So.... I am putting the cart way before the horse here, but now that I’m into this, I’m thinking on what colors to paint.
I Found these on the interwebs. If they are your truck, nice truck!

White / green. In keeping with the some of original green color.


Light mocha metallic and medium mocha metallic


Colonial white and medium mocha metallic.


I’m leaning towards the last one, white and brown. Matches the interior well. And the white touches up easily, no metallic....

Feel free to input your thoughts

 

Well, I made a little progress this morning, so if figured I’d take a few more pictures and post them.

The right side turned out decent, nice and straight. Epoxy bond set up nicely. I’ll fill in the screw holes when I mix up some more epoxy. It’s evercoat medium set by the way.

I got the lh side panel roughed in. The structure was pretty rusted, but most of it was still pretty solid. Lots of surface rust, so considering the rest of the rust and the project itself, I cheated, trimmed it up to the good metal, and put some rust converter on. Wish I could get some ospho.

cleaned up a few bubbles on the side while I had the converter out and gave each of them a coat.

and that’s about it for today. Have to wait for the converter to dry up and give it a couple coats of primer before I can start welding the panel in.

Edit: The one thing I don’t like about these panels, is the lip around the wheel well, it’s half the width of the original. I may have to graft something onto it for the wheel well trim to attach to. We’ll have to see.

 

That's a lot of work.
Good luck with it.

 

Since you asked... This would be my choice.


Well that’s disappointing to say the least. Are they supposed to be “certified” replacement panels?

 

Wow...a

hey, check out Kroil for those exhaust bolts and other rusty stuff. Have pulled out some seemingly impossible bolts with it. Multiple sprays over days for the worst always helps. 2 different VW mechanics turned me onto the stuff years ago. Always have a couple cans around myself.

Enjoy and best regards.

 

Hey, thank you. Appreciate it. Yes, Aerokroil, I’ve been using that for years too. Best stuff out there, Its just expensive. Ive been picking up bottle of various stuff when on sale at Tractor supply.

 

Yup, thank you. But, it’s still cheaper than a new one, It does everything i need, and, I like my truck!
thanks for checking it out.

 

Thanks for checking it out.

Hmm. I like the green and white too....

The panels, yes, I got them from my local supplier. They are a Napa shop these days. Not impressed, but, I’ll make them work.

 

So I got a little done today, and came to a screeching halt.

I decided to put off cleaning and prepping the bottom of the box until next week and finish up a few little things first. I grafted a small extension onto one wheel well arch for the trim. And while I was at it and everything still clean, I filled in the screw holes with epoxy and ground down some of the welds. I’ll do the body work when I get into paint mode. Tomorrow, I’ll clean up the epoxy and give the areas a quick shot of primer to seal them up in the mean time.

And then I primed the other corner.

So both corners where I want work are curing and drying up. Not much I can do, but hurry up and wait.

another nice sunny day! Cool, but nice. The snow bank in my way is just about gone. Maybe this Friday I can get the plow and other junk out of the shop, and do a major shop clean up before I get started on the truck. It’s starting to get a little messy.

tomorrow, hopefully I’ll get the other panel installed, and that should be about it for sheet metal on the box.

 

Okiedokie!-)

hey, just soaked the crusty bolts and nuts on my rototiller tines with diesel fuel and thought of your stuff.
so there’s another good and extremely economical way to start soaking the crud. I used to use this stuff that came in a purple container to wash parts down and it went like crazy. 20$....20$....20$.....
at my buddy’s shop I noticed him using diesel fuel!-0. Duh, cool.
Pulled some driveshafts from junkyard...old rusty crud all over...first thing was to wipe em with the diesel.
Pulled the bearings and dropped em in a can half full of....diesel. The hard grease turned soft and wiped em
clean and put back together. Wiped down the old crusty leaf springs, etc.

anyway. Lots to do eh.
best regards.

 

Yes, good thinking. Thank you. I know a guy who used to that before oil spray. Worked well. But, I can’t stand the smell of it anymore.

What I’d like to do for the smaller parts is build myself an electrolysis tub system. I’ve never done it, but have read about it.

 

so, I had a day.

I got the one side cleaned up a bit, and some primer on it, just temp stuff until I get to the body work. The other side is on. Had to weld this one. I’ll clean it up tomorrow and extend the wheel well lip the same as the other side.


Miller time.

 

Edited
So, had a good foul up going yesterday. Not sure how, but if I’m doing this honestly, I should show the good, bad, and indifferent.

Some how, I got the side skins all misaligned. Welded it all up, cleaned up the welds, and shot a little primer on it. well, when I took a look, this is what I found. How I did it, beyond me. (I think I had the skins butted up to close and they puckered out) And I’m tig welding. Tough to do.

long story short, I backed up and cut the welds on it and re welded it today. It has a few imperfections when you look up close. Never said I was a good body man!

I did get the wheel arch lip extended out. So, in theory, that should be about all the sheetmetal work I’m going to do to this box. Edit. Found more to do.... will update as I get to it.





re do....










That’s it. Thanks for checking it out.

 

well if you want to see a nice resto mod, check this out. He built one of the nicest trucks around. By 56PanelFord.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ld-thread.html


as far as progress, I’m having a bear of a time tig welding 22 gauge on the side panels on the box. I couldn't leave well enough alone today, I still wasnt happy with what I did yesterday. So I cut out part of it and welded in a new section close to to the wheel arch and the gas door. Wish I had a mig welder. But, I’m making progress.

 

Wel, I still wasn’t happy with how that lower panel turned out... Man did I get frustrated. Not many pictures. I cut and did it again. A small area around the wheel well arch will need a bit of smoothing when I get to paint. A lot of work for a small area you never really see. This will be the first corner I back into a stump...