Well Steve....I for one, think that's a cool way to access the
cab from any angle without having to work of the floor on your
hands and knee's. As far as it being overkill, probably is,
if your intention is to buy one truck, fix up one truck, then
drive one truck and that's it. Deve can speak to us about
overkill, he's our resident expert on overkill. Overkill is
part of the hobby, rather than doing something that is "good
enough", I often overkill the projects I'm working on. Heck,
I've worked thousands of hours and spent untold amounts of
money on machine tools, welding equipment, painting facilities
and tools when it would have been much easier to just work a
little side job at what I'm best at for a few hours and pay
some expert to do the work for me.
But if you're aim is restoring these trucks as a hobby,
looking toward the future I can see this coming in handy
with the next one and the next. With a different set of
adapter arms and a longer tie bar it will also swing a frame.
Gosh, when you think about it, it does resemble a professionally
built frame rotisserie which I've seen on the market with
those tall bottle jacks to adjust the height. It doesn't
look like there is all that much material involved in making
it. A weekend of cutting welding and drilling for anyone with
any fabricating skills orta do it. Now finding room for it
next to the engine test stand, universal welding jig and
portable spray booth in a two car attached garage is
another story.
As far as the strength and rigidity of a Stovebolt cab, it's
a unit body type construction and certainly should support its
400 lb. weight just fine jigged the way Steve has it in any
position. If bending of the door hinge mounts, which we
encounter often is where Deve is directing his concern, yes,
with a door cantilevered off the hinge pocket is a concern
because of the leverage. But with the cab supported at the
hinge pocket, and at the rear latch point on both sides it
would give me no worry. I'd probably opt to mount it at both
front hinge points to aid in locating the CG, but then again,
I normally overkill any task I take on anyway.
Nice job Steve.
dg
