Cab tear down

[pfarber]

Starting to get into the nitty gritty and discovering all the stupid things the previous owners did to screw up the truck. So if you're looking at a truck that's restored or a work in progress check for these things that I find to help get a better price or maybe avoid a disaster all together.

So the cab is off the frame and was pretty bare. I had already taken the doors off to weld up.

Taking the windshield and inside panel was the first job as I have to get to bare metal to sand blast and weld up some holes.

First, clutch head screws SUCK. Painted and rusty clutch head screws are God's way of punishing man for his sins. I'll do a little on that later. So while you marvel at all the 'original' fasteners they will haunt you when it comes time to take them off.

The first major 'what was the previous owner thinking??' discovery was they jammed a ton of jute into the header to insulate the cab (I assume). Well, that's nice. But they clogged up the normal draining of water and wet jute will cause all sorts of rust.

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So far the damage is limited to the front panel. I have another truck to get a part off of, but take off the wiper motor access covers and look for rust.


Inside of front of the cab above the window where the jute was. The support beam is rusted, the wiper motors were corroded, the vacuum lines to the wipers were gone.

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The top panel. All that wet jute ate up the metal. Its gotta be replaced. Luckily the data plates are not damaged.

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Luckily the access panels to the wiper motors were good, as were the wiper windshield hinge backing plates.

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The cab frame and most of the front cab sheet metal is in good shape.

[pfarber]

Some things to look for that will be a MAJOR PITA to fix:

Anything to do with the wipers and wiper motors. A set of grasshopper wiper arms is will over $100. Also there are some special ferrules and nuts that attach the wiper shaft to the cab. If you're missing wiper motors or don't have the original trico motors attached finding those special nuts will be a biatch. NOS wiper motors are well over $100 each and you'll still need to find the mounting hardware. So you can be out $300-$400 just for wiper arms/blades/motors.

Most of the sheet metal and smaller clutch head screws/bolts are available from Chevy restoration shops.. so don't be afraid to grind or bang up a clutch head screw/bolt. Yeah, their originals (maybe) but not worth the PITA to mess with. Also many screws will not be salvageable. So just accept that you're gonna have to replace them and don't let them slow you down to much.