Roof Raising & Rebuild

The original roof will be getting rebulit & re-enforced with new metal. It will also be getting raised 17" in the rear section to allow for more headroom.

Before pictures of the original roof line.

Outside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside

 

 

 

 

 

Everything but the original roof edge round-over caps will be getting replaced with new steel.

Cutting off the original roof.

Removing the original 1/8" sheet metal. This will be getting replaced with the same 1/8" steel plate.

 

 

 

 

 

The original cross support braces can now be removed. These will be getting replaced with stronger 3" x 3" x 1/4" structural tubing.

 

 

 The original roof edge round-over caps can now be removed. These will be getting reused if possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roof if completely removed! Now for the fun part, putting it back on!

 

 

Original roof round-over caps.

 

The new metal for the roof has arrived! All 3500 pounds of it!

 

 

 

 

The mounting locations for the side roof extensions can now be cleaned & prepped.

 

 

 

Attaching the new 1 1/4" steel support bars. The same prep process will be done to these also.

 

 

 

 

Temporary upright supports needed to be attached to help hold the new side roof extensions in place during welding.

 

 

 

The new side roof extensions can now be cut and prepped.

Cutting the new side roof extensions.

 

Prepping the new side roof extensions.

 

The new side roof extensions can now be fit in place and fully welded to the truck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original roof round-over caps will be getting re-used on the new roof due to all local fabrication shops being unable to re-produce them with new steel. They will need to be cleaned up & stripped of any remaining metal from the old roof & walls.

In this picture, you can clearly see the old roof skins overlapping the caps. This will need to be removed so the new skins will sit flat.

 

Removing the excess metal from the outside from the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

Removing the excess metal from the inside from the wall skins.

 

 

 

 

The mounting locations will be prepped for the new attachments. The rest will be left alone for now and done at a later date.

Cleaned & prepped.

 

 

The rear walls needed to be replaced do to severe corrosion & re-enforced to help support the extra weight of the new roof. The new wall skins will extend up to the same height as the side wall extensions. The wall frames will be rebuilt with solid 1 1/4" steel bar. This will be much stronger than the original 1 1/4" tube.

Re-enforcing the door opening.

 

Original passengers side wall. Really rough shape.

 

Original passengers side wall removed.

 

Adding temporary supports to help prevent the walls from flexing.

 

Installing the new wall cross braces.

 

 

The new wall frame cleaned & prepped & ready for the new wall skin.

 

 

Wall skin cleaned & prepped.

 

Welding in the new wall skin.

 

 

The passengers side wall is now completely attached.

 

Original drivers side wall. Really rough shape.

 

Original drivers side wall removed.

 

The new wall frame built, cleaned & prepped & ready for the new wall skin.

 

 

 

Wall skin cleaned & prepped.

 

Welding in the new wall skin.

 

 

The drivers side wall is now completely attached and the top center wall section frame is built.

 

The top center wall section can now be installed.

 

The drivers & passengers side wall extension frames can now be fabricated.

 

 

 

 

Now that all the wall extensions are in place and the new roof height has been established, the new roof can be fabricated.

Re-installing the roof round-over caps.

Passengers side.

 

 

 

Drivers side.

 

 

 

The roof cross support tubes can now be installed across the round-over caps.

Cutting the cross support tubes.

 

Installing the roof cross support tubes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabricating the rear center roof panel.

 

 

Installing the rear center roof panel.

 

 

 

 

Now that the roof cross support tubes have all be installed and fully welded in place, the hanger plates for the subwoofer enclosures can now be installed.

These will be made from 1/4" x 12" steel plate and fully welded to the roof cross support tubes with 23" in between each one to allow a nice fit for the subwoofer enclosures.

The estimated weight for each loaded enclosure will be 350 pounds...so 1400 pounds total will be suspended from the roof. These need to be extra strong, no messing around here!

Installing the hanger plates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roof skin can now be installed. This will be made out of 1/8" steel sheet.

Installing the rear section roof skins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the rear section of skin has been fully welded in place, the front section can be fabricated.

The lay back angle of the new raised section will be the same as the original angle of 13 degrees on the windshield panel.

Cutting the lay back angles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the lay back angles have been cut, the rest of the roof skin can be installed and the lay back skin also.

Installing the roof & lay back skins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the front section of the original roof can be replaced and fabricated to accomadate the new roof mount A/C & Heating unit.

Removing the original roof.

 

 

 

Fabricating the new roof support tubes.

 

 

The new roof skin has been cut out of 1/8" steel plate.

 

Installing the the new roof skin.

 

 

 

The new roof skin can now be finish welded to the body & the A/C opening can be fabricated.

A/C opening all mocked up and ready for welding.

 

 

 

Finish welding the A/C opening. 

 

 

The A/C opening is completely welded. 

 

 

 

The side walls needed to be re-enforced. They were so weak from the factory that they were both buckled in the middle. With all the extra weight that the sub enclosures will be adding, weak walls could cause a major issue.

The walls will be re-enforced with 1 1/4" solid steel bar.

 

 All the dark grey bar is the new bar that was installed.

 

 

Welding all body seams & original mounting holes.

All of the original sections of the body panels were just tack welded together & filled in with body filler. We decided that all these seams needed to be fully welded together for extra strength & all the original screw mounting holes needed to be filled to do it correctly.

 

 

 

 

Page 1...Overview

Page 2...Floor Rebuild & Interior 

Page 3...You Are Here

Page 4...Bumper Rebuild

Page 5...Rear Fenderwell Rebuild

Page 6...Door Rebuild

Page 7...Exhaust & Fuel Tank Rebuild

Page 8...Engine & Air Conditioning System Rebuild

Page 9...Stereo System Equipment

Page 10...Stereo System Install: Ring/Plug Fabrication

Page 11...Stereo System Install: Subwoofer Enclosures

Page 12...Stereo System Install: Fiberglass SST4.0 Window Speaker Enclosure

Page 13...Stereo System Install: Fiberglass Dashboard

Page 14...Stereo System Install: Fiberglass 2nd Row Center Console 

Page 15...Stereo System Install: Fiberglass Front Door Panels/SST6.9 Speaker Enclosures

Page 16...Stereo System Install: Fiberglass Front Row Center Console

Page 17...Stereo System Install: Capacitor & Distrubution Racks

Page 18...Stereo System Install: Amp Racks

Page 19...Stereo System Install: Alternator Installation

Page 20...Stereo System Install: Coming Soon

Page 21...Stereo System Install: Coming Soon

Page 22...Stereo System Install: Coming Soon

Page 23...Stereo System Install: Coming Soon

Page 24...Stereo System Install: Coming Soon

Page 25...Front Seat Bracket Fabrication

Page 26...Truck Parts

Page 27...Other Installations

Page 28...My Sponsors & Favorite Online Stores 

Page 29...Funny Pictures

Page 30...Sponsor & Build Video.