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The rear wheel tubs and floor on my 1952 F1 panel are in poor condition. Does anyone know if I could graft in parts from a !947? My local scrapyard has a 47' that looks to have some usable parts. This is what my truck looks like:
The 47' in the scrapyard is far from perfect, but better than what I have. The yard wants to charge $200. Their price would include cutting the parts I want from their vehicle. What do you panel guys think? Thanks.
This would be a little more expensive up front but if you need to work the ones you pull from the 47 it may be worth the extra, keep in mind there is more behind your side panels that will likely be in about as good of shape.
If you are not worried about originality you could use wheel tubs from a pickup that you could easily find rust free at a scrappers, that is what I did with my panel but you would need to do some fabricating to seal it to the outer fender panel.
Thanks John for the option of getting something new. I'm going to the scrapyard again tomorrow to have another look and take some measurements. Besides the rot you see in my post, there is a lot that is hidden that can only be seen with the truck on a lift. The whole wheel well and surrounding floor is mostly eaten away. The 47' may or may not be in the same condition.
Have you contacted any sheet metal shops? Based upon your comments, I would venture to guess a good metal shop could fabricate a new, "like original", for not much more, if any, than it will take you to cut rebuild what you have and probably less than the total of the 47 parts fabricated to fit. Even if the 47 parts are usable, you will still need a lot of new metal to make a secure replacement panel anyway.
Thanks Dennis--what you suggest is something I need to consider. My truck is in a body shop right now. The owner is older and appears semi-retired. I mistakenly assumed he might be less expensive as a result. So far he has worked on my doors--doing some metal repair on the bottoms--replacing the glass and associated parts--getting the latches to work again--and fitting the doors to the openings. He worked on a time and materials basis and ended up charging more than I expected. Three guys have worked on my truck so far, and each time it's been more time and more expensive then I thought it would be. I don't think people have necessarily been taking advantage of me--it's just that my truck is in pretty rough condition.
The guy working on my truck now (the door guy) suggested he needed some different parts to work with to fix the wheel tubs and floor. Maybe I need a different guy? When you mention "metal shop" are you thinking of something other than an auto body shop?
Thanks.
Just to update--After a second look, I decided the scrapyard wheel tubs and floor are just not going to work--especially for $200. I checked out the Mid Fifty wheel tubs. They look as though they would be easy to install, but the downside is they would solve only half of my problem. There is no "backside" to the Mid Fifty tubs to attach to the body and "enclose" the tire. That leaves fixing what I have--finding a different "guy" able to fabricate something--or finding tubs and floor from another vehicle.
52 USCG, I am speaking sheet metal shops. A shop with the proper brakes could completely reform your panels, inner and outer. But, you'd have to have them welded in.
It really boils down to how much you can do yourself. If you can properly cut out the old panels, to be used as a pattern, making new ones would be simple and relatively inexpensive. If you are in a position to, "drop it off and pick it up when it's done", it really doesn't make much difference where you take it or who does the work, (assuming quality of said work is the same). The only real factor, in that case, is the cost.
Looking at your pic, I would say everything from the floor rib to the top of the ribbed side panel should be replaced. I would say, also, at least from the joint in front of the fender well to the rear. The ribbed side panels look to be bolted in. Simple hand tools and an extra pair of hands, once the new ones are made. The floor joints and fender well will require some welding.
What does the exterior of the fender look like?
Thanks Denny and John. I did a little looking at trailer fenders. The price is certainly right. Finding the right size might be a problem, however. My wheel tubs are approx. 48x16x6.5 inches. I didn't really see any trailer fenders that were close to those dimensions. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places.
At this point, my plan is to start working on removing my tubs--this will need to be done no matter what I decide to do. With the tubs removed, I can take them to some sheet metal fabricating places as Denny suggests and get some prices.
My tubs are so rusted, I'm hoping they will come out of the truck without a struggle. The ribbed side panels, that are joined to the inside part of the wheel tubs, seem to be just screwed/bolted into a wooden frame--the part attached to the outside wall/frame of the truck is mostly rusted away. Does anyone who has performed this "operation" have any suggestions?
I am starting to work on the same area of my '51 panel. I don't have nearly as much rust-out, but might need to fabricate some parts. I'll watch your thread. Not many of us doing '51, '52 panels. Your front end work looks nice.
Thanks Brent. The front end body work was done by well known FTE contributor--Bob Jones. He turned a very sad looking pile of rusted pieces into something at least presentable. I looked at some of the pictures of your trucks--very nice indeed. My truck spent some hard time in snow and salt and it shows.
Tomorrow I am going to try and remove the wheel tubs and decide how best to proceed. I like Denny's suggestion of a metal fabricator--maybe new metal can be added to the existing tubs. They are solid except at the edges. The part on the outside that encloses the tire will need the most work.
So, today I was able to remove the passenger side wheel tub. The other side is hanging on by just a few stubborn screws. It's ugly, but I think I will go ahead and try to fix what I have.
I guess my plan is to braze in pieces of sheet metal to fill the voids, treat the rust and bare metal with Por 15, cover the brazed areas with waterproof metal based body filler, and then liberally coat everything exposed to the elements with undercoating. Does anyone have a better plan for doing this repair "on the cheap"?
I would prefer finding replacement parts in better condition, or hiring a professional to to the metal fabricating; but I'm struggling to justify the added expense. Maybe one of my kids will make a proper repair sometime down the road.
