The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Some rust repair insight requested. 1954 3600

Hoping I can get some enlightenment from you good folks. Peeled the insulation from the cab on my 54 and am happy with what I found even with the small rust holes on either side of the foot wells. Anyone mind sharing their after shots of patching these areas? Other than the cab corners I'm pleased to say the cab is pretty solid for it to be a used and abused farm truck from Georgia. Thanks guys - Grayson

Hello Grayson. Next step, before analyzing, is to clean the whole area. Wire wheel or sand blast or other. You may see more problems. So get all the dirt, grease, scale, rust cleaned up. (I know that you know that metal has to be clean to weld anyway). Then you can see if there are patch panels available and/or fab up some patches. The general rule is not to cut out any more than is necessary, except for welding considerations and strength. Does look pretty solid except for kick panels/inner cowls left and right

I am still in the middle of making similar repairs but I do have a recommendation if you don't have your own tools for fabricating sheet metal. Specifically for picture number 2. There are some complicated bends and angels. Make a pattern with poster board. Cut out the pattern using 18 gauge sheet metal. Take it to a sheet metal shop (one that manufactures/fabs up heating and air condition duct work). The will make quick work of bending the sheet metal for you into a suitable patch.

Hi Grayson,

I agree, keep cleaning things up and you will know for sure. I have rust in the same area as yours (no surprise). A mouse called my driver side cowl home and it never dried out. Are the very bottoms of your outer cowls rotten? There is a factory drain hole there but you might check the condition of the metal as well. You may be investing in:
- Inner cowl (both sides)
- Inner to outer cowl (both sides)
- Outer lower cowl (both sides): There are tall and short versions of this panel depending on how bad your rust is.
- Floor patches: Based on the pitting on your floor, especially on the passenger side, you may need to repair the floor and possibly the mounts underneath.

Good luck!

James

Well it looks like your floors are pretty good, usually you see floors eaten out from a leaky windshield seal trapping water under the rubber mat, but it is for sure your rust came from salty roads kicking up into the back of the front fender cab area.
When you get it cleaned all out of there, it might be a bigger repair than you think after you cut it out and add the cancer margins to good clean metal. Keep us informed with pictures as you go.
Steve

I know right GMCANADA with these old trucks it just seems to snowball you think its small then you have half the cab torn apart

How are you lower-rear cab-corner panels/areas?

There is/was a drain hole in each of those corners, but, mice urinate/pass-water where they build nests. Those areas always seem to be rotted/rusted.

When one sees kick panels (inner cowls) with that much rust-through, one can expect to see hideous rust of the inner-to-outer cowls (they are located between the inner cowl and the outer cowl). You will find out how bad they are once you remove the inner cowls.
Though the vendors sell a reproduction of the inner-to-outer cowl parts, they are so poorly made that they are nearly unusable. I bought a pair of them and pretty much ended up cutting them up and grafted them to the part of the original ones which were salvageable. The repro inner-to-outer cowls ended up being nothing more than expensive sheet metal bits of the correct gauge.
One more thing is the aftermarket inner cowls. The full panels available are not bent at the bottom anywhere near correct. Interestingly enough, the lower half panels which they sell ARE bent correctly. Go figure!?
I ended up buying the lower half panel which is an awesome fit, and the full panel, cut off the bottom of the full panel and welded the lower half panel to that. It then fit like a glove.
Carl

The rust involves the inner to outer, inner kick panels, toe board and edge of the floor. There are braces under the mount area that you will need to look at.These are all normal locations for problems but not a deal breaker. You have a better floor than what I started with for sure.

I appreciate the info everyone. As asked, my cab corners are shot but I do have the replacements for them already. The cab is off of the truck and will be for the foreseeable future so hopefully that will aid in making these repairs. I'll sift through the vender section and get an idea of what panels I'll need