The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop How to repair this floor?

New floors were welded in about 10 years ago. Looks like this should have been attended to at that time. I am a novice at welding. I'm not looking to restore the truck, but want to get it ready for a new paint job at some point.

Gonna have to cut the kick panel out and get a patch in there. If the A pillar is good it will be tight quarters.

What does the outer cowl panel look like? Given the light seen through the gap I am guessing that the outer panel and maybe the inner to outer panels are also compromised.

Outer cowl is pretty shot. I have the patch panel for that.


55 1st 3100

The lower door panel doesn't look too good either. I'll bet the inner-to-outer cowl is pretty rotten as well. They take the brunt of the junk thrown at it by the wheels.

Major surgery required. Replacing just the inner cowl panel is extremely difficult without replacing the inner-to-outer cowl piece and possibly part of the rocker.

I have pics of that whole process in my photo links. Thankfully that part of the job is behind me.

You're right....that's shot too.









55 1st 3100

Assuming the door hinge post is secure you can cut away all of the rotten material of the inner, outer and inner-outer cowl panels and start putting in patch panels from the inside out. Patch panels generally do not "fit" as received and require some effort to get them formed to fit.

Kevin is a great resource regarding this area and I used his expertise a lot when working on my project.

That was the biggest rude awakening I had with all my patches. I thought they would fall into place. Ummm. Nope.

First of all you need to get reasonably good at welding thin sheet metal. This takes practice. The mission you are on is not easy. This is a task that does not matter if you are "restoring" or fixing, it's got to be done right. This is a MIG job, .024 or .030 wire, preferably with gas. Measuring, bracing, cutting, set up, tweaking the patch panels and general fitment is work enough, you don't need to have welding trouble also.

Measure, fit, tack, and measure again before committing to the final welds. Be sure the cab is square and level before doing any kind of permanent installation, including checking the fit of the door(s). Discovering you've created fit problems with other components by getting in a hurry to install patch panels is a huge problem. Good luck!
Jerry

Thanks for all the advice! The only door problem is the driver's door lower hinge needs fixing as it's loose. I have the new pin for it. I'll practice welding for a bit before I attack the cab. I'll share the progress as it goes along.







Russ
55 1st 3100

As said, keeping track of the door fitment, all along the process, is ULTRA SUPER IMPORTANT!!!!!!!

Just saw this now after havuing gone thru this myself I would change the outer cowl, inner to outer cowl and the inner kick plate and i will bet part of your rocker panel is rusted away. Now what I did was just cut a section of my rocker panel and welded in a section as most of my rocker about 4 inches back from the A pilar was still good. Yes lots of bracing and weld some braces across your door , also what I did was put the cab on a dolley and bolted down from the cab mounting holes. This keeps it flat as if it was on the frame. You wont be able to repace those parts while cab is mounted to the frame.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1teFtXxksjBuBp14cHmwVuzCBA-fob3rs/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gLujzDNMqScLWq5cOVc0At8Jo5xW33bC/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xSSdXQYUOJJqxBXec-WCHkbpa4DlzYMh/view?usp=sharing

And then there is this option.
https://dynacornclassicbodies.com/1952-1954-chevrolet-truck-cab/

Doors and a complete dent free rust free cab for 9K? Thats not too bad.

Where’s the fun in that?

Why does Dynacorn break its AD bodies into 1947-1950 and 1952-1954?

That doesn't seem to make any sense. And what about 1951? I wonder if they put the driver side vent in the cab for the 47-50 models?

And how do you register a Dynacorn body? It varies from state to state, I imagine. If you put a DC body on an S10 chassis, is the truck a Chevy S10 or a 1950 Chevy?

No one makes doors for ‘51s. Door latches changed in 52 also strikers.

Yeah especially if you have one that needs every panel replaced, the work involved goes way over the cost of that cab.

If a person wanted a special year and the panels are being made I'm sure they could build it, as long as their jigs would work.

You have to have a body on your already registered truck.
The new cab becomes that cab. All the same as if you or a shop replace a twisted, bent, smashed and or rusted out A pillar or what ever panel holds the tag.

S10 chassis etc. people are doing that with all these old trucks all the time. I don't know what they do. I do know if there is no number, after the red tape they either weld or rivet something on your pristine truck or car, I've seen some in the past. It will never win an award for a concours restoration or anything.
Do the AD trucks have the serial number on the frame?

When I bought my 53 in SoCal in 1980 I never checked the "VIN" number. A few years later I got pulled over and the cop noticed the tag and my registration didn't match. I took it to the CHP garage and they spent several hours looking for numbers on the truck for two days and found nothing. They put a California Vin plate on the jamb and sent me on my way. I have covered every inch of my frame and never seen anything.

I don't think so. Just a plate on the door jamb and serial numbers on the engine.

You never checked the VIN number??????????? Goodness me. Gosh all Friday. Holy Guacamole. Do-Do due diligence.

Of course we don't know what did not match, what the truck originally had for the officer to see a mismatch, why a seller would offer a title and plate that didn't match and expect someone not to notice. Some things left out of this story. Don't take this the wrong way, but hope you are not asking how to do something sketchy. (repair what?) after 42 years??

No need to "repair". There is no numbers matching disaster, It's either a 53 Chevy or it ain't. If title VIN matches a DMV issued VIN tag..... it's legit.

There is no vin on a 53, there is no vin on a 55.2. Vin's started in the 70's or 80's. My new 55.2 has the normal serial number tag on the windshield A pillar and on the frame on the upper LH flange.
I would never buy a truck that has some non factory S/N plate or vin plate. No collector value there.

Fun fact
In Canada
The engine serial number is stamped in two places for at least a 1953 and maybe other years
There is a second confidential location for the engine number
I won’t disclose it here
But know it exists
If fellow Canadians want more detail pm me
-s

Well, regarding serial numbers on frames᠁

I don’t know about 47-55 trucks (despite owning a few), but I did find the frame serial number on the 1970 C10 I have that I got from my Uncle&Dad&Grandpa. It was on the LH frame rail on the top side underneath the cab and was very hard to see. If the cab was on and the frame painted, you would never find it. Knowing the history of my truck, I knew it had no issues. But it was still satisfying to see the frame serial number match up with that on the cab.

It does not really matter. I call them VIN's and everybody knows what I mean. When you buy an old truck that had a "serial number", the title will say VIN and..... when you register it and get a new title.....it says VIN again, even though it is not constructed/coded per todays standards. Serial number was just the jargon/practice of the time until the universal standardized identification was adopted. it's OK to call it a serial number or a VIN. We should not admonish or split hairs on that every time someone says VIN.

The value of this truck is not affected by a DMV assigned VIN. However it was done.

So now we have two or more opinions.

Some states used the motor number on the registration and titles. The number was lost whenever the motor was changed.

I finally got around to tackling this project. I have never done anything remotely like this so it took some time to psych myself up to start on it. The front of the rocker was pretty bad so I replaced that. When I mock up the inner brace and outer cowl it's not quite lined up with the holes for the parking brake. Everything is just tacked on so far. I guess I'll redo the patch on the rocker? The only other thing I an think of it to cut the holes out to match.

Before you weld all that together, set the door in place and check the gaps. There's a obscure measurement in the FAM (section 1, sheet 1.07) for the front of the rocker in relation to the front of the firewall. I would check that also on the positioning of the rocker. That being said, there isn't that much mismatch on the holes. The ones that count are the rocker, so if you have to cut the holes out to match, use those as the standard. Give me a minute and I'll track down where I posted a pic of that before. [on edit] see attached second pic.

That helps a lot! Thanks very much!

Finally, pretty close to being finished with this repair. The door fits better than before somehow.

You need to run, not walk to the store and buy a lottery ticket while your good luck is still hot.
I can take off a perfectly fitting door and battle for a week to get it lined back up.