I have a short box F-150 and i just ordered some upper wheel well weld ins. i'm just woundering if anybody has any experiance with doing this and how any segestions on how to do it.

 

How pretty do you want it to be? That will determine the level of effort. If it were my truck, I would just use a little wire feed welder to buzz them in, grind the seams as smooth as I could, hit it with a little "surface enhancer" (bondo) and then rattle can with bbq grill paint. It wouldnt be real pretty.

 

Heres a recent thread on bed work.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=387677

daajr

 

Here is an expanded version of that thread...

Extend engine crane so it reaches to the center balance point of the bed:


Attaching chains to crane extension:


Lifting bed off:


Cut holes and weld in trimmed panels:

 

This is what it looked like from behind, and this was filled in with scrap sheet steel I had lying around. The patch panel doesn't include the back structure:


Grind the beads as nice as you can, hoping to avoid bondo:


Unfortunately, I did need a little bondo, and I slathered it on too thick, so I ended up sanding most of it off anyway:


Primed:


Painted with acrylic enamal auto body paint (3 part), but only one coat in this picture. Yes, I should have waited on the red stripe until I put more coats on:

 

Thank you for the comments. however i was wondering if it would be better to weld bed from the inside and just use a lil bit of bondo on the out side of the joint to avoid as much bondo as possible?

 

Weld the panel from the outside. As long as you keep the body filler under a 1/4" thick there really isn't much to be concerned about. Filler has received a bad reputation from people leaving it exposed to the elements and the filler absorbing the moisture in the air. Then when covered up with paint the filler blisters and or creates rust on the bare metal.

 

A little filler is normal, even the pros have touse some kind of filler, just not a lot. Even new most vehicles have filler in them, at the seams. Minimize the use is the ticket, but some has to be used to get smooth, or we might as well be driving around polished clearcoated vehicles. Watch overhaulin some time, they use bondo on those show vehicles they make... the ticket is good preparation, and proper sealing. No holes from behind, and get it sealed ASAP.

 

I disagree, and here is why.

If you're familiar with the 84-96 bed, the inner wheel well liner is three pieces. Two plastic things that screw on, and one welded metal thing that forms the majority of the "arch' inside. The bottom, and sides of that arch are welded at the wheel lip all around, and up the backside of the bedside, so that it's reasonably air tight.

Above that, is a stake pocket. Water, pine needles, road salt, road debris, screws you drop trying to put stakes in the stake pocket, wing nuts and other things fall down below the packet and rest on the inside if the wheel well lip.

So over the years, water gets sucked up by the natural debris, mixes with the salt, and stays sopping wet for a very long time, eating at the back of the wheel lip until all of a sudden, you go "hmmm, WTF?" or the wheel lip just falls off.

I had the first "hmmmmm, WTF" experience, and when I cut the area open, there was easily a few pounds of sopping wet natural substances (pine needles mostly), hanging out back there.

So I left the inside hole I made to gain access, open. The hole will allow more water and debris in there, true, but it also allows it to dry out faster which in turn will reduce the amount of rust and rot that accumulates. Using a curved stalk-type bug spray, I saturated the inside of the wheel well area with POR15 like it was free. Then on top of that, I repeated the process using white rustoleum simply because I had it lying around. It's inside anyway, I could have used pink, it wouldn't matter.

Hopefully between the two substances, I won't have to deal with wheel well rot again for a very long time. Look me up in 10-12 years, I'll give you a status report ;-)

 

the hoes I meant are for the filler, nothing more, just the sheet metal the bondo is on. If there is a hole in the sheetmetal it is covering, it will get moisture in from behind, and begin rusting behind the bondo covering. I do not mean any of the other sheets behind it, only the one it is on. You have to have drainage on the other panels or it will rust out quickly, as you say. There is drainage there from the factory, but most do not clean out their fenderwells when they wash their vehicles, so then the drains become plugged, holding mud and moisture and salt, where applicable, to rust out the box like happened the first time.

 

I finally cut off one of the upper wheel arch but im not really sure what to do about the inner steel wheel well. it is in really bad shape but im not sure that i have the ablity to form a new one.
since i went a head and cut this thing out to big square shape that the replacement body is i was told several differnt methods to replace it.
1)line it up flush and weld all of the way around it
2)line it up flush and stich weld around then fill the rest of the gaps with a filler
3)have the replacement panal resesed back in behind the cut edge. weld, fill in gaps and use a thin layer of filler aross the whole surface to fill in hight difference..

which is a prefered method? or is there a better method than that.

 

the method that I feel is best is to get it flush, and tack weld it all the way around. If you run too much weld, you will warp the panels, and it will be next to impossible to get flat. I'm sure that's what they mean by stitch or even the weld all around. You need the weld to be solid, but you can't just pull the trigger and go. Tack it many places, and then just keep moving around to keep from heating one area. Wipe the welded area often with a glove, this draws heat out as well.

 

does any body have any opinons on Fiberglass vs. bondo for filler?

 

It all depends how deep you end up needing, I like the fiberglass for patching holes and such, on jobs that I'm not as worried about lasting as long. If you are only going to be 1/4" or less, regular bondo is fine. Kitty hair makes a nice itch with the fiberglass in it... but it is wonderful for the structural type bondo fixes, the ones that you aren't welding the panel in for. Most body shops I know use the regular bondo to fill the low spots and scratches.

 

Now that I've gotten into this bed I found a lot of bondo in the lower panals below the trim. the bondo is starting to peal away from the rusted metal what shoul i do about it. remove all of the bondo down there or just remove enough till i get to good steel?