My beloved truck is a rust bucket

[soopernaut]

I ended up pulling the seat and carpet out of my truck and it is worse than I thought. I knew one of my cab mounts needed repair but I thought it was rusted at the very bottom of the indentation and I could just weld a washer in place. It turns out I have to cut about 8 inch squares out around both front cab mounts. The rest of the cab looks to be good. There are a few very small holes in the floor pans but nothing to worry about. The worse part is this rust all happened from the inside which means it could have been prevented. The bottom of the truck barely has any surface rust.

Now I am wondering what I should do. I don't have a proper title for the truck and the cab needs more repair than anticipated. Do I look for another cab with a good title? Do I fix this one? I know some people here have fixed much worse and this is no big deal. I don't have a welder but I do have someone that could weld for me. I don't want to have to replace the entire floor pans but I'm not sure of the availability of the cab mount area of the floors. If they have to be fabricated that creates a lot more work for the person doing my welding. If I have to replace the entire floor pan on each side I might as well look for another cab.

[Hobcobble]

All my beloved trucks are [or were] rust buckets.... welcome to the club
Go to your local body shop supply outlet and get a hunk of 20ga steel, cut out
the 8" square chunks, fit them to the floor and get them all ready for your
guy with the welder to tack them down. If you still have pieces of that Life
Style truck you could probably get sheet metal from it. From the sounds of
it, you still have a pretty decent cab.... no sense in spending time & money
tracking another one down when the current one just needs a couple chunks
of patch metal
John

[Daddiojoe]

Ditto w/ John. I replaced my floors with storebought pieces but had to trim and shape them even so. Ended up undercoating their outsides after primer, then bolting them in w/ lots of small nuts and bolts and coating the entire floor with bedliner.

If you don't have a welder, that's the easiest thing to do. Also, w/o extreme care and resurfacing, the heat involved in welding can promote rust.

Option #3 would be to remove the entire floor and channel the cab ala Meangreen.

Best of luck,
Joe

[CSS-Registry]

i'd buy a cheap wire feed welder and do it myself - it saves time, effort and dependence on having someone else do it.

the metal in our trucks is very forgiving for the amateur to tackle. also to save money you can use flux core wire if you don't want to invest in a gas tank for shielding.

i bought a $400 welder from Lowe's when i started my truck project and i never used a mig welder in my life - if i can do it anyone can.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=p ... lpage=none

i have found many uses for the welder other than the old truck :o)

[CSS-Registry]

ps - i have only sed flux core on the truck and aside from some spatter it does ok... i grind it out and figure my body skills will require the use of body filler anyway.

you can sub Carbon Dioxide for Argon is all you're going to weld is steel... aluminum requires argon.

[OregonDodgeboy]

... I don't have a proper title for the truck and the cab needs more repair than anticipated.

This would concern me more than the rust. I'd work towards a propper title so that you know wether your effort will be in vain or not. If you can't get a propper title, then look for another cab.

As for repairing rust, if we throw out all of the cabs with mild rust for clean ones, eventually we won't have any extra ones at all. I'm an advocate of repairing it unless it's far too extensive to reasonably go after it.

But I can relate to knowing that you caused part of the rust issue. My doors are getting bad on the bottom, my floors are getting really bad, and I even have a decent sized bubble on my hood that looks like it's going to be a to deal with. And if I'd have taken better care of it (even while it sat), I wouldn't be in this boat. But I'm determined to keep as many of the original panels as I can. Because it just wouldn't be the same for me, knowing that some of the original parts (with their history) aren't there anymore. ( Yeah,... I'm weird. )

[steven]

I'd probably laugh if I saw the rust on your truck. Considering that there was basically nothing left when I got done cutting out my floor, yours should not be a big deal. This is a no brainer, fix it.

[tinbasher]

damn... i can't believe my beloved bricks are being called 'lifestyle' trucks.
don't mean to hijack your thread, but those old body parts are plenty handy... and the new wire feeders make it so incredibly easy to work with this stuff.

this was a rock box project for my little mf10, it's certainly nothing fancy, but it works. and there is still plenty of steel left over from the cab i cut up and no doubt plenty of it will eventually end up in place of the rust on my d300.

have fun and remember, those zipcuts are sharp and safety glasses are a lot less hassle than having a rust ring cut out.

a plasma cutter sure makes short work of cutting one of these cabs up

the sides were from the back of the cab, the box front and floor from the box front section of a 78, and the center section of the tailgate from the same 78. tubing comes from a neighbours (old) fence ;)

basic 3 point type hitch

no point having to unload a rock... a dump works way better

[soopernaut]

... I don't have a proper title for the truck and the cab needs more repair than anticipated.

This would concern me more than the rust. I'd work towards a propper title so that you know wether your effort will be in vain or not. If you can't get a propper title, then look for another cab.

As for repairing rust, if we throw out all of the cabs with mild rust for clean ones, eventually we won't have any extra ones at all. I'm an advocate of repairing it unless it's far too extensive to reasonably go after it.

But I can relate to knowing that you caused part of the rust issue.

I want to point out I had nothing to do with the rust. The truck has always been stored in a garage since I've owned it and never rained or snowed on other than the day I moved to Iowa. That is the day I discovered the leak. Maybe if I removed the carpeting when I got the truck it wouldn't be as bad but I suspect it was bad from when I got it.

I wouldn't throw the cab out if I got another one. I'd try to sell it and hope I had better luck than the 77 cab nobody wanted. It still had the original paint on the floors and they were solid. I didn't sell a single part off that truck and most of it went to the scrap yard. Or if I needed good rocker panels I'd cut them out and use them on the other cab. As a last resort it would get scrapped but I'd try to store it somewhere first.

I found the address of the person I believe is the previous owner. I wrote them a note asking about the history of the truck, whether they still have the title for it and told them my plans for it. I sent it out Today so I'll be waiting for a response. I do have a title that I can use if I can't get the proper one. I may also try Broadway title. I was thinking that since it will cost me to get a title and it may cost me to do the rust repair it might be benificial to get a good cab with a title. When I thought the cab was 99% rust free it was a different story. There was a rust free cab with a title for $150 in western Colorado when I was on my trip but since I thought I'd be meeting Rodger and Robin I stayed on the east side of the state. I'm sure that was cheaper than getting a title and having rust repaired.

[CSS-Registry]

you may want to avoid sawping titles - the VIN tag on the cab should match the VIN tag on the frame. if you start swapping it all around you may end up in a world of hurt should an inspector start nosing around looking for VIN numbers on the truck...

there's a long discussion about VIN swapping on the forum somewhere...

[soopernaut]

you may want to avoid sawping titles - the VIN tag on the cab should match the VIN tag on the frame. if you start swapping it all around you may end up in a world of hurt should an inspector start nosing around looking for VIN numbers on the truck...

there's a long discussion about VIN swapping on the forum somewhere...

Well I have the title for the 77 frame it's going on. I know you bought a 1 ton cab so how do your VINs match? I don't want this thread to turn into an argument about VIN tag swapping but I have it as an option. I bought a parts truck with a good title. Who's to say I didn't swap cabs?

[CSS-Registry]

Well I have the title for the 77 frame it's going on. I know you bought a 1 ton cab so how do your VINs match? I don't want this thread to turn into an argument about VIN tag swapping but I have it as an option. I bought a parts truck with a good title. Who's to say I didn't swap cabs?

no argument here... just a dicey subject and so far we're just talking now... if it turns into an argument from others not sensitive to our discussion i will lock the thread and we can start a new discussion on a new thread...

anyway.... i don't know for a fact but some states look at the frame VIN AND the body VIN when addressing hot rods or home built machines. in Florida they sometimes require you to have a NEW VIN issued. a buddy of mine put together a 55 D100 with a 89 dakota running gear and frame. when he was looking to register the truck the DMV looked at both the title on his truck body and the title for the truck frame. they ended up titling it as a 55 based on the serial number on the body.

the cab i got from Britt did not come with a VIN pate and there were no tags or other identifying marks labeling it to a specific truck. i still have what is left of my cab and my original vin tag. i will be putting my original VIN tag onto this cab when the paint and body work is done.

not that it matters much to the DMV but in my mind what was left of my cab lives on in this one - i welded in many small sections from my cab onto this one and have many receipts and documentation regarding the sale of the new cab and merging the two together.

in the end my VIN tag will be riveted on my cab with stock appearing rivets and it will match the VIN stamped on my frame. the DMV here will probably take a hard look at the truck when i go to get tags for it since it has been off the road for about 8 years now. not much to argue with the DMV about - i hold the title in my name and both the frame and cab VIN's match.

Ben

[mopardwh]

All my beloved trucks are [or were] rust buckets.... welcome to the club

Hey I'm in the club too with ALL of my trucks.

[FatSlick70]

Hey Soop, call a couple of used car dealerships. They usually have a "title" guy or know of one in town. Ask them how much to do a search on your VIN number.
Rbt

[MountainMoparRobin]

the title for the 1954 Willy's I bought was screwed up and I went through the long process step by step and I have it now, original and 100% mine, their is no Sweptline that can't be repaired, and many many truck owners have gone through the process of repairs, I've read alot of good info from others in their help of your situation, I would do as already suggested, repair it, get the title and smile

[wally426ci]

Dude, fix it!!! I think the majority of these trucks at least have what you have. I searched for a long time and in the end, i bought a truck that I knew had easily fixable rust. I need the same section you have as well as the front (drain hole area) of the rockers in the wheel well.

I bet a few fellow members would be willing to help you out possibly.

[BrowneBlue]

If you do sell it, would it fit a '67 D200? Mine is full of holes....more than I thought! That last rain was sure fun to ride in!

[Hobcobble]

If you do sell it, would it fit a '67 D200? Mine is full of holes....more than I thought! That last rain was sure fun to ride in!

Its different. It wouldn't work as a direct swap over. You'd have
some rather major mods to do in order to make it work.
John

[xCOYOTEx]

PM'd ya......