hello all,

just bought my first old ford. I'm familiar with most of the components of the truck, but was wondering what the biggest size tires i could fit on it, with the stock wheels and height. its a '65 F100 4x4 4-speed. Was also wondering what I can do besides POR-15 to aid in eliminating the surface rust. Very straight body, with the only rust thru below the tail lights on the bed. All other rust is surface and primarily inside bed, and engine compartment (wheel wells, firewall). My idea was to sand down these areas, use POR-15 or better to seal out the areas, then prime and paint. Any suggestions? I'm not looking for a collector quality job, i just want the truck to stay in good shape, and be appealing to my eye, as well as others'. Thanks!

-ac

 

PS. i'm not looking to "hillbilly" this thing out. I want a primarily factory truck, aside from heavier leaf springs/better shocks and tires that i can take out on the trail if i wanted, or mainly just to get me places hunting/fishing etc... I was almost thinking of getting some old school thin military tires just for looks.

 

Hello and Welcome to FTE!

tires first, do you have 15 or 16 inch rims?

paint, i would not use por15 on the outside body panels, it's great for frames and under the truck but, por does not hold up to UV rays and will need a top coat of some sorts, find a rattle can of epoxy primer and hit the areas with it.

 

gotta sand or blast all the rust away or no matter what you cover it with it will come back at some time. we start with bare white metal epoxy prime / sand / 2k prime / and paint from there and it wont come back. all rust thru must be cut out and new metal welded in to eliminate it.just do a couple spots at a time.

 

doing a farmer type restoration on mine (63 f250 4x4 flare), pbly similar to what you want. unless the truck is completely disassembled and dunked in a vat of rust eater of some sort there will always be rust in seams, corners and hard to get to places, unless your in a dry state maybe. anyway i try to get all the rust scale off and leave a thin cover of rust, coat it with rust converter best i can (spray it pour it dunk it squirt it whatever) then top coat it with paint. rustoleum red on the inside because it's cheap and pretty tough stuff and matches rangoon red fairly closely. on the exterior i'll use rangoon red. probabaly shouldn't admit this but on the undercarriage as the paint gets chipped off due to every day use i may fill up the hudson sprayer with diluted used motor oil and spray it on occasionally (i've noticed wherever my engine has been splattering oil for the last 47yrs- no rust).

i use zerorust, don't like por15.

i'm considering not useing undercoat products because whatever you use will get chipped off if you use the truck and those coatings are hard to deal with after the fact so i plan on taking fenders etc off occasionally and touching things up.

might be a bit of a "hillbilly" resto but works for me since i'm not interested in high quality restoration which in way beyond my abilities. i have a lot less experience than most people on the forum so take my advice for what it's worth.

 

My grandad coated the undercarriage of his farm trucks with oil for years....they never rusted.

 

gandad was a pretty sharp guy. if you can't beat join em

same procedure works pretty well on exposed wood. atleast it seems to work on the doorway of my chicken shed and barn floor.

 

Rust is the most difficult issue that I've had to deal with from a "how far do I go and how much time and money do I spend" issue. My truck had a bunch of surface rust when I got it and the previous owner had done some body work, primed the truck and left it outside so all of the exterior panels showed surface rust, one of the doors had two rust through spots in the corner and the bed was rusted through along the edge nearest the cab.

First thing we did was start sanding and grinding the rust out of the exterior body panels best we could (depending on time and energy some places more thorough than others), then added a rust inhibitor and then rattle can primer (since we worked on limited areas at a time). This worked fairly well but I know there are areas we didn't do as well as others so I plan on finishing the body work bondo, doing some more sanding and rust inhibitor on areas I know are weak and spraying a good coat of epoxy primer over the whole thing, I don't have a ton of time to spend on the truck but I don't want to be foolish and have rust coming through when it finally gets painted.

In the bed I cut out the bad metal best I could with a side grinder, again sanded and ground the surface rust, added rust inhibitor and bolted a piece of metal angle at the back of the bed to hold it together where it rusted through, I know there is more rust on the bottom of the bed and the previous owner welded a piece of plate the the floor but I felt I'd eventually do a bed liner and let it go at that.

Took out my seats and started filling some holes (looked like Swiss cheese for some reason) with small sheet metal patches and realized the previous owner had fiber-glassed over the rusted out floor boards and I never noticed so we tore out the fiberglass and was able to "tack weld" lapped panels on the passenger side, we cut and ground out the rust, used "weld through primer" and got new metal in place. I plan on hitting all the seams with seam sealer and using a coat of rust inhibitor on the top of the panels and then primer and Rustoleum red and a rattle can rubberized undercoating on the bottom. The drivers side was so bad we got a new panel from Dennis Carpenter for $60.00 which is a much better option than trying to fabricate and patch panels though we'll still need to do some of this along the side of the seat. I'm probably saving more metal than I should be to get every bit of rusty metal out just isn't practical.

I've also got surface rust on the inside of the wheel wells and I plan on removing the tires, getting after the surface rust best I can and coating with a rust inhibitor / paint that brushes or rolls on in one coat, I'll do the same for the inside of the doors as best I can reach and the back of any other metal panels I can get to.

I know I'll still have plenty of rust on the old girl but unless you do a "frame off" or a super thorough restoration it's really tough to not get bogged down to the point that you never finish the truck, I've always just wanted a decent driver and fun project to complete with my son so my expectations are not too huge but this has been the most time consuming item of the project so far.

 

has anyone ever used rust bullet? i've heard some good things about it, but have never seen any real evidence. I will use epoxy primer on the exterior panels, but under the hood and wheel wells and in the cab i'll probably use something different. I am especially impressed with the fact that there isn't more rust on the truck in the first place, having spent most of its life in western oregon. but its not a coast truck, i know better than to buy one of those.

and the wheels are fifteen inch. i'm thinking i'll probably do 30" tires, i should have the clearance to do 31's but its more money, i've been eyeing up the coker tires vintage truck wheels, they'd really set it off and have a nice tred. i'll post pictures soon.

has anyone attempted the two-tone body job themselves? at first i was thinking either black hood/bedtop/door top with white, or maybe daphne blue and white, but realized i didn't want to spend decades and wet sand after wetsand, and re apply while having to remask my lines. so i think i'm just going for solid body color/white cab top.

 

Welcome to the FTE, I see in your profile your in Oregon, where are you located? Have you thought about joining the Oregon Chapter of the FTE. Below my information is a link in Blue to Join the Oregon Chapter, join up a meet the rest of the crew.

Rob

 

On my first (ever) car, which was a 74 VW Bug, my Dad had me rattlecan the undercarriage with rustoleum, and then roll on a thick coat of roofing tar. Lasted forever! (Forever being 4 years until I wrecked it).

For my 66, I used RUST BULLET AUTOMOTIVE on the interior floor pans, roof, tank, and other non-visible areas. That was about 6 months ago. I just finished priming the interior, and zero rust was showing through anywhere. I used a high-rpm drill with a grinding wheel that looked like a scouring pad to take the "flaky" rust down to either smooth rust or bare metal first. From the reviews and "non-partner" side by side tests with other rust inhibitive coverings, it seemed to me that RUST BULLET was the way to go. So far, I'm pleased with the choice.

 

Welcome agaristo77 Im working on a 65 F100 4x4 myself. Post up some pics for us all to see what you have there. Mine is in pretty rough shape as I got it to use for parts on my other 4x4. Decided to keep it and do a little stylin on it. I look forward to seeing how yours comes out.

 

it's i shouldn't admit this time again. long time ago on the inner panels of my 69 galaxie had the restorer i hired sand blast, then rust converter, then diluted fiberized roof coating, then top coat with enamel. that stuff is still plyable and stuck tight. i've thought of useing pg58-28 (commercial grade asphalt binder they use in asphalt paving plants) as an undercoat. a lot of research involved in making it. very tough stuff, might tend to collect/embed fine mtls like sand and form a plyable chip proof coating (due to the embedded mtls) similar to an asphalt pavement on the under carriage of the vehicle. only problem is getting the stuff off if need be would be problematic at best.

 

tires.... 30's will look tiny you should have plenty of room for 31x10.50's heck, i had that size on my 2wd for a while.

 

fiberized roof coating= genius. i was thinking about asphalt coating myself. i remember years ago when i refinished a driveway with my pop, and how the shoes i wore were comletely coated in the stuff, but they were more water proof than a pair of rocky boots.

i think i will go with 31's i figured they'd fit fine, and also, when i beef up the suspension, they won't look wimpy.

for the paint, i think i am gonna buy a gallon of that rust bullet. I'll start off using it on some of the interior stuff, and under the hood, and if it performs to my standards, then i'll use it for the wheel wells and etc. also decided to go thru with the two-tone paint job. i'm thinking matte-black on top, with high gloss white for the cabtop and remainder of the body. i think it'll look like that after i get some naval jelly and polish up what chrome is there, and with the new front bumper.