I guess maybe it would have been too expensive? Can you imagine if Ford would have also galvanized the cab too? We'd have pristine Ford trucks to this day

 

I thought the cabs were galved.
Mine certainly looks like it....... where it hasn't rusted out.

 

I read an article somewhere saying that automakers were forced to use certain standards of corrosion protection in the 70s, and some have attributed that to why they are generally in better condition for their age compared to later model vehicles. Wish I would have bookmarked it!

 

I believe the cowl panel IS galvanized and there for hard to paint or needs some special mix to get it to stick.

 

When the floors rust out on old Broncos (on a far too regular basis) they can rot off completely and the support channels under the floor are often still pristine. Guess they were not worried about the floor so much, but figured it was worth a few extra cents to protect the supports.

Paul

 

From the 1977 truck brochure.

 

I know about front fender liners, but have never seen OEM rear fender "liners" like the plastic front ones. I do have new aftermarket ones in basement.

 

My '79 had front and rear plastic liners. Kind of a pain in some ways, but I like having anything in there that keeps at least some of the junk at bay.

Good to see they galvanized the cowl vent area! No wonder that minimal amount of paint in there was still able to keep mine from rusting under all the leaves. Probably not enough for salty, or just really wet areas, but for around here it seems to be holding up.
I just saw another member's truck the other day and the PO had cut out holes on each end of the cowl, under the hood in the corner (basically where the RED area is on that drawing) for great access to cleaning out the cowl. Looks like it would be super easy to make some covers that you could take off whenever you needed to clean it out. I started a thread a few months ago to see what others had done to keep the cowl clean, but this was one of those fixes that looks like it could actually work and not mess up the visual aspects above the hood.

Paul

 

AFAIK They do not make OEM rear fender "liners" like the front. Just two plastic splash shields for the rear. One each side of the middle fenderwell lip part that always causes the bed lip to rust out. I seen a guy on here take a front set and MAKE on the rear. Damn smart idea.

Edit: Just read Paul's post again..I'd like to see a pic of them liners.

 

The guy I visited that had 2000+ vehicles in the woods had quite a few dent sides with liners front and rear... was thinking they'd be nice to have. If they are hard to find maybe I outta go grab a few sets lol

 

Do you want a picture of the one that rusted off with the fender support or the one still attached to the truck ;P ? A bunch of mud and rocks got stuck where it meets the fender on my truck and caused the fender support to detach

 

 

That makes sense.

Pity no-one presses a replacement roof panel and Z channels.

 

Buddy came by my house a couple days ago crying how they are repoping/remaking 66-77 bronco bodies and how his is not going to be worth as much, blah, blah, blah. I was just thinking they better coat them bodies with some thing that can fight rust this time around.

 

You can tell the galvanized areas by the way paint chips/flakes off, and how the metal still stays clean for quite a while, where untreated metal would immediately flash over with rust.