The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop '50 rotten floor/kick panel corners

I have a '50 31000 which I am FINALLY geting around to doing some work on, after a 2 year hiatus. The cab lower front has the usual rust gremlins and will need inner/outer kick panel, floor , floor support braces etc. I have spent some time this afternoon reading many threads where people run into alignment issues when replacing doors, due to the gap being too small/large.

I guess my question is....where to start? Is there a best practices strategy, inner floor first and work you way towards the outer edge? Start with the corner and then the floor? Its a decent sized job and I want to try to make it a little easier by approaching it in an orderly manner.

I do have the FAM so am able to check dimensions as I go, which seems to be critical.

Any input much appreciated,
Paul

Paul

I've been there.

Your first task is to brace the cab in every direction possible, after confirming that the doors fit correctly.

You should probably start with the floor and cab mounts, and work your way outward. It depends on what all you're replacing (just floor, cowl, rockers, etc). You will want to make sure everything is lined up before final welding.

You can review my photos (link in my signature) and there are other resources. I'll have to see if I can find you links for them.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Kevin nailed it. Bracing.

The only other thing I could think of is to first replace the door hinge pins. Go oversize if needed. It is common for the driver's side to be severely worn.
I've seen a bodyman have someone to raise and lower the door while he closely watches hinge for play.
Once you have the lost motion out of the hinges, you can do a better job of door alignment.
The striker and latch alignment works better as well.

I remember my uncle would chew me out for leaning against the door of a moving 1950 1 ton truck.
Even with good working 47-51 latches, the doors historically can pop open by themselves (you need safety belts).
New preproduction parts are worse plus reports are they have alignment issues afterwards.
The cab is bolted to the drivetrain frame on cushions. The frame is designed to move/twist which means the cab can flex as well.

Thanks Kevin, makes sense. I have a bunch of 1" square I can use for bracing. The floor looks like it dips in the drivers side foot well so it certainly seems reasonable to resolve the floor/cab mounts first to get a solid footing...and from there work outwards.

To buoymaker's point, thanks for the suggestion. I already obtained a NOS lower driver's side door hinge, the top seems to be fine.

I think I will adjust the truck so that the frame is itself 100% level (on stands and not tires as is the case now) so that the body should then also be level. Currently the frame is 1/4" higher on one side which I suspect is down to tire pressure differential.

Oh, and I already replaced the mount bushings in case there was play there.

Similar to Kevin you can review my project photos and questions/comments.

Once you have the door openings correct and braced you can move the bulk of the cab around as needed to get it level. Starting with the floor/firewall get the front cab mount area repaired. Depending on the integrity of your door hinge post and rocker panel you may be able to cut away the inner and outer cowl panels to provide access without loosing your hinge post location. There are a lot of interacting pieces in the rocker panel, door hinge post, inner cowl, inner-to-outer cowl, and outer cowl panels. A lot of those interactions may not be obvious depending on how much of the material has disappeared over the years.

If you can post pictures it would help everyone here provide more specific information regarding your specific circumstances.

Been perusing the build threads mentioned above.

Will be bracing the cab this weekend. I will post some photos at that time to ensure the bracing is up to par. Might be trying to make the braces adjustable with threads/lock nuts at each end so I can then make any adjustments to bring the body into spec per the FAM. Note sure if this is a sound approach?

I need to replace not only the floor pan but the floor supports also. The cab is currently on the frame so I will raise it and rest it on a couple of 4x4s front and rear so the cab is not being supported by the very floor mounts I will be replacing as part of the floor supports. Again hopefully this makes sense.

Paul

Adjustable braces wouldn't be that bad an idea, but if you get the dimensions correct in the first place, just solid braces tack welded in place should be sufficient.

You'll see in my photos that I put the cab on a rotisserie rather than working on my back and around the chassis. But If you can do it with the cab blocked up off the frame, that works too.