The first day I sanded the hood with 80grt, and took out a couple of minor dents. I covered the entire hood (top) with coat of urethane primer. It hurt, but I threw out two old spray guns that no longer worked. One was a Devilbis (is that the right name? that I loved.) I went with a harbor freight gun that I had to drill the tip out from 1.4 to 2.0 (with a 5/64 bit).
The next day I jumped on the cowling. I was surprised to find rust coming through on either side and had to cut it out and weld in a patch. I stripped about 85% of it to bear metal and sprayed with Epoxy primer. The louvers were fun, but not that bad with the cone sanding attachments I had.
Next, I have to cut out some small sections of the driver's side gutter and weld in the patches. I'm not looking forward to that and it means removing the head liner and covering the windows so I don't get burn divots on them.

Here is a shot of the rain gutter that needs some love.

In the above photo, you can see that the vertical section of the gutter got removed at some point. I would like to replace it. Can someone please give me a measurement from the the top of the window down to where the gutter ends? I'd appreciate it.

And then this one, on the back side of the driver's door has me worried, but I guess it is simply cut out and patch like the other rusty spots?

I can't see how to remove the rust without cutting out edge of the door skin that wraps over right there.
And then what seems to be or look the easiest is this passengers door post patch.



The bed has a new driver's side panel. I will pull the bed for the spraying, but the rust removal on the bed floor metal cross members has already been done, and the inside has been sprayed with Summit bed liner.

 

Subscribed and looking forward to following along. It’s always educational to see how others attack these projects.

 

This is interesting. The drip rail is UNDER the body skin/metal of the roof, so if you need to cut out the part of the d.r. that extends up under the skin, it is sitting there in mid air without backing. I saw this vid: but in this he only cuts off the part of the dp that shows. That leaves the part that extends up under the skin to weld to. But when that is rusty, you're in a pickle.
I spent all day yesterday trying to fab the 90* bend in the dr. The bend is not difficult with a torch, but there is also a twist to it that is a ... bear. Also, right where the bend begins, the dr part that on the top extends up under the skin, here it is visible inside the door jamb. That means that the dr needs to be flattened out so that can work. Flattened, twisted, bent and hanging in air...boy this is fun.

 

For some reason the forum won't allow me post a vid link and photos in the same post, so here are the photos I was trying to post.

Okay, I have tried 8 times to upload and post these photos, and the system will not post my jpegs, even after I reduce their size. Huh. https://imgur.com/a/F0E3QEV
https://imgur.com/uukaRsM
https://imgur.com/uukaRsM

 

Your pictures posted. It seems when you post pictures and publish the comment, none of the pictures are viewable by the creator. If you then hit edit your post, you will be able to see them immediately. I'm not sure why the poster can't see them immediately after publishing post. This issue just started happening when the site appearance changed.

 

So I found that the passenger side door bottom has some good rust. It appears that the between the front right tire and the door there is zero obstruction, so guess where the water goes. Anyway, is there a patch kit for door bottoms? or am I alone in the forrest?
I also found the the back mount for the right fender is gone. The fender moves freely in and out. I also ordered the rear door post for the drivers side jamb.
I have to say that it was a pain replacing the gutter. Not really hard, but just fit, trim, try, mark, trim and try again, all day. BTW, it is 18 gauge sheet metal you need. The patch panels from LMC were .045, and 16 gauge is .050 or .060, depending on where I found it. I found that 18 gauge was about the same as the LMC panels, and it welded nicely.

 

Interesting, but after searching around I found that there are zero patch panels for door bottoms. I guess that means I'll have to either salvage a couple of donor pieces from the j/y, or fab up a patch.
I'm not waiting for the left rear post patch to get here from LMC. Patching the door posts means having to remove the interior of the truck. I may also replace the front right fender, depending on what I find when I look closer. The cost of the fender is reasonable, but when you add in the price of shipping, then the total becomes a bit less acceptable.

**P.S.: I just popped over to Dennis Carpenter and found that a replacement fender would cost nearly $700 with tax and shipping. I now have 700 reasons to repair my fender. So DC has the Ford original part that I mentioned. Shipping is flat rate, $199. However, they have an aftermarket (aka made in China) fender that costs $100 less, and the shipping is $39.99. Surely, there can't be that much of a diff. between the two weight wise. "Give a man a grinder, a torch, some bondo, and he can fix anything...if there's enough bondo."

 

Tabco has door bottoms and outside skins/patches.

https://tabcoparts.com/?s&ymm_search...y=manual_order


I’m in the same boat. I was saving the roof for last. I’m working bottom up.

 

They do, but I wish they had a pic of the back side of the patch. It is impossible for me to see what it is from the pic they have. Dang it.

Well, I got a surprise when I removed my door panel.

And then I found some major rust at base of door post.


And the next photo I'm posting to show the quality work my audio installers did. I paid extra to have a protective foil wrapped around the back of my speakers to protect from possible water damage. If the speaker doesn't fit, just shove the speaker in. The customer will never know.

 

Years back I took the lazy route and added a layer of sheet metal over the floor. Now I find that the rust simply continued to spread b/c I did not cut it out to clean metal. That is what I am doing now. From what I can see, all this originated from water being thrown up from the passenger tire and the rubber inner seal between fender and inner structure was torn and missing a section. Man, it rusted out the floor panel, the bottom of the hinge post, was spreading to the bottom of the door.
After I removed the sheet on the floor that I had installed years back, you can see in one of the photos that there is an oem gap between the floor panels. Is that normal?



I thought that cutting out the oem floor panels was going to be easy. Holy smoke, it was tough going. These trucks are tough.
At some point, like on the inside of the hinge post, I will have to clean it with a wire wheel and coat with Por-15. It may be pitted a bit, but I have to stop somewhere.

 

Today when I removed the right fender, I found that one of the hinge bolts had, at some point during the life of the truck, snapped. That sent a chill up my spine. I don't know of any weld in fix. I don't know if that bolt has been out for twenty years. I don't even know if I'll need that bolt in the future. But I'd hate to find out the hard way.


And then, to top off the good news, I found a hole in the cowl drain canister. After cleaning out the canister, I think I will weld a patch over the hole.

This project is getting out of hand. While trying to figure out how to resolve the broken bolt on hinge issue, I came across this: I wouldn't mind doing this, but this project is getting larger by the day.

 

Well, my simple paint prep thread got a lot more complicated when I started chasing rust. I replaced the passenger floor pan, the lower passenger door post, which meant having to make several pieces of metal that no one sells. I also removed the passenger door and cut out a section of rust and replaced it. That entire area of the lower right door post was ground zero for the rust. It spread out from there across the floor, part of the rocker panel, the fender mounting bracket, and even the door bottom where it met the rocker panel. I even had to cut open the door post beside the hinge so I could remove the hinge backing plate, heat it so I could remove a broken bolt, then wire brushed all of the rust off, and coated with Por-15. I think all the rust in that area got started because the oe fender gasket that keeps water being thrown off the tire from getting past the wheel well, was torn and missing a section. This has shown me how valuable those skirts or gaskets are!

Now I have found a small hole at the lower door post on the driver's side. I should cut, remove, and weld in a new metal piece today. And then? Yep, it is back to the tear down, sand, prime and general paint prep work. Hopefully, my work will keep the rust at bay for another 20 years!

 

I remounted the passenger door and removed some dents from the outside, then took off the door handle and lock. the handle, where the two bolts are, was very rusty so I cleaned it and coated with P-15. Then I went to driver's side and cut out another spot of rust, welded in a new piece replacement.


I patched a hole in the cowl collection container.

Coated the weld with P-15 and later coated it with seam sealer.

Part of the handle was rusty so I cleaned it and coated that area with P-15. I'll lube the handle up real well before installation.

This is the rust I cut out on d's side.

Piece I replaced the rusty piece with.

 

Worked on passenger side door.
Important: All of the welds that I have done got a coat of Por-15 on both sides. That is very important to stop or slow rust. I also wanted to pass along a tip: When you have your door panels off, take a flate blade screwdriver and inside the door scrape the blade along the bottom seam of the door, then take a v. cleaner nozzle and vacuum out all the sediment that has collected down there. Once I did that I also coated the seam with P-15.



That epoxy primer is stinky stuff!!


I also did the body work on the outside of the door, feathered the paint and sprayed epoxy primer over the most of the door.

 

Today, when I was taking apart the driver's side door, I found the mistake that I had made when I was doing the gutter work. With the door open, I had forgotten to cover the window, or to just roll it down. And yep, you guessed it. I now have pock marks all over the inside of my window. Crapola! I'm going to ck the price on LMC, and then ck the local junk yards. Maybe I find an oem window in good condition. What are the chances???