I got some garage time today and made, what I consider, to be good progress. Today, I figured out the cause of the cab leaning to the passenger side. Using a floor jack and 2x4 under the rear cab floor support, I jacked up the cab of the truck. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the FAM shows the floor being 1.88 inches above the frame. With the rocker panel removed, it was easy to use the tape measure and determine the distance between the floor and frame. Once I got close to the desired distance, I visually checked the appearance of level from the rear of the truck. I couldn't believe it! The truck cab was level! I took a quick measurement from the garage floor to the bottom of the rear cab floor support and cut a scrap 2x6 to length. After repositioning the floor jack and temporary 2x4, I was able to brace the cab at the appropriate height with the 2x6. After that, I test tried to test fit the rocker panel. This time, it easily slipped into place, with the running board still attached.
What had happened, was that as the cab started to lean, it fell onto the running board. The running board was actually holding up the cab! Once I had established the correct clearance between the cab floor and frame, it re-established the separation between the rocker panel and running board.
This is one of those times where my limited time availability worked to my advantage. Being forced to wait between garage times allowed me to root around online and see some pics of other trucks. That's how I figured out that there should be a small space between the running board and cab rocker panel. The time also affords me the luxury of thinking things through.
I'm including a couple of pics showing the rocker panel removed and the first dry fitting of the part (sorry for the woodworking jargon). The white stripes on the replacement part are from a paint pen. They show the location of the holes in the new rocker panel that align with the factory holes for attaching the trim piece. Since I'm not replacing the rear of the cab floor (there's nothing wrong with it), it allows me a precise set of landmarks for aligning the rocker panel correctly. That is why I chose the rocker panel as the first part to replace. Those landmarks. Everything else will key off of the rocker panel and it will key off of those factory holes. In the pic that shows the rocker panel removed, notice how the floor area that surrounds the battery hole doesn't align with the front of the floor. It had separated due to rusting. Then notice after jacking the floor into position, bracing it and then dry fitting the rocker panel. The floor parts now align!
I'm taking that as a big win! Granted, it's just the first step in a 1,000 mile journey, but it is the first step. As always, comments and/or suggestions are welcome.
