My 93's bed is starting to acquire rust in the usual place - the wheel wells. I've been spraying on primer here and there over the winter trying to slow it down until the weather was consistantly warm, but it's time to fix it. Ordered patch panels from Bronco Graveyard, and they arrived a few days later.

So, the first step is to remove the bed, because one shouldn't weld in patch panels near the gas tank filler doors. How hard could it be to remove the bed? The six bed bolts came right out, the connector for the rear lights popped right off, and the three screws for each filler snorkel also came off easily enough.

So, I push my 2 ton engine crane over the back of the bed where the bumper and tailgate used to be... and sure enough, it's not long enough to reach into the center. So, I had to fangle up an extension. The long part goes into the crane, and the short part hangs out. Boxed the end with 1/8" plate for additional strength, assuring the hook mount won't pull through:



Attaching the chains was easy too.... I used cast steel eye bolts through the existing bed bolt holes, lifting the bed off the frame slightly with a floor jack, so that I could slip the nuts between the frame and the bed onto the eyebolt. Did all four corners.... and applied tension to the chains to make sure everything is good. One chain was twisted, so I had to adjust that, no big deal:



Looking good.... jack jack jack jack jack jack jack (etc).

Lifted the bed high enough to clear the rear wheels, which required about 18" of lift, then drove the chassis out from underneath.



So, the next time there's a couple of precipitation free days in NJ.. I'll be cutting off the rust and welding in the patch panels. And I'll have to clean up the frame too, it's looking really bad. Found a small amount of surface rust at the bottom edge of the cab's rear... and a few more spots on the front of the bed.

Also discovered the axle bumps are missing (well, the rubber part is gone at least), and one of the shocks spit out the rubber bushing on the top post. Nice. Since that stud is welded to the shock mount, I guess I'll have to cut it off, drill it out, and weld in a new stud since the stud is no longer straight, or even the appropriate thickness. Apparently it's been bashed to death for a while. Wonder how I didn't notice that... Well, more pictures as things progress. Just wanted to share the crane extension, because it was easy to fabricate and enabled me to take the bed off the truck without help, very quickly. I had the crane fangle welded, drilled and inserted within an hour, and had the bed off on sawhorses within another hour. Not bad at all.

 

Federick,
You are simply amazing. I'm looking forward to the next series of pics where you show me what I need to do to fix my bed too. (grin)
Thanks,
Popa Tim

 

Fredrick

Yea, this really was amazing. And the photos were awsome! Way helpful. Keep us posted on your projects.

XR

 

Thanks guys for the feedback. Never sure how interested people are until people make comments. Sometimes I tend to be too verbose

As you can see in the next two pictures, the frame is quite rusty. There is a minute amount of surface rust on the back of the cab at the bottom, but I tried chipping at it with a screwdriver and it's definately surface rust. Yay, something that's easy to fix. I tore the carpeting on the inside back wall of the cab to take a look, and it's not rusty so yay for me. But, the frame has tremendous scale, the spring perches aren't looking too good, and the cross member just behind the front take, well, I can bend it by standing on it. I'm going to have to fabricate something in place of it, since Ford no longer carries crossmembers or frame rails for the 92-96 F-series.




Driveability fangles.

Since the bed is removed, I also lost my taillights. An officer pulling me over the day I took the bed off, reminded me that taillights are necessary. He was cool enough to let me go, and I had to turn around and head back home (a mile, tops). So, I looked around the garage at various taillights I had lying around, but nothing really was going to "bolt on" without some time consuming fabrication, then I spied my old broken down trailer, and scarfed the lights and mounted them on two existing frame holes. Plugged the wiring into the trailer connector, and viola, instant taillights. That's one problem solved. Then the long flexible filler tubes to the two tanks are amazingly "floppy". I can't imagine driving around like this is a good thing, and I certainly don't want to leak gasoline all over my truck or on drivers behind me, so I quickly fangled up "filler tube supports" which is nothing more than sections of galvanized 18ga 1" square tubing. Drilled a 1/2" hole on one end, bolted into existing frame holes, then duct tape the filler necks to the end of the tubing. It doesn't matter that duct tape is especially nasty to remove from metal, because the filler necks have so much dirt stuck on them that the duct tape didn't stick - just to itself and the square tubing immediately underneath. So, at least now I can drive the truck if I need to.



Like I said earlier, while the bed is off I'm going to fix other things besides the bed. As you can see in the above pictures access is wonderful. So I started off with replacing the rear shocks, and to my suprise, they were much worse than I had thought. The upper bushings were completely gone (as in missing, fell out?) and the upper shock perches are very sad looking. The studs are welded to a curved bracked, and both my brackets are very rusty, and one is very bent. So I'm going to have to drill out the rivets and replace them. Ford still does carry these, I have a set on order. Anyway, pictures of the old shocks - aren't these sad? Can't believe I ignored this as long as I have...



Anyway, hopefully it will stop raining and I can fire up my sandblaster. Wet sand is not fun to play with.

 

Fredric

Again, way cool! Keep 'em coming. It's amazing how when you're up to your butt in alagators, it's hard to remember that original intent was to simply drain the swamp!

But, back to the wheel wells. I have the same wheel well corrosion problem on my '95 F-150. I've been thinking about having a body shop cut out & install the repair panels (I have neither the skills nor the equip to do it myself).

I'm wondering (a) how big/expensive a job is this and (b) why did you remove the bed to accomplish it? Is that necessary or did you just do it to get at the other frame corrosion issues & other.

Thanks

XR

 

please provide details of sandblasting and painting the frame...im fixin to do this exact project....fredric....you are the man! wonderful post!

 

good idea on the extender, do you need in addition to the tail lights, something to cover your rear wheels? when i had the box off my 75 f250 cops pulled me over and informed me wheels needed some sort of cover. good luck

 

I'm not a professional body man either. I can cut things, and I can weld things. I figured how hard can this be? Time consuming, absolutely. But I believe I can do it, at least "reasonable". Can't be any worse than the rust holes I have no, right?

I spoke to quite a few body shops, and all but one turned me away, saying they don't have time to deal with rust issues. The one shop that said they could take it on, price-wise, is treating my truck like a classis 56 chevy, whereas they quoted me upwards of $2k to bring the bed to a paintable, primed state. I was in shock. Plus I had to wait six months because they are backed up. Whle I love my truck for the past 340K miles and I intend to keep this truck another 10 years, I'm not spending $2K on wheel well repair in the bed. For half that money I could find myself a new "take off" superduty bed where a dealer swapped the factory bed for a utility bed, like Stahl or Reading. So, I have nothing to lose by trying this.

I took the bed off for two reasons - the first being the most important to me - I absolutely did not want to weld near the fuel filler doors with 40 gallons of gasoline right behind them. I'm not a lucky person, and while I've managed to avoid a visit from Mr. Darwin so far, I've decided not to take any chances. If I was just slathering bondo, I'd not worry about it, however an extremely hot welding arc and flying hot slag does not mix well with gasoline vapors.

The second reason, which was a side effect of the first reason - is by taking off the bed I have easy access to review the condition of the frame, cross members, wiring, brake lines, all the things that looked "reasonably okay" underneath under the dim glow of a cheesy flashlight. My front tank has a bad fuel level sender, and the rear tank has a randomly operating fuel pump. So having the bed off allows me to repair both without dropping the tanks. Iv'e dropped tanks before and it's not a big deal, but since the bed is off anyway... it's much easier this way.

I also have to replace the differential cover gasket, and that too is easier with the bed off. And taking off the bed the other day allowed me to easily see other rust problems I need to take care of, that I'd never have noticed otherwise. Also, I didn't notice the upper shock perches were essentially swiss cheese until the bed came off. So aside from the initial safety reason for this decision to take the bed off, I've gotten a lot of "must repair" information that I wouldn't have had otherwise so I'm glad I did.

Plus with the engine crane fangle, start to finish removing the bed (and fangling the crane) took about 2 hours, by myself, with no help.


Pictures of the rust repair will follow as soon as the weather is kind. The forecast for where I am is crummy weather the next few days. I'd have enough "nice weather" time to clean up sections of the frame, but the more time consuming bed repair part will have to wait for a 4-day block of nice weather, so I can take the repair from what it is now, to full paint before there is any chance of precipitation.

If I were able to do this in my garage... I'd could have had it done by now.. but alas, my garage bay/shop is too full. Maybe if I moved these engines out of the way... LOL

 

Will do, just be patient. NJ Weather is not cooperating!

 

Technically, yes, however the local police said they'd tolerate my bedless truck "short term" if I stay local. So, alas, I'll stay local. It's not like I can haul anything with the bed off, and without the weight of the bed, I really can't tow with the bumper hitch either.

 

I quickly discovered my "toy" air compressor isn't powerful enough for sandblasting. The air pressure drops too fast and I get about 20 seconds of sanding, and I have to wait another 40-50 seconds for the compressor to catch up. So, I plumbed in an 11 gallon air tank to increase the time I can blast, which also increases the time it takes to refill. Which is okay, I found this less annoying than 20 seconds of sanding, then waiting.



Action shot... it's amazing (to me at least) what a $13 sandblaster, a $4 bucket, and $3 of play sand can do. To think I actually started wirebrushing the frame. I blasted a small section, and primed it, just to see how it came out. In the below picture I'm just starting the next section near the front spring perch. I did another 12" before I primed that area as well, then packed everything up since it's too overcast/humid/damp to really prime and paint. Today was just a quick experiment to see if what I've cobbled together actually does the job.

Plus, the sand is kinda clumpy, I have to sift it for smoother sand flow.



Wire brushing the rust off the frame (in a one foot section) took about 45 minutes to where I was satisfied enough to prime it. Sandblasting the same section of the frame took about 10 minutes, which includes poking the clumpy sand fairly often while the compressor refills its own tanks as well as the 11 gallon add-on tank. If the sand wasn't so moist, this would have been 3-4 minutes tops.

I do like sandblasting, even with lame, cobbled together cheapo equipment. Though, I'm going to have to shopvac the frame when I'm done, as the sand gets in everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE.

 

Fredric

I hear what you're saying regarding the cost of wheel well repair at a body shop. I have not solicited prices for this yet but no way I'll pay $2k to get this done. My poor old truck isn't worth much more than that. When it gets bad enough, I may just cover it up with a set of fender flares or something like that. Your thoughts on a replacement bed is an interesting concept also. Although it might be harder to find something worthwhile for a 1/2 ton.

Really enjoy the story/pics of your truck rehab. I'm starting to look forward to it like my wife does "Days of Our Lives." Yikes, I gotta get out more! Anyway, keep the details coming & thanks.

XR

 

Looks Like You Are Well On Your Way, And It Looks Great

 

I'm in NJ, and while there are a lot of body shops, the ones I've approached so far seem "prissy". I have a good friend in the business in upstate NY (well, not that far up, just not in Manhattan), and he did offer to do it for me for nothing, except that he too is backed up, and about 3 hours away in each direction. I remember a lot of older rusted clunkers being restored at his shop in the past, and he stated he's completely done with restorations because while it was fun to do something other than crash work, he rarely, if ever, made money on it. People apparently don't appeciate high quantity of manhours for perfection. And my friend's work is that good. Anyway, like most shops, he's crash ony since it's profitable.

Mine's worth about 5-6K bluebook, minus the ridiculous mileage. However, a new replacement truck would be in the 40's, so in my viewpoint as far as what to invest into it, increases a little bit.

I did it once before.... in 94 I shoved a 94 longbed take-off onto my old 81 crewcab, because the bed was destroyed in a flip-over and I couldn't fix it, or find a junk bed in decent shape. So, it's a viable alternative. I drove 3 hours out into PA to get it too, and it was worth it.

Thanks! I 've always taken pictures of everything I do, mostly to share with friends who do the same thing, so I post them here and on my website just for the fun of sharing and all that.

Recently, I started digitally videotaping more complicated projects, with the intention of selling DVD's of "how-to's". Once I finish a project (yeah, right), I'll be able to complete a DVD (or a set of two, depending on the project) and be able to offer them at a reasonable cost. I probably have 12 such dvd's in progress.

 

Anyway, back to the sandblasting story. The sun poked through late afternoon so I took pictures of my old bumper for a guy on another post, and went back to sandblasting.

Guess what - in 90 minutes, I now have the frame inside and out, top and bottom, and all the perches sandblasted from the back fo the cab, to where the rear bumper should be. Some spots I blasted down to the shiny metal, but I decided right in the beginning not to do that all over. Instead, I bought this generic goop that you brush onto surface rusted metal, and it converts the iron oxide to iron phosphate. I've used it before on machinery with excellent, long lasting results, so I'm going to try it on this frame and see how it turns out. I can always re-blast it since it's not that time consuming actually. And I of course prime over the iron phosphate as I would bare metal, then paint, topcoat, etc. I'll probably just put three coats of paint on it, and not top coat it since I'm lazy.

The frame is underneath the truck anyway, I'm not going for beauty, but rather inhibiting rust and having it all one color

If anyone is interested, here is a picture of the compressor fangle - using quick connects I spliced in a 11 gallon tank after my 5 gallon toy compessor, and as I outlined in an earlier post this helped my being able to sandblast a few minutes before I had to pause. Don't mind the dark spot on the garage floor by the red 11 gallon tank, it's just wet from my draining the water trap that is between the compressor and the tank - I'm trying to keep water out of the 11 gallon tank because I use it infrequently, I don't want it to rust from the inside out. Also, you really don't want water in your air tools to be honest... air motors tend to rust and sieze up, and water in your paint sprayer makes for fish eyes, and as I've discovered today, water going into the sandblaster makes for clumpy sand.



And here is the sandblasted frame, ready for the phosphate goop, which I'll do tomorrow. While it looks the same rusty color, there is no rust scale or loose pieces anywhere. The surface is still slightly rusted as the brownish/reddish color indicates, but nothing is loose anymore.



Low resolution pictures really don't do this justice, I know it's difficult to see before and after clearly. But if you saw the ground, it's covered with massive amounts of rust flakes (some almost 2 inches in length!) that the digital camera didn't pick up well. Not sure why, but a photographer I am not.

Earlier, I said that the sand was rather clump, from moisture right out of the bag. Since I was impatient, once the sun poked out I simply dumped it on the driveway and spread it out with a broom, letting it dry in the end of day sun. Then, after it seemed reasonably dry, I shop vac'd it up, dumped it into the home depot pail, and had at some sandblasting. Had a few clumps requiring a little backwashing, which is easy to do. Turn off the sandblaster, push your leather glove against the nozzle of the sandblaster gun, then "bang" the trigger very quickly, releasing it immediately. Kicks the sand out of the siphon and the siphon tube, then you can suck it back in normally. I had to do this every time the unit sucked in a wet clump... which was annoying, but hey, that's what I get for not drying the sand out completely