Gary Lewis Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Wowza! Nice that you have a neighbor to help! Yes, that certainly IS nice to have a neighbor that will help! We have good neighbors, but they are busy and seem to rarely be around. So I feel badly about asking for help. Anyway, you are making progress. But what are you going to do about the rear cab crossmember? How bad is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Yes, that certainly IS nice to have a neighbor that will help! We have good neighbors, but they are busy and seem to rarely be around. So I feel badly about asking for help. Anyway, you are making progress. But what are you going to do about the rear cab crossmember? How bad is it? Is Shaun talking about the frame cross member or the rib across the back of the cab, where he's already made some repairs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 Is Shaun talking about the frame cross member or the rib across the back of the cab, where he's already made some repairs? Thanks guys! My neighbor is a shade tree mechanic himself and does his own maintenance, and I've helped him with automotive things numerous times. We pay it forward back and forth! Gary, I'm still in the process of coming up with a plan. You can't really see into that crossmember from inside nor outside, aside from the rubber plugs near each body mount bolt. I can only go by the areas that have rusted through, and the pinholes. I know for sure that I need to do both areas that touch the body mount, as well as a spot on the passenger side. I'll take some quick pictures and post them so you can see. Jim, it is the cab crossmember that the rear cab mount bolts pass through. The sheet metal that touches the body mounts has some rust issues, hence the need to flip the cab this way. There's a few more small issues along the crossmember that need to be addressed as well. Along the passenger side near the seat belt mount: Passenger side body mount surface: And the worst one, the driver's side body mount surface: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Thanks guys! My neighbor is a shade tree mechanic himself and does his own maintenance, and I've helped him with automotive things numerous times. We pay it forward back and forth! Gary, I'm still in the process of coming up with a plan. You can't really see into that crossmember from inside nor outside, aside from the rubber plugs near each body mount bolt. I can only go by the areas that have rusted through, and the pinholes. I know for sure that I need to do both areas that touch the body mount, as well as a spot on the passenger side. I'll take some quick pictures and post them so you can see. Jim, it is the cab crossmember that the rear cab mount bolts pass through. The sheet metal that touches the body mounts has some rust issues, hence the need to flip the cab this way. There's a few more small issues along the crossmember that need to be addressed as well. Along the passenger side near the seat belt mount: Passenger side body mount surface: And the worst one, the driver's side body mount surface: I had to make a Framesaver for my passenger side but fortunately the cab itself was solid. You're doing a great job getting that cab back in shape! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 I had to make a Framesaver for my passenger side but fortunately the cab itself was solid. You're doing a great job getting that cab back in shape! I can see some flaking coming from under my cab mounts, so I will be separating those and seeing how bad it is on the frame. Hopefully I won't need frame savers. This wasn't a northern truck, so I can't imagine it could be that bad but I don't know what they had in the cab that got into the cab crossmember and caused all of this damage. Thanks for the positive encouragement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted December 23, 2023 Author Share Posted December 23, 2023 I had to make a Framesaver for my passenger side but fortunately the cab itself was solid. You're doing a great job getting that cab back in shape! I can see some flaking coming from under my cab mounts, so I will be separating those and seeing how bad it is on the frame. Hopefully I won't need frame savers. This wasn't a northern truck, so I can't imagine it could be that bad but I don't know what they had in the cab that got into the cab crossmember and caused all of this damage. Thanks for the positive encouragement! After some daily driver troubles and some inclement weather, I finally tore into my rusty cab crossmember. It's not as bad as I initially thought and should be a pretty quick fix. It did get into the hidden support a little as shown in the below photo, but it is mainly surface pitting and didn't go up into the void. The passenger side is even better and will only require a small patch to the rotten sheet metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 After some daily driver troubles and some inclement weather, I finally tore into my rusty cab crossmember. It's not as bad as I initially thought and should be a pretty quick fix. It did get into the hidden support a little as shown in the below photo, but it is mainly surface pitting and didn't go up into the void. The passenger side is even better and will only require a small patch to the rotten sheet metal. Progress is Good!!! Be very thankful you don't have New England's salty winters. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted December 23, 2023 Author Share Posted December 23, 2023 Progress is Good!!! Be very thankful you don't have New England's salty winters. 😉 I am definitely thankful for that, but we have something called "Florida lack of maintenance" and . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 Progress is Good!!! Be very thankful you don't have New England's salty winters. 😉 I am definitely thankful for that, but we have something called "Florida lack of maintenance" and . You got lucky! That should clean up/repair nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salans7 Posted December 26, 2023 Author Share Posted December 26, 2023 You got lucky! That should clean up/repair nicely. Well I didn't get as much done as I wanted to this weekend thanks to lack of motivation, but I finally kicked myself enough to get out there and fix the inner support for the driver's rear cab mount. I cut out the small area that had rusted through and welded in a patch. The other section was only slightly pitted, so I ground it out and then filled it with weld rather than doing another patch. I do need some tips though. The overlay patch I will be doing won't be welded to the support (unless I decide to plug weld it). Should I just coat the inner support with weld-thru primer and then weld in the overlay patch, or is there some other type of coating I should spray the inner support with? I'm not sure what the factory coated this support with, but it definitely isn't bare metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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