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I'm beginning to see spot welds in my dreams now. Yeesh. Do you know how many spot welds there are holding a 67-72 box side together? A pile. Perhaps I will count them next time out. It has to be well over 100. Anyway, I have the inner and outer separated. First, I got the front stake pocket removed, I then proceeded to cut all the spot welds along the top rail on the inside. There were a lot of them. I left a couple, one at the front and one at the rear, just to hold the top until I was ready to separate the two. Next, I took a very fine dremel cut off disc and sliced through the tack welds that held the inner and outer together on the top lip of the wheel well. I made a slight notch on either end to help with realignment. Again I left the end two welds to hold it until I was absolutely ready. Surprisingly, it went well so I cut the last tacks and spot welds and those pieces came apart quite well.

Once apart, I prepped the two pieces with the beads and the inner panel for tig welding. I lined them up, clamped 'em, and buzzed them out, grinded a touch and called them good. I had a little hammer and dolly work but they turned out pretty good ( for me anyway). Tonight, I removed the middle stake pocket as the true shortbeds don't have them. My spot weld cutter isn't long enough to hit these perpendicular to the metal, so I had to improvise and this caused extra cuts in the good inner panel metal. I had to tig those holes up and hammer dolly a little bit. So far so good. After some cutting & true-ing I lost about 1/8" overall. Hopefully it doesn't bite me later.

Here's the damage:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZRK1GcKc7jQ39dyH9

By the way, if any of you are thinking of getting a welder, seriously consider saving up and getting a multipurpose machine. I did, and oh boy, do I LOVE my MIG/TIG/Stick ESAB. It can do it all.

Cab: 86
Frame: 29
Doors: 44
Fenders: 34.5
Hood: 2.5
Box: 20

Total: 216

🤔🦊

I was also checking my hours list and I haven't included a lot of wasted hours from that stupid LH door. And I missed 2 hours on the cab somehow. I have to recompile the totals as this isn't quite right...

Next up, I will be removing all the rust via blasting in and out, then start some metal work/ dent repair, epoxy prime what I can, and then weld it back up. It's a long road with lots of curves ahead.