Got a new to me truck

[mrboyy17]

well i got the 79 cab today...it was only 40 bucks and the guy delivered to my house!  no rust he was gonna take it to scrap tomorrow!  got to work...its a non ac cab so will my ac stuff go on there?
i dont know what im doing! hahaha i need your guys help now!  how do i make the non ac cab a ac cab? 
here is the 40 bucks


starting tearing apart the 86

got the windshield out of the 79
and that is where i quit for the night.  i got some research to do on how to make this work

thanks for the replies guys and for any help from those that may have done this before
mark

[Engineer]

I am having a hard time believing that '79 cab.....and I am seeing it with my own eyes.....

Odds are you are going to want to fix your cab, or find a 81+ cab for your truck. I have a '77 that I am putting a '91 front on. There are major changes to make it work.

Also, JMHO here, that '79 cab needs a peoject to reconnected it to the old 73~80 front sheet metal. That era cab in the shape you have there is a über rare find indeed. 81~87(91) cabs are way more plentiful.

Again, I feel fixing your cab is the better solution........Please, PLEASE, don't hack up that '79!!!!!

[mrboyy17]

well i found a 80 something rust free cab sitting out in a field that is ac but the guy said he is willing to sell it but never called me back and i didnt get his phone number.  im thinking he feels its a gold mine but now i dont know what to do with the 79 cab.  anyone near yakima washington that wants it?  the guy used the chasis to make some sort of wheeler with a el camino body on it so he got rid of the rest of the truck.  this 79 cab has just one little rust spot on the cab corner but i had to really search to find it other than that it is perfect.  crap now what just order all the cab replacement parts and get someone to do the work to fix my cab now?  this blows
mark

[Captkaos]

you need to template the whole section where the heater core is on the AC cab and then cut it all out and weld up the non-AC cab and then cut the holes out accordingly, you will also need the AC components...

The cab needs the reliefs cut into the 79 to put the 81-87 frontend on it and you need the hinges.  You also need to match the 81-87 wiper holes in the cown to match on the 79, AND you need the holes in the 79 for the cowl to mount.

[Cabcorner]

Man I envy you guys in Washington state , in NY that truck would be considered very good shape not rough . Check out corvairwild's utube video survivor blazer.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9guncZQXg00

[mrboyy17]

well i think im gonna save myself some money and just cut out a gian patch out of the 79 cab floor,rocker,footwell,cab corner and just have one patch to weld in instead of getting all the pieces one by one....went to a couple of body shops today and gonna be about 1 grand to fix this cab...i'll still only be into the truck 2300 bucks even if they do it and ill have a floor again and i can then fix the insides up!  if someone wants this cab for a project it would be free to ya...dont know how you'd get it back home though.  let me know before i start cutting away.
mark

[mrboyy17]

this truck i found looks so cool.....what do you guys think it would look like normal ride height for a 3/4 ton and 33 in tires?  im getting ideas here!

[rustymitchell]

It's a shame to hack up the  '79 cab.  73 to 80 cabs in that good of shape are extremly hard to find now, especially a 4x4.  Too bad I wasn't still living in Vancouver.  We could have done a cross-border trade.  I've got an 85 ac cab I'm using on a 79 non ac 4x4!  That cab would have been perfect!  It's not an easy conversion to put a 70's cab with an 81+ front end.  There's a good section on this site on how to do it.  Basically it involves mounting the hinges and cowl as someone mentioned.  If I were you I'd probably hold out for an 81 to 87 cab.  They're still fairly easy to find and many more of them had ac.  You could probably sell that '79 and make a nice profit.  Guys pay over 700 bucks for cabs like that in Canada because they are so rare now.

[mrboyy17]

Just an update.  i got all the rust fixed in the cab.  two new floors, cab corners , rockers put in....slopped seam sealer tar stuff all over it.  slopped it on nice and thick all over the seams.  corners and rockers are primered.  Guy charged me 400 bucks.                     
      Then I found out you could just start the truck without the key so i used the nice write up on here about fixing sloppy tilt steering columns to put a new key cylinder thing in.  put a new spring in my canceling cam/turn signal switch too while i was in there.  im gonna spray some 3m rubberized undercoating all over the floor now before i get some insulation/carpet.  I also got a nice wood veneer thing for the guage panel out of the junkyard and transfered it to mine.....turned out pretty neat.  Almost got 2 suburban doors there but he wanted 150 apiece!  ouch!  will post some pics tonight when the wifey gets the camera back home. 

[big bear]

sounds awesome man. progress is great

[mrboyy17]

rust fixed on rockers and floors and cab corners and foot well:







inside of cab after 3 cans of 3m rubberized undercoating:





Wood trim i scored at junkyard and put onto my bezel:


next stop some peel and seal from lowes that is like the dynomat stuff ...then carpet pad and carpet!