Hello all. I usually post in the diesel section as I have an old f350 but I figured I would post this here since it is a body work question. To start off I’ve got a 1996 Ford F-350 crew cab long bed. I have had some rust issues over the past 7 years I have owned the truck and it is something I would like to get handled as quick as possible. The main areas I am concerned about are the cowl drain area and the roof. It has some bad rust/rot in the drip rails, under the 3rd brake light and around the cab lights. In the cowl drain it is actually rotted through and has caused a leak into the floor of my cab. As I am sure you guys know, this is a very hard area to access as there is no way to really get to it or see it without putting a phone in there and taking pictures or feeling it. So to get to the question, would I be wasting time and money to have this cab fixed the right way when I could swap out the whole cab? I am only leaning away from cab swapping because the floor on my cab is immaculate and has no rust down low plus it is very hard to come by a clean crew cab these days as these trucks are becoming rare and it is a lot of work and I do not have a lift to lift the cab properly. I have temporarily fixed the roof by scraping all the old seam sealer out and wire wheeling/sanding to someone hood metal and re sealing. I also used metal reinforced bondo to fix that hole, which is once again very temporary so don’t make fun of me haha. Anyway I will attach some photos if you guys could give me an honest answer and some direction on what to do next that would be great. I have labeled each photo so you can tell each area.

Thank You,
Christian


3rd brake light

Drip rails

Rust hole I grinded down to good metal

Cowl

Cowl drain

Cowl drain

Whole truck

 

The truck visually overall looks to be nice...... IMHO, if there was a need/reason to have to gut the cab (electrical, etc.) then yes, I would replace but otherwise IMHO I would swag it would take less time to repair versus doing a cab replacement

 

Thank you for the reply man. That is what is so unfortunate because it really is a clean truck overall and the lower end on the cab is in great shape such as the floor, cab corners etc. I do eventually plan on getting the interior though to do all black interior with a set of either king ranch seats or black superduty seats. Another idea I had was to cut a roof off of a crew cab that has a good roof and having the body shop fab the new roof on. The roof on these old trucks is actually a roof skin/panel that is tig welded on. Ford used to sell the whole roof panel but it is now discontinued.

 

Those are all really good options........... just have to really look at how much work/cost would be involved in each and make the decision....... it will be a really great truck when you're done!

 

I'm in Michigan.

I drove to Oklahoma and had a pristine cab dropped on my trailer for 350 bucks.

Then I drove back home and had a lovely road trip.

I'll never waste a moment of my life cutting and grinding and welding.

 

The only thing you have to worry about is the VIN
Remember the VIN is on the cab under the windshield and by law you are not to move this.
So the replacement cab VIN would not match the frame VIN and if you ever sell or get pulled in for a VIN check you could be in for a shock.
Hope you get a BOS with the new cab you can then go to your local DMV and have a state VIN issued to the truck.
Good luck
Dave ----

ps this also goes for a frame swap for guys with rusty frames