Good thinking

 

The other areas of the quarter panel are completely rust free. Not even surface rust. The only area that rusted is the area where the steel inner wheel well trapped rocks, dirt, salt etc etc; there was a lot of debris trapped in there. So if I can prevent that trapping and keep the area clean it should hold up well. From what I have read on various body work forums without epoxy primer on the back side of that panel it won't hold up.

 

Picture of the brace used to stiffen up quarter panel is posted up:

'95 F150 Rear Wheel Rust Repair / Paint • How to Paint Your Own Car, Auto Body Discussion Forum & Videos • AutoBody101.com

 

Love the detail and write up, Supercab. As I said in an earlier post, I have the exact same color combo on my '96 Eddie Bauer, and will be doing panel repair in the future, so this is of great help to me. I'll also keep an eye out for DieselBrads adhesive, no-weld repair too. I do have a question for you though: After all of that prep work and professional-like quality of the base, sanding, epoxy, more sanding, etc - won't the bed look different than the cab now? Are you able to color match the 20-yr old cab paint with the brand new bed paint?

 

If you look at the pictures in the thread where I pulled the body side molding off the side of the bed you will see the original paint has not faded at all. If you look at pictures of tail gate in that thread, I painted that a few years back and it matches extremely well. Will the supplier mix the paint correctly to match the original paint; we will have to see. I think no matter how good a job it will be obvious bed has new paint and cab does not.

I will be painting an old junk fender bronze/white base/clear as a test panel prior to painting bed. So before bed is painted I will have a good idea of how well it will match.

 

Detailed pics of the home made splash shields at posted up:

'95 F150 Rear Wheel Rust Repair / Paint ? How to Paint Your Own Car, Auto Body Discussion Forum & Videos ? AutoBody101.com

Any advice on how to adjust those tail gate hinge mounts greatly appreciated thanks,

 

Are the CAPS really necessary? Seems a bit rude. At least you wished him good luck. I agree that replacing the entire bedside is the right way to do it, but the OP is not in a position to do that realistically. I'm guessing that most of us who drive these older trucks are not in that position either.

 

If the person has more time than money, would it not work to add POR-15 to the backside, after cleaning the backside of the weld lines up?

As long as it's totally covered, rust won't be able to just come right back 6 months later, one would think...

 

Yes, one would think so, as we know, the iron worm never sleeps.... I haven't used either, but I'm thinking POR-15 and Epoxy Primer would be about equal to one another in terms of rust prevention. I'd probably pick POR-15 since so many users on here have had good experience with it.

Here in the midwest, If you didn't treat the back side of the panel appropriately, you'd probably have new rust bubbles by the time the next winter season was over.

 

Planning on doing this (full 1/4 replacements) on my '96 XLT this Winter. I'm *just about* showing rust bubbles over both arches, so you know what THAT means...Does anyone have either parts #'s for the panels or a source for buying them?

Roger

 

I like the bucket idea.

Those are a real pain. My suggestion is to put some epoxy prime behind the hinge pieces and mount them,. Then adjust the tailgate as necessary. Tighten them down. The paint EVERYTHING in place.Otherwise you risk shipping and scratching the paint when adjusting them later


Have a read..
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-bedsides.html

 

Yes, it was NECESSARY. The OP even knows this was NOT the correct way to go about it, but it was within his "budget"

 

Thanks for advice Brad. I think I will mount hinges, adjust, then tape off.

 

I spent a few hours getting tail gate aligned, trial and error and a lot of sweat. I had previously epoxy then high build primed the jab area of the tail gate:

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/do...4852&mode=view

Then I masked off the catches and let the hinge mounts be body color:

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/download/file.php?id=4851&mode=view

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/do...4856&mode=view

I carefully pulled the tape right after the last coat of clear.

Definitely glad I did this before final paint!!

Thanks for excellent advice Brad!

 

I'm glad to see its not impossible per say to just weld in a patch to temporally fix this common rust problem, I'll be forced to do the same with my truck as well and possibly a full repaint since me and the old man didn't do the best job the first time around but none the less the rust must go first.