Very nice, Im looking forward to seeing more, keep the pictures and progress report coming. Good job.

 

Thanks for the comments everyone. It definitely helps motivate me to keep chipping away at it.

Kevin - you are right on the parts availability for sure. The areas that don't rust are the hardest to get and I appreciate your help in getting me some of those impossible to find patch panels!

Also, I have seen mixed quality in the after market repair panels. The big stuff like fenders are fine but the small stuff often needs a lot of work to fit. I'm especially running into that with the inner and outer cab corners. You have to be willing to cut stuff up and reshape it to fit.

More to come soon. It is my goal to finish up the whole passenger side of the cab and the dashboard over the Xmas break (I'm taking the whole week off this year).

Cheers!

Rick

 

I woulda looked at this truck and passed on it cause I thought it was to far gone.but your tackling it and doing a helluva job! Cant wait to see it all done

 

What color you plan on painting it?

 

On the truck alone I would have passed as well. However, the amount I paid for it was less than the value of the ifs, 4-link, and drivetrain that came with it. So I figured I would see what I could do with the truck itself and replace if necessary.

I'm planning on painting it yellow, similar to original. Eastwood has a single stage called butter cream that I think I can add more white to and get it to resemble the original color.

 

A little pre-christmas update. I am almost done with the cowl panel, just need to button up the front edges where it attaches to the firewall. Will then add seam sealer everywhere to help with noise and water seepage.

I've been working on patching together the right side cab corner and more. This was the most damaged area from the accident so I am having to use several patches to get it together. I'm about half done at this point.


First pieces lined up and tacked in. I needed to replace about 5 inches above the top of the cab corner panel. I ended up using a piece from the drivers side panel since I won't need it all.

I've been indexing to the drivers side using this handy tool I picked up from Eastwood.

The passenger side had a flatter radius from the previous repair.

Tacked in the new panels and cut up the center of the radius so I can shape the corner to match other side. Will make a patch to fill in the gap.

This is evidence of how awesome this website is. I mentioned issues I was having in tracking down uncommon panels and Kevin (bigwin56f100) reached out to me. He was able to hook me up with this panel for the back of my cab and another for my dash. Lifesaver!

This is where I had to stop for the weekend as my welder ran out of gas. Will have to get another tank on Monday.

 

Waygonner,
That is looking very good! You have good eye, good tools and good skills! It will be a truck you can be proud of that you saved, and these really are the ones that need saved! I would need to get some better tools and learn more about body work! Did you ever check in on the site http://www.metalmeet.com
Was looking at another thread and you were looking for that dash patch. I think you can repair that! I see what your doing other places that should be a easy one for you. Here is what I see. The original pop rivetied patch was very poorly done. and the raged hole left behind is even worse. But this is good metal that has not been rusted or bent up. Cut a patch bigger than the hole and use your eastwood tool to mimic the shape and get it close befor you do anything else. Fit it close, then trace the outside and cut out the new larger hole to match the patch. I think when you get the new hole cut it will look way better! then set patch in place and check with a straight edge. Your going to be fine. Tack it in and you will have it on its way to being fixed. It may be like some of the tractor fenders I have done they looked really bad till I cut away the bad and put in some new! sometimes like sanding an egg. Just sand in many directions. You can do this! I am not a good enough body man to do repairs without filler. I may never be? I just have not learned the skills to shape metal. I am a hacker. grinder. welder, grinder and filler sander kind of a guy. Just telling it like it is!
Regards,
Chris

 

Just read through metal meet. Really cool!

I appreciate the encouragement, some days all of the metal work gets daunting. I was able to source a panel for the dash that is in great shape and should fit in there with minimal filler.

I'll be using plenty of filler when it comes time to finish everything up but I'm spending extra time trying to minimize the thickness of it.

 

I like that contour tool you have, I remember I had a small one that I think was for wood working, but that bigger one looks like a great help. Great work! It's strange a few years ago I bought a 56 F350 for parts. It had sat in a field in wet Michigan since 1971, so you can imagine how rusty it was. I took everything off it I needed and scrapped the rest. I could have saved the dash board. but who would ever need that? You! I would have gave it to you. Well I think you got what you needed from Kevin? You are coming right along!!

 

Yep, Kevin had exactly what I needed. I think a lot of guys run into the flat part of the dash being cut for a radio and they just make a simple patch panel. I've never seen one like mine where they went through the center of the curve above the glove box. Really fortunate I was able to source a panel for that!

 

Spent some time getting the cab corner sorted out. It required a bit of metal stretching and some shrinking but it's getting close.


Tack then hammer inside to stretch then tack again. When it was all said and done I had a pretty good sized gap at the bottom of the cut.

Fortunately the contour came out really close to the drivers side that I'm indexing to.

In order to fill the gap I cut a piece of scrap metal the length of the cut and about 1/2" wide. I then held it in place inside the cab along the gap. Then tacked from the outside and filled it in making sure to do small spots and let it cool. Once it was all done I used the flap wheel on the grinder and ground it down on both the outside and inside. Here is where I ended up today.

 

That contour tool is okay until you accidentally drop it and it breaks, mine is all bandaged up..lol His looks like it's broke too under the screw..

 

Yeah, it's okay. Pretty cheap and it shows. I'd like to find a higher quality one even if it costs more. It's a really helpful tool for projects like this.

 

I'd like one with slightly longer slides ..they are very handy..

 

Nice! I like the way you filled the gap. So far I haven't had to do that but I can see it could be a nightmare using a little wedge and trying to butt weld both sides. Probably the way you did it is best.