Major Cab Repair

[65Custom]

Ok guys I recently got my cab back from the blast shop and now all 43 years of neglect is gone and I'm left with some major work.

Any one here ever gone through some major repair of the floor and firewall?

The upper half of my cab is good and a big window cab. I want to save her if I can.

I have another cab which the floor is in near perfect needs some repair but the upper half has some extensive rust in the areas that I feel are the most difficult to repair.

There was a hole drilled for an antenna in the roof which has allowed water to seep in and rust the upper half just above the windshield, dash and possibly in other ares that are unknown at this time. So thinking of using the floor from the other cab in mine along with some patches since I know the condition of the original cab.

I have been looking at this and there seems to be a couple thoughts on this from my point of view.

1 Start at the back of the cab and work forward
2 start at the front and work back wards

So with that said any suggestion on where to start! ideas on how you supported the cab or braced it till work was completed

Anyone with x dimensions so things do not got skewed?

 

[aimless]

Start at the cancer and work in. Cut out the rockers and the floor as far in as the rust goes. Then go to the other cab with the good floor and cut your replacement parts out of it. An air-powered saw and a wire-feed welder should be sufficient... that's what I used on mine.

BTW, entire floor pan replacements are availible, but they are a pain to fit. I ended up cutting my new ones to pieces. You will essentually be doing the same thing with the new floor.

Good Luck!

 

[65Custom]

Start at the cancer and work in. Cut out the rockers and the floor as far in as the rust goes. Then go to the other cab with the good floor and cut your replacement parts out of it. An air-powered saw and a wire-feed welder should be sufficient... that's what I used on mine.

BTW, entire floor pan replacements are availible, but they are a pain to fit. I ended up cutting my new ones to pieces. You will essentually be doing the same thing with the new floor.

Good Luck!

Who makes the whole floor pan I have not seen anyone selling them I have seen the patch panels for the floor I have several already to get started

 

[texascowboy]

I agree with "aimless" start with the cancer; I ordered to new piceses for my floors from "LCM" and by the time I was done they were in little piceses and I evently went to a weilder with some of my own measurements and it came out better.
Becareful with rubber that goes around window on inside of cab real easy to tear. I also had some upper rust on inside of cab used small grindind disc to remove. good luck!!

 

[texascowboy]

Who makes the whole floor pan I have not seen anyone selling them I have seen the patch panels for the floor I have several already to get started

Try "LCM" they are a little high but , they have em'
or at least they did 2yrs ago.

 

[johan]

floor repair

I bought mine from classia parts of america .they are universal floors.
they did came out with better fitting floors .
check there web site and you will see two diverent floors.

 

[65Custom]

Entire Floor pan

I have those patch panels

aimless mentioned that there is a entire floor pan

I have not seen those for the 64-66 nor have I seen anyone that is making them just yet so I thought that I would ask in case I havent been looking in the right place.

 

[65Custom]

Just to give you an idea

Here is a couple of pics that illustrate just how bad it is

The previous bozo that owned it tried to patch the cab corners by just putting the new ones over the old sheet metal and didn't bother to do it the right way. They also attempted to replace the rockers but that was also a failed attempt too.

These pics are just after I removed the rockers and as you can see they didn't bother to do anything to try to fix the rot. The drivers side rocker backing was completely gone My plans at the moment are to replace the firewall and possibly the floor from the donor cab since the donor cab has some roof rot and I would prefer to same mine since it has a better upper half

I think that I could have done better with a butter knife and stapler. I'm no welder but they were really bad

 

[greg65]

WOW. It looks like you have work cut out for you. I agree, i've my '65 for eighteen years and have not seen a complete floor pan.

 

[CHEVYTRUCKNUT61]

When I replaced my passenger side floorboard, I used anther cab. I rolled my truckoff the local interstate, had to get another cab and the original cab was pretty much rust free. The cab I bought to use was ok. It was not as much work as you might have. I bought new rockers from GM.They still had them then along with the front fenders. I, my brother and a friend did all the work in the garage. Good luck with yours!

Ben

 

[65Custom]

Update

Ok Today I pulled the parts cab off the frame (ok Well more liked rolled it off) and after looking at it closer the roof inner and outer panels on the passenger side is rusted through. Mine has some pin holes but nothing like this one.

So going to cut it up tomorrow and get it in to more manageable sections. The Floor in this one is pretty solid will need some patches and repair but nothing like mine.

The plan is to take the floor from this one and replace mine it should be quicker and easier to get this reworked. I hope

 

[beck]

alignment is critical

Here is my 2 cents worth...The cab must be bolted securely to the frame before starting any of the work. The doors need to be on and aligned. They must open and close freely. The gaps must be right. If you cut the rockers out with that much floor missing you will never get the replacement parts welded back with any alignment. If you do these repairs without the cab on the frame when you put the doors in they won't fit correctly. The rockers will be high or low, in or out. Without some kind of frame the only thing holding the cab together is the roof. It just isn't rigid enough to keep everything aligned.

When I start a project I am willing to pay 5 times as much for a near rust free starter vehicle. By the time you buy or make the patch panels, the welding supplies, consider your time is worth a buck an hour, and the major headaches it is cheaper,faster, and easier to spend the $$$ in advance. When it comes time to sell the vehicle you tell the potential buyer you started with a rust free original, and can back it up with photos. That sells better than when you tell them you started with a real rust bucket. I am always skeptical of the work of others. I have seen to many vehicles slung full of filler. Half the guys out there can make a sculpted filler POC look good with nice straight lines. Less than 5% can weld up the panels using only steel and get them looking good. Metal work is an art which I am not capable of, so if I start with all steel and straight I don't have to practice that art.

You ask how I know this. The guy I bought my truck from was a sculptor of filler. When I had the cab media blasted I was shocked how much filler was there. How did I fix it? I too am a sculptor. It looks fairly straight. The rust is gone. It should last. So I'm happy. Its a rat. It will never be a show truck. How bad does it bother me? I bought a different cab that is rust free. It is currently in storage.

 

[aimless]

Who makes the whole floor pan I have not seen anyone selling them I have seen the patch panels for the floor I have several already to get started

Sorry, but I got them from Classic Parts back when they were Chevy Duty. It was the entire floor pan from the rocker all the way to the transmission hump, but that's been eight years ago.

But it didn't help me much, they didn't fit and I had to cut them up basically turning them into patch panels. I liked your idea of cutting up the good floor in the bad cab. Will work just the same!

 

[gitrunindady]

floor panels, then rocker panels. like the other guy said, with no structural integrity, the doors aint gonna be the only things that dont line up....
i had to do the same thing to mine..., you could always go to the process of making a roll around chassis jig, then weld 1/2" box across, up/down and X'd inside the cab to keep the lines right.....frankly, i'd to the former..
g.t.

 

[65Custom]

I agree but I'm already in deep

Well Beck I have to agree with you on a lot of your comments, The problem is that when I went to buy the truck I couldn't get a feel for the decay that it had till I got it home as it was sitting in weeds that was above the bottoms of the doors.

It looked good from the top and sounded solid but they had put some sticky rubber type of a cover over the patches and it was not the rubber floor mat.

I guess that should have been an indicator how bad it was underneath but didn't know how bad till I removed the old attempts to patch it The rockers looked good because they had replaced them but done a poor job of welding them in place.

I went today and started to cut up the other cab.
The roof of the donor cab was really rotted through inside and out. looked as if a mouse had spent some time up there and that was the cause of the rot where the nest was left and would get damp and caused the rot through.

The problem with the suggestion of having it bolted to a frame is that the mounts are basically gone so mounting it is not an option

I am replacing the whole floor as the donor cab floor is in excellent condition compared to mine and all the floor supports and mounts etc are there and good I may need to replace one support but other than that I'm good.

I took good measurements before cutting it up so I'm good there and have a good way to get mine back in shape. I measured 9 ways to Sunday to make sure that I have it down. I also have some good help to make sure that we don't miss something I have a lot of thinking to do to make sure that i cover everything.

My friend helping me has done this type of thing all his life, he has worked on things worse than this and they we all very nice cars when finished, Austin boat tail speedsters, 32 Fords, 70 Hemi Cuda and Franklin's, Olds Convertibles So this guy knows metal working He is currently working on a 83 Silver Eagle bus converting to a Travel Coach man that thing practically needed a whole new frame.

I probably will be doing some new bracing inside to keep it from moving further once I start to remove what remains of my floor. i have a few weeks before I get to that I need to prep the new floor first i hope to have this done by spring time

I do like the idea of making some sort of cage or jig for the cab to hold it in place and I have given it some thought but with the cost of steel these days it is a little hard to shell out the cash or find scrap to reuse

Will keep you updated on the progress and thanks for all the suggestions and replies

 

[williamb82]

if you were local id say you could have the cab from my 64. its all rusted but i beleive the firewall is pretty solid with no rust. also the back wall under the window as well. not worth you driving to brooksville to get it even though id give it to you for free. its far too rusted to waste the gas to grab it. im keeping the glass and cluster and stuff from it. prolly just gonna bust it up with a sledge hammer and scrap it. roof and floor and dash are gone. totally gone.

 

[rustbucket]

Buddy, I feel your pain.

I am going thru this exact same issue right now. I need the entire floor pan for a '62

Good luck. Let me know whatever you find out.

 

[65Custom]

Are to floors in the 62 the same for all years 60 to 66? Do you need a big hump floor or the small hump? I have a 64-66 cab I am supposed to pick up in a couple of weeks. I am pretty sure that the floor is in good shape I do not know if the cover is on the hump but if you are interetsed let me know when I pick it up I can shoot you a few pictures

 

[beck]

I've got a nice 62 complete cab

I have a nice complete 62 cab. It has never been patched on. It still has original paint. It is just starting to show tiny bubbles on 1 cab corner. The doors do show minor rust on the corners. I would be willing to part with it for a reasonable price. That would save all the cutting, grinding, welding and cussing. It has a small hump and had a factory floor shift. The rear glass is missing. The windshield has wiper scratches. The stearing column has the bottom cut off.

 

[283 man]

65 Custom ,hey Ive got a 66 cab and frame we could swap your 283 motor for it in trade??????it needs work but would be good parts truck too no motor,trans.,no doors,hood. can get you more pictures the trade would be straight across.. just let me know?