Well, a few months ago, we hit a peacock with the 'ol girl, putting a dent above the windscreen, that highlighted the cracks above the windscreen, plus, the 'ol girl had always leaked around the windscreen, from above and on the sides too. There was a bit of rust around the door openings too, so we decided to book it into the panelshop to get it repaired. To save some money, we decided to remove the windscreen, rear window and strip as much of the cab as we could ourselves. Unfortunately, we have to do this outside, as the truck it too big for the shed!!
Anyway, we made a great start, but what we discovered was up to 1" of bog, and a whole lotta rust.....more that I ever expected and dreamed of, I have never seen such a mess, the previous owners simply bogged over everything.....I am gutted, I had a planned bugdet.....that is now blown away, and as I am in New Zealand a replacement cab is not available.
I will post pics as soon as I can.....but I am really disappointed, as I knew it had rust, but nothing like this!!
Anyone else had this kind of experience? Any pic's?
Shane

 

There are a lot of us in the same boat.
Unfortunately, like you said, being in New Zeland really limits your choices when it comes to repair or replace.
Too bad the previous owner wasn't more up front about the true condition. A lot of them look at it as "it's just an old truck, condition doesn't matter".
Like I've said in the past, quite often the worst thing that could ever happen to one of our trucks is a previous owner.
Good luck on getting her fixed and back on the road.

 

Listening to you talk is entertaining.

Anyway, yes, I traded a nice 11 second drag car for a big block automatic '68 Chevelle. I started tearing into it and discovered it was a bondo (bog) and fiberglass sculpture of a '68 Chevelle. I literally sat down and cried when I went to fix the cowl panel and ground through 2" of fiberglass and ended up under the dash!

I spent over $2K on sheet metal to re skin the entire car. I was so heart broken, that I hardly worked on it and sold it a few years later for about the money I had in new parts for it. So I basically gave away a nice drag car for nothing. I'll say this, whoever did the mud work was an artist. The body looked good and all of the floors were rock solid. It must've been backed into a chicken coop is all I can figure.

....older and wiser. I have a '64 Chevelle SS now that has ZERO rust in it.

 

Maybe some not so normal parch repair panels can be sent your way. Count me in I have a 19 volt sawzall and a jy with a ton of old iron.

I have spare cab I can section up the roof and door seal areas into mailable strips/workable pieces.

Let us know what might help.....

 

I will talk to the panel shop, see what he reckons is easiest, if we do go with your offer I would require both rear corners of the cab, from the seam where it meets the roof right to the bottom, both outer and inner including door opening and maybe the front above the windscreen, both inner and outer.
Thanks,
Shane

 

Ok, here are the pic's, they are not pretty, and I will get more uploaded as soon as I have them.


Above the windscreen....not nice.


Above the drivers door drip rail.


More of the rust above drivers door.


The seam behind the drivers door


The seam behind the passengers door


Below the drivers door, cab corner


General rust behind drivers door


More general rust behind door


You guessed it, more rust


Below drivers door lock on the pillar, where the seam is


Pillar behind drivers door


Above drivers door


One days work....

Progress continues, but I am considering importing another cab....I will get more pics, and up load them when I can, so, I guess everytime you see this on the front page, you will know I have added more pic's!!
Shane

 

That's some nasty rot, cab visor type rot, nice metal work though.

 

Unfortunately I missed getting the outside of the front windscreen, it was very very ugly, before I got pic's, my metal man had replaced it!! I will get more pic's of his work soon.
Shane

 

Yeah I'd say for your situation it will be cheaper just to have your guy bang out some patch panels. Thats nasty rust, and some of it in difficult to patch areas, but none of them look like a patch panel would provide an easy fix.

 

I have a 1979 F150 4X4 shorty that I have owned since 1981. Around 1995 or so I cracked a windshield and dropped it at a shop to have it replaced. The whole top seam under the gasket was gone! The only thing holding the top of the glass was the gasket.
This is a truck that I washed every week and waxed a couple of times a year, no outside signs of the rust at all. I replaced the cab, took a whole summer and $$ but it is still like new.
I wonder just how many are out there with the same prob and the owner has not a clue. Is this a common prob?

 

my 79 had some bad rot
made my own patchs

 

I went to fix the two rear corners of the cab on mine and found something similar.

However, the previous owner of my truck had filled the holes with expanding FOAM and then bondo'd (bogged) over the bad spots.

So, i wire wheeled the spots as free & clear as I could, then used marine grade epoxy and fiberglass to get the spots as close to perfect as I could. Then, I spread a *little* bit of bondo/bog/mud/putty and refinished. It came out a LOT nicer than it was before!

However, I still hate the fact that he tried to cover it up with FOAM >.<

-Brad

 

Ok, for those of you following my truck down under, here are more pic's:


Rear of cab replaced, I didn't even know it was rusty here!! Result of leaks around the rear window.


The rusty section that was cut out.


The seam plated over, yes, the seam was cut out first!!


The double seam on the passngers rear pillar plated.

The windcreen opening repair from passengers side, yup, right across was rotten!!


Windscreen opening from drivers side, and my very understanding wife too!!


Inside the A pillar, drivers side.


A Pillar again, plus floor repair


A pillar again


Under floor drivers cab corner


Under floor drivers A pillar


Inner rear corner drivers side


Rear pillar plated


Inside the cab above windscreen


Rear pillar from rear


Rear cab corner


Dent rebuilt.

Progress is going well, despite the cost, it is cheaper to do this than replace the cab, shipping one in from the U.S is just too expensive.
A thanks to all those who offered to cut cabs too, but, once again, I elected to get it rebuilt. I could throttle the previous owners for the neglect and shoddy work done to this truck!!
My panel man sure is checking everything out carefully, and finding more than I ever imagined would be there!!
I hope you will keep following my rebuild thread, and every time it pops up, please have a look!!

Now, I do need some parts I just can't make, I am looking for the trim that fits in the dent for my rear tray, it is a short box, any got some in good condition they are willing to part with? Or, would some one be willing to go to pick a part and get some for me, i will happily pay for it.
Cheers,
Shane

 

I know it's a blow Shane, but at least you'll know what you have now.......& if you're keeping the truck long-term, the economics will work out, just a bit later.
I'm up near Whangarei.

 

The problem with fixing all that pillar rot is there is no way to get inbetween the seams, it's just going to come right back unless you cut the whole thing out. Even then there is pretty much no way you can get in behind there with any rust protectant once you weld in new/used pieces, same goes for the roof. I don't know about in your area but around here mint cabs go for around $350 and I could have that cab changed before you could fix all that and know there aren't going to be any rust bubbles comming right back in a little while.