When I bought my 83 I knew it had a couple rust issues, you could see the rust coming through the driver side cab corner and on the driver side door sill. I thought someday I'll have to fix that... The truck was in the shop for a heater core and I have suffered from a massive case of project creep, I'll cover the other parts of the creep in another installment but needless to say I ended up taking care of the rust.

Part of the creep was heated mirrors so the kick panel came off to get a wire into the door and this is what I found.

Front of door opening


Back of door opening where I saw the rust on the sill


I stuck a screwdriver through it with no effort.

After cutting the cancer out



That's a piece of square tube clamped underneath to help lign up the new sill edge. And the front.


Here is the first piece to go back in. an angle to rebuild the inner side of the door sill.


Here it is mostly welded in.


Another piece and the sill is back together.



and after grinding


Seat belt mount moved to the new sill


I cut this piece out to get clearance to sand blast in behind it so back in it goes.


First piece of the floor to back in


After some hammer and dolly and grinding.


Rebuilt the bottom of the door opening at the back of the door.


Then the side piece to finish off the door opening.




and welded in and ground.




First piece of the front floor the small vertical piece.


Then the channel floor.






the floor patch


The outboard side of the channel




I decided not to wait until I could get a cab corner so I fab'ed one up, I couldn't get to the back of the cab because I'm not sure if the bed can be removed form this truck because the lift gate is welded to the frame so that area may have to be dealt with later.

rough shape


fitted and held on with magnets




Welded in and ground




and now for the fill piece.
Template and rough cut part.


Here is how I bend the parts, I have a break for the longer bends.


coated in weld through primer and ready to go in.




I forgot to take pictures of this part going in but here it is in place.




Back

Front.


With door closed.


A little bondo and primer and it will be ready for paint.

 

You do good work. That took a lot of time fabbing it up though. They make a rocker panel piece that works very well for a repair just like this(the more expensive one). You would have needed the outer floor repair piece and the rocker piece. They spot weld together to form the ridge you called the "channel". If you look close at the other side, you will see the raised part that the rubber slips over is really two pieces spot welded together.

Now that you have all this fixed, look at the seam that goes from the gutter over top the door to the rear top corner of the cab. The factory putty likes to dry out and water gets in. It runs down the inside of the cab where you can't see it and rusts out the rear cab corners.

Sheetmetal work is it's own trade, and it looks like you have the tools and the knowledge to make what you need.

 

Thank you, I looked at the repair panels and decided it would be cheaper to spend the time fabing what I needed, My time is cheap to me..., there is a fair amount of work to get the whole sill out to install the replacement, the sheet metal was already on the shelf.

I actually put it back together the same way the factory did, on this truck the channel is formed by the vertical edge of the floor and a angle spot welded down to the top of the sill. The floor and sill do form a pinch weld where they join but it goes down and forms one side of the sill channel.


Kinda hard to see there but the floor is toward the bottom of the pic and the angle starts about 1/4" away from it going up in the pic.

I'll check that out, I also noticed water trails from the back window so I need to get that out and sealed up as well. It could be fun with the bed not coming off and having toolboxes mounted to the top of the sides, Might have to take the boxes off to get to the window.

That it is, I like playing with it but I don't think I would want to do it for a living, I also like tools and seem to collect them.

 

Franklin, I'm assuming this is what you were talking about?

I'll seal that up before the truck leaves the shop.

 

Yes. That's usually what rusts out the rear cab corners.

 

Great job and pictorial!

 

Looks good, nice job!

 

A very great job. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Thanks Guys and you're welcome.

 

You are a body repair / welding God! I am not worthy!

 

Very nice job making all those pieces. I would certainly not have the patients to make all them when you can buy them for under $100

 

But where's the fun in that?

besides it would have taken a week to get the parts and I had it done in 2 days.

 

Bronco graveyard has stuff to me in 1-2 days. My time is better spent elsewhere then making already made parts.

But you did a nice job. Better than 99% of the rust repair threads I have seen