The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Where to start with-Lower Cowl, Cab Support, Floor Piece and Door Pillar?

On my driver side 65 Cab I have removed the rocker and I'm going to be needing to replace the lower inner cowl, a small piece of the floor the lower door pillar and probably a piece of inner rocker. Where do I start in order to keep everything lined up? I've seen a youtube video on this but that guy had a good solid cab support so that kept him in line. I'm just a little concerned as to where to start because my cab support is there but has some rust but not all gone. Thanks for any info!

Also should I just replace the whole cab support or just a piece? There is only rust on the very outer part where it connects to the inner rocker.

Rust in New Mexico? You poor guy.

Get some 1x1 square 12 gauge or so tubing and weld in as braces on the cab before you cut anything out.

On visible sheet metal, often it is best to replace only what is bad. Just cut out until you get to good metal, then stop.

Normally, this is because the reproduction stuff does not have the nice crisp bend lines that the factory had, and they look bad. On braces and supports that you can't see, it is probably better to replace the entire piece since it is structural, not cosmetic, and if you don't replace the whole thing, you are depending on your weld. A weld is always weaker than base metal and when you weld you have to grind off the EPD or what is covering the piece to keep it from rusting, so you are starting over with rust protection and painting something in the field versus the single piece being covered in a factory.

Thanks R-Bo!

I know right--and the truck is a one family truck with only 45k miles but my uncle who bought it new must've rode her hard and put her up wet lol or muddy anyway. I'm assuming he used it around his ranch and just never washed the mud off because the truck is pretty straight otherwise-not beat up in any-way. The steering wheel and interior fawn paint is nearly mint. It's a little faded I'm sure after 50 years but pretty darn good shape. I will probably just replace the floor braces in there entirety because I can drill the spot welds from the top and I'll have to be on my back minimally grinding and welding. Then I'll just pop in the spot welds from the top too. The passenger side rocker it rock solid and those cab supports are very minimally rusted on the outer edges. Depending on how hard it is I might leave them untouched or if it's not too bad I might just remove and replace. I will see but I think I'm going start out with the cab supports then move on from the inside out. Thanks again!

Let me give you my .02 cents. Tack weld new panels just enough to keep them in place and provide some structural support. The reason for this, is it makes it easier to reposition the panel if you later find that the fit of the adjacent panel doesn't match up, such as cowl-to-door, door to cab corner, etc.
Carl

...and to add to Carl's .02 cents, sometimes it helps to leave the door installed on the cab so that you can close it and verify fitment/gaps before final welding takes place.

So I finally got her done. I don't know if I'm just slow but replacing a front cab support, front and rear lower door pillars, a piece of floor and a kick panel, and cab corner one one side as well as a piece of floor on the opposite side took me 4 days working 6-8 hours per day. Started the fill and sand portion of the body yesterday and that went sooooo much quicker. That metal work is just a darn time hog. End of my rant. LOL

Back to topic, I finally removed everything except the lower door pillar which was mostly intact to keep me lined up with everything and that worked out good. The rocker panel though----darn imported crap-was quite ill fitting but I made it work. It's not concurs perfect but it's gonna look pretty darn nice on a driver.