The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 66 chevy

I need to replace the front floor half and the rocker panels on the cab is it better to do this on or off the fram? The fram is at the paint shop now.Do i need to put it all back together?

cfranklin,

If it were me; I would do it while your cab is off the frame. I had to replace some the floor, most of the cab corners and both rockers on mine and did all of them while the cab was sitting on some old pallets. I did not even attempt this with the cab on the frame. I figured it would easy if the cab was off. You can flip the cab up on it's back and weld the floor panels from the bottom side if needed as well. When you weld the rocker panels in, I would think it would be way easyer to turn the cab up on the side or back so that you can stand upright and weld them in. I am not the welder guy they would like to lay under soemthing to weld.

The floor boards also help support the cab and keep it square, so if your cutting a lot of the floor, make sure to brace the door opens and stuff. One of the guys here had some good photos of his truck while doing a major floor panel repair and I went off how it had done it. I guess that depends on how much floor you cutting out.

When you start working on the rocker panels, I would make some good card board templates of where they are located in reference to the cab corner as well as the front post(where the door hinges go). That way you will have something to go by when you fit the new one up. I did that as well as bolted my door back on for fitting and adjusting before I stuck them into place for good.

All in all, mine was not too bad to do once I got started. I worried about it for several weeks before I got started. I had trouble finding cab corners that were big enough until one of the guys here turned me on the the TABCO body parts. Not sure if your truck needs the cab corners or not, they are usually the first part of these trucks to rot..

Any way, good luck, I hope this helps... Let me know if I can be of any help. I just did this a couple of months back so some of this stuff is still fresh in my mind.

pic. of the floor.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee252/carlfranklin/IMG_1408.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee252/carlfranklin/IMG_1407.jpg

I did mine on the frame and it wasn't a problem for most of the welds but it would be easier off the frame . As Michael said, use lots of braces if you're doing it off the frame. Once you start cutting the floor and rockers out there is no strength to the cab. Without good bracing everything will twist and you'll be looking for a replacement cab.

It's nice to have the frame handy even if you aren't doing it on-frame. I suggest tacking the patch panels in place and trying the door fit on the frame before you finalize the welds so you can adjust it if you need to.

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