Setting up the work piece for tack welding is very important. It’s here that unanticipated issues pop up and can be addressed successfully. Later on, those issues not dealt with here will have become substantially more difficult to fix.



To protect the VIN, I have located a bit of scrap that will cover it all and can be clamped in place. This step would be even more important where electric welding techniques are in use because of the greater spatter potential.



The edges of the boxing plate that will be welded have been beveled in order to maximize penetration and minimize intruding into the adjoining surface. This is especially important on the passenger side where preserving the VIN is so important.



Once I had the boxing plate at a right angle to the top rail of the frame, I realized that the bottom rail was not wide enough to support the planned fillet weld technique s went to Plan B. Using a butt weld fixture and a bit of scrap, I was able to keep the piece in place for the first tack welds.



I confined the first tack welds to the top rail so that the piece could still be adjusted along that plane. Using a level, I was able to get the plate perpendicular to the top rail with very little coaxing from a screwdriver inserted into one of the holes on the outside of the frame. It was here that I realized the full extent of the unanticipated gap that I would have to fill so I cut a piece of 1/8” welding rod and placed it inside the gap in order to have a little more material to work with. In retrospect, it might have been better to extend the lower rail as I did with the gussets, etc. and thus be able to stick with the fillet weld plan. We’ll see.



I then tack welded the box plate to the lower rail of the frame. Note the drip mark where one of the magnets I was using to hold the piece for the initial tack welds actually melted and caught fire. Apparently, these (Harbor Freight) magnets are constructed of ferrous material suspended in some sort of flammable plastic. Yet another lesson learned.



The driver side was approached in the same way …



… and there was a fire there also.



The upper and lower rail are fully welded. On the passenger side shown here, the VIN was undamaged.



Ditto for the driver side. All of this welding was done with oxyacetylene in order to maximize control. One more weld is needed where the boxing plates meet the engine crossmember (see green line). This will be done with an arc welder. On the driver side, this will be very close to the fuel line so precautions will be taken. A fiberglass welding blanket will be used as a shield.



So, with the finished welding, we’re getting close to being able to say that the frame has been successfully repaired. The mounting holes are all in the right place and this part of the frame is now as strong or stronger than it was before the collision. The primer on it now is permeable so will not resist rusting. So the next step is for “prettyfication” and that will culminate in a few coats of water resistant satin black.

 

With the welding finished, I set out to protect all that work from rust and other hazards. As well, there was the opportunity to make it look a little better than new.



The first step is to apply a thin coat of body putty (Bondo) to the worked over frame. The goal is to make it look smoother than it actually is. This will help the paint resist accumulations of dirt or whatever. Here is the passenger side inner frame.



The first pass at sanding will be done with 36 grit paper in a straight line air sander. What the air sander can’t reach (e.g. corners) will be hand sanded with the same paper. This is fast but coarse. This is a close-up of the passenger side welds, …



… the inside of the frame horn on the driver’s side …



… and a close-up of its welds as smoothed over with body putty.



The outside of the driver side frame horn.



The outside of the passenger side frame horn.



The passenger side profile.



The driver side profile.



Even the undersides of the frame got attended to. This is the passenger side …



… and this is the driver side.



First coat of sand-able primer, passenger side.



First coat of sand-able primer, driver side.



View of the inside of the passenger side frame horn.



View of the inside of the driver side frame horn. All of these areas will be wet sanded with 320 grit paper and coated again with sand-able primer. This process will be repeated with increasingly fine wet sandpaper until the surface is ready for the satin black enamel finish.



Various imperfections were filled with 3M glazing putty. I had a tube of this stuff saved for more than 30 years and was surprised to see that it hadn’t yet turned to stone.



Using a glaze is more efficient that relying on sand-able primers because it avoids an unnecessarily thick build-up of paint over the entire piece. It’s very good for those deep scratches and pits.



Here is the first coat of satin black enamel.



Here is where the damage was heaviest, the driver side.



Close-up images of the passenger side boxing plate and …



… the driver side.



A front view of the passenger side and …



… the driver side. Once I get another coat of paint applied and re-install the crossmember, I will try to do a before and after image and post that with some thoughts on lessons learned and a list of things I will attempt to accomplish before reassembling everything.

 

Good job man! Once again thanks for saving that truck rather then scrapping her.

 

Thanks co425, this challenge has been very rewarding for me and I have enjoyed almost every bit of it.

 

Very impressive work! Glad you're enjoying it

 

I spent the last hour reading through this thread start to finish, and I have to say outstanding job. You have skills that I can only dream of having one day! I am also glad to see that you saved the truck from certain demise- it breaks my heart every time I see another classic Ford truck going to the scrapyard. I will be eagerly awaiting to see the final result and keep up the good work man!

 

Thanks to all who have been following this re-build. Your interest and encouragement has kept me going. Now, let's wrap-up this stage of the project and get a glimpse of what's coming up next.
This stage of the project gets wrapped-up with the installation of an undamaged power steering return and cooling line swiped from my ’76 F-100. That vehicle will get a different engine and suspension so won’t be needing that part.



I found some “chrome” flavored paint in a rattle can so applied it to that part to stave off rust. It had already started rusting toward the top.



Here we see how the mounting bracket passes through that access hole I created in the boxing plate.



So now it’s time to compare the before and after pictures. Here is the BEFORE and …



… here is the AFTER. Although I never got the frame hotter than a dull red, the heat and all that pushing, pulling and hammering was bound to weaken it. My hope and expectation is that the boxing and the crossmember will compensate for that. Throughout all of this I wondered why Ford chose to attach the bumper directly to the frame. There are no spring steel brackets between the frame and the bumper as on most cars and many trucks. Probably to save money.



Reflecting on the experience so far, I have to admit that it would have been faster, easier on me and possibly even cheaper to have had a shop with a $13K frame straightener machine do the basic straightening. Had I been looking to resell the truck for a quick profit, saving time and money would make sense. Another option would have been to transplant undamaged frame horns. Although that would have been a simple welding job, I was unable to find a suitable donor that I was willing to cut up. That may have been fortuitous.
My actual objectives were to use this project to recover skills that hadn’t been used for more than 30 years while I was doing university teaching, research and administration. My concern was that I might have lost both the physical and mental skills that go into fixing things for which there is no precise recipe. Indeed, I had lost much that needed to be re-learned but thankfully, not as much as I had feared. I also enjoyed the struggle much more than I thought I would. The high level of satisfaction gotten from even small victories was unexpected – quite a bonus.
So, unless your objectives are like mine, you’ll probably want to give serious consideration to taking a shorter, easier path. But if you have the time and other resources to attempt something like this, the non-monetary rewards can be great.
So, what’s next?



The next stage will be to take care of a few things I noticed while the front clip was off. One of those things was the condition of the suspension bushings. The collision was probably the coup de grâce so I’ve acquired these polyurethane bushings from Energy Suspension and a pair of new shock absorbers from Skyjacker Suspensions. I’m thinking that it will be easier to do this now rather than after I start replacing the front clip.



Even more obvious was the sorry condition of the seam sealer. Most of it was dried out and a lot of that had already fallen by the wayside. So, clearing out the remaining dried-out seam sealer and re-sealing with this 3M product is definitely on the list. Water intruding into the cab is something I want to avoid.



The PO had removed the old York A/C compressor and disconnected the heater so I think it best to remove the intrusive unit that houses the heater core and A/C evaporator. If I do install air conditioning later on, I will want something more compact and modern. Nostalgic AC in Florida has a kit for these trucks for around a grand. For now, I will try to find a sheet of aluminum that will cover the hole (’77 F-250 parts truck shown). It would be great to find an old road sign.



The engine is supposed to be fairly fresh so I thought that I should help it look a little better with some chrome. These parts will help with that goal. Here’s a bigger, better, shiner air cleaner and …



… here’s everything I’ll need to replace those dingy stock valve covers. Rubber grommets enable push-in type breathers etc. to keep engine mist down to reasonable levels. Wing nuts and retainers add a bit more bling.



After that and assuming I don’t find any more critically important things on the truck to attend to, the reassembly will begin. Most of those parts are ready to bolt up except for the fenders and hood which will need to be painted. For that, I’ll need to see if there is such a thing as an affordable temporary paint booth. The bumper will also need a little straightening and doing that may well push me to painting it as well. The chrome is none too good already and heat plus hammer will only worsen that condition.
Finally, I should mention that I’ll be heading out of state next week for at least a month so there won’t be any progress until I return unless the elves stage an intervention. Hope springs eternal.

 

Jut one more thing before I hit the road. I was playing around with my photos for this project and decided it might be fun to see if a movie could be made of it. So here in just a few seconds over three minutes is the whole project so far:

http://dig1.gcsu.edu/frank_lowney/fo.../F-150_HFR.mp4

One caveat: To keep the images reasonably large and clear, I had to use a higher than normal bit rate (2400 Kbps instead of the usual 1200 Kbps). If your network connection isn't fast enough to play this video smoothly, just download the video file and play it locally from your hard drive or SSD. If you don't have a preferred video player, I recommend VLC. The free VLC Media Player does a good job across most popular platforms.

I had fun doing it and hope you enjoy it too. There's an audio track as well so put your headphones on or turn up the speakers.

 

Well Flowney,you did it! Good job! As you stated in your "lessons learned" ,not everyone will have the time or money OR need for a job like you just completed. It is truly satisfying when a person can go from start to finish on a job and take their time to address any snags. In my body shop, normally I would have been forced to a time of about a week to repair,a very low price to satisfy the customer and only the basic cosmetics . A wonderful,satisfying experience for you I'm sure. A nice tutorial for others following your progress! Everything from here on out will be a cinch! Again,good job ! Gary

 

Great video. Thanks for that!

 

I began this project a year ago today (8/28/14) so the goal is to get this project finished before its second anniversary.
We’re at that stage in every project where you say to yourself, “While you’re in there …” and find so many things that are better addressed now than later. So let’s get started.
As mentioned previously, what was left of the the seam sealer applied at the factory almost 40 years ago was dry and brittle. Much of it was missing entirely. With the front clip completely removed, there would never be a better time to address this situation so a container of 3M seam sealer was purchased.



Tracing the path of what was done at the factory, there are a lot of seams to attend to. The yellow lines on the picture show what they looked like after the old seam sealer was spirited away with a number of differently shaped high speed rotary wire brushes.



Here’s a close-up worm’s eye view of the driver side just underneath the air box that feeds the cabin with fresh air.



Another angle showing the drip path for water that enters the air box. A good deal of water passes this way.



The same situation prevails on the passenger side.



Water exits the air box just above the arrow (passenger side shown).



The seam sealer is the brush-able kind so (brags the message on the tin) leaves authentic looking brush marks.




Here’s a shot of the passenger side all sealed up …



… and a (passenger side) close-up. It takes about two hours to dry well enough to be painted.



So here’s the paint on the driver side …



… and on the passenger side. This was a pretty simple, straightforward operation, perfect for getting back to this project after a long break. There’s a few more things do do while I’m “in there” and they will be a bit more challenging.
Next up is replacing the suspension bushings with polyurethane units. I discovered that the bracket on the passenger side that holds the axle pivot bushing for the driver side axle received some damage in the collision so replacing this will be a little tougher than usual.

 

Flowney, Good to see an update!! Keep chugging away (and updating us!)

 

Given the age and collision history of this vehicle, it seemed prudent to look at the front suspension and especially the rubber bushings. The radius arm strut bushing on the driver side was pretty well destroyed so I thought that I might as well replace those on both sides. The axle pivot bushings are hard to inspect in place but replacing them seemed like the right thing to do, especially since I’m going from rubber to polyurethane. So I ordered a complete set of Energy Suspension brand bushings some time ago. Everything will be polyurethane.



The shock absorbers have been removed. The axle pivot bushing is encased in a bracket that allows it to be adjusted as part of the wheel alignment process. Pictured is the pivot for the passenger side axle. That bracket is on the driver side frame rail.



Moving to the bracket for the driver side axle which is located on the passenger side frame rail, we see a big problem. Apparently the collision caused the passenger side axle to impact and bend the bracket housing the axle pivot bushing for the driver side axle. This will require both hydraulic force and heat just to get access to and remove this axle pivot bushing. Here, the decision was made to yank everything out in order to be able to straighten this bracket out enough so that a decent wheel alignment can be gotten.



Lowering the axle pivot out of its housing actually makes pulling the radius arm from its mounting bracket much easier. Thus, I would recommend replacing both axle pivot and radius arm strut bushings at the same time. Normally, you wouldn’t need to disconnect the tie rod or brake line but I want to have plenty of room to work on that bent-up pivot bushing bracket. The brake lines look nearly shot anyway so they, too, will be replaced.



Here, I make a few corrections using heat and hydraulic jaws. This is just preliminary. There are actually two brackets, one inside the other, so this will be tricky. I don’t yet know how close to original this has to be in order to perform its function during the alignment process. Those who know, please comment.



The driver side axle, radius arm strut and brake assembly are completely out and now ride on a dolly designed for moving cars around in your shop. In this use case, I’ll be able to move these pieces around for clean up and working on that pivot bushing bracket. According to the instructions for the axle pivot bushings, I have to re-use the OEM metal shell that is pressed in to the unit. Ideas on pressing the old busing out while preserving that shell are most welcome.



Here’s the old pivot bushing. It looks pretty tired to me.



Here’s the radius arm strut for the driver side. The old rubber was half gone permitting this axle far too much forward and backward movement.



Here’s where the radius arm strut bushings will be anchored. The guy in the background is my dog, Bubo. He handles quality control.



Here’s the axle, radius arm and brake assembly for the passenger side. The axle pivot bushing is looking rather raggedy.



Here’s a close-up of the distortion that remains even after the preliminary straightening work.



Here are the new polyurethane axle pivot bushings and instructions …



… and here are the new polyurethane radius arm strut bushings with instructions.
Obviously, the next step is to work on the bracket that houses the driver side axle pivot bushing. Once that is brought within acceptable specs, I can tackle the “pressing” business of removing and installing the axle pivot bushings followed by some clean-up with a pressure washer and some fresh paint to stave off rust. Then, it should be a simple matter to put everything back into place, including the radius arm strut bushings. A pro wheel alignment will need to be done before this truck seriously hits the road.

 

My friend..
Congratulations at a very difficult job.. undertaken and completed

I do have several suggestions

I am not sure the quality of the welding... it appears "minimal".. I only say this because frame welding and repair is a critical process... perhaps some time at a community college to become a better weldor could be satisfying...

Good quality clean welds do not require body putty and glazing.. a flap disc finishes beautifully...prime and paint

If it was me.. and my personal preference... I would have replaced the frame.. with that hard a hit and because they are readily available ( how many would you like I have several) only because after all your hard work you will only know its right by having it checked on a good frame machine with a very experienced frame tech. It will be interesting to see how it aligns
Good job sticking with it...and thanks for the awesome pictorial

I look forward to your review of some of my projects over time

 

The housing for the driver side axle pivot bushing located on the passenger side frame apparently got hit by the axle in the collision that started this whole project. Preliminary work indicated that there was more to this than correcting the appearance of the metal.



At this point there is still a way to go to get the housing to look right. More importantly, the four holes (two for the inner bracket and two for the outer housing) have to be lined up and in proper relation to one another so that the new pivot bushings will fit and function correctly.



So I took one of the old pivot bushings and removed the rubber bonded to the metal bushing that the mounting bolt goes through. Pictured here is that metal bushing, a couple of .50” ID washers and the pivot bushing bolt.



With this ‘fixture’ installed, I was able to work the metal and restore most of its original shape. When done restoring the shape of the housing, I then used a heating tip on my oxy/fuel system to uniformly heat the entire housing in an attempt to release any unseen stresses.



While cleaning up the frame, I discovered what looked like a crack in the axle pivot bushing for the passenger side (located on the driver side frame rail).



Cutting into it with a 3” cutoff disk revealed that it was superficial.



So a little welding resolved that issue.



Other items that were discovered while cleaning up were two loose bolts (circled above). So, as tedious and unpleasant as parts cleaning can be, there is a payoff in discovering things that need to be attended to. It’s amazing how much dirt and grime a 40+ year old truck accumulates in its lifetime.