"Rail"

My Aunt shared an interesting term last night at the family Christmas gathering. In northern Indiana (where they build many a camper/ RV) they refer to the bare frames with engines "rails". These factories order bodiless frames with engines from GM or Ford and put a box where the seat should go to unload them. Here is a shot of my "rail".

Silica + Pneumatics = GOOD.

Here are the rear cab mounts. One is freshly sandblasted the other is there for comparison. No amount of elbow grease, sandpaper or chemical can do what a sandblaster does. This is a must for any resto project. I rigged a blast cabinet out of an old trash can with some plexiglass on top . I cut a hole in the bottom of the can and put a 5 gallon bucket underneath. With hardware cloth in between the two it allows the sand to fall through and it can then be screened and reused.

Rust Sucks

I tried and tried and hoped and tried to make the cab go back together without taking it off the frame. The rust was just too bad. I'd cut some off, dig deeper cut more and finally it got to the point where I just had to take the cab off the frame. I was hoping I could keep it there and the frame would maintain the alignment of the cab and I could get away with fixing the floor. Alas, I found out why you can buy all of the patch panels for these old trucks.

Luckily my Pops was more than happy to help with the heavy lifting. He is strong and was happy to out off his hone-do list for a half day to help. Team M2 put it in the back of the GMC. We had to cobble together a raised bed to fit the cab for transport.