The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab bracing for body panals

I am about to take on replacing front cab corners, front cab supports, floor/toeboards. Does anyone know of any recourses with pics, or know the best way to brace the cab for support. I was thinking of x'ing doors and across/back and from upper firewall to floor board. Is this overbaord or am I thinking right? The cab is loose from frame and doors off. The doors do still fit square in the openings when held up in. Thanks

I'm about to tackle mine, sills and all, and I plan to X the door opening only. The way I see it is the part most likely to get knocked out of alignment is the hinge pillar so I'm going to concentrate on keeping that in place. The firewall should hold side to side dimensional stability while cutting out the parts that maintain the distance from the bottoms of the door openings indicates that it's wise to brace that area.

When I get the floor pan and sill tacked in I'm going to cut the bracing out and final fit the door, then skip weld the patches... and I'm only going to do one side at a time. If the doors fit and latch shut everything else should be simple.

I also plan to put the brake and clutch pedals and the steering column in to check their alignment with the holes in the floorpan.

Start with the Passenger side... there's less stuff to line up on that side so it's a good place to get a feel for what you're going to face.

Rule of thumb: Always start on the Passenger side because you don't see that side as much as the driver side so if you screw something up you don't have to look at it every time you get in it... don't laugh, it's a well known trick in the bump shop biz.

Go slow, tack everything, make one last check then weld about 2-inch beads skipping around so as not to concentrate the heat in one area.

Also the Passenger side got a lot less use, so it did not get the wear and tear and will be straighter than the driver's side opening and door would be!

I also may have a link somewhere on this hard drive of some braced cabs fo the guy above? I will look.

My 2-cents worth...

rico_bob

Steppenwood, a bolter here has a couple of great bracing shots here Maybe will give you some ideas. And by the way welcome! A lot of experience and knowledge to help you on this site. Good luck and have fun.
Dan

slstusmc, Door braces will do You fine...I replaced
floorboard, toe board, both left and right inner, & outer cowl
panels. I fabricated left rocker panel, also 3/4 of the hinge
piller on drivers side....You don't mention the year, but if
You run into trouble I have the original factory specs on all
measurements...
I have been in bodywork all My life and have never heard
what czechman said...Maybe that only applies to the Carolina's, eh.
Bill B

slstusmc...Check out my webshots. I had to do the exact same thing. I posted pictures showing how I did it. Worked really well for me.

Instead of bracing the door opening I mounted the door and used wood shims to control the shape of the opening. That way I could see how the door, cowl,and rocker would fit together. I ran my braces from the seat frame up to the firewall to keep basic shape. Putting it together with sheet metal screws or rivets and test fitting before welding I found to be good advice.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1377796476023244788cRZmNZ

You all are the greatest! I've been wondering how to tackle this. I have the cab bolted back on the frame. All still seems to be square from all of Iv'e measuresd and placing doors back in the holes. I was thinking of bracing to the frame forward and doing what mummdog did internally to the frame. How do ya ensure the new panels are where they should be?

Before I welded anything, I drilled holes and used sheet metal screws to hold it in place. Then I measured, measured, measured before I made the first tack with the mig! After I tacked it, I measured again to make sure heat didn't change anything. When I was sure, I finshed welding, removed the screws, then filled in the holes from the screws and grinded everything smooth.

Ironically I first heard that in Detroit in the early 70s.

I've checked out the pics and info from every one and was getting ready to brace her up today...but honeydo's prevailed. I did check out that webshots sight and downloade some pics of what I'm messing with. From other ride pics. maybe I'm not too bad off. Guess we will see. Thanks again!! To see were I'm at go to:

http://community.webshots.com/user/slstusmc?vhost=community

I haven't been on the forum for a while but I'm back working on my 49 panel. I'm prepping to remove the body but was wondering if I need to brace it before lifting it off the frame. I have it unbolted but haven't lifted it yet so I could use any helpful advice before I go a head with the plan.

Thanks

If you're going to doing major surgery on the floor boards and sills I'd strongly advise against pulling the body until you get the parts tacked in and you've verified that the doors are fit properly AND the holes in the floor line up with the pedals and steering column.

After that was done, I'd pull the body... and still, that's a lot of flexible steel to be moving around separated from critical alignment points to the frame and trying to guess where braces should go is a crap shoot. Trust me, you'd be amazed at how much things move once they're disassembled.

Thanks Woody, Yes I have to do the floorboards as well as a buch of patching around the front pillars. Do you have any recommendations for bracing the body so it doesnt' move around. I need to remove all the floor wood also and don't know where to start so any pointers are appreciated. Thanks again

Your in a lot different situation than I. A Panel is a lot of steel and I think your strategy should be to stick to the basics. Go slow and double check everything as you go. Has the rot shifted the geometry of your body? Do the doors fit and close the way they should? Do the pedals come through the floorboards in the center of the holes?

If the answers are yes, your body is already sitting on a fixture so I would suggest that you leave it there and start on the passenger side floor, sill and cowl. Use the operation of the door and some measurements from body to frame to check your work. Everywhere you remove floor panel away from the frame you have to have a deliberate plan on how to put the replacement parts in, and in the correct position so measure the hell out of everything.

If the answer is no, use the frame, pedals and doors as guides to get the body into plumb with the frame... assuming the the frame is plumb.

Welding should be done with minimal heat buildup. Use a Mig welder to tack the patches in, skipping around until you get single tacks about an inch apart. Then "connect the dots" skipping around half way between previous beads. I much prefer a TIG for the welding because it uses less heat and yields a better finish, but that's just my personal opinion.

Once you get all your patches skip welded in and the body is rigid, take it off the frame and finish welding knowing that it fit the frame when you took it off so it "should" fit when you put it back.

Other than that, I don't know what to tell you other than "good luck"... you've got your hands full.

Woddy, et al, thanks so much for the information. It looks more complicated than I thought. I was hoping to have the body off and dipped at a local restoration facility and then do the patch panel work on clean metal but Woody has the right idea to ensure that the alignments stay correct so that's what I should do I guess. I'll see what the floorboards look like when I get it cleaned out and see how bad it really is. I definately have to do the pillar areas so If it's more than I can do myself I may have the experts atthe resto facility do it for me. Big $ is the limiting factor...
Thanks for all the advice and help.