Supporting stripped cab by hinge bolts and striker, good idea?

[ronh72c10]

I wanted to run this idea by the somebody else before I did it and caused myself some grief.

I've got to do a fair bit of floor repairs to my cab including the pans, rockers, corners, mounts etc... I figured I could weld together a little jig from 2x2 square tube that went from the striker plate to each of the hinges, that could be bolted in place to hold the opening square while the rockers were replaced. Then I got the brilliant (maybe?) idea of making it possible to bolt the jig in each door frame to each end of the frame rotator I made. Making it alot easier to work on the pans of the cab from the top and bottom.

That said the question is, are the hinge and striker plate locations strong enough to support the weight of a completely stripped cab?

BTW the cab has to come off since the frame it's sitting on is nearly gone.

Thanks,
Ron

Here's a pic from the driver's side, the passenger side is a little better, there's also some rust out in the floor at the back of the cab.

[palallin]

I have not done so, but I think it should work (sounds like a good idea, actually).

YMMV.

[StingRay]

Just a thing to think about. Cabs that are badly rusted may have sprung slightly out of shape and while re-building they may need a bit of tweaking. Make sure your door hinge/striker attachments don't lock in an already distorted cab. If you look closely at the lower pillars(once the rockers are off) some of the bolts through the pillars/ rocker backing/cab supports are actually for adjusting the door opening. You will find that for the most part a NOS rocker of suitable repro will be what determines the lower door opening dimension from front to back between the lower pillar sections.

[ronh72c10]

Thanks for the advice. I don't think that the cab is too badly distorted. (yet anyways) The doors seem to have a fairly consistant gap all of the way around. The only thing is that the passenger side was not flush, I assumed that it was because the striker plate needed adjustment, but who knows for sure.

I'm curious, how do the bolts affect adjustment? Aren't the rockers spot welded in place? Or are they spotted after adjustment?

Ron

[Fred T]

With that much damage I'd be tempted to weld in a brace from the firewall to the back of the cab, close to the floor. You can easily use the hinge points and striker mounts to do what you want, they're the strongest points of the cab. I'm concerned about the floor flexing when things are moved around in your rotisserie.

[StingRay]

The door opeing adjustment is determined by the rockers dimension before they are spotted in. Hence you adjust the door opening to fit the outer rocker panel. If you ever see a non-rusted truck you will see what I mean about the bolts.

[Jwill41]

With that much damage I'd be tempted to weld in a brace

with that much damageI'd be tempted to find another truck

[72MARIO]

Hey That looks like My truck.

Canadian Eh ?

Where in ontario are you ?

Mario

[Blue_71]

whoa, i thought my extra cab was bad

[ronh72c10]

Unfortunately another cab isn't exactly an option up here, the two I've seen in the salvage yards were no better than mine. :-( And a solid southern one without doors sells for $1200 around here. I found I can get all of the repair panels I need for around $500 (in loon money) So I'll probably go that route.

72MARIO: I'm actually about 1-1/2 hours NW of Toronto, near Mt. Forest if you're curious.

[Huck]

Contact GORDO on the board. He did exactlly what you are thinking about---built a jig to rotate his cab----jig mounted to the door pilar and latch brace. He has pictures too-----and is a great guy to ask advice from~~~~. Huck

[Gordo]

Ron, Yes, I did build one that way and it does work well. I will send you
some more info, diagrams and pics soon. I have trouble sending photos via
e-mail (computor challenged) so you may be receiving some photos from
someone else, please open them when they come. The only difference in my cab
and yours is that I chopped my roof 4" so that may make a slight difference
in the balance point. I also suspended mine from my "H" beam that I use for
engine work rather than having it on floor stands. Being suspended does
gives me more "elbow" room to work on the exposed lower portion. I can tell
you that you will want to have at least 48" from the pivot point to the
floor, ceiling and any other obstruction in order to clear 360 degrees
rotation. The basic materials I used was 1/4" by 3" flat stock, 1 1/2" by
4" by 3/16" channel and 1 1/2" by 3" by 3/16" channel, some of which I
bought and some I had laying around. Be patient and I will be sending you
more info soon.

[ronh72c10]

Thanks Gordo, no rush on the pictures, if you don't mind I'll post them here when I get them so that everyone else who's interested can see them.

Ron

[Southpa]

I replaced cab supports, corners and patched the floor years ago. When I did that I beefed things up underneath by welding in a 12 ga. strip over the inner rocker. Last year I replaced the passenger side outer rocker. I wasn't really worried about the cab warping out but took precautions. I measured the door space on the other side and cut a 2X4 to that length then wedged it into the pass side opening. It worked fine, but then again, I was only replacing a rocker and the cab was fairly solid to begin with.

[Canadian694x4]

ronh72c10 your not to far from me...did you by that truck out of the local AutoTrader? 72 c10 with a flat bed on the back?

[ronh72c10]

Ya, I bought it from an old fellow in Walkerton. It's in pretty rough shape, but fixable with the right parts. The right parts being another complete truck.

[ronh72c10]

Gordo sent me some picture of his setup and wrote this description to go with them.

The material bolted to the hinge pillars is 1/4" by 3" flat stock. If you can see in the pics I drilled several holes along each cross piece in order to move the horizontal piece back and forth to find center. The horizontal piece also has holes in which to adjust the pivot assembly up and down. The latch mount is a 7" piece of 1/4" by 3" flat stock bolted to the latch area with 4 bolts and a piece of 1 1/2" by 3" channel welded to the latch plate and to the cross brace. The hanging supports are 1 1/2" by 4" channel. The pivot assembly was two 12" sections of pipe with one that fits insde each other, one side has holes drilled through the pair in order to insert a pin to lock it in several postions. I hope this helps you somewhat. Any questions, please ask. You may post these pics on the board if you want to.

Thanks for the description Gordo!

[ronh72c10]

Picture 2

[ronh72c10]

Picture 3

[jamie72]

hey ron maybe you need to come down and get the cab off the gmc i got down here...save you alot of work.

good luck

[Gordo]

ronh72c10,
Thanks for postin' those pics! I would think about tacking the new rockers in place while the cab is setting on the frame with the doors in and lined up, then pull the doors and hang it and finish welding. This rig helped me weld my headliner back in.