You won't like what I have to say...

Save your money on the p/s pump and fuel tank straps. Your truck is rotting away and is only going to get worse in the near future. Today it's the straps, what's next? The shackles?

How much do you want to put into the truck.

If you want to keep the truck get the cab mounts/rust fixed first. Then go from there.

You don't fix the roof on the house if the foundation is bad.

 

That is some serious bad body rot going on that truck is on its last legs. You get hit in that thing and the bodys going by by with you in it.

 

My point exactly.

 

im aware of how bad they are.. but the upside is the frame is still solid, though rusted, shock and spring mounts are still solid, very little rust on any of the driveline components, axles, driveshaft, tranny, engine compartment is still pretty clean, after replacing the two brake lines a week ago the brakelines are all fairly new, about 4 years ago the exhaust system was replaced with stainless.. besides the cab/bed being **** and the power steering being out the rest of the truck is pretty solid and runs strong

even before the cab mounts went bad i had the idea of scrapping the bed and cab and replacing it with something else, like an old 1940s cab, or even cutting the back end off a CJ7 tub to make a truck cab out of that... do you guys think the frame is still decent enough for something like that?

i am keeping my eye open for another vehicle to use in the mean time but im waiting for a very specific vehicle to come up in local classifieds first instead of rushing into buying something that im not going to want or will be problematic as well

 

so do you guys think the cab mount brackets on the frame are in good enough shape for a replacement of the cab?

 

Can't really tell. There is a lot of surface rust on them but if you clean them up you could probably fabricate something to use the frame with another cab.

 

i think thats what i am going to do then.. its what my dad planned to do anyway and my brother wants to keep it for sentimental value.. we will scrap that cab and find another.. maybe a 1950s era truck cab, or ive thought about hacking the front cab section off a CJ7 tub to make a cab out of with a hard top

in the mean time i really want to clean up the rust thats on the frame.. maybe pull the bed off to really get at it, i am thinking of getting a wire brush to scrape off the loose stuff and then apply some rust converter to the rest and when thats done, maybe spray it... any suggestions as to a good rust converter for this job? it seems the brush on stuff works better than the spray

 

Strip the frame and then sandblast it.

 

im unable to do that right now because i need the vehicle for the next four weeks to commute outside of town for classes, so is there anything that can be done without stripping it to the frame right now?.. will scraping the loose rust off and applying some rust converter work in the mean time?

 

It's not going to rust much more in a month.

If you just want to stop the rust then you need to remove it.

Not a fan of "rust converter."