Hello all,

I have a thread going on over here on my rear wheel well rust repair/paint project:

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

Hope this will help others. Thanks for looking,

 

Bill my friend i have the same truck as you!!! only i have no side steps, short box in green!

 

 

Bill,
I'll be doing the same repair on my '96 4X4 Eddie Bauer - same colors exactly. I have a mig welder, but not with gas, so there will be some splatter due to flux core. Do you know what gauge the sheet metal is? I'd like to buy some and practice before I work on my truck.

 

Its 18 guage. I used pieces of the patch panel to practice since most of the patch panel was not used.

 

good luck with your repair

If anyone want to see how to PROPERLY fix wheel well rot I am putting bed sides on my truck in a couple weeks. I will do a "how to" to show how easy it is to do it RIGHT

 

I agree with Brad, replacing the bed sides is a far superior, far more durable, and far less labor intensive route to take. If I had the budget believe me I would be plug welding on some new full bed sides. Please keep in mind this is a budget repair on an old high mileage kept out side driving on treacherous icy salted roads in the winter truck. This is not a restoration of a garaged "hobby" vehicle. With two kids in college the fixing it "the RIGHT way" is not going to happen.

I look forward to your thread on "how to do it RIGHT".

 

I am not welding ANYTHING. It will all be Bonded on to NEVER rust again

 

That is an even better approach thanks to modern panel bond. The minute you plug weld, even with weld through primer, the rust process starts. Panel bond will prevent moisture from getting in between the panels too. That will be far superior to what the factory did. And very easy to do to.

 

Thread updated: bed is off, initial filler work done, both sides have 2k high build applied over top of epoxy primer. I plan to block it down apply more high build and repeat till straight. I will shoot the base/clear on myself:

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

 

that turned out very well you cant even tell it was done! some people dont understand that some high mileage older trucks arent worth all kinds of money for brand new parts and perfection. although i have to say your truck looks like a beauty 95f150

 

WOW, you have a lot of time on your hands

 

Thank all. Yes it is a tremendous amount of work but given the cost of a replacement truck I think its worth it...

 

What did you do to stop the rust from coming back?

 

I am going to take the back side of the panel around the wheel well down to shiny metal, wipe with wax and grease remover, and apply epoxy primer to seal the back side. No inner wheel well to trap moisture/dirt will be used. Driver's side dual gas tanks make that panel plenty ridged without the metal inner wheel well. On pass side I bonded a brace forward of the wheel well middle of the panel between quarter panel and inner panel to stiffen that panel up. Original splash shields will go back on trimmed slightly so they don't touch quarter panel. Then an additional splash shield to bridge the two original splash shields together at the top will be fastened to the original splash shields with stainless steel hardware. Nothing inside the wheel well will be touching that quarter panel so nothing will get trapped there. I will periodically rinse area with hose to keep dirt/debris out.