Cheating The Reaper

[Texas82GP]

I guess I could have explained that better. If you look at this photo, you'll see a bulge above the two oval shaped stampings. That's the door pull. Over the decades, they always seem to crack out. He welded in short sections of tube/pipe on the inside to eliminate the flex. These doors will never crack again. View attachment 250412

These were pretty sparse from the factory. No armrests or grab handles, just a ledge below the glass. Hell, the door panels and headliner were cardboard. They don't have much in the way of cushion either. Slam the door with the window rolled down and it's almost guaranteed to crack the glass.

Now I see it. Thanks! Yeah, that's a nice improvement.

 

[DRIVEN]

 

[Texas82GP]

View attachment 252450View attachment 252451

The body lines look good! Especially the style lines from cab to door to cab.

 

[DRIVEN]

The body lines look good! Especially the style lines from cab to door to cab.

They're actually better than they deserve to be. I tried to get some pics to show the door gaps but it was pretty dark in there. What looks like wide gaps in the photos I posted is actually the black sealer coat at the edge of where he stripped it to bare metal. The driver's door is original to the cab and fits great. He's hasn't got the adjustment dialed on the passenger side yet because the hinge bolts are loose. It is the best of 3 replacement passenger doors I bought, and still needed a bunch of work.

The real magic is the back of the cab. He had to cut apart my shamefully substandard patch panel installation and start all over. It's really, really nice now, but without seeing the before and after in person, it's hard to appreciate.

If you zoom in at the bottom of the passenger side cowl, you can see 2 cage nuts for the fender mounts. He had to completely restructure the driver's side. Partially due to rust, but mostly because that's where the frame swayed and tore the fender away from the cab. It was a mess.