Rust opinions

[eskimomann209]

ok so a crappy sun roof repair and some sitting allowed water to get between the paint and metal here.
How long it sat is anyone’s guess.
My question is donyall think the cab is worth saving?
I’m starting the floor pans in a week or so
But there’s more...

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[eskimomann209]

Moar

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[Jrgunn5150]

I've posted this before, I've done rust repair on my cab.

By the time I bought panels, consumables, and spent over a week doing a mediocre job, I could have driven literally anywhere in America and gotten a rust free cab, and had a awesome road trip to boot.

 

[dvdswan]

Lots of little areas to repair. Most of them in angle areas. All of them are easy to fix but a minimum of 6-8 hrs to repair each. So you have to ask yourself if you want to spend near 80 hrs to repair or buy a good cab and spend 6-8 hours of prep for paint.

 

[eskimomann209]

I'm a fair welder have the equipment to do the job as well.. plasma, grinders, but i deal in heavy steel. not sheet metal/ body panels. certainly never formed metal to fit in these obscure corners of the truck.
i also already have the steel from brothers truck for the floor so that is one less thing to worry about there.
im worried about the depth of the rust really. The cowl area looks bad to me and the door jambs tho look bad i think since its thicker i should have less issues and the steel is relatively flat.
another issue is i do enjoy daily driving it and the truck is a long time family member that finally found its way to my place after some crap was sorted out

 

[eskimomann209]

Lots of little areas to repair. Most of them in angle areas. All of them are easy to fix but a minimum of 6-8 hrs to repair each. So you have to ask yourself if you want to spend near 80 hrs to repair or buy a good cab and spend 6-8 hours of prep for paint.

Whats the standard method here find a truck with the particular section in good condition and transplant.
or do you sand the section down cut it out and form new steel into it?

 

[Darth Plasma]

I bought a semi-less rusty cab to swap my old one which the braces were disintigrated, and knowing what I dealt with you's have it easy. I spent a couple months in between work and school repairing my cab but I learned so many new skills from redoing all the rockers and floors and braces myself. I can call myself a decent welder now from it, so if you wanna learn new skills and be proud of the results I say go for it

 

[Jrgunn5150]

It's never going to be as good as a truly rust free cab...

 

[eskimomann209]

It's never going to be as good as a truly rust free cab...

Yeah...
maybe if I sand blast it all down?

 

[bucket]

That roof is the bad part. There's no good way to fix that without skinning it. The rest of the stuff is insignificant compared to what I'm used to.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Yeah...
maybe if I sand blast it all down?

It's just that you're never going to be able to get the the backside of all the welds, you're never going to get perfect patches with it sitting on the frame. Even when I pulled my front clip, doors, dash, there's still places where I can see it was patched if I start crawling around.

I spent about 800 bucks on panels and consumables and my cab is not as good as the one I bought for 300 bucks in Ft Smith Arkansas and toted home to sell to some other lucky bastard.

 

[climb-101]

some of those places aren’t typical places for trucks to rust out, i think there due to the sunroof issue. i personally would get a different cab. the sun roof part will be a big deal to fix since it a large panel with just a little crown to it. i would rather find one that had a little rust in the cab corners and floor and repair that before i would ever touch the roof on that one.

 

[bucket]

some of those places aren’t typical places for trucks to rust out, i think there due to the sunroof issue. i personally would get a different cab. the sun roof part will be a big deal to fix since it a large panel with just a little crown to it. i would rather find one that had a little rust in the cab corners and floor and repair that before i would ever touch the roof on that one.

A lot of those places look to me like there was very minor surface rust previously, then it was improperly repaired and prepped for paint. Looks like a skim coat of filler and primer held moisture and made it much much worse.

 

[eskimomann209]

Confirming my worst fears

 

[bucket]

Confirming my worst fears

Personally, if it's hard to find a rust free cab, I'd cut the roof off a rusty cab and skin the thing. Cuz that roof is a bad spot. The rest isn't a big deal. But if rust free cabs are all over the place, that's not a bad option. But then there's the issue of the VIN and it basically being a different truck after that.