Got the passenger side mount off, spot weld cutter bit from Eastwood works like a charm! The passenger side mount is pretty shelled.

 

Here is a good tip for anyone thinking of replacing these mounts. I had a heck of a time getting the spot welds on the top of the mount, that attaches it to the lip on the firewall. The mount won't let the drill have a straight shot at the welds up there. On the drivers side, after cutting through all of the bottom and side spot welds, I cut the mount near the top, to remove most of it, so I could have a straight shot at those top welds.

 

Well this is a little irritating. See any difference between these two cab mounts? Yeah, thought so. I think these are either 73-79 mounts, or something designed to fit over the old mounts. Either way, they are going back. I'm going to be calling National Parts Depot as soon as they open. I will probably have to order the mounts Dennis Carpenter has. Bad thing about that? Those are $60 higher a piece! But, gotta do what ya' gotta do. Dammit!

 

Well, sending those mounts back to NPD, that's all they have. New mounts on order from Dennis Carpenter.

 

Well, there are fitment issues with the DC mounts. The right mount, it seems, was not pushed all the way together when it was welded. It leaves a good size gap with the firewall when the floor is flush.

 

On the left side, it fits better, but, there is a significant gap at the top, where the mount should sit flush with a lip on the firewall. I've contacted DC about this, they have sent me a return authorization, and I'm going to ship them back, so they can see what the issue is. I've included some of these pics, for reference for them. I still want a set of their mounts, and they want to work with me to get this worked out, so no one else has these issues in the future. I'll let you know how this works out.

 

Just got off the phone with the guys at Dennis Carpenter. I'm not sure if they could tell exactly the issues I was having, but they did come up with a solution. Instead of sending me mounts that were already welded together, they are going to send the separate pieces, and I can place them on the truck, and then spot weld them myself, so they will be exactly where they need to be.

 

Well, despite the tendonitis in my right elbow, got a little work done last night. patching up a few spots where I accidentally drilled all the way through (doh!) the spot welds, or where the floor had a weak spot. Came out pretty good for my first welding job. Lots of practice before it, though!

 

Well, got the mounts back from DC. I was able to get them to fit perfectly, since they didn't weld them together there. I'll do my own spot welds on them. You can see the difference from the first pic to the second. That big gap at the top is gone.

 

Here is the other side. The first two pics are the ones DC welded together, and the last is the one I'm going to do. Another nice thing about these coming in two pieces, I can spray some weld-through primer on the parts before I spot weld them. I think DC may want to consider making this an option, to get the pieces separate, so you can get them fitted perfectly to each truck!

 

Looking inside the mounts, you can see the gap in the first pic where they were welded, and where I'm going to have them when I weld them in the second.

 

Cab mounts are welded together, and are now welded to the truck. They came out perfect. Coated on the inside with POR-15, and weld through primer where the spot welds are.

 

Thanks, appreciate it! Had a nice haul of parts last night. A guy here in Omaha is selling off his project, so I went and snagged a few things. Nice fenders, a pretty nice tailgate, and a really, really nice radiator support!

 

Next step for the cab, repairing this bracket, on the drivers side rocker. This is where the fender bolts up. First pic is the passenger side. Next is what's left of the driver's side, it got hammered sometime in the past. Found the rocker underneath where the bracket was is shot, so, along with replacing steel in that corner, I'll weld in a piece in that rocker also. Luckily, that's the only bad spot in both rockers. I'll make a new bracket out of 16 ga.

 

Got the drivers side vent box removed from the cab this weekend. I'll leave this off, so I can sandblast all of it when I get the cowl off. Now I can get that corner metal replaced.