Builds Body work - fixing my '79 floors and other stuff (4 Viewers)

[MOTOV8R]

Looks like you are doing a great job on your floor by the way.

You want to see a basket case, take a look at these pics of my 73 Bronco restoration. Might give you some ideas. For the longest time my Bronco was held together with sheet metal screws, vise grips and ratchet straps. Everything was so rusty I had to keep moving things around until I could get the doors, hood, fenders and such into alignment. Was a nightmare. Finally got the body back together, only then could I remove it from the frame so I could restore the chassis. Anything can be brought back from the dead, just depends on how much work you are willing to do. Don't weld body parts until you are 100% certain of alignment. Use sheet metal screws.

Bronco Cowl Slideshow by gary__seven

Bronco Floor Slideshow by gary__seven

Bronco Quarter Panel Install Slideshow by gary__seven

1973 Early Ford Bronco Slideshow by gary__seven

1973 Bronco Paint Prep Slideshow by gary__seven

Bronco Painted Slideshow by gary__seven

1973 Bronco Completed Slideshow by gary__seven

I clearly don't have enough vice grips for a project of that magnitude. Nice work. Like the orange sherbet color scheme and factory rear wheel wells. Thanks for the advice. I ended up warping the corner part pretty badly. I need to go slower. My wife keeps telling to not worry about it since I plan on a carpet kit anyway. This isn't a show cruiser I just want it to be solid and last.

 

[JAFO2014]

I clearly don't have enough vice grips for a project of that magnitude. Nice work. Like the orange sherbet color scheme and factory rear wheel wells. Thanks for the advice. I ended up warping the corner part pretty badly. I need to go slower. My wife keeps telling to not worry about it since I plan on a carpet kit anyway. This isn't a show cruiser I just want it to be solid and last.

Ha. Yes, I do have a lot of extremely cheap Harbor Freight vice grips. They can hold sheet metal is about all.
Wife helped me pick the color. It is sort of like the old Chrome Yellow, but it was suppose to be a 1973 BMW Colorado Orange. I think the paint shop messed up the paint mix, but in the end we like the way it turned out. I didn't spray the body. That is the only thing I paid to have done was spraying the paint. I suck at that and I had too much time invested to screw up the paint. I painted the white dash, roll cage and the white part in the front grill. Oh, and the wheels.

My Bronco has some minor flaws. I learned as I went, starting back in late 2006 and didn't get it on the road until late 2015. Life is what happens while you are making plans. It started as just a mechanical restoration, to make it a driver. But then I dug into the body, found all the horrible rust and knew it wouldn't hold together. So I shifted gears and started into the body. I am glad now that I completely restored it, but was way lots of work and was years before I could drive it.

Your wife is right, carpet will cover it. And later you might decide to do it over. I did my rocker panels probably in 2009. But then nearing the end of the build I found some better stamped parts and cut out the rockers I had done and installed the new ones that looked 100% better. By then I had much more experience with the body work and the job went rather fast.

Yes, take your time. Don't rush stuff. Plan it out. Make it and keep it fun. I had to just walk away several times during the build. The end result will be worth it. When you are driving down the road in a truck you know you brought back to life....it feels really good.

 

[Rustynutz]

Hello All. The orig question was about the weld itself. Only way to tell if the weld is good is looking at the BACKSIDE of the weld or to weld 2 pieces together on the bench and bend it back and forth. If it Rips Your good. If it breaks your too cold.
I don't see any holes in the patch to weld the patch to the supports under it. I have rust 72 I'm working on alone.
Copper on the back of patch panels that you can't do alone.
I flatten out copper pipe and use self tapping screws to screw the flat copper to the back of the patch panel FIRST.
Then weld-then remove screws and copper falls off. I started out with Duct foil tape and Duct taped my patches in from the back
Use a min of 3 layers and get welding.
This stuff sticks like white on rice.

 

[billmc]

lower your heat, speed up the wire speed. get closer with the wire, smaller gap.

IMHO this is the correct answer to the original question. That and make sure the seam is completely clean (flap disk and acetone). Also, practice on scrap until you're getting the smallest tack with proper penetration, and be patient and let a spot cool before you return to that area. Then you'll minimize the grinding.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. I recently replaced the rear quarter panel on my BJ74. It's in my signature line.
For normal fab work I use .030 wire, but on advice of a couple of welders I went down to .023 wire. Some test spots were
needed, ( like 40-50! ) and I kept listening for the perfect buzz you hear when its' right.
I also in the past rebuild an entire FJ40 body. It was thicker metal, and I used the .030 wire but my spot welds were all
poor and in need of redoing.

 

[MOTOV8R]

Little embarrassed to show this but here is what it looks like now. I need something with a lighter touch to do my grinding with other than a 4" grinder with 36 grit stone.


And a pic of what the prior floor looked like. I only had to cut along the curve under the seat to remove that piece.

 

[oldschool4wheeling]

Keep up the good work....

 

[MOTOV8R]

Thanks for the encouragement. Seems to be going better. Played with the voltage and wire feed and got some flatter welds. Also went slower to reduce warping. The flapper disc instead of a grinding disc worked better. Just one more patch for the driver's side.

 

[MOTOV8R]

Welded in the patch and closed up the hole in the trans hump.

 

[MOTOV8R]

Welded up the underside in a couple of places on the driver's side. Then moved on to the passenger side. Removed the tar and got a look at the rust. Should be a lot less work than the driver's side.

 

[tstepp920]

I'll send you mine so you can get some more practice.........

 

[sggoat]

Yes, grinding is part of it. Also try cleaning up around the weld area better. Are you using gas or flux core?

Flux core will spatter-spatter,spatter. Plus you will have a time cleaning it to accept any kind of paint/coating that will not eventually fail--MIG is way better

 

[cruiserpilot]

Really great work! Impressive resto. That is as good as any, you've got it right. J

 

[MOTOV8R]

Thanks. I am really happy with how it's coming along. It's not perfect but it should last a good while.

 

[MOTOV8R]

A little more progress today. Cut out the parts I want to replace. Used the HF spot weld cutter that oldschool is using. Worked like a champ. Cleaned it up and treated with phosphoric acid. Started cutting the patch to size.

 

[MOTOV8R]

Some more progress today. Had to cut up the patch piece so the ribs would line up. All burned in. Time to grind.

 

[oldschool4wheeling]

BRAVO BRAVO!!! ENCORE ENCORE!!!

Im not sure how I want to do my floor pans.... replace the whole thing like your driver side or patch like you are doing on the passenger side.
I have the floor pans for both...

 

[oldschool4wheeling]

What does your floor pan look like against the inner rocker?? Did you get any pics of that?? I would like to see how it is welded together?

 

[40Wanted]

That's looking good MOTOV8R!

 

[MOTOV8R]

What does your floor pan look like against the inner rocker?? Did you get any pics of that?? I would like to see how it is welded together?

Here's some pics. There was rust between the seams so I cut it flat with the rocker which was solid. On the driver's side I ran it clear underneath and spot welded it to the outer rocker. I had to cut pretty high up on the driver side due to the rot. I plan to run angle iron at the seam. I still have to weld the seam at the rocker underneath but welding on your back sucks. I am going to run some of Dave Gore's (lcwizard 4plus) slider/running boards and I will bolt through to the angle iron since my rockers have been trimmed up by about 3 inches.