weld'er up and keep truckin
remember these ol trucks were mass produced workin mens tools, not precision luxury machines!
assembled at the lowest possible cost by workin stiffs who didn't like Monday mornings anymore than you do, and who couldn't hardly wait for the whistle to blow Friday afternoon
I've noticed that welds in hidden places look pretty poor on all the many trucks I've dug into, any series - I suspect the 'newbie' welders [no robots back then] were tasked with areas that would be covered by other panels for their 'break in period'
also note that on the dogleg models, those areas are made up of at least 3 different vertical pieces built into a column - I once scrapped a TF truck and cut out the air plenums below the dogleg - found a piece of sheet metal stamping that was 'virgin' [surface rust covered] that was one part of the dogleg pillar - I figure someone had set it on the cowl when the whistle blew and it fell in the open air intake - the slight rattle musta drove then new truck buyer crazy, not to mention the dealer
Bill
