As I prepare to start pulling apart the 52 F3 MH, I think the use of a donor cab will be in order. While the original cab has no rust, it's been abused just about every way a person can imagine. The roof is dented bad and the door frames are hurt from the doors being forced open too far too often (probably caught by the wind out on the North Dakota praire). Yeah, I know that anything can be fixed, but at what investment. I've got two good donor cabs. One has absolutely no rust, but has some minor roof dents. They won't just pop out, so it'll require the skilled touch of someone who can heat and shrink the stretched metal. The other cab has a perfect roof, but will need all four cab corners. I'd probably have that done by a pro as well. Which is the least involved? Have you guys had luck pulling dents out of that curved roof surface (without resorting to a ton of mud!), or is it easier to do the rust repair? Thanks. Stu

 

I would go with the cab with the "minor" roof dents. I would rather have a solid cab. I would think if you are going to have a professional do either type of work it would cost about about the same for the dent repair or rust repair, most likely the dents would be cheaper. You would have a solid cab that you don't have to worry about the rust coming back or have the joints of the patch repairs failing sometime in the future.

 

Ditto on what Bob says..........

Barry

50 F-1

 

Depending on how big those dents are, there may be a "trick" to fix them.

An old time trick to fixing "hail damage" is to get the metal very hot, as in sitting in the hot western sun, or under a heat lamp, and then putting "Dry Ice" on the dent.
That will usually pull the dent right out.

 

I've never heard that trick. I've read descriptions of how to use a torch and wet rag to suck out dents, but have also read that if you don't know what you're doing you can weaken the panel so bad that it warps all to heck. The compound curves on the roof of these trucks makes that seem like a job requiring a lot of skill. My donor cab doesn't have any dents that have creased the metal, just bumps from it's hard life on the farm. Going into this my thought process was that replacement of cab corners would be a pretty straight forward task. Cut out the old and stitch in the new, making sure everything stays straight, i.e. something requiring a bit less skill than roof repair. Have any of you had success pulling dents out of a roof using either technique? Stu

 

I have used the Dry Ice method myself and I watched an old body man do the torch and a wet rag.
Using the hot sun or a heat lamp you won't get the metal too hot and weaken it.

 

Sounds like practicing on the existing cab's dents first would help me build confidence before putting the good cab to the test. How significant were the dents that you were able to pull using this method (inches around/deep/etc.) And did they come back to the original contour, assuming you still needed a skim coat of mud? Stu

 

I pulled one about baseball size around and close to a half inch deep with someone putting some pressure from the inside.
I also got most of a crease out that was on the curve just above the door.

I'v never used it before but a friend has used a commercial heat gun in place of a heat lamp.

 

That's a big help. Thanks much. Stu