Brace it first. Weld in small angle or what ever you have...tubing, what ever. Cross brace, x brace. Just make sure nothing moves when you start cutting parts out. Anything moves and your doors will never fit. On mine, I braced, did one rocker panel, then the floor on that side. Then the other side rocker panel and then the other floor. Just take your time and take one bite of the elephant at the time. It isn't rocket science. If you're new to welding, it's not a bad place to start practicing.
Go for it. The worst that happen is you don't like the results, so you cut it out and try again. Only way to learn!! Skip around with your spot welds and that will keep warping to a minimum. Get some etching primer for the areas you don't have to cut out but don't want to get worse. The scary part is what you find when you get that cut out.
the thing that concerns me is the doors drop when you open them and are hard to close already, leads me to wonder if the damage is already done. i guess i will try bracing it up until the doors close right and put the rockers in. i might pull it off and see if i can take it to the body shop at work, at least then i could rhino line the floor when its done, on both sides.
Take a shitload of diagonal measurements from every direction you can think of. Get the cab as square as possible and the doors to close properly before bracing it all up. Also check your hinges and hinge pins.
A system like this is cheap to make and just about as easy as falling off a log to use. I can't think of a better way to get a body back into alignment. With some thought, it can be installed so that the doors can be on and get your gaps perfect. If your body mounts are gone, that will certainly effect your door's alignment.
"i just am unsure where to draw the line between fixing and replacing. im sure it could be saved but when does it stop being time and cost effective" Answer: when you can go out and buy a better one for less time and money than it will take to fix the one you've got. If you lived in California, Arizona, Colorado or other dry state you wouldn't bother to fix it because the nearest junkyard would have a perfect rust free one for $100. If you live in the northeast, not a chance. You would have to drive 2000 miles and hunt one up, not being local you would have to buy off the net and pay gouger's prices. So, if you can buy a perfect one for $100 junk that one. If it will cost you $1000 and a week's driving your old one starts to look good.
Start by checking the door hinges. Hold the door almost closed and lift up and down on the back of the door. If there is play you will feel it *klunk klunk* if the body is punky you will feel it *bend bend*. If the hinges are bad fit new hinge pins and bushings first. Then hang the doors. Get the doors fitting perfect even if you have to jack up the body and pull it with a comealong. When the body is square and the door fits, weld in some braces, take the door off and weld in new rocker panels and floor. Do not try to weld it up without truing the body and fitting the doors. If it is out of whack and you weld it up that way it will be impossible to get the doors to fit without cutting up the body and redoing all your work. At this point most guys give up and sell the fucked up project to some sucker. I saw a mid fifties Bentley ruined this way. Some guy took the doors off and made a beautiful job of welding up the floors and rocker panels. Then he put the doors back on and they wouldn't even close. I don't mean the gaps were lousy I mean when the door got 3 inches from closing it hit the body. Bentleys have very narrow door gaps and NO adjustment. They sold it cheap to a sports car guy I knew. He asked me to fix it, when I told him it would cost $5000 to get the doors to fit he thought I was kidding.
Well at least you had something to start with, my '41 had nothing for about six inches up from where the floor should ha be been. That truck looks about like an early 90's truck from Michigan.
On far gone cars, that haven't been braced, I have repaired A and B-pillars, and fixed/replaced hinges, and gapped and tacked the doors shut, with metal coupons. Once the doors and pillars were all back in alignment, I climbed through the window, and then welded in bracing.
Worst thing to do is run around cutting out all the bad parts until what is left flops around like a limp dick at a garden party. When a body is that bad it takes time to true it up to where everything fits but this must be done unless you want to junk it. Best course is to true it up and brace it then cut out and replace one piece at a time.
Anything can be fixed. Cost effective? Not really. And to you guys that can fix that in a weekend......Damn I must be old and slow.....
looks like fun!!! You will feel like a million bucks when you are done with that!! And, if you do have issues, you have a million people on here to get answers from!!! This is a cool deal!!!
Boy, I thought mine was bad. Gonna borrow a welder and fix it this summer however limited my welding ability is.
Also here is link to a guy that makes those floor pans. www.classicfabrication.com haven't looked into him yet though.
Anything can be repaired depending on your skill and or how deep your pockets go. This is much more work then one weekend if its done right. You may need hinge pins, but that most likely is not your issue. The floor is rotted entirely. It is clear there is a large gap from the jamb into the floor. Meaning your lower A pillars have no support. Hence allowing the heavy door to easily swing around. This is why the door hangs. It is literally flapping in the breeze. As stated above you will have to spend some time bracing everything up. That doesnt mean open the doors and start welding bars in all over the place. You will need to use different methods and tools to jack the body around and get it where it needs to be one step at a time. Then choose where to weld your braces. Not only a strong point that will hold your adjustment, but also somewhere thats not in the way of future work. Meaning not hindering the doors function, or right where you will be trying to weld a panel in later. If this overwhelms you, I have a shop in south east PA haha. The main thing to remember is patience is most important. Once you start rushing you will regret it and it will cost you down the road. And it is never as easy to start over as people say. I have re done plenty of other peoples work and would much rather have the rusted out junk it started as. Rather then trying to un do someone else's shoddy work and deal with everything that has been made worse by the previous repairs.
I assume that 10 hours start after you square up the cab. With gaps around the front door posts at the floor, and with knowing the cab mounts are gone, and it was already hacked up, your in dream land if you think you are going to be done in 10 hours. Someone else will be fixing your fix. The original poster wanted to know where you draw the line? Find the best cab you can, and find out how much its going to cost to have it sitting at your garage door. Add up the cost of all the panels you will need to replace and how much those will cost to have them delivered to your garage door. Now add the cost of the tools, equipment, and consumables (+ destination costs of those things) your going to need that you don't already have. Then all you have to do is estimate the time for the learning curve and actual re-constriction time ( I'd guess your looking at easily 20 hours just work time, not counting the learning curve) Compare the price of the reconstruction and buying a better cab prices and see how much your labor will be worth. If your going to pay someone to install all those parts, buy a better cab, it will be cheaper! I know, I do this stuff for a living. Gene
Nope. This ain't even my 100th rodeo. I do floors all day, every day. Not one has been out to be fixed by another shop. Two days, in my shop, assuming all pre-made parts are on-hand, cab mounts included. Of course, that's $1800, in labor alone.
mine was waaaaay worse...okay no it wasnt. but i did patch it in a couple hours.... no i didnt. i got a replacement cab, only because it was free though. i Have a 63 falcon with literally no floor right now, riveted signs and a body brace and thats it, rest was cut clean off at the rockers, you have something to start with, i give you my best wishes and show us what comes of it
When faced with somethig like that I fix the very worst thing immediately then it is no longer an issue. Like the panel below. It was completley missing, open, nothing there. Now it is fine, solid stronger then when new and not an issue. Took only a couple of hours to do. I got the body for nothing as former owner was leaving this for last and got overwhelmed worrying about it. Whatever you are working on if there is a big issue deal with it before anything else and immediately if possible. Put it behind you. This repair cost me a couple of hours and $41. Don