My cab mounts are shot. I'm pretty sure I can get the old ones off by jacking the cab up. But I am not equipped to weld. Could a guy rivet the body mounts to the cab? Then possibly drive it to a welder to Zeus it together?

 

If you don't care if the cab shears off in an accident, sure. If your personal safety is a consideration have it towed to a shop to have them cut off and new ones welded on.

 

I've seen it listed somewhere that a completely striped cab (no doors or glass is 300 pounds) so I would have to imagine everything added back in would be close to 800 to 1000 pounds if not more. Seems like a lot of weight to trust to rivets holding everything in place even for a short distance. Multiple nut and bolts with large washers on both sides would be my suggestion but only if you have good floors to bolt through. If the floors are rusty I wouldn't risk it, have it towed as already suggested.

 

Even bad cab mounts are better than a cab with nothing there which is what this basically is. A guy could trailer it and strap it down but if you've removed the fronts, you're going to be torqueing the backs an awful lot even for a short distance.

Or a guy could just pull the cab off, strap it down on it's back on a trailer. What shape is the cab in otherwise? Are there other things a guy's gotta do while it's off?

 

Can you pop rivet them? Yes. Should you pop rivet them? NO. However…. I have pop riveted (and bolted) cab mounts on a ‘70 F100 to get it through inspection and it held up ok. This was the 80s before every household had a miller buzz box in the garage and safety requirements were considerably lower.

Cut away only the rusty portions, leave as much of the original cab mounts in place as possible, because you will be riveting to, and bolting through the remaining original mount. Set the new cab mounts in place over the remaining cab mount. Use large steel rivets to securely tack everything in place, then slowly set the cab back down onto the replacement bushings and tighten them up. Everything will shift and settle a little bit once it’s in place with cab weight on it and seated. Adjust with hammers, pry bars, shims, beer and bad words as needed. Then bolt through the mount/firewall/floorpan with large washers on either side of the mount and front/firewall upright apron portion, and 4 bolts equidistant on the floor pan tail piece. Make them TIGHT. Like everything crushed together, impact and lock nut tight. Don’t forget the large washers to spread load the support. Slather the whole thing in POR15 or spray undercoating to hide your evil work from the inspection man.

Thats backyard cab mount restoration circa1986.

Today, I would hope that you’d weld it.

good luck

 

That's an escape pod, just get the cab as far away from the scene of the accident and you will be ok.

 

There are two types of cab mounts available the slip-on type and the OE replacement type. The slip-on type is installed over the old mount and will last a little while. The OE type pretty much require the cab be removed to install them correctly. The slip-on type are available on e-bay cheap.
These are slip on.F-100/F-250/F-350 Replacement Cab Mount Steel Front '68-79
These are OE style. OE-Style Steel Front Cab Mount F-100/F-250/F-350 '68-79