So the last couple of weeks I've been able to get a good amount done on replacing the rusted cab parts. Here's a collection of pics!

First thing I did was finish up the drivers side by adding the cab corner. Drilled some holes to connect the back of the corner to the cab.


Here's a pic with some tack welds and the sheet metal tools I'm using. I put the door back in. You can see it's rusted itself and the bottom part is warped... so can't really use that as a reference.


Here's a shot with the old rusted parts and the new welded ones.


Another shot.


With that, time to move on to the passenger side. This side wasn't as bad as the drivers side (but still pretty bad...). I was planning to replace the floor pan, rear pillar, rear cab corner, and rocker.


Here's the floor pan cut out.


Floor pan cut to shape and roughly fit.


Fit isn't perfect.. i've found that the stamped portions can be off by up to 1/2". Oh well...


Fit and ready for welding.


I should've done the passenger side first... i'm getting back at fitting the butt welds and so the passengers side is much prettier than the driver side. The gaps are not perfect but are working for me.


The entire gap welded.


And grinded down.


I was going to replace the rocker but after removing the cab corner it seemed pretty solid. I needed to grind off some rust to tell.


After removing the rotted portion of the pillar and grinding off some rust, I figured the rocker was pretty solid, and not worth cutting out. So I cleaned it up best I could and moved on to the new pillar.


Fit for welding. Getting better and better at getting the right butt welding gap.


Welded.


Grinded down.


Some rust encapsulator on top.


Finally, cab corner in the same fashion as the other side,


Tack welded


Grinded down


And finished.


Shot of the passenger side replacement parts.


Here's what I've replaced so far.




Through the rear window:


So I'm slowly getting there. The plan is to flip the cab on it's side and repair the mounting rails / cab mounts on the bottom. Then POR 15 the bottom.

 

By the way, the mounts/threads for my bench seat are pretty beat. Does anyone know if these are aftermarket or can point me to a simple replacement thread? And then I assume I can cut out and weld in?

 

Nicee work! I am seriously impressed. For those anchors, I think they are essentially just tapped steel stock, maybe 3/8” or thereabouts.


I would first see if yours even warrant replacement, and if so, you are probably looking at cutting out from a parts truck or cutting/tapping steel bar.

 

I am with Jackie, NICE WORK

On the seat anchors with out looking at my truck to see how they are done but from the looks of yours what if you were to remove the threaded part so you have just the flat floor to work with.
Then weld a nut on the bottom side. If you have a bolt that has longer threads put a nut up the threads put it through the floor and a 2nd nut on the bolt trapping the floor between the 2 nuts and then weld 1 nut to the bottom. You can then unscrew the bolt and the nut should stay on the bottom of the floor.
Dave ----

 

I’m extremely impressed with the quality of work you did. Looking forward to seeing more. Those floor pans are exactly what I need. I’ll be ordering those today.

 

I was able to get the cab corners welded in. They came in two different colors from Tabco. They're not perfectly shaped, but I guess that's what bondo is for later?





Then I was ready to fix the cab mount and rails. I flipped the cab onto it's back and started to grind off the rust and dried mud. Was a pretty dirty job.


Here's a close shot with about half of it "clean".




The passenger cab mount looks OK. I'm going to keep it as is.


The driver's side is pretty gone, though! The rail (crossmember?) was basically disconnected from the cab mount.


Just another shot.


Closer view of the bad cab mount.


So I cut out the cab mount and cut out the rail about 2 ft. Then I welded in the new cab mount. Either because of how I placed floorpan or because of the Tabco part being slightly off, it wasn't a perfect fit. There was about 1/4" gap between the floorpan and the cab mount, so I put some metal in the gap and welded it together. I measured the length, width, and depth of the cab mount bolt hole to make sure it was close... and was within 1/4" of the measurements I made from the frame.


I cut out a piece of sheet metal and bent it roughly into the rail shape. Here it is clamped into place.


Also needed to make the top part of the rail that connected to the cab mount. I couldn't make it one piece because I don't have the machines or tools, but hopefully it's fine.


Here's the rail and cab mount welded together and to the floor pan.


And finally, instead of shaping that end of the rail into that weird shape, I just reused it and welded it to what I made.


I wanted to use POR 15, so I followed the prep instructions and cleaned it with degreaser, then used their "metal etch" which helps the POR15 stick to clean or smooth metal.


Here's a pic after 3 coats of POR 15. Pretty happy how it turned out, it is very hard and should last a while.


I flipped the cab back right side up and cut out the holes for the cab mount bolts.


Last thing I did: Clean the inside floor/walls with degreaser and used the metal etch.


Next steps: POR 15 on the floor and side walls, then clean/prep and paint the outer firewall. So ready to be done with this cab repair!

 

Appreciate the good pictures you are taking.

 

Nice job again on the mounts and rails.
Before you did the floor what did you do for the seat threaded mounts?
Above I should have told you to weld the nuts to large flat washers to spread the load then weld the washers to the floor.
Dave ----

 

So it looks like only one needed to be replaced, so I did just what you were thinking... I got a large washer and welded the nut to the washer. Then I welded the washer to the frame rail. It turned out pretty sturdy. Great minds think alike!

 

Well I was able to get three coats of POR 15 on the floor of the cab and the firewall. I thought the black would look better on the exterior firewall so I went with that.



























To get the cab on the truck I used an engine hoist and some ratchet straps. Took a bunch of readjusting the straps to get the balance right, but was finally able to get it above the transmission shifter.










The last thing to do to finish this cab repair is put down seam sealer in the interior of the cab. But I won't be taking pictures of that... so i'll be calling this thread a wrap! I'd guess I spent 150 hours and about $1500 on this repair. Not super time or cost effective, but I got a new welder out of it and a good amount of experience.

 

Good to hear it worked out for you.
Dave ----