Removing the front end sheet metal and cab

[Gordon Maney]

As I consider removing the front end sheet metal and cab from my M37 to do a more thorough cleaning and painting of all surfaces, I ponder a strategy to do this work.

Who here has done this work and what strategy did you use? Doing it over, would you do it differently?

Currently I have a wiring harness strung through it, but not connected. I can take that back out, greatly simplifying this work. This would seem to be the time to do this, if ever, as once I have the harness all in place and the truck all assembled for operation, I suspect I won't want to disassemble it far enough to do such thorough painting ever again.

How did you do the work and what did you learn from it?

I am also interested in articles for the magazine on this subject.

[MoparFreak69]

I have a little 4x8' Harbor Freight trailer that I used for my cab removal. It sat at pretty much the right height to remove the cab from the original frame. A buddy of mine and me just strung some scrap 2x4's across the frame and set the cab back down on them. We then slid the cab across the frame right onto the trailer. I then pushed the trailer into my garage where I did a lot of my work to it during the winter and rainy spring. Installation for mock-up to the new frame was basically the same procedure, only reversed. It seemed to work well, and I will use the method again when it comes time to take the cab off for mount completion/frame shortening, but I dont think I would want to do it more than 1 more time.
The ideal method would be to make an A-frame hoist to pick the cab up with. A local junkyard has a setup that would be perfect. They installed swivels at each corner and mounted the rear hub from a GM front wheel drive car on each swivel. Spare donut tires give the frame great movability without taking up a ton of valuable space. I would love to make one of these for body swaps (especially for when it comes time to work on the bed) as well as motor work/swaps in the future. The only real drawback is that I dont have the room to store one when it sits unused.

[Gordon Maney]

I have the good fortune of having a jib crane in my shop, so I am OK with respect to the lifting part.

[W_A_Watson_II]

Engine Hoist to remove, and then I bolted 2-4x4's with 3" swivel casters mounted to them.

[JStinson]

My original plan was to attach a boom to a tractor and hoist the cab up that way. After some thinking, we went for operation overkill. Removed all the attaching bolts, then I got my dad to fire up his backhoe.

[carter davidson]

I think the entire front clip, fenders W/lights, grill, and rad if you want comes off the frame as a unit. Did it that way when at Knox, @ 2 guys doing two M37 eng swaps a day. Those guys were hard on Dodges.

Then there's this:

[W_A_Watson_II]

Removing the cab mounts and running boards with the cab is different.

[JStinson]

Removing the cab mounts and running boards with the cab is different.

Barely matters, at least in my situation. The brackets that mount the running boards had to be removed anyway, I figured I would yank it all off in one shot and be done with it.

The frame is the first part of the project to be restored, I'll get to the cab at some point. Whenever that happens, I'll tear the running boards and brackets off and work on them.