The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Cab repair question

I'm working on the cab floor of my '42 half ton, and am trying to figure out how to fix the rust damage in the area near the front edge of the door, just behind the body mount, where the cowl section butts up to the area above the rocker (I don't know how to explain it much better, sorry.) The part coming from the cowl (white arrow) seems to have some kind of rubbery foam under it, and the part closer to the back of the cab (red arrow) has three machine screws going through the floor and the block of wood that used to be there. The metal is rusted out over the wood (blue arrow), and I've cleaned all the old wood out of there in preparation of fixing this area.

I was going to replace the wood with a piece of 1 x 3" rectangular tubing, slid in place, and then welded and/or through bolted that would connect the cowl to the rest of the cab, but then I realized that rubbery foam stuff wasn't wood, and that the two pieces of metal aren't flush to each other--the cowl part is about 1/8- 3/16" higher than the part over the wood.

So, are they supposed to be not-flush like that? Is my idea of using the rectangular tubing as wood replacement a good idea? Should I clean out the foam too, and run the tubing under all that business?

I'd appreciate feedback from anybody else that has dealt with this. Thanks!

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/darbyej/innnerrockerwork1.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/darbyej/innnerrockerwork2.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

I had the same problem with my 37 cab, I cut the old bolts out and removed the rotted wood. I cut new wood to fit & sealed it with marine varnish and put it back in, marked the hole locations on the new wood, drilled them, then put everything back together with new bolts. Mine sits slightly high there too, also did before I took it apart. A wrecking yard near me had a 38 cab and it was the same way. There was no rubbery stuff on my cab or the 38 I got parts from. Hope this helps.
Charles

Thanks, Charles. I'm glad to know that yours didn't line up either- I was worried that my cab was twisted or sagged.

I split & drilled out all the old wood this weekend, and replaced it with steel- there was enough rust in this area that I wanted to reinforce it some more. I'll post some pictures later today for anybody else that's interested.