mattb73lt

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.

Yes, it was salvaged from a fire truck a friend gave me. The cab was rough, but I carefully dissected it and ended up with some better pieces or at least patterns to make replacements.

Slugging away at this cab. Test fit the "new" cab roof, had a local fab shop bend up some patch pieces for the cowl sides. Got those back today, he was fast!! Parts are still coming off and a big part of the floor came out today. The cage I welded into the cab is starting to come into play as I'm slicing away. I may have to slow up on the cab, as I'll need to get it to the dry stripper before much more comes off, as my roll back is in storage. Still surprising how much dirt and debri keeps coming out, even after the big steam cleaning I gave it. Probably swept up 5+ lbs over the last week.

Good thing I didn’t mess it up while machining it up then! I have one of his steel ones on my B-42. They do look nice.

I bought it from Doug Fetterly about 16+ years ago. He makes and markets repro steel and stainless B model bumpers.

No, I bought it years ago. Just machined the footsteps and mounting holes from the remnants of the original. Took a little ingenuity to support it while working on it. Then I rebuffed it.

Primed all the repaired parts, cross members and mounts for the frame and driveline. I'll store them until I'm ready to start assembly. Due to much improved working hours, this truck could be back on the road in shorter time.

Hopefully, It will. After I repair the lower cab and a few other areas, I'll start repairing the panels one by one. Then start the reinstallation. Just going to worry about it one panel/repair at a time. It's kind of daunting looking at it as a whole. This is the worst part of the whole restoration.

Back at it again. I've had some consistent time to devote and have gotten a lot accomplished. I had all the aluminum frame castings repaired where needed. Then I machined all the repairs and replaced all the holes on the Bridgeport. While I was doing that work, I made up a polished stainless bumper to replace the mangled aluminum one. Finally, welded in about 60' of 1" square tubing to brace it as a removed the final panels for repair.

But it has the rare sun roof factory option!! It's worth it just for that, in somebody's wild dreams.

I think I might go that route, I like that you can paint overt it.

Hopefully! I will have to have some small parts fabricated locally, but I have all the major pieces.

I've collected up numerous pieces that are re-production (sills, cab back) and a lot of donor pieces. I was lucky enough to have a friend give me a Bridgeport, Ct fire truck cab. It was really gone on the bottom end but all the upper metal was good. I carefully cut it apart and was able to get the cab top, under structure for it, cowl and windshield area.

I was going to use Lizard skin on the entire bottom, then Dynamat over the entire interior. Probably go double thick under the mat for the firewall.

It’s going to get a lot worse, soon. I need to cross brace everything first before going further. The roof is coming off and the lower cab sills will get replaced. I don’t think the L cab is as sturdy as the standard B cab and more prone to rust. The back panels on this one were replaced early in its life and weren’t done well so they came off easily. This is certainly the worst part of this project and it’ll take a bunch of time to fix.

Steam cleaned the crap out of the cab today. Amazing the amount of dirt and grease that came out of it!! Spent three hours on it once it got set up this morning. It's squeaky clean now and ready for more work

It should, ive had very good luck with it on other engines. Pretty durable

Tracked down a really nice backdrop manifold last year, after putting out some feelers for one. Scored one that didn't break the bank and was in excellent condition. Now to get it in and hear it run!'