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Questions regarding repair of rear cab mounts on 1991 Chevy K1500 Pickup

Hi everyone,

I have a 1991 Chevy K1500 4WD short-bed pickup. The rear cab mounting brackets have rusted through and the rubber cushons or mount pads are falling through the steel brackets, which are welded to the frame. As such, the cab is sinking down towards the frame, and the cab is sitting on the support bracket on the drivers side.

The front cab mounts and steel brackets look fine, but the rear ones are rusted through. What really concerns me is that on the drivers side, the cab almost appears to be putting force on the top of the gas tank, and considering the age of the vehicle and the fuel lines and tank, I'm worried this may cause a fuel leak if the tank moves.

I have purchased the rubber mounts, lower retainer, and bolts from the dealer, but the dealer parts department said that the actual steel bracket is not available since it is part of the frame.

The dealer body shop said they were not interested in doing the job unless they could do it right, which means cutting the old brackets off, welding new ones on, and then installing new cab mounts, which means spending at least $1,000.00. Since the parts department said the steel brackets were not available, I'm not sure where the dealer body shop was going to get them. The dealer said that in order to even weld a metal plate on top of the existing brackets to repair the rust hole, the cab and possibly the bed would probably have to come off, which I guess is where much of the expense is coming from, but I'm not sure why they have to remove the cab or bed to weld a plate on the existing bracket.

Does anyone know where I could get an aftermarket replacement bracket ? I know they sell aftermarket panels, but I'm not sure about cab mounting brackets. I may be able to bolt it to the frame instead of welding it.

The steel bracket has a horizontal flat surface and then a part that angles down from the flat. I want to put a steel plate on top of the existing bracket, I won't weld it as the weight of the cab & the center of the rubber cushon will hold it there. On the bottom side of the bracket, I want to make a 3/16" thick steel liner that is shaped like the bracket, so that I can bolt the liner to the angeled portion of the existing bracket. If I can find an aftermarket bracket , I can use it as a template to make the liner. It' looks easier to bolt on a liner, rather than take the old bracket out and replace it with a new one (if I can even find a new one).

I might also take it to an independent body shop and see what they say, $1,000.00 seems a little pricey for this repair to me. The rest of the truck is in great shape, I'm not sure why the metal rusted through on the brackets, in the same place on both the drivers and passengers side.

I would appreciate any advice or suggestions anyone has.

Thanks John

Reply to
John2005
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I can think of two options, one, try to find a 'donor truck' in a junkyard that you can cut the brackets off of (might try to mail order from somewhere like Arizona if you are in the rust belt) or see if someone like Sherman or another company specializing in aftermarket sheetmetal makes a repair piece for your mounts.

I would definitely take it to a body shop for an estimate, they might already know whether or not these pieces are available. They'll also be able to suggest a repair strategy, if they are good.

Finally, to prevent issues like this in the future, POR-15 is your friend. Maybe once a year or so you might want to put the truck up on jackstands and crawl under there and touch up any spots that are starting to rust to prevent a recurrence of this issue.

good luck,

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Thanks for the feedback Nate,

In addition to POR, I also hear good things about Zero Rust

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but I have not tried it yet.

When I originally found the rust, I knocked off all the loose scale I could with a hammer and chisel, then I sprayed on some rust inhibitor (cavity wax) from

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...

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When I'm done with the repair, I may spray some more rust inhibitor and follow up with some of their wax based undercoating. All the rust inhibitor would have to be cleaned off before any welding, but I'm not sure that I can use POR or any type of paint after the metal has been coated with the rust inhibitor, unless it's chemically cleaned somehow. I may be stuck with using the rust inhibitor.

I tried Rust Oleum "hammered metal finish" paint and on some things it seems to last, but for heavy rust, I think it's a losing battle unless you can get rid of all the rust right down to the clean metal and then apply some type of paint or protective coating.

Thanks again, John

Reply to
John2005

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