This past weekend I got some more work done on the donor chassis-vehicle. I started by getting the rest of the front end removed, then we unbolted the bed from the chassis to gain access to where we needed to cut. Next we moved to the moment my inner child had been waiting for, cutting the cab apart! I opted to use the Versa Cut Plasma Cutter on 220V to blast through the cowl above the firewall and the A-pillars. I also decided to zip through the door hinge brackets since I will be using all of this from the Dodge Body.
After i got the main section of the roof cut off with the windshield and all, I cut the back of the cab off to get it in the basic configuration I will need for grafting the Dodge body into it. Next we test fit panels and begin a game plan on the best way to fit it all together.
After a quick test fit of the front end, I could quickly see that the Dodge inner fenders had to be cut out quite a bit to fit over the chassis. I should have done this from the beginning really, as I plan to run some oversized wheels and install airbags.. so it surely would need the space to tuck the wheels anyways! Here are some before and afters of the room I freed up by removing the inner fenders on the front end.
This week I am hoping to roughly cut-out the floor of the Dodge cab, and then lift it over the floor/firewall on the chassis and see what needs to be done to mate the 2 pieces. I am pretty excited to get it looking “Old” quite soon! Watch this space, the sparks have just begun to fly!