The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop :eek: My Cab's Broke!!

For the last couple of months I've been driving my '62 one ton I've noticed a knocking noise coming from the dashboard somewhere when I go around corners or cross diagonal dips. I just assumed it was a vent flopping open and shut or something like that. today I found out where the sound is coming from. The seams on my dashboard,at each side just forward of the windshield pillars are seperating. It appears that whatever welds are holding the cab and the dash together,ain't. While driving the truck,I touched the drivers side seam,and felt some fairly lively movement of the two supposedly connected halves,enough to pinch a finger if it was there at the wrong time.Any ideas why this is happening? Is it a chronic problem on the dogleg cabs? Should I just have somebody wirefeed it all up again,or is there something more sinister going on here? Could bad cab mounts cause this? I'm concerned that if I have this much movement at those two seams,what else might be loose too? Looking for expert opinions,edjamacated guesses,vauge ideas,shots in the dark-any input. Thanks,guys!
Speed

when I pulled the suburban apart, I noticed that it had very poor spotwelding along the side of the cowl/firewall, my other 2 trucks were built @St Louis & are welded much better. seems like the spotwelder just didn't have the gun turned up enough-there are no "marks" or dimples on the inside to indicate good penetration. I welded it back up & added some small angle welded over the top, then seam sealed & painted. I hope it will hold,,brian

weld'er up and keep truckin remember these ol trucks were mass produced workin mens tools, not precision luxury machines!

assembled at the lowest possible cost by workin stiffs who didn't like Monday mornings anymore than you do, and who couldn't hardly wait for the whistle to blow Friday afternoon

I've noticed that welds in hidden places look pretty poor on all the many trucks I've dug into, any series - I suspect the 'newbie' welders [no robots back then] were tasked with areas that would be covered by other panels for their 'break in period'

also note that on the dogleg models, those areas are made up of at least 3 different vertical pieces built into a column - I once scrapped a TF truck and cut out the air plenums below the dogleg - found a piece of sheet metal stamping that was 'virgin' [surface rust covered] that was one part of the dogleg pillar - I figure someone had set it on the cowl when the whistle blew and it fell in the open air intake - the slight rattle musta drove then new truck buyer crazy, not to mention the dealer

Bill

theres also three bolts that mount the dash to the side of the cab. thought this was all that hold mine in p,ace on my 65.WRONG.welded in place now i gotta get the s o b outta there somehow.

Time to get out the "pneumatic un-welder",huh?
Speed