The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab welding...how much mula?

Hey guys, I have a 61 Apache Fleetside 1/2 ton. Although it looks pretty good far away, the cab needs alot of work underneath. But I don't know how much to expect to pay, as I've never had a project vehicle before, nor have I ever had a vehicle taken to a body shop.
It will need the front corners of the floor replaced, where the mounts are, it will need all four floor supports (or cab supports? Those triangle shaped steel channels) all four cab mounts, both rockers, and both cab rear corners. Yeah, lots of welding...I'm not impressed, but what do you expect for a 48 year old farm truck from Canada? This thing's likely seen alot of snow, salt, dirt, etc. I realize most of you are from the States, and prices differ down there. Can anyone give me a rough estimate as to what this will set me back? I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Likely more than American pricing...stuff seems to cost more up here, including vehicles themselves. Any insight would be great. I'm kinda hoping to get my Ford-nut uncle to do it...if he can stomach working on a real truck:P

If your uncle is an overall truck guy, then I'm sure he would do the work for you. Ford lover or no, most truck guys will help each other out. If that is the case then perhaps he can give you hands on teaching and show you how to do it. That would be ideal really. You learn how to weld while getting your truck fixed.

Now as to the body shop approach, I can't give costs but I can tell you it will be spendy. You would save money by stripping the cab off and taking it in, but it will still be spendy. Take the truck to a body shop, I am sure they would be willing to provide an estimate of the work. I know all about those price differences for you guys too. The first trip I made over to Sarnia, Ont, I was shocked at how much higher prices were for things. Of course, the exchange rate on the dollar was high in my favor at that time so it evened out for the most part.

I think you can just stuff the holes with $20s.

I'm kidding. Ask around, and try to find a "good" shop. Perhaps you have a local car club, they can generally recommend a good shop. I know there is a great Model T club there! Seriously though, ask a club, they should be able to help, and are generally excited about restorations.

Although my truck is 9 years older than yours the rot sounds familiar. Pricing in Alberta for me was around $1200.00 for the patch panels at Scott’s in Penhold and at that time there was a place that did only Chev/GMC “restorations” in Stony Plain. They quoted $3000.00 to weld in the supplied panels and have the cab in primer ready to paint. With that news I immediately went and bought a 110V welder and started practicing. The satisfaction of doing it yourself will be priceless and if you study the task here before attempting it you will end up with a winner. I did see much better cabs and even whole trucks for less than I spent on panels (plus a whole summer of welding) after I fixed mine so don’t rule out watching for one while you work on other parts. Good luck.

well, i can't help on pricing either. but if you take it in to a shop to have it welded in and it costs thousands, if you are like me, you will just look at it and think- i coulda done that. on the other hand, i have replaces those areas on several of those trucks myself and i hate it. endless adjusting on the cab to get everything to line up with the cab mounts, millions of tacks then filling them in, taking the doors off and adjusting them if you have to do the rockers- all real fun stuff. i would personaly be scared to let someone else start it because if they loose steam you will have to finish. this isn't something i can knock out in a day. not trying to talk you out of it at all but i like to weld and this is my least fav thing to do- you know layin on your back welding with no room to turn around.

Yeah...well, the dillemma I face right now is that I have no welding skills, and no garage. I plan to buy a house with a garage within the next year or two, but I don't really know. I bought the truck knowing it needed cab mounts, but had no idea about the rest...this is my first project vehicle, so I guess I didn't really know what to look for. I'm afraid to drive it now because I don't know how the cab is still sitting level...looks like it should fall down onto the frame. My idea was to drive it as is for a year or two, and then take it apart once I have a decent place to work on it. So I just want to get it safe and driveable, that's all. The cab corners and rockers can wait, I just need the cab firmly mounted to the frame with new metal. I'll be looking into some shops in the very near future.

Can anyone answer this...the cab seems to stick out more than the box on the passenger side, but on the drivers side, the cab and box line up. Why is this? Are my mounts that bad that the whole front of the truck shifted? Ha ha, all the comments I say about my truck, you guys must think it's a piece of crap...truth is it looks quite nice, I get thumbs up all the time, just needs work underneath.

Down here in Texas I find it much cheaper to find a different cab rather than do a lot of patching. I recently bought a 55-59 cab that just barely needs cab corners for $600. I could repair the corners with fiber glass the rust is so miner. I'm not into 60 and later, but I'm sure they are around.

I think you would be surprised at how much these cabs and beds can move if they are rotted. So yes it is possible to see a noticeable difference between sides or ends of the truck. In looking through the various body manuals the Task Force and later bodies are quite a bit more complex than the AD's as far as panel construction. It may be worth your time to do some cleaning and detective work underneath/inside to assess overall condition. You may want to take a long hard look at the bed mounts as well.

Hi Adam,
I am restoring my 57 Chevy 3100 down in the bay area...things are very pricey here. Blaster was $100 an hour. I put 3K into the blasting alone. The shop got the frame and cab back from the blaster today.. I am going Monday to take photos and see how much work there is on the cab. I will let you know how many hours he thinks it will be. I know the corners in the front are real bad. Plus along the bottom of the windshield is bad. I am a diehard stock original parts guy. So I will be paying more to fix the parts that came off this truck because my father got the truck new in 1957. But I agree...I would find another cab. There are companies you can order almost any replacement part for your cab as well. Good luck!

lol price your paying for blasting makes me glad of two things
1# that i don't live in cali
2# that i know a owner of a pipe fitting company with free access to a 20x20 blast booth

Fellow Stovebolter's,

I can't wait to get my personal webpage location back up and running so I can post some pics/stories to go along with my rendition of "it only needs a cab mount and a floor pan" story when I bought my 61 Apache. To make a long story short, I bought it in Oct of 2007. It is currently in my shop behind a tent of plastic as a recently blasted frame. That should pretty much sum up the fact that I won't be driving it to the local car show this weekend......

Doing it yourself saves alot of money, however, the time it takes is staggering. At least for me.......

North, I wish I could do it myself. But living in San Fran. I have to deal with neighbors..But what is nice is I started the teardown of the truck March 16th. The truck as of today had all the sandblasting and primer done. The shop only has the cab to work on. Project should be painted soon.

Speaking of rust I have a 1957 chevy short box pick up and after crauling around under the truck I have a slight rot out near the driverside rear shackel bracket to the frame .Any ideas guys?

UnklRod, Sounds like you've got a good momentum going on there. I'm fortunate that I have a little shop out back to work in and its far enough from neighbors here in rural Maine that I don't have to worry about upsetting anyone.

Good luck to you. Hope all goes well on the rest of your build.

north,
I come from the country. I was raised in wine country north of San Fran. My dad had a huge shop to work in. But as things go I moved for work and dad passed away. But I was given the truck. It will be in the family as long as my ticker is working. I will do alot of the work once the body and paint is done. I rented the garage next to mine so I have a bit of space to work.
I will post some pictures of the cab when I go to the autobody shop doing the work tomorrow. Jon

Here are a couple of Photos of the Cab DriverSide Floor 2 CabRear

Unklrod

Looks Good want to do mine LOL
Brad

UnklRod,

Sweet pics....You're a few steps ahead of where I'm at on my 61. Good to see pics like this vice the nice clean finished product...:-)

I will do the same soon. As I mentioned, I'm in the middle of blasting my cab, so its a mess out there right now, but its my mess, so I don't care!!!!ha.

Your cab looks pretty solid from what I could see in the pics.....You're lucky!

Thanks for sharing....

north,
Yes I am very pleased with how the CAB came out. For being 52 years old and outside its whole life.....not bad at all. There are of course small pen holes along the inner roof of the cab. Some rust at the bottom of the access panels for the door hinges. There was no rust on the floor of the truck. Blows my mind! This was a ranch truck! I will keep you in the loop.

Does anyone know if there was undercoat on the bottom of the cabs? I think there was!