Getting the cab off of the truck proved to be quite a challenge. Since I did not have enough ceiling height to use a chain host in the shop, I had to resort to having Jay from Countywide Towing drop by with his wrecker. However, there was a lot of prep work that had to be done before hand. Even though the front clip and the bed had been removed, I still had to get the cab disconnected and ready to be removed.
So it began. I found only one mounting bolt still in place. That was on the front, passenger’s side. The two rear mounting bolts were in place, but the metal of the frame’s cross member had rusted away enough for the metal to become fatigued and fail. the mounting bolts and body mounts were simply rattling around, daggling from the bottom of the cab. Once the mountings were resolved, I focused on the wiring and any other connection between the cab and the rest of the chassis.
Some of the remaining connections were items such as the accelerator cable, parking brake cables, speedometer cable, main wiring harness (shown) and a few other miscellaneous connections. Now I was ready to have Jay come out and get the cab off the chassis and set on the ground. We had a nice day for it but Jay was a little nervous. We decided not to strap through the open windows so as not to buckle the roof. The solution we came up with was to run a couple of 2×6’s under the cab from front to back with eyelets secured in each end. We then connected a couple of 20′ tow straps to the eyelets. Jay maneuvered the boom of the tow truck over the top of the cab and once in place, we hooked the straps into the tow hooks.
Very carefully, the cab was raised off of the frame. There was one small problem, I forgot to disconnect the brake lines. That did not take long and soon the cab was in the air. Jay then drove his truck around the side of our shop and set the cab on the ground. I still had to complete the removal of all of the interior trim and parts before it would be ready for the body shop. It was little sketchy, but it worked and I was well on our way.