The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop intimidated by my cab

I am working on a 53 half ton that is very rough. My rolling chassis is completed and I'm now ready to start on the cab, which I removed in the beginning. Mostly everything in the bottom of the cab is rusted beyond use, and much of it is gone. The doors were already removed when I bought the truck, but I have the doors. I'm a little confused as to how and where to start. I"m afraid that the front and rear of the cab may be spread apart because both rockers are completely missing. Somebody tacked in a piece of light gauge box tube on the drivers side, apparently just to hold it together. The rear of the cab was still attached to the shackles. The cab front still had loose bolts in it, but they weren't really holding it down. It seems to me that the doors might need to be installed in order to align things, but installing the doors would also make it more difficult to get to everything. I'm guessing that, without the doors installed, measurements would be unbelievably critical, and would have to be extremely accurate. I will be replacing every panel that goes at or in the lower area of the cab. Is there a critical order to which panels should go first. I'm really looking forward to starting on the cab, but am concerned about possibly having to tear things back apart that I do now. Been there and done that a time or two on other projects. Any guidance, tips, hints, etc. will be much appreciated. I have always found that the hardest part of any job is just getting started. This is no exception.

Buy a cab, or complete truck if necessary. What you're proposing is certainly possible, but you'll save an incredible amount of time (allowing for that first drive to actually happen, vs loosing interest and selling/giving away the unfinished project). Not to mention the money you can save by Not joining the Rust War. It is a battle. Been their done that, took an oath to not make that mistake again.

Clean truck/cabs are out their.

Good Luck,

RonR

To answer your questions about how to tackle a cab that has no bottom:
Reinstall the doors, or set them in place and get a uniform distance around the door margins and then tack some supports to the solid sheetmetal to hold things in position and remove the doors again. The Factory Assembly Manual also has critical dimensions that you can use as a reference. They didn't measure things with a micrometer at the factory, so there's some tolerance in the measurements. You can buy complete floor pans, which may be the way you should proceed if you're going to use the cab you have. That alone would save a bunch of time.
But I agree with Ron's suggestion of buying a replacement cab (available new, for a bunch of money), or a donor truck.
My truck is not quite as bad as yours sounds, but I took it on as a way to give me something to do in retirement and keep me off the streets.
I keep finding more patch panels that I need to buy after digging into it, so it's accomplishing the mission of keeping me occupied.

Just found this. Seller is asking $450 and the cab and it looks, not too bad. Even though the truck is a 6100 (?) the cab is the same as a 3100. This is far from the best example I've seen of a truck one would buy for the cab, but it's the first I located with 3 minutes effort. If you do go down this path, be aware of the need to consider titling your truck if you swap a complete cab and a State inspector checks the vin plate on the drivers front door post. A bit of creative metal work could well preserve the original metal on your truck as you harvest the good parts of a donor cab.

LOL That looks like it comes with the original junk

Does look complete. Even has the front bumper splash apron. If it were in my neighborhood, I would have gone for it at that price.

Last One.

Cab only.

"Does look complete. Even has the front bumper splash apron. If it were in my neighborhood, I would have gone for it at that price.[/quote]"

Good observation. I I didn't have So many projects, and So little money and time I'd add it to the herd.

I think I'll stick with the cab that I have. It's a 5 window, and the upper half & firewall are not too bad. I sort of enjoy the metalwork, although I don't have a ton of experience in it. I do have a decent MIG welder, and a flanging tool, along with most any other tools I'll need. I am retired and work in my shop nearly every day anyhow. I was just struggling a little on where & how to start. I do have a shop manual, and an assembly manual. I also have a friend about 5 miles down the road who has a couple AD trucks that I can get measurements from. I'm not the greatest welder in town, but I figure that I probably will be by the time I'm finished with this project. Thanks all.

I don't blame you for wanting to fix it especially if you are retired. The best advice for many is to get a better cab. But you can eventually replace the metal. Classic Truck Parts of America, and others, have every possible patch you would need.

A few thoughts of my procedure: Do as you wish with your experience and ideas:

1. Hang the doors and adjust a little to get the proper gaps. This is probably the most important thing. All the other repairs kind of effect that opening. So get it right and brace it with temp struts until all work is done. Try to do the hinge/hinge pin repairs, then hang doors, then adjust, then brace, then weld. Don't forget there will be rubber seals between the doors and the cab.

2. The rule is: only replace the rusted metal, even if you only use a small portion of an aftermarket patch panel. Leave good solid metal alone. You may have to body-work some portions before patching an area.

3. Back up your welds with copper plate.

4. Try to get cab high up on a dolly so you have seated access while welding. Lay it over to expose areas you need to weld if you can.

5. Practice on the cut out pieces and the left over patch pieces every day before welding. You should try .025, .030 and .035 to see what you and your machine likes the best.

6. Don't forget, while you are cleaning the metal around where you are going to weld, to clean a place for the ground clamp.

7. Chase ALL threaded holes on cab. Repair ALL weld nuts and captive parts.

8. Take your time. Measuring other cabs is a good idea. Get a good die grinder for cutting out rust and a good angle grinder for cutting and grinding thicker metal.

9. Take your time on each spot weld. Don't get in a hurry. Don't do any bead welding, only stacked spots.

10. Take your time and practice a lot. Nothing to be intimidated about, yet! One of the suggested donor cabs said "good cab corners but floor needs work". You want the opposite of that or all good metal. Why would you buy a donor with bad floors?

11. Know when to give up and buy a donor. It actually may be much cheaper. There is so much to do on restoring that truck that you don't need to fight patching and have a nervous breakdown because you think you are enjoying welding. Of course you want to find one fairly near you so you have a chance to Uhaul it home. I looked at Craigslist Indianapolis and found this. Not bad price with a door and fenders included. Good collection to have around but not sure of floors.

Most guys would say throw the flanging tool away, or at least bury it in the bottom of the toolbox. If you use it, you're building in a spot for the rust to take hold again.

Here's a good resource for metal working: MP&C Shop Projects
MP&C (Robert) hangs out here every now and then and is a metal working artist. If you read through that thread, you'll get lots of good advice. If you have a specific question, I'm sure that Robert wouldn't mind you sending him a PM. He has some good advice on welder setup and how to do a good butt weld on sheet metal.

Good on you for tackling the project you have. I'm in the process of replacing rockers and cowls on my cab and would be happy to share my experiences with you.

I agree with everything that Bartamos said in his post. Good points.

If you can, you might consider putting the cab on a rotisserie. I built my own and it's making things a lot easier on the old body (mine ).
Here's some pics of my setup. Rotisserie

Repair or replace is a call only you can make. But if it is extensive replacement, before you cut anything, fit doors and brace. brace. brace. Once you start removing the outer skins, and see the rotted out inner pieces, your support is going to be gone. Get it up high on a stand or stack of pallets. Welding on your back gets old. MP&C is one of the best resources you can find. He is amazing. Kinda like watching Van Gogh paint. Be prepared to spend way more on patch panels that are thinner and are not perfect out of the box fits.

I had to replace kick panels, outer cowl on the drivers side, and lower cab corners. I have the kick panels in. One word of caution on the repop panels, My interior kick panels rotted where they are welded to the curved bracing. Just before I was going to cut out and fit the replacement, I noticed the ribs of the original had a flat bottom on the groove. The replacements were V shaped. Fortunately I had a donor cab to rob from. Made quadruple the work, but I guess it was worth it. 99.9% of people would never notice, but it would bother me.

I would also suggest having your cab sandblasted. It really will help your process along and may expose more rust than you knew was there. It did on mine. Hit it with some epoxy primer after blasting and you will have a good foundation to work with.