Need some bodywork advice

[hess77]

I've got a few issues that I'm trying to sort through right now, open to advice and opinions. Two things worth mentioning: a) I'm just learning to weld sheet metal, and b) I want to do everything myself.

My two issues (for today):
1. There's a significant amount of rust just under the upper lip of the rear quarters. I've seen guys use a piece of copper backing to weld holes shut, but seems like it would require a ton of grinding after the fact with my as-of-today poor welding skills. Not sure if I should bite the bullet and replace the quarters with aftermarkets? Other thoughts?

2. It looks like the PO put lower skins on the outer doors. But I can't feel a seam on the inside, and it seems like they are "cleanly" crimped around the door edges, not welded or sealed or anything. Does this look familiar to anyone? Should I try to pry them off to see what's underneath? The inside of the doors look clean and rust-free...strange...

Thanks all !!!
More to come...

 

[gearida]

First of all, you sound kinda like myself a few years ago when I took on my Bronco, "wanna do it myself". Great but pick spots to repair that you can't see to start on your welding skills. Then remember to clean the metal by removing any and all rusty panels before attempting to weld. Don't try to turn the heat up and burn it in. The area in the rear quarters you will have to eliminate metal in order to clean out the rust. I wire brushed mine and then sanded with paper or even a cutting disc. Then next thing after welding is grinding, don't warp your panels by grinding too much and adding excessive heat. Workaround in your welds and the grinding. The factory bends metal around the edge of the door, so check that out carefully before thinking your doors have had a panel replaced. Oh, and good luck with the self training and the build.

 

[Revelation]

Run a wire wheel down that seam on the quarters and then you will get a better idea of the rust issues. The wire wheel will open up areas that are thin and may lean you to replacing the quarters, Judging from what I see you may want to ask Santa for a couple of quarter panels. We were going to repair the quarters on mine till the wire wheel showed that the rust in that seam was alot worse than we could see before.

 

[00gyrhed]

Basically all this body work stuff really depends on what you want. If you are going to go beat it up on trails then don't bother replacing anything, just do what is easy. Also don't thumb your nose at using fiberglass for repairs. repairs from fiberglass when applied to sand blasted clean metal that has been treated with phosphoric acid will hold on for 10-20 years. If you are building a show car by all means go the long route, as far as a street cruiser part time offroad like mine; I just fixed everything with metal and patches. My entire floor is just flat sheetmetal I had laying arround.

my seams looked a lot like yours. I sandblasted them and uncovered a handfull of holes that were fairly easily repaired then I welded the full lenght of the seam, ground it down and made another pass at all the holes the grinding uncovered. By that time it was nice and clean. You actually have a lot of room there. I made the redius underneath match the door radii. You do not have to grind the welds all the way down. You also need to paint or seal the backside of the seam, not nearly so easy to do right, so I just painted them with por.

You will probably also find you will need to repair interior holes too along this seam.

For all the work it was easier than replacing the rear 1/4s but It wouldn't have taken much more.

If he skinned over the old doors and left the rusted out originals in place I think I would remove the new skins and cut all teh old stuff out.

 

[00gyrhed]

I need to amend my statement a little. I see a lot more holes in the first picture than I had in mine. I would sanblast that clean and see what is left. Believe it or not the little top feed $12 harbor frieght hand held blasters with white sugar sand you can buy at a masonary supply will do a preetty good job of cleaning that up if you don't have access to a good sanblaster.

I sand blasted an area like that on my 55 chevy 25 years ago before I had a mig and applied fiberglass to both sides on clean treated metal and it is still in place, and that car saw 200,000 miles after I finished it. the reason it gets such a bad rep is that both sides HAVE to be clean and treated. That usually doesn't happen. Would I do it on a show car? no would I do it on a vehicle I was going to run on the street for 20 years? No would I do it on a part time trail rig where there was a good chnce I might slide over and graze a tree or rock? You bet.

 

[Heus33]

I think new quarters are in your future but it will be a great learning experience. Just remember when welding sheet metal - go slow, spread out your welds and be patient - heat warps and will make your panels wavy if you rush the welding.

Oh, and you might want to consider building a LUBER if you're gonna be putting on new panels and painting.

 

[blakerj10]

00gyrhed....

What tool did you use to grind the welded quarter seam to match radius of the front body line?

 

[hess77]

Thanks all, makes perfect sense. I think I'll wire wheel the rest, take a stab at welding the seams and grinding (after finishing my floorboards for more practice). After all, if I screw it up, I'll need new panels anyway

This is my second build-up, first time with a new harbor freight 220 welder and major body work. After bringing it home and pulling the carpet (and paint) off, it's pretty much swiss cheese. Ah well, I wanted a learning experience for body work, I got it!

I'm planning this as 85/15, daily driver/trails...I'd like for it to look nice after all this work, but certainly no show truck, nor the budget for one. Just lots o' elbow grease.

Thanks again guys!

 

[00gyrhed]

What I did

00gyrhed....

What tool did you use to grind the welded quarter seam to match radius of the front body line?

I just used the edge of the gringder disc to take the metal down far enough. then I coated it with body filler. I bought a cheap little black and decker belt sander for like $25 at lowes that looked like it had about the right radius on teh rollers. I stripped all the front protective gear off of it and used the front roller to cut teh body fillr back down to match the door radius. If i exposed any weld I hit it again with the grinder and spot filled it.

I have a lot of problems with my rear quarters. The PO back in the 70's I'm guessing made his own flares out of conduit and bondo. He warped the begeebers out of the panels and there was a ton of body filler on them. I have a lot of hours in mine, but I wanted a fuel door and I wanted my flares molded in as part of the panels so I figured it would be just teh same amount of work fixing the panels one way or the other.

 

[borg]

From your pictures, I'd be more concerned about whether or not my windshield was going to stay on the rest of the truck, looks like there is a lot of daylight coming through!

Steve

 

[bptommy]

If you can afford it I would put new quarters on, based on your ability and what you want to use the truck for. You have alot of work ahead of you and it may save you alot of frustration. Its easier to weld new metal than old. When welding remember to turn your heat down and your wire speed up. Try and plug weld where you can, its fairly easy to learn and the easiest way to get good fusion. This link will give you a good idea of what the weld should look like pay attention to what the top of the weld looks like and the bottom when plug welding. It really helped me when I started to see what welds should look like.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/plug-weld.htm

 

[hess77]

From your pictures, I'd be more concerned about whether or not my windshield was going to stay on the rest of the truck, looks like there is a lot of daylight coming through!

Steve

Did I mention swiss cheese? Ha...yes, these quarters are probably the least of my problems. I was hoping to say I kept one original part alive
Actually, the glove box door is in pretty good shape.

You probably noticed the front clip, or lack thereof. I'm considering this a fun project to experiment with different fab ideas. Planning to do a tubed front clip and a few other ideas that keep surfacing.