Back onto my project, need some help

jvo · 2017-03-11 17:07

Well, it has been a year since I have done anything in my own garage. My son and I have been busy building a project for him and his wife. I have been living with them most of that time, so I haven't been able to work on anything of my own. Attached is a pic of the three story building that we have built. It will be a hair salon on the main floor and bedrooms on second floor, and living, kitchen, dining room on the top level with decks around three sides. Its in Fernie BC, with a 270 degree view of the mountains and ski hill. The lot is commercial/residential so we could build 59 feet high if we chose, but 45 feet high was plenty for this old guy. Nobody else has anything that high around us so the view is wonderful on three sides. Been real busy, and we will start painting next weekend, then a couple more months work and I can finally get back to my previously scheduled program. The drywallers are in the building now, so we had a bit of a break, so I thought I would put a day or two in on my own project. It felt real good to move it over and do a little.
So now, I had made the back wall of the cab for my Ranchero exactly like the factory did. Had a good sheet metal shop bend the pieces up, as my brake is only a 4 footer. They did a really nice job, and did it just like the factory. Only problem is, I threw away the old rusty piece, cause I absolutely knew I would remember how this went together. Well, its been over a year, and guess what, I absolutely do not remember the orientation of these three pieces. I just need to know where the small C channel piece goes in conjunction with the upper and lower pieces of the cab wall.

Can anyone with a Ranchero please take a close up pic of the back wall of the cab so I can see how to properly orient these together? I know the lower piece I notched the middle out of so that the bed floor would rest into the notched area, just can't remember how the C channel goes between the upper and lower piece.

Limey57 · 2017-03-12 08:13

Any help? Best I can do with my phone.

jvo · 2017-03-12 11:36

Gary, those pics I think are of the back wall, right under the rear window? I need the bottom panel. I was looking through your build thread last night to see if I could find anything like that.
I sort of fitted the bottom panel to the floor pan, and now have the transmission tunnel hump cut out of it. I think I might have it figured out, but still not sure. The C channel, I think, goes on the box side of the back wall, and helps tie the upper and lower pieces of the back wall together. Man, I wish I hadn't thrown out the rusty pieces.
Between making it exactly like stock, and making changes to the stock configuration, I have to try to refresh my mind to where it was a year ago.
At this stage, I spent several hours last night measuring, and thinking. There will be a little more of that today, as I get ready to cut and weld the right rear quarter panel into the car, then attach the back wall to it. Thanks.

Limey57 · 2017-03-12 14:08

OK, it isn't easy to get a clear picture now most of it is finished, but do these help?

Limey57 · 2017-03-12 14:09

A couple more

KYBlueOval · 2017-03-13 05:26

If these photos do not show you what you need to know, let me know. My Ranchero is completely apart, and it's on a rotoisiere and I can take photos from many different angles. It's having body work done at the moment and it's not at my house. It's 40 miles away, but I get there once a week or so.How big a hurry are you in ? I don't think I'll get there till the later part of the week.
Let me know if you want the photos.

jvo · 2017-03-13 14:12

Thank you Gary. I finally figured it out with the help of your photos. Makes perfect sense now, but I just wasn't trying to fit it that way. I actually got the quarter panel tacked in place last night, and it fits like a glove. Really nice door gap and all as well. I probably won't get much else done for another couple months, but at least I got a bit of a refresher in my own mind, and it felt real good to get something done.

Limey57 · 2017-03-14 02:53

Quote from: jvo on 2017-03-13 14:12
Thank you Gary. I finally figured it out with the help of your photos. Makes perfect sense now, but I just wasn't trying to fit it that way. I actually got the quarter panel tacked in place last night, and it fits like a glove. Really nice door gap and all as well. I probably won't get much else done for another couple months, but at least I got a bit of a refresher in my own mind, and it felt real good to get something done.

Excellent! I find that finding time to do one or two small jobs when you don't have time to really get stuck in with the bigger jobs keeps the enthusiasm going, especially if those smaller jobs are noticeable.

RICH MUISE · 2017-03-14 08:35

Looks like both of you doing things right!
Nice job on the building also, JVO......you/your son in the contracting business?

jvo · 2017-03-14 10:08

Nope. Neither of us are contractors, but we do have a friend of Noel's that just got his carpenter's ticket, with the plus side being that he is extremely fussy. When we did the second floor sheathing, he double checked the squareness of the building by measuring the 3,4,5 method, and we measured 30 feet, 40 feet along the other wall, then 50 feet across the diagonal, and he called me over to look at the tape. It wasn't close, as in, out a quarter of an inch or anything, the tape measure marks were exactly, precisely on the 50 foot mark. That has made the project much easier in that we have all vowed not to every say, "that's good enough".
Once you start saying "that's good enough", everything starts going down hill from there.
Anyway, it has totally consumed all of us. A lot of sleepless nights, and the project has come in more than double what I figured it would be in the end. That is how us amateurs operate, right? Kind of like building a car??? Way over budget, but will still be worth more than the cost, as the price of real estate in Fernie (all round winter summer resort) is sky high, kind of like Toronto and Vancouver.
Can't wait for it to be done, so I can continue on with my life. (But I guess helping out your kids is sort of your life, eh?)

RICH MUISE · 2017-03-14 10:24

I miss the days when my son and I worked on stuff together. Lifetime memories.
"good enough" should be when it's right. The house we've been in for umpteen years has had to be "good enough" before being right because it really needed to be torn down or at least gutted. We're moving to a house where I can get back to my doing things right, and I'm looking forward to it.

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Back onto my project, need some help