The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop seam of cab in back under windows

What I'm showing below is apparently a seam of the upper and lower back section of the cab. It's been kinda rusty for a few years but I also notice that the lower section protrudes out further as compared to the upper section.

Also and probably more importantly is that the driver's side lower section sticks out further than the passenger's side.

Is this a common body problem for these trucks and how does one fix it ? I was getting ready to wire away the rust and touch the area up when I noticed this.

Like my vintaged weather stripping? Maybe that's the cause for what's happening below?

http://community.webshots.com/photo/169266715/169267113NLAbZZ

Craig - these trucks were assembled by "and eye for fit and finish" - perfect alignment was never expected.

That seam has always been a source of rust. I have bead blasted, etchant primered, filler primered, sanded, sealer primered and top coated only to have it start a new bit of rust bubbles within 5 years if the truck spends any time at all outside in the rain.

If done as described above in your weather conditions, I bet you could get 10 years+ without problems.

I've had the same problems. Thought next time I might weld the seam shut. My wife has a 47 second series, VERY poor fit.

I had to completely remove the rust all along that seam and replace it with solid metal. No seam any more, just the contour.

Keep forgetting that vehicles back in those days were not computerize assembled. My cab was probably welded on a Monday morning after the crew spent the entire weekend on a binge. Oh well, gives it a little character.

What amazes me on these old cabs, is the random nature of the spot welds. They are not evenly spaced by any stretch of the imagination. I wonder if the instructions they worked with were to put X number of spot weld along a particular joint line.

That seam on our '52 looks the same as yours Craig. I cleaned the seam the best I could, then "soaked" the seam with that "rust-converter" solution stuff. (small bottle...'Kleen-Strip' brand) I let it dry a couple days between applications. Then we primed and painted.
I had tested the converter on rusty spots on the interior of our washing machine....tough stuff.

Since my paintjob's delay my joint started rusting again after it had been sandblasted. I got this skinny brass wire wheel that fit right in there and made the whole joint shiny. As a stop gap to rust reappearing before that fabled paint job I just sprayed some Zero Rust into the joint. The whole thing will get sanded down again any way.