Jerry Mlady     41/39 Ford COE
Renner, South Dakota
USA
                            Back                                                                                                                   To next page

Well I guess its time to get out there and try it!
It was quite an ordeal getting it off and separated. It took me about 9 hours getting it cutting everything loose, unbolted, unloaded and separated from the Dodge stub frame over at my building by myself and without a winch. My wife (a saint!) helped as much as I let her but I wanted her to stay clear if anything went wrong. Whew!! First I had to drag it all off the trailer and get it in the building under the hoist. It was a little shaky at times when I took the chains and load binders off that were holding the cab and stub and started lifting it off the Chevy frame. My overhead hoist is bolted to the roof trusses in the building so I didn't want to stress it too much so I took it slow and easy. I couldn't get it balanced right and had to readjust everything about 3 or 4 times to get it to go up evenly, while it was sitting rather precariously on top of the Chevy frame. I ran out of lift to get it high enough to roll the Chevy frame straight out so I floor jacked the frame over sideways out from under it. I ran in to trouble getting it separated from the Dodge stub too, again getting the balance right and undoing the cobbled up mounting system that had it all bound up. Finally about midnight I got it on my rolling cart and everything put away. My first task will be to make a lifting jig/cart to get the cab more stable so I can work underneath it to build new structure to mount the cab on the Chevy frame. It's cobbled up with a lot of angle iron underneath that will have to be removed and then I am planning on using Ford biscuit motor mounts to mount it so the cab will be rubber mounted once I refab it. At least this one is worth the effort and its nice not to have to do major rust repair.