The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Have I done it this time!

I have the cab to my 51 3600 in the garage on saw horses. I removed the doors, and the windows and then thought about cross bracing the cab. Has anyone else done this? Am I in for trouble aligning doors and such when I go to put it all back together? Any suggestions? Of course I want to hear, don't worry about it! But what I really want is to do is the best I can given what I have. Let me know what you think.

I can't see there being a problem, unless its really rotten in the floors and rockers.
If its solid, these guys pick them up by the roof all the time, so shouldn't really be an issue.
Even without the doors, the cab is a pretty substantial structure.

Rick,as Andy has already mentioned,if your cab's reasonably solid,you should be OK.
If,however the cab has rot around the floors,cowls,rockers etc, and I assume by the fact you want to brace the cab,this might be the problem,personally I would re-fit the doors,set the gaps as best as you can and THEN brace the cab.
That way when you refit them after welding the cab,they should still fit the aperatures.JMO

I did this with many of the cabs that I've had. Even after removing the cab and setting it on a homemade stand that I could roll around the garage. Because I had to do a good deal of welding on the floorboards and replace BOTH rocker panels, I took a piece of 1/4" angle iron, measured the opening of the door area, made sure it was the same on both sides, then tack-welded the angle iron in place on the front and rear of the door openings. After being that way for more than a year (I'm a slow worker) after getting all of the welding done, removing the angle iron, both doors hung easily, and IMHO, perfectly!

I would strongly recommend against any "major" parts replacement with the cab off the frame. Your frame is like a fixture and since that's where the cab will wind up in the end it's a LOT better to know it will fit when you're finished cutting and welding than to find out the hard way when you try to put it back on after working on it off the frame. When you get it all welded back together and you know your doors fit with it on the frame THEN pull it off and put it on the dolly for cleaning and painting.

I never took mine off the frame. Even when I was done with the surgery part I just rolled it back on the frame to get access to the bottom. For pix, start HERE and hit the NEXT button a few times to see what I did.

There was a guy here some time ago who did it off the frame and he had some major horror stories to tell.