Experiences harvesting cab body panels

[D-n-Tyke]

Looking to hear people's experiences harvesting cab body panels off donor cabs. Specifically I am thinking inner and outer rocker panels, inner upper window frame panel, outter upper windshield corner, possibly A pilars. Reading so many stories about how bad aftermarket sheetmetal fits I am wondering if finding a cab that has the parts I need and harvesting them off it might be a better option. Just don't know if they would get to damaged during the harvest to make it worth it (specifically the rocker panels). Swapping the full cab is not an option. Working on FIL's truck that he orsered from the factory in 1971, so keeping it as much original metal as possible.
What are your guys' experiences?

[MARKDTN]

I'm not a body guy but I don't see getting any of the floor or rockers off in any usable state. And even so finding a nice donor floor will likely be in a nice cab so that would be something that would likely be used whole anyway. The window stuff is major surgery. You are going to need a body guy for that IMHO.

[HO455]

The odds of locating good rockers are so bad your time would be better spent installing parch panels. There is a lot of documentation here about installing them and what to watch for.

When harvesting panels I've had better results using rotary cutting disks instead of reciprocating saw blades which tend to distort the metal more. You want your donor piece to be several inches larger than you will need.

You state keeping as much of the original metal as possible which leads to the question. Would you rather cut and piece into the cab or replace complete pieces using factory style spot welds for a more factory style restoration.

I only bring this up as it sounds as if there is a fair amount of rust in the roof and replacing the most roof may be an option.

Do some searches for roof rust repair.

I've learned a lot from this thread. It's long but I found interesting.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=564201

[TALLone71]

sometimes a panel will look good from the outside, or may be showing slight corrosion, and when you cut it out you find that the inside is corroded, more than you would think. I have seen this quite a bit with any set of panels that comes together and forms a void or area that paint was minimal or not applied at all, these areas are notorious for mice crawling in there and really doing a number from the inside out too. I had a 69 that I did major surgery on for a friend of mine, and the rear main cab support crossmember was completely rotted out from the inside, the outside looked great, but i noticed when I was pulling the cab off the frame there was a a slight amount of rust showing where the cab support bushing was, so I tapped it with a hammer and the whole area collapsed, the more I tapped and scraped it was apperent the entire panel was shot, was the same for the area above the door openings and the cavity above the windshield, a little bump of a rust spot, turned a big hole once I started opening it up.i filled a 2 gallon pail with the insulation and acorns that was in these areas alone.you never know till you open it up though in a lot of cases

[GASoline71]

Just save yourself the headache and use aftermarket patch panels. You'll be ahead of the game for sure. If you find any useable cabs that you can cut good sheet metal off of, they ain't gonna be for sale anyways. And if they are, the cat selling them will want a grip of cash for them.

Gary

[D-n-Tyke]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Main reason I was looking at trying to find a cab is the one bad spot on the truck (other than the rockers) is the upper pass corner of the window. And that repop piece is only available with the $400 A-pilar piece. Looks like I am goong to have to lean metal shaping.

[Dieselwrencher]

I've been cutting good parts off cabs to fix other cabs for a while. If you ever find a nice enough cab to cut a rocker off of and it has a good roof and inner roof, do not cut on it. Use it. I have only had 2 cabs out of all these trucks I had that had good enough inner rockers to reuse. The outers are usually always trash in some way or another.

As far as that A-pillar piece I'd find someone in your area cutting up a truck they have parted out. If you are on FB look up Tremayne Lee and see if he knows of any. He parts a lot of trucks, finds a lot of good parts, and is in the San Diego area. The trucks out there are usually pretty darn rot free unless rodents helped out the situation above the windshield.

[D-n-Tyke]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I've been cutting good parts off cabs to fix other cabs for a while. If you ever find a nice enough cab to cut a rocker off of and it has a good roof and inner roof, do not cut on it. Use it. I have only had 2 cabs out of all these trucks I had that had good enough inner rockers to reuse. The outers are usually always trash in some way or another.

As far as that A-pillar piece I'd find someone in your area cutting up a truck they have parted out. If you are on FB look up Tremayne Lee and see if he knows of any. He parts a lot of trucks, finds a lot of good parts, and is in the San Diego area. The trucks out there are usually pretty darn rot free unless rodents helped out the situation above the windshield.

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I found him on FB and will send him a message. Is he also a member on this forum?

[jumpsoffrock]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

I have only had 2 cabs out of all these trucks I had that had good enough inner rockers to reuse. The outers are usually always trash in some way or another.

As a younger guy and fairly new to these bodies, I am so surprised at the rate of rusty rockers; it's so sad to hear from guys like you...about how many rusty cabs you've experienced.

[May70]

I think if you're going to pursue non-rusted cab parts you should pursue just acquiring an entire cab.

If you find these parts not rusted on a good cab, you should really go with that cab. No sense in cutting up a good cab to patch something together.

If you are inclined, I have like 30 Youtube videos up with a ton of documentation showing how I used patch panels. Link below.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by D-n-Tyke

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I found him on FB and will send him a message. Is he also a member on this forum?

Sadly I don't believe he is. He is on FB and IG only I believe. He has some vids on youtube as well.

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

As a younger guy and fairly new to these bodies, I am so surprised at the rate of rusty rockers; it's so sad to hear from guys like you...about how many rusty cabs you've experienced.

Unfortunately I live in the rust belt and it is way more common to find these rotted out than not. These trucks were work trucks and they got used for it. Some got fixed right over the years and others got hack fixes which causes a lot of other rust. I recently picked up a very nice cab for my 72 Cheyenne Super build because the original cab is trash and a corn crib fell on it. This new to me cab sat with no glass in it for a while and I've found rust in weird places that I'm fixing. It's still better than trying to fix the other cabs I had. I literally just cut up 3 old cabs that all had completely rotten floors and firewalls. I have 3 left and none are worth saving IMO. It's a bad deal.