Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Some of the captives nuts on my cab frame were missing or mangled, so I had to make a few new cages.

Al Tooes had a bunch of cages laser cut for his HUW restoration and he sent me some that were left over from his resto (thanks again Al!)
The HUW cages are somewhat different from the early C8 ones, but I was able to use the same sheet metal outline. The first picture shows one of the original cages on the C8 cab frame. The second shows what some of the others looked like, but it gives you an idea how they were welded.

I made a simple tool that I could clamp in the vise and welded on one square nut and clamped a second. I used the first as a jig to form the long ends of the cages by lightly tapping with a chisel and a piece of flat steel bar. That's why I welded on this nut....I wanted to keep the nut in position so I could properly make a 90 degree bend. After the long ends were formed, I placed the piece onto the second nut and formed the short ends. After drilling holes in each of the long ends, and grinding the ends to an arrow shape, the cages were pretty much ready to weld onto the frame. I clamped the cages to the frame by inserting the square nut in the cage, inserting a bolt and clamping down the cage by use of a second nut on the outside of the cage. This makes welding and grinding a piece of cake.