issue seem the front and rear edges have double bend with small distance between. Locally the most of shops have limitation on the minimal distance between two bends. So my hope is on personal egeunity or just luck. So far I prepair to open the can of warms closer to the summer.
Ok, glad these are helping you. There is a small step on the door side of the panel, where the door closes flush to it. Having no cowl vent door, it would be a lot easier to fabricate the whole panel. I just roughed out the passenger side, today. It was a little rougher than the other and required three sides of it to be repaired. I over lapped the repair panels over the damaged areas. They're now trimmed, fitted and tacked together. I'll finish welding this on Monday.
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On 1/8/2019 at 3:38 PM, Vladislav said:Looks like the things are doing cool. Would like to see the cowl patch pieces.
Observing your progress I even started crawling over my military Mack cab with a measure band and a caliper to figure out which parts I would be able to order fabricated. The cab has many things in common with your one being basically a L-model cab. But since it's an open one the rocker channels were made different. Consit of lower and upper panels. Your cab has the upper ones only.
Here's some pic's from today. The patches were made locally and in the same gage and made longer to overlap damaged areas to allow for trimming. pretty simple bends and no curves. Hope these help.
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Straightened out several of the rear formers that had damage and getting back some more pieces from the fabricator. Local shop, that's been really good to work with and fast. Test fit all the rear sheetmetal and the donor cab top together for fitment. It all lined up, even the factory holes on the top to the original pieces. I think the top dates from 1948 and the cab is 1960. I have some hope this will all go back together.
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B-73 Restoration
in Antique and Classic Mack Trucks General Discussion
Posted
Still slugging away. Took a break on the cab, after getting the sheet metal back. Doing some chassis work to get the frame mobile again. I have the front axle out and took the front springs to a local shop to be re-arched and matched up. The right spring was really bent and was a lot lower when it was in, even with the empty frame. Three work day turn around and the shop had everything I needed, even for both axles. Cleaned and primered all the parts and the right frame rail, but ran out of daylight to get the left one done.