all I can say is wow Frederic... it really sounds like you are well on your way even thought the weather isn't wanting to cooperate with you. I'm going to save your post as hopefully soon I'll be able tackle underneath of mine too, mine is a 95 and is fairly rusty under there, at work we have two 60 gallon compressors and a sand blaster that I can use to sand mine exactly like your doing, I plan on using tarps as you did cause it really makes a mess. Another thing I want to do is put a 33 gallon bronco tank in while I'm at it.

 

My 92 is a mess, I live on the other side of the Delaware, so I guess I'm in about the same situation as you are. I have a serious rust problem on the frame under the bed, and what made it worse is some kind of undercoating that obviously didn't work. It is hanging loosely in thick patches , but is not protecting anything and holding moisture against the frame. Did your frame have the same thick black coating over the rust? Does anyone know what the standard procedure was, i.e. did Ford offer undercoating those years, or was it always a dealer option?

 

924x2150 - I posted a question about that over in the paint and bodywork forum and someone told me that 92-96 were bad for rusting out underneath. My dad has an 87 f150 2wd w/ 300 and his is really nice underneath. You crawl under mine and the oil pan is about rusted through and theres a lot on the frame as well. And you are correct about paint peeling off with rust in behind it, thats exactly how mine is.

 

frederic, as always, the things you do always amaze me. Wish I had all those tools and machines like you do. Specially that plasma cutter...

Ahhh, glad I dont have to deal with that fender rust down here in texas....

 

Undercoatings, regardless of chemical composition, dry out and crack at some point, then retains water and road salt - the very thing we want the undercoating to protect us against.

My frame didn't have anything gooey on it, in the past or the present. No undercoatings, etc. In three spots where there is zero surface rust (on the entire 168" wheelbase, only three spots isn't surface rusted on teh frame!), there is a black scale-like finish on the metal. This substance resisted the sandblaster, and even a screwdriver. I have no idea what it is, but it's hard as a rock and really bonded on good. At least in the three spots It's not paint or powder coating, nor is any kind of enamel or epoxy... acetone, kerosene, and turpentine didn't faze it at all.

So, it's getting primed over. Whatever it is, if it wants to stay on that bad, it can.

 

Hey Frederick! Nice work so far, great job on the photos. I am going to be doing my rear wheel wells fairly soon as well, if the weather here in Alberta ever gives me a break!. I already have the repair panels and was wondering what tool you plan on using to cut out the old sections of wheel well. When I did this job on my old Ranger I had the body shop do it. This time around on my F150 I am a much poorer man and have to the entire job DIY. Also, what tool are you going to use to make the flange for the replacement panels to rest on? I checked out air flangers at our local Princess Auto and they run around $90.00. I will pay that price if I have to - if you have another way of making the flanges please let me know. I figured that I would just use a die grinder running off of my compressor to cut the old wheel well sections out. I am going to glue the new panels on so blowing up the fuel tanks isn't an issue - just lots of riveting and then drilling out the rivets.

Keep up the good posting!

Cheers!

Mike

 

Since I'm not cutting out a huge section of the bedsides, just part of the wheel lip and a few inches up to remove the rust, so I'm cutting THROUGH the wheel lip, which as you know is a complex shape. Curved on the front, and a right angle heading back and underneath. My air-sheers, which normally is my prefered tool of choice for something like this, would flatten the wheel lip area on the part of the bedside I'm leaving on the bed. So I'm either going to use my plasma cutter "turned way down" or use a 1/32" thick cutting disk in my angle grinder. Once I cut out the rust as straight as I can cut, I'll place the patch panel over the opening, and trace it from behind, then add 1/16" all around the perimeter of the marker cut, and hack that out with my plasma cutter, so the shape is the same and is as close to the original cut on the bed. Then I can stitch them together.

If you're talking the wheel well lip flanges, those are part of the patch panel, so I don't have to make them.

If you're talking about the curved support piece behind the wheel well lip that angles upwards to oh, about 2/3 up the bedside attaching to the inner bedwall, that's going to get cut near the wheel well back about an inch, and I'm going to slap in a piece of 20ga or 18ga metal that I'll simply hammer on a leather shot bag until its reasonably close.

Or did I misunderstand which flange you are refering to?

Oh, nevermind, I see what you're doing. You're gluing the panels so you're going to create a folded edge on both the bedside section that remains, and on the patch panel, so you have a wider mating surface to glue them to each other, then skim the seam with body filler. Gotcha.

You can make flanges with an air or manual powered flanger, or you can do it with a large hammer and a steel auto body dolly you slide around behind where you're making the flange.

Not too sure I'd attempt that... I can imagine how odd my bedsides would look

 

More pictures.

The frame sandblasted, and almost completely covered with "ospho". I have to remove both tanks to get at the inside frame rails and crossmembers, which I'll do tomorrow. Ran out of time today. But anyway, you can see the frame turned black - which indicates the Ospho worked.


Another gratuitis picture... since I took it, you have to view it


here is a close up of one of the frame rails. You can easily see, looking at the frame and the exhaust hanger, the difference between iron oxide and iron phosphate. The black stuff is easily painted over, and it seals the metal to prevent rust going forward. The brown stuff is nasty rusty stuff that will disappear in the future. The light colored "imperfections" are exhaggerated by my inability to take good pictures, but that's where no surface rust existed. Only the black parts were surface rusted. As you can see the ratio of rust versus non-rust was about 99:1


Tomorrow I'll take the tanks out, ospho the insides of the frame rails on the drivers side, coat the rear axle, then tuesday I'll prime in the morning, and paint in the afternoon. I have three choices of paint... flat black, an insanely bright red, or "Ford Gray". I'm leaining towards the gray because I have a lot more gray than the other colors. It's underneath, so it could be pink for all I care.

 

Very nice work.

Off-topic question...Is that the stock muffler? I haven't seen any 92-96 with dual pipes coming out.

 

No, that's not stock. I cut it off something out of a junkyard many years ago, I just can't remember what it's from. Maybe a dodge truck, or a motorhome, I really don't recall.

 

I tell you Frederic you really amaze me sometimes, there is always something cooking in that head of yours. Keep up the good work. Also looks like you got some new rear shocks already

 

Frederick! Of course, you are correct. Those who can weld - do - those of us who can't - flange and glue!! Nice new shocks I see mounted on the supports. I have been shopping for a manual flange tool and cannot seem to find the right place to shop. I guess I'll cough up the $$ and get an air driven one for my project. Unfortunately, I am rapidly running out of time to do the mechanicals on the truck to prep. it for our big trailer pull to North Dakota in July. Damn thing called work keeps getting in the way, although it does help to pay for all the parts. I still have to do a water pump, timing gear set, plus all of the routine tune up stuff - SIGH!! Will it ever end?

Anyway, keep us posted on your most excellent adventure!

Cheers!

Mike

 

Yeah, I put the shocks in, though with the old very rusty mounts. The one that the stud snapped off I merely welded it back on just to "get buy" until my perches come in which should be today, the Ford dealer called me this morning at 7:30am to tell me that they were on the way!

It's not that anything is really coooking in my head per se, just that I'm heavily influenced by being cheap. Not to the point of stupidity of course, but the gap between "good enough" and "perfect" is a very small gap, with a huge price tag. If I were restoring a 1966 GTO convertible, I'd put the effort and money into eliminating that gap and go for perfect, because a GTO of that vintage is an absolute classic, and my favorite car actually. But everything else I own and drive gets the good enough treatment - I can afford it.

If it's not a tool you're going to use all the time going forward, buy something cheap and be done with it. I'm sure that tool importers like Harbor Freight have such a thing... not being into flanging, this is not a recommendation, merely an illustration of potential cost:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=41696

$24.99!

I don't know if it does the bending of the flange to a 90 degree angle or not, but maybe calling HF will send you in the right direction.

I still thinking beating flangers over a steel dolly would be the cheapest method, though by far, the most time consuming. I also think that lining up flanges like this would be really tough. *I* know *I* couldn't do it.

And I hear you about the snowball effect of servicing vehicles. I took the bed off to repair rust. A very small amount of rust. Then that became bed rust and frame rust repair. Then added spring perch, shock perch, and new shocks repair. And I'm about to add "fuel line replacement" since it's very difficult to tell where the rust of the fuel lines end, and the rust of the inner frame rail begins . And the rear tank pump, and the front tank float... the list just keeps getting bigger. I have to hurry though, my wife is very displeased with 1/2 my truck on one side of the driveway, and 1/2 the truck on the other. That and 10lbs of scattered sand everywhere.

 

I know I called this thread "Removing the Bed" for rust repair of the wheel wells, but I'm getting to it very soon, I promise.

Anyway, today was a gorgeous day, so I am 95% done the frame. All I have to do tomorrow morning, is lift the front gas tank back into position, fasten the straps, attach the electrical connector and snap on the two fuel lines, send and return. It's done.

How to remove a gas tank if you're desperate: (yes, that's a stool)


And here is how to install a gas tank if you're desperate: (yes, the same stool):


And the final frame picture...


As you can see, I've sandblasted the frame inside and out, then slathered it with the Ospho product I mentioned earlier. That's why the frame overall looks dark. This picture was taken at night after the sun set which is why it looks a bit odd. And yes, I do realize the side fuel tank is missing, it's on a tarp on the lawn for the night. The back tank only had a few spots of surface rust, mostly where the straps were, so I coverd that too with the ospho product. The front tank on the other hand, has a ton of surface rust, so I had to go over that with the same chemical. Only on the outside, I'd never put this stuff inside. For coating the inside of a tank for rust prevention and sealing (which I'm not doing at this time...) is use the product made by the POR15 company. It's good stuff, though I don't recall the name.

Anyway, tomorrow I lift up, attach, and hook up the side fuel tank and it's done.

NOW I can cut rust off the wheel lips and have pictures that actually relate to this thread that I started!