Hello All,

I am new here and have enjoyed learning a lot within the last 2 weeks of reading posts. I have a 1950 F-1 that I am going to somewhat rat-rod/resto-mod up or whatever direction it takes me. I am sure there are plenty of threads on the subject, but I need to know with a little rusty metal, what is the best approach and steps you guys have found (and cheapest, lol) to starting the restoring process. I have some rust holes to fix and some dents to work out.

Any suggestions or thread links would be wonderful.

Thanks,
Tubby

 

Go to the Paint and Body forum on here and read the "stickies" at the top. That will get you started, also google Autobody 101. Lot of good info there. Enjoy.

 

First, welcome to the board.

"Rat Rod", conjures all kinds of nasty things being done to a vehicle. Sorry, that's just my opinion. Anyways, there aren't many patch panels made for our trucks so you'll have to do a lot of fabbing if you have some major rust spots. There are a few places that do make limited patch panels but from what I've heard they all need a little messaging to make fit. I've never bought a pre-made panel, I fab all my own. The patch panels are limited to the rear and front cab corners, floor parts and rear of the front fenders patches. There used to be patch panels made for the seam ares for the front of the fenders where the fenders are prone to rust but there must not have been enough demand because they stopped making them years ago.

Northern Classic Trucks makes the most parts and I've heard they're pretty good:

www.northernclassictrucks.com

EMS makes some too, they're the only company I know that makes a one piece floor, all the others make their floor panels in two pieces. Also, the floor panel isn't the entire floor, from just below the front of the seat to the toe board.

www.emsautomotive.com

The reproduction parts dealer also sell some patch panel but I think they might get them all from the above manufacturers.

There are many ways of installing patch panels.

You can cut the rust out and make a panel that fits perfectly into the cut out area, with a small space around and stitch weld the panel in. This method if you can do it without warping the metal, allows you to use the least amount of filler because once you weld the panel in and grind the weld flush your patch is even with the surrounding metal.

You can overlap your patch and stitch weld it on. The will give you a really strong patch but it takes a lot more to blend the patch into the surrounding area because your patch sticks out above the surrounding surface.

You could also do a variant of the above and use a flanging tool. The tool crimps a flange along the outer edge of your patch panel which will allow you to slip your panel under the surrounding metal and majority surface of your patch panel will be flush with the surrounding metal.

The last two techniques can cause rust issues because you're forming pockets for moisture to gather. You have to make sure you seal the inside of the panels to help prevent this.

Each technique has it uses, you just have to determine which you want to use. With all three techniques time and patience is key. Do small stitch welds and spread them out and allow them to cool some before going to the next one. Move from side of the panel to the opposite side, eventually joining all the welds to make them one solid weld. Also, make sure the metal you're welding to is clean, rust and paint free. Do this by either grinding the areas , or if you have major areas, blast the entire area.

Since you only have one post so far you won't be able to use the site's search feature but you can do a better search using Google:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ml#post7429325

 

First, what tools do you have to do the work? Do you know how to weld? What kind of welder? What about hand tools? Don't take offense. The tools you have will help you decide the right direction to take as we are all limited by the equipment we can afford. Welcome to the to FTE. Good people all trying to help.

 

Since you cannot use the search yet (keep posting until you hit the magic #, somewhere between 10 and 25 posts?)
Here are a few links to get you started:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...continued.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...ate-bondo.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...py-fender.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...ers-dents.html

I HIGHLY recommend Ron Covell's DVD "Basic Techniques for working with Steel" Ron Covell Creative Metalworking Workshops it's a MUST HAVE for anyone starting to do body work.

 

I agree, Ron Covell is THE metal man period. I just emailed him a couple of days ago and he was kind enough to answer my questions promply. Great guy,email covell@cruzio.com Hope this helps

 

Thanks all so much for the great stuff to start with!

 

Welcome to the site, good place to get help and opinions.
Take a look at my gallery, I have a few pics in there that might give you some ideas on rust problems.