1953 Ford F-100 Cab Corner Replacement - Cuttin' Corners

With the boundaries indicated in lead, Steve knew where he had to separate the two layers of sheetmetal. After drilling out the spot welds, the next step was to use an air-chisel.

Where the air-chisel proved ineffective, Steve used a 3-inch cutoff wheel on a pneumatic die-grinder to cut apart the two layers and separate them.

The next step was to cut the original cab corner completely off the truck. Because the pencil marks will become hard to see, Steve laid out a 3/4-inch line of masking tape to designate the cut lines.

Wearing protective eye gear Steve braced himself to pull the die-grinder in a straight horizontal line to make the longest cut first.

To make the short, vertical cut, Steve repositioned himself to pull the die-grinder downward in a straight line along the 3/4-inch masking tape guideline.

With all the necessary cuts made, the original cab corner was easily removed.

This allowed Steve to make a close inspection of what needed to be done to the inner structure before the new cab corner could be welded in place.

First, a patch panel would need to be fabricated to cover the old filler-neck's hole. Steve traced the outside diameter of the filler neck with a pencil.

Next, he cut out the filler-neck patch piece with a pair of tin snips. A plasma cutter would have made the job easier.

Then Steve used a pair of hole-punch pliers to poke out tack-weld holes on the patch piece.

Next on the agenda was to make a repair patch to splice in where the original inner panel was rusted out by measuring the (rust) afflicted area.

Once again Steve used 3/4-inch masking tape to indicate where the cuts needed to be made.