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View Full Version : Need some truck advice on fitment of new sheet metal? BAM perhaps?



Double Nickel
01-03-2014, 04:10 PM
I've built a few cars in my time, but just bought my first truck. Initial thoughts were for a simple driver but my thinking has changed a bit. I'm leaning towards building a truck to become my 24/7/365 driver and want something better than a rough driver. I've since ordered a basic chassis for it with 4 link, coil overs and big brakes, and now it's looking like I'm going to redo some sheet metal, but can't help but wonder how it fits, or which manufacturer fits the best? It needs new steel fenders to replace the fiberglass ones on it now, and it could use a new set of doors too. The floors were cut and patched by someone who did a half decent overlay, but it's not the way I would have did it...and that means the right way.

Thinking of a new floor kit with inner steps, rockers and inner cab corners and wonder how well they fit or don't fit? How well do the repop doors and fenders fit? Said to myself I wasn't going to do this on this truck, but here we go again? Another full resto...maybe I should have said no to the truck and started with a brand new cab and build out from there. (lmao)

Anyways Bam, if you have any tips of truck restos or fitment of repro sheet metal, feel free to throw any suggestions my way. Cheers :)

Before the teardown...

BAM55
01-03-2014, 07:01 PM
Hey Double Nickle,

I can only speak from my personal experience. The experience I've had is the reproduction fenders and doors will need work to fit properly. Some of them are just plain awful. I had some repop fenders that I ended up using as patch panels for my oem fenders. In my opinion it is best to find some used oem fender or doors and fix those. Now as far as the patch panels, they do require some work but they put you in the ball park and are way better than trying to build a panel from scratch. The floor patch panels are fine. I had to patch my floors. If you decide to try to fix your doors they sale the patches for those also. But if you need the inner patch for the door stay away for the small in door patch its awful, but the taller one is pretty good. I also did most of the repairs you need such as the inner and outer cab corners, the inner ones were decent the outter ones may need very minor work to fit correctly. I just cut a relief cut to get them to fit correctly, it was very minor.
If you are going to replace the step and rocker buy the one that comes complete, its decent fit and it comes with the rocker already attached.

All patch panels I've installed need some minor adjustment, nothing to be worried about really. As for as fenders and doors I suggest restoring the ones you have or buying some nice used ones they are still out there to be found. I always try to stick with the oem stuff when possible.

Now as far as the bed Mar-k is the best one I seen.

I hope this helps and feel free to ask if I missed something or I can be of help.

Double Nickel
01-03-2014, 08:10 PM
Thanks for the quick reply BAM. I found a source today for a guy around here that may have a set of fenders I can work with. Doors can be saved but will need to be stripped to see what's under the skim of bondo along the bottom. Outer cab corners were done but the inners are not good either so I think I'll start with the complete floor and change it out to make things right there first. Glad to hear about the complete floor being an Ok fit. Thanks for the feedback once again.

Graeme

BAM55
01-03-2014, 08:31 PM
No problem buddy thanks for asking a car question.lol No really thanks.

Double Nickel
01-13-2014, 07:53 PM
Tore the front clip off yesterday and it doesn't look as bad as I first thought. They cut out the rusted floor section and about 4" off the toe boards abefore they overlaid some sheet metal & lap welded it over top. Since it's pretty solid and the cowl and firewall is decent, I'm simply going to clean up the edges of the old floors that were cut and seam seal those edges. Once it's looking better and sealed from any moisture getting between, I'll gravel guard those areas and and paint the underside with Endura or something tough. Doors can likely be saved and I may even reuse the fiberglass front fenders. They aren't too bad but I'd need to build/weld some stand offs on the cowl and keep the fenders pushed out near the middle of the gaps along the doors to get them fitting better there. The fiberglass bowed in there and crowned up high along the doors so those will be some spacers welded between the fender and cowl to get them fitting right.

A new frame ships out this week and I've ordered a ZZ5 crate motor with 4L65E transmission. I've also got a rain gear kit coming for it and a bunch of door hardware to get them fitting and closing better. Next step is to order a new fuel tank for the rear, AAW harness, Dakota VHX gauges, Vintage Air, I-Didit column, some body bushings and a new set of headers. Pretty ambitious but I'm hoping to have it on the new chassis and running again before the end of May. A working driving project that I can finish as it's being driven if that time line's tight. I'll post some more pics as I get further into it. :)

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd418/DBL_NKL/IMG_2242.jpg