The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab repair- on or off frame?

So what is the general consensus? I saw Woody's detailed write up on his cab restoration and its getting me nervous about how much work mine will be!!!

I was thinking I would take the cab off of the frame while working on it. This would make it easier to bring inside because I have limited space... Is this a mistake? I figure the body mounts are probably toast anyway, so I don't know that the frame matters as a reference to the rest of the body...

Also: The gap between my cowl and hood grows as you go from top down on the fitting. That means my front cab mounts are shot and the cab is sagging right?

Tj

Including a link to a pic of what your working on would help. On my truck I'm leaving the cab on the frame while I'm replacing panels. But once thats done I plan to take the cab off to blast the under side and paint. Will also make the mastercylinder work and frame cleaning easier.

Took mine off the frame, and yes it did make it alot easier! Our cart is made of 2x8s with a raised area on top to mimick the frame. once the cab was off the frame we took measurements of the mounting "holes" on the frame and transfered to the cart. this was a huge help when it was time for the floor and new cab supports...8" casters on ours
What year truck?

If the cab is in really bad shape, its going to be a long drawn out process. You might consider finding a cab that is in better shape to begin with.

truck is a 1954 3800 with a dump bed.

Well I keep finding more fixes here and there with pop rivets holding fenders on and such....

Part of it is the hobby and the challenge so i don't mind ( yet!) Plus i was lucky to convince the wife to by this one and there is zero chance ill be buying a cab in the next few years....

i will add some pics shortly but from the outside it doesn't look so bad. i liked this because fixed areas hopefully wont be too visible. the main problem areas are cowls ( bottom 6" gone) the floor is basically gone and i suspect the front cab mounts have collapsed. not sure about sills. It definitly has its share of rut but it does see pretty square to me. i feel like this will make repairs much easier!

im not storing it at my house right now but pics i do have are below:

pics

Looks like a great find

i like your idea of the cart mimicking the frame mounts. do you have any dimensions?

i'd like to see if i can find cab dimensions also.

I just got "how to restore your Chevrolet pickup" from the library so im looking forward to reading that too.

I left my cab on. The PO had done a body-off and all I really needed to do was clean it up.
We replaced both rear cab lower panels and some stuff around the doors. It was definitely worth the effort NOT to take the whole cab off.
That said, I was pretty fortunate with the condition of what I bought.

When I did my 52-3100 I built a cab stand with big casters so I could move it around the garage.I don't have alot of room.I'm doing the same to a 53 GMC right now and have it mounted on the cab stand.If you look thru my Photo Buckit pics you'll see it.It's built out of 2x4s that are glued and screwed together.On my 52 and the 53 I fit the doors on the stand,and when it came time to put them on the truck,the52, after the cab was on the frame they still fit so I"m doing the same on the 53GMC.Take you're time in building the stand the back mounts are taller than the front by 1 inch.And don't forget to screw the cab down at all 4 mounting locations.


Pete

Any reason you didn't make it a bit taller? It seems like 90% of my work will be down low so as long as i can get it through a garage door, i want it as high as i can get it!

Or is that as high as you could doo with a 7 foot door?

Any detail of the attachement method? Did you just use lag screws into the wooden posts?

Tj

Tj - get a Factory assembly maunual. It will have all the frame dimensions as well as answer a bunch of questions as you go through the restoration process. WELL WORTH THE $$. Ours was about 17 " off the floor,fyi

That was as high as I could to still get thru the garage door.I'm going to build a new garage in sept and am going with a 9 foot door.

I used 1/4 inch X 2 inch lags with 1/4 X 2 washers.

Pete

Sounds good!

I'm jealous about the garage! I think I have a pole barn in my future but it's probably still at least 10 years out... Probably get it just as I finish my truck