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Sunday, December 13, 2009

The roof gets a fit.

I set the roof on for the first time.
This here is what you call a short bed. 4 1/2 feet, almost.
It doesn't quite fit yet. It hits the roll bar. The roll bar won't let is sit down all the way.

The roof gets foamed.

Anybody who knows these dodges knows the roof is hollow and bongs like a drum. Years ago, I foamed the inside of my crewcab an it made a big difference. I rigged this copper tube to squirt the foam as far as I could into the roof. I wish I could say it worked. It blew apart. So I taped two straws together and reached in as far as I could. Then I did the rest from the dome-light hole seen in the top right of the pic.
One thing about this stuff. You find where all the holes are.

Here is a shot back up inside before it expanded completely.
While the foam was still soft, I started welding in the insert.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Here I am trimming the front lip of the new top to prep it for the front edge off the old top.

This is the old roof. The rain gutter is actually a seam of spot welds that hold the inner ceiling and the roof together. By cutting the gutter off, I can get the flange free from the roof without damaging it.
A closer view of removing the lip.
Here the bolt-up flange is free from the old roof. It will be welded to the new roof.

Here is the new top on the cradle

Hard to tell what is going on here, but the green is a section of the old ramcharger roof rail embedded in the new roof.

Another shot of the fitment.

Here it is all welded-up waiting for a little finish grinding.










Here is my donor for the new roof. It is a craigslist find of a mid 70s truck.
B.J. helped me remove the top.
A little cut-off here. A little sawsall there.

And, a cradle so I can hold it upside down without denting the roof skin.




It has been a while...

It has been a while since I updated. I have just been driving and working on other things.
Here are some picture in the winter clothes. The roof is rusted out all along the top of the windows. The plan, now, is to build a new top. I will use the roof off a an extended cab pick-up and make a removable cab-and-a-half top.
The plan is to put in a front bed wall under the new back wall. It should be cool.