B-73 Restoration

[mowerman 2,230]

aaaaaahhhhhhhh i see i misspelled duel,,last night,funny thing i wasnt even drinking.....lol.bob

[mattb73lt 958]

Final time putting the roof on, permanently this time. What a huge, tedious, pain in the ass getting the edges repaired. Took me about two weeks of fiddling and fussing to get it right and leave enough room for the gutters. The results were good, though. Door gaps look good and neither door binds or rubs. Just the front pillars to do and a bunch of small fixes to do and then on to bodywork and paint. I really can’t believe I brought this rusty, banged up cab back.

Edited March 29, 2020 by mattb73lt

[terry 537]

makes you wonder what goes through all them holes in the firewall!! 👍👍terry

[mattb73lt 958]

No kidding. You’d think they would’ve deleted them as they weren’t needed. Nope, let’s just drill more!,

[1965 411]

Wasn’t paying attention to them; wow! that’s a bunch of holes!

Fantastic work!

[mattb73lt 958]

Over the life of this cab model, I don’t think they ever deleted a single hole or attachment. So many unused holes, the old radiator support rod holes are still there for an LJ radiator, plus the bigger ones for the B radiator. A piece of angle iron added, I think that’s to support the big heater on the inside. A lot will get reused, but man there’s a lot. I guess if you bought it for an earlier truck, as a replacement, it would all still fit no matter the year.

Edited March 29, 2020 by mattb73lt

[mattb73lt 958]

One more, overhead, for the heck of it.

[Vladislav 3,006]

A real pleasure to see!

Thank you for posting all the thread.

[davehummell 441]

That line shaft lathe is older than my first lathe and i thought that one was ancient.Can you cut treads? 

[mattb73lt 958]

1 hour ago, davehummell said:

That line shaft lathe is older than my first lathe and i thought that one was ancient.Can you cut treads? 

Yes, I can. I have all the gears to do so and all the other attachments. It’s old(1920’s?), but fine for my projects.

[Red Horse 1,614]

7 minutes ago, mattb73lt said:

Yes, I can. I have all the gears to do so and all the other attachments. It’s old(1920’s?), but fine for my projects.

You are a craftsman!😎

[j hancock 13,667]

Had a ton of holes in my B-75 but I think you still win the prize! 

Quite a few holes got used and a bunch got filled.

[mattb73lt 958]

Into the daylight and off to the fabricator to build some gutters for it. Just a few more things to complete then bodywork/paint. Getting close to making some major progress and having this looking like a truck instead of a huge pile of parts spread everywhere.

[mattb73lt 958]

The windshield area was a pain to repair, like the roof edges.

Edited April 15, 2020 by mattb73lt

[mattb73lt 958]

36 separate welds per side and now I have rain gutters!!

[mattb73lt 958]

DONE, DONE, DONE!!!!

Final patches on the lower windshield pillars installed and cleaned up the gutters. Test fit the doors and all is well with no rubbing. Obviously, I need to tweak a lot of little stuff. Looking at my last couple of posts, it doesn’t look like a lot of progress. But, there was, as it was all the hard stuff that shows. I am amazed I brought this cab back and now my big headache  is behind me!!

[HeavyGunner 2,379]

Fantastic work. You’re going to enjoy the heck out of that truck when it’s rolling soon.!

[h67st 1,243]

11 hours ago, mattb73lt said:

DONE, DONE, DONE!!!!

Final patches on the lower windshield pillars installed and cleaned up the gutters. Test fit the doors and all is well with no rubbing. Obviously, I need to tweak a lot of little stuff. Looking at my last couple of posts, it doesn’t look like a lot of progress. But, there was, as it was all the hard stuff that shows. I am amazed I brought this cab back and now my big headache  is behind me!!

 

I agree on the progress...sometimes I'll spend hours on something and when you sit back and look at it, it doesn't look as hard as it actually was!

[Vladislav 3,006]

9 hours ago, h67st said:

sometimes I'll spend hours on something and when you sit back and look at it, it doesn't look as hard as it actually was!

Or even just don't see any notable difference between the before and after.

[yarnall 972]

Congratulations on finishing it up.  When can I drop mine off?

[j hancock 13,667]

Looks Fabulous!!!

[eddeere 522]

Great work. A job well done.

[Red Horse 1,614]

Hey Matt, and on a very good note you WILL make the next Brooklyn show😄 

[mattb73lt 958]

Thank you all for the comments, they actually help keep me motivated. Two Winter seasons to get it done. I’m not going to say years because there was a lot of pauses during that time. The end result was a nearly brand new cab which should serve me a long time. A few photos to show some perspective on how it went. Now, back to work or play.

[mattb73lt 958]

After finishing the cab, I put all the parts away I don’t need and made some space for other parts that need attention. Brought the front axle assembly in yesterday and broke it down all the way to the bare axle. Spent today breaking all those parts down for inspection and cleaning. It all came apart without too much of a fight, but it really shows how hard this truck was used (read abused). Now to start sourcing parts I need and get on to some bodywork.