1967 Chevrolet C10 - Rusted Sheetmetal Replacement - Sheetmetal Surgery

Triage...
We found our truck at a winery in Northern California. It spent most of its life as a daily driver but had most recently been a home to squirrels as it sat dormant beneath a big tree. We were attracted to it because it ran, it was in one piece, and the shortbed was in sweet condition, except for the dilapidated wood bed floor.

After stripping the body down and removing it from the stock frame, we did find a few flaws in the sheetmetal.

After sweeping out the leaves from inside the cab, we found rust holes in the floorboards near the kick panels, indicating that water had found its way down through the windshield cowl and into the cab. This is a common area of rot in these trucks.

We found more rust beneath the aluminum doorsill plates and another sheetmetal malady lurking behind the owner-installed 6.5-inch speakers.

There really isn't room for speakers in the kick panel area, unless you install a shallow-mount unit, which the previous owner did not. Since he couldn't fit these speakers because the magnet contacted the door hinge mounting area, he simply cut the offending sheetmetal with a pair of tin snips and bent it outward. Great, his speakers fit, but now the doors were sagging because the mounting locations were compromised.

We planned on replacing the rocker panels below the cab because they were dented, but we had no idea how much rust we'd find behind them To remove the panels quickly, we sliced through the pinch-weld using a cut off wheel and then drilled out the spot-welds up top with a drill.

Rust had attacked not only the rocker but the inner rocker panel and floorboard. No worries, though, Brothers sells replacement patch panels for all of these areas.

Under The Knife
Brothers' replacement floor panels cover a large section of the front floor for both the driver and passenger sides of the truck.

Our floor was only partially destroyed, so we cut only the offending areas out using a cut-off wheel.