Ok,

This all started as a fix to a few things but as i got deeper it became worse. If i do not fix it now it will just get worse.

On initial tear down of the cab it became apparent that the cowl had a failure of the seam above the pedals and at the far passenger top. This allowed water to get in and even though the truck has been in Arizona the last decade it started to cancer fairly aggressively frm the inside out. Through use of an Arizona donor i will replace the front cab floor toe board and firewall as a single piece. i have also scrounged up a core support that needs to be modified, front fenders and aprons. I also plan to stretch the frame to accept a long bed. And have all the pieces to make it a ranger. I have also acquired all the badginges and tail gate to make it a Mercury.

I also need to rebuild the rear doors as there was about an inch of bondo in places. I have spare rust free doors to accommodate the panels needed.

Here is some initial shots of the tear down.

As Started


Starting on the front end


Doors



I am not even bothering to save the front doors, there scrap

Bed


The bed it toast it was hot real hard in the front upper corner.

Cab off the frame


This is some to start i will post more.

Garbz

 

Garbz - great that you're starting the buildup thread! Cool crew - sorry you found so many surprises under the paint. Keep the updates coming!

 

awesome crew cab

 

Here is some more of the cab, There is a good bit if damage from the drivers side cab corner catching on something and really tweaking the back of the cab.

Here is the corners where you can see the damage

Drivers Side


Passenger side



Cab mount bolt


I will use the cab corners off the donor truck to repair the drivers side. I can dolly and hammer the crease out of the passenger. It must have took quite a jolt. I hammered it semi back in to position with a five pounder and a 2x4.

More to follow.

Garbz

 

Here is a few other things on crew cabs, For one they are not civilized in construction.

Rear door construction


Wondered why the bottoms of the drivers side doors were in and i was hitting at the top. The factory missed a bit and covered it over with seam seal.



Passenger side is 1/2 inch shorter!



Garbz

I will need to do some slice and rework to get the drivers side to fit correctly.

 

I also will have to replace my firewall on my 72' from rust along with the cowl... so will do it in one piece just not sure where I will cut it on top. Post some pics of the replacement dissassembly of that as you go

 

Any updates? how far have you got on the parts truck?

 

Parts truck is a set of frame rails! Jr came over and helped for most of the day.

I plan to take the floor out of the Crew tomorrow. Took some pics today, Man is the bottom of the donor nice along with the inside. It is feels almost criminal to cut the donor up.

Measured up the side mount tank and it will bolt in and fit just aft of the T case so i can use it. I may just use that one and leave the other one out of the cab. Man that packrat was busy. I was picking spines out again.

Steve should have my frame extension pieces cut and bent for me to pick up next weekend.

Garbz

 

Did i leave a couple of tiedowns at you place? i'm missing one of my new black ones.

 

We reused them to hold the 2 nine inchers on the trailer. I will look around. I mowed they yard on Friday with my new mower and did not spit anything out.

Garbz

 

Here are a few new shots of the progress

Bill W and i picked up a donor truck in Tucson for floors, bed and a host of ancillary parts.

This is the donor cab, it is a shame to cut it up as it is pretty nice except for godzilla stepping on the roof.



I will use all of the side mount tank and mounts as it will fit behind he T case with about a 1/2" to spare.



I have begun to remove the Crew Cabs floor and get at the hidden rust.







Hidden rust between the layers.



Spot welds and more spot welds.



The kick panel needs to be replaced also. To do this correctly the inner section has to be removed as it is a three layer deal.



Here is it with the inner piece removed.



And the inside of the inside piece.



I Need to spot blast the parts and remove the floor from the donor.

More to follow.

Garbz

 

Have some more done. Removed the floor on the donor and pulled everything off that does not look like a floor.

Here is the Crew with just about everything removed to install the donor floor



Donor floor removed from cab



Drivers side



Passenger side



Just about ready to install



I have removed about 120 spot welds and pulled off the excess metal. I have some POR15 on order to seal the inside of the cowls, once that is ready i will slip in the floor and rosette weld it in place.

More to follow.

Garbz

 

awesome project, I probably missed it, what is wrong with the gold cab as a whole?

 

Some dents in the roof.....It was pretty nice but i needed an entire floor to rebuild the crew, I felt pretty bad about cutting it up. I did not want to patch work the floors, toe boards and firewall.

It had a bit of rust in the cab corners due to rags and a bit in the drivers cowl due to the same thing. And a crap load of packrat nest!

Garbz

 

I notice that the entire floor assembly is 95% identical to the 73-79 crew cab.