Beyond repair 1980 Scottsdale?

[yyyktk1]

I recently purchased a 1980 Scottsdale. All the body parts have been replaced and painted. The truck looks great but...the under side of the cab is really rusted. I noticed the cab floors have been replaced with sheet metal by a rookie. The rest of the cab floor is rusted pretty good. Is it worth keeping?

[iceman7329]

Pictures?

[N2TRUX]

First things first.. to the forum!

Ok, lets get a few more details. Let me ask you "Is" the cab (or truck) worth keeping? How much do you have in it. Do you have the ability to change cabs? Do you have the ability to replace the floor pan? Everthing is relevent.

If you don't have a bunch of money already in the truck, you need to decide would it be cheaper to buy another less rusty truck than fix what you have. Do you really want the challange of switching to a nicer cab, or properly repairing the one you have. How hard is it to locate a rust free truck in you area.

Give us some more details and we will try to help you out....

[iceman7329]

Oh yea, welcome, didnt see you were new here.

[yyyktk1]

Thanks for the quick response.

I have $3300 into it so far.

I personally don't have the skills to do the badywork on the cab floor or swap the cab with a better one. I would prefer to repair the one I have if it would not cost me an arm an a leg.

I am trying to attach pictures but it tells me they are too large even after I compress. Do I need to take new photos at a lower resolution or is there another way to get these pictures out there with out emailing them to you?

[cliffsta]

If it'll work for you (they are getting overwhelmed with images recentnly) www.imgspot.com or if you are super duper cool, www.photobucket.com will let you upload and host pictures.

[yyyktk1]

As you can see in the pictures the area where the cab attaches to the frame is rusted very bad. Can this be replaced or does the whole cab have to be removed?



truck pics (no need to sign in)

[beaterC10]

Aside from the cancer that truck is sharp. My vote would be to replace the cab.

If you peel the doors off and haul the seat out, four guys can pick up a cab. In my neighborhood for the cost of cold adult beverages I can get all the help I need.

You can find 100% rust free cabs for $400-500. I doubt you can get out of the bodyshop anywhere near that with the rust you have.

[bodydropped]

looks like ur truck has seen salt roads but it sure looks clean

[ureckme]

If the back of the cab is not bad, you could clip the cab floor. or get a cab. Matt

[86swb]

Want to welcome you to the board from Kentucky. The truck does look good but big time rust can be a lot of work and money. If you could do the work yourself would really help. Just from the pictures, not really sure.

[yyyktk1]

Thanks for your input guys!

I think I will start looking for a new cab. How much work am I looking at to strip down the old cab and remove it? 40 hrs? And probably another 40 hrs to put it back together?

I can use any cab from 1973 - 1987 right?

Will I need special tools to remove the steering column?

[longhorn71]

welcome to the board!!anythind can be fixed but i may cost a lot of $$$.i may be cheaper to find a better cab

[yyyktk1]

I heard it is easier to do the swap if the donor cab still has the dash installed. Is this true?

[Russell]

Its a little bit less work to do, as you wouldn't need to swap your dash stuff around. However, cab swaps are not really all that tough. You could have the old one gutted, and pulled off in a day, easy!

Thats a really sharp truck on the outside, but even by my rust belt standards, thats a pretty rusty underchassis! I personally would look for a donor cab... Maybe get something with AC if you don't already have it, etc You can infact use a newer cab, just need to swap a couple of things like the wiper linkage from your old cab on the newer one, but everything should be a direct bolt up.

[modmach1]

In 8 hours i did this. As you can see the cab is completly emty exept for the belts.

[Greenlee]

Its not that easy to tell from the pictures if the entire cab floor is bad, or if there is just surface rust. In my opinion it might be easier to replace the bad parts of the cab floor since you already have such a nice paint job on the truck. I had a bad spot that was rusted all the way through on the passenger side of my truck and we just cut it out and welded in some new metal. All that was required was removing the seat and carpet.

[dswancutt]

Man;

I wish my 78 k-10 looked that good. I've got a picture, but I need someone to resize it so I can post it. Then you will se what rust is.

You're best bet is keep you eyes open for a decent parts truck. I picked up a 79 C-10 Cheyenne at an auction for $225.00, but decided it was too good to part out. I ended up finding a 79 C-10 diesel on eBay not to far from where I live that I won for $710.00. It has some rust, but will become the doner for my 78.

My uncle and I have had a lot of luck at farm auctions, and have not paid over $500.00 for any of the trucks we have bought. The best values are trucks that are not running, due to the fact that that the cost of repairs often are more than the truck is worth.

Doug

[yyyktk1]

Thanks. That is what sold me on it. It looked good. Too bad I did not look closer at the under body.

Before I get a donor truck and do the swap I want to be sure the frame is good. It is rusted pretty bad but I don't know if it is just on the surface or some of the integrity is compromised.

Besides hitting it with a hammer what can I do to make sure it is 'solid' enough to justify a cab swap?

[Russell]

Your frame looks far nicer than mine did. And mine is in great shape!

No worries there at all. Try scraping all that flaky paint / loose rust off and see just how bad all that rust is. It may not be as bad as you originally think it is. Also, with the underbody looking that that, you may want to take a fridge magnet and go over all the typical rust spots to find bondo. That stuff will crack out if it is too thick, guranteed. A little bit to smooth stuff out is just fine, but three inches of the stuff isn't so good

[bigarmzz]

personally, and just "in my opinion"...i'd move it on down the road....rather than spend a ton of time findina a cab, the pain in the azz of puttina another cab on there, getting misc new bolts, bushings etc....then the $$$ involved in painting the cab, and the pain of trying to get the paint to match...blah blah blah....

wouldnt be worth it to me....you'd have over 4k in it, and you can find a damn nice truck around here for 4k that would prob be rust free...

dont mean to tick ya off, again, this is just my worthless opinion

[iceman7329]

If it was mine and the cab didnt seem like it was going to fall off I would drive it. If you go to my websire and look at the 77 Ford and all the rust, I drove it for a while.

[yyyktk1]

I think I may sell it and cut my losses now. The gas tank was leaking when I bought it but I thought it would end with that, now the radiator just started leaking. I can see this thing will end up being a money pit.

Too bad because it is titled as a Diesel so I don't have to take the emmisions test. It has a 350 Oldmobile Rocket V8 with new headers, oil pump, and bearings. All the body parts are new OEM (doors, fenders front and rear). Paint job is about 5 years old but still looks great.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I think I will start over with a fresh solid truck.

[dswancutt]

I would vote that you keep and drive it till it drops. I hate to tell everyone this, but all of our trucks are money pits. The repairs you need to do are not that expensive. Pull the radiator and have it fixed, it should be less than $100.00. Check on eBay for a gas tank, I have seen one guy selling them for around $70.00. There is no gaurantee that your next will not have the same or worse problems.

Doug

[86swb]

Originally Posted by dswancutt

I hate to tell everyone this, but all of our trucks are money pits. Doug

But much better than putting out around $4 or $500.00 or more each month for a truck payment on a new one. Not counting higher insurance rates. Newer trucks do not turn the heads like our trucks do. You do not have all that computer mess. I like working on our trucks. I just like the older trucks. So I do not have a problem putting a little here and there. I see where you are coming from Doug but I will never buy another "NEW" truck. MPO