Rust In the Cab

There is a lot of dirt, dried fluids of one kind or another, and rust in Old Blue's Cab. So this week we will pull out the seats, pull up the floor mat, treat the rust with something, repaint the little bits we can and most importantly, get a good look at the Cab's floor pans and body mounts to see how 50 yrs of weather has affected her.

On the surface Old Blue's cab is in relatively good shape. While perusing the Ford Enthuiasts, H.A.M.B and other Slick 60's Ford Truck oriented websites over the past 8 months I have seen pictures of trucks that basically have no floors or supports left in them after 50 yrs of weather and use. But Old Blue looks pretty good at least from underneath and from the outside but I really will not know until I look under the floor mat and see whats there. So ... to get to the floor boards I will need to pull the seats out, remove the gas tank switch knobs (Old Blue has 2 aftermarket fuel tanks riding under the front of the bed), remove the door jam rails (Custom Cab option !!!) and carefully remove the floor mat which has laid for 50 yrs.

Here is what I can see without doing anything .. The floor mat is almost black with dirt, there is surface rust on most parts and the paint is chipping or gone on the vent covers.

Drivers side floor mat

Another view of Drivers side floor mat

Drivers side - rust on sun visor mount

Passenger side - rust on sun visor mount

Rear view mirror 

Speaker Grill

Drivers Side Air Vent

the drivers side seat rails and mounting bracket

Passenger side seat rail and mounting bracket

The rails under the seats are dusty. dirty and rusted from years of work. I shot the 4 bolts on each side with WD40 and let stand over night, tapped them each 3 times with a hammer and then used a rachet with a LONG extender on the back 2 and a flat crescent wrench on the front two to remove the bolts. 

Now I could see parts of the the floorboards and they were not bad for a 50 years old truck that has traveled extensively and lived in northern California, Oregon, and Iowa. 

Under the seat 

 The matting was brown and dirty, stained from years of use. I have read that pulling these mats can be difficult and that they have a tendency to crumble to little pieces if moved at all. I decided to take a chance and pull it up to better clean it with soap and give it a good shot with the power washer. To do this I also had to remove the tank selection switch located on the floor next to the drivers side door. The two bolts received the same treatment as the seat bolts and easily let loose.   

Drivers side floor pans

Under the mat the floorboards were pretty thin in some places and the rust had accumulated in flat chunks in the corners and along the sides of the floor pan. At the point the floor meets the side wall on both drivers and passenger sides the rust has eaten through the floor pans in small (pen point size) areas. I vacuumed up the rusty bits of metal laying around the floor plans and treated with 15% solution over night. The next day I treated again and let sit. This evening I wired brushed the floor pans removing last bits of rust and then sprayed with Eastwood's 2k Epoxy primer to give it some protection.