Cab repair suggestions

[lawdog1623]

Well ive hit the first wall in my restoration. I was replacing the doors and i found a bad rust area on the driver side under the dash. It seems that the rust is caused by water running into he crack between the windshield frame and the front cowl. The cowl has a tin patch that i found when i removed the carc. It looks like they half a**ed it the first time and now it needs to b replaced or spliced. I pulled the dash and it appears that i need to either splice in the driver side of the hood cowling or completely replace the entire piece of metal. I also need to replace the vertical wall of the cab cover (the piece with the rear window) because the bottom rail that bolts to the cab is rusted out. The top is fine. I plan on taking the truck to a body shop and having them do the metal work and ill finish it out. Most of the guys i know are ignoring this on their trucks but i want it fixed. Has anyone on this forum had this issue. Can someone suggest where to find the cowl and the back of the cab cover? Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Without a pic its hard to tell. You don't have rust free cabs down there?!

 

[DieselBob]

I'm thinking it might be easier/cheaper to just replace the cab.

 

[lawdog1623]

I may just try to find a donor cab to strip metal from. The floor and kick panels are perfect. I sure hate to go through all hat work if i can just cut the cowl off and mig weld it back on. I kinda thought it may be better to replace it i i could spray it all wit undercoating to waterproof it. I was wanting to salvage the cab. I hate to pull it for less than 10% of it being rusted. Ive definitely seen worse cabs

 

[Tlauden]

good luck finding the cowl. I also need to replace that piece on my cab. I found it would PROBABLY be easier to replace the cab....

The good part is, Cabs are easy to come by and sorta kinda cheap-ish

 

[lawdog1623]

How about the outer windshield frame. Is that easily found. A friend of mine knows where a cab is sitting. I may pick that up.

 

[jwaller]

cabs are easy to find. replace the cab and move on