So I get out of my truck at school today and notice that the area of rust on the drivers side cab corner has gotten bigger. Started looking a little closer and theres a 6"-8" crack running right up the middle of the cab corner.

Has anybody else replaced the cab corners on their truck? Is this something I can do myself or am I going to have to cough up the dough and take her to the bodyshop?

 

I haven't done it on this truck but I have done a few. I had a 88 chevy regular cab that had really rusted cab corners, It was a pretty easy job and it is definatly worth taking the box off, it makes it so much eaasier. Its like six bolts I think and unplug a few wires then the box is off. Then I made my own corners out thick sheet metal (I didnt have any money to spend on new ones). Once I had the pieces made I traced them on to the truck cut the rusted corners out with a cut of blade on a die grinder. Welded the new ones in grinded down the welds. Then put a light coat of filler over the welds. Sanded and painted and it looked like new.

Also did it on my sisters 90 chevy but we bought ones for it. Did the same way. Easy job to do in a weekend.

 

i do auto body, and its not difficult at all. like mopar-or-no-car said, just cut out the area affected, and cut sheet metal to patch in and stitch weld it. taking the bed off does make accessibility much easier. this can be aided by using a lift, unbolt the bed, and life the bed up and drive the truck out from underneath. a little bit of filler, sand, prime, and blend the paint. taking it to a body shop may be a better path though. i dont know how keen you are making a project out of hacking up your cab corners. but if you have a buddy or something who's done patches before, go for it.

 

I haven't done cab corners myself but I'm pretty handy with a cutoff wheel and dang good with a welder and sheetmetal. So if I can get my hands on something else to drive for a weekend I'll give it a try. Save myself a couple hundred bux...

 

let us know how it goes, and feel free to shoot me a pm if you run into any problems or need some advice or whatever.

 

Ctdieselchick, I saw an episode of Trucks! a year or 2 ago where they did cab corners on a S-10, and they went around the edge of the hole they cut out to be patched with a tool that made a indented flange for the new corner to sit againts, and then instead of welding it, they used some kind of new epoxy. I kinda had my doubts about that stuff holding up, but does it actually work? Have you even heard of it?
And finally, is it better to make the hole to be patched a little smaller than the the patch panel and go around with a flange tool and then weld it up, or is it better to just cut the hole the same size as the patch panel and butt weld it to it?

 

Ya I have senn that epoxy is supposed to work realy good. You can cut it smaller and use the tool that makes the flange if you have one. Its probably easier to weld it on the flange becouse you have metal behind the weld so you won't be as likely to burn through. I have done both ways but I like to butt the metal up against each other and butt weld it.

 

Hmm, not sure if it helps you at all. We have a store that is located in 3 spots Across Canada that deals with stock replacement body parts. They want $66 (plus shipping and what not) for cab corners (they come primed black). Just putting it out there if you wanted a store that carries these parts.

But then again making it all yourself is probably cheaper


They look like this:


This is the route I will be going in the spring. Getting all new front fenders, rocker panels, cab corners, entire doors. Pretty much everything other than a new cab and hood

 

epoxys and adhesives these days are getting better and better, but i've never seen this tool that creates the fillet "weld" (im putting it in quotes since your not quite welding, but rather bonding with adhesive). ive never personally done this, or talked to someone who has, but it seems doable. as for if you go the traditional cut, patch weld route, cut the patch the same size and open butt weld it with a stitch pattern to distribute the heat. you can also cut a insert panel to go behind the patch about 4" long (2" overlap on the patch and 2" overlap on the existing panel on the truck) and punch holes on each side that overlaps, and plug weld it along with the stitch welds. then just dress the welds and your good to go after a thin coat of filler. there's tons of different ways to go about it. that adhesive thing sounds pretty cool though. i'll look into that.

 

FYI: that "primer black" is not primer, but rather the factory ecoating. you still need to apply primer before painting these. Just throwing that out there

 

Sorry I didn't mean as to paint primer, don't know why I used primer, but owell. Yes you still need to possibly clean up, prime and paint

 

Do you have a name or a link for these places?

 

Ebay is the way to go. I just got a pair for somewhere in the $30 to $40 range.

 

When buying patch panels you kind of need to watch what you get, some places use really thin metal and some have very poor fitting panels.

 

did they have a ebay store, if so remember what the name was? thanks