The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Need some advice.

Been reading posts on here for a while now, I think this might be my first post.

I have a 58 Apache Fleetside, the bed is at a hotrod shop here locally, getting the 5 star treatment, since I can't mess up a fleetside bed and think a replacement will be available.

So I'm leaving the cab to me. I have both cab corners, both steps/rockers, the passenger side floor/toeboard to start. It needs door bottoms, and a few small patches here and there.

Right now I have cut out the passenger cab corner, the passenger step, and I'm staring at the passneger floorboard. My worry is the door frame springing as soon as I cut the floor. I want to brace it before cutting, my real question is can I weld in the cab corner and step, then move onto the floor?

definitely finish the steps before the floor, one piece at a time not everything at once - if the cab is off the frame when you cut the floor, tack weld some braces in the door openings first

Bill

Well, I finished the cab corner. The welds look good, no worries with warping, I think I'd really have to torch it to warp it. Problem is, I measured 14 times, and the 14th time I convinced myself to trim off too much material. So I went back with strips behind the gap to help close it up. Pretty good actually all things considered. Unfortunately the cab corner isn't straight when looking at the vertical line between the cab/bed front. I'm a little worried now with my ability to make good cuts with a cutoff wheel. Do you guys think a pair of sheet metal sheers is an option? My Dad thinks it will deform the metal too much.