Folks I was looking for trouble yesterday. I cleaned out the garage. And then tore into the patrol. I had it out on the trail behind the house. The eldest son and I had it out for about an hour .
This is not scaring me that much, yes it more than the PO said, but I was aware of it going in. I thought about doing a recessed set of lights but I may just go with round trailer lights. This rust has made up my mind to keep the custom tire carrier. It hides a lot.... I'll just fix the center section and paint it. the same color as the wheels .. machine grey.
This is how I plan to "fix" it. 16ga metal. then I'll move on to the seat belt anchor area. More 16 ga and some plate and finally the two spots above the vent in and out.
I know many folks cringe at the idea of not welding these panels in place but, I plan to drive this thing. And I'm a strong believer in fusor or dura- bond by 3m. I cut 99 % of the rust out on the drivers side pic, next is the pass side, I just don't want to pull a darwin. I slathered on some rust neutralizer, that's really only on the surface and is pretty solid. I will rust bullet the back side and then spray undercoating.
The more I dig the more I realize this "new" rig has just a little less rust than my plow truck. The selling point was it has less than 10K on the entire drivetrain..... although the plow truck only has 48K orig miles. I had it out on the trails behind the house on Sat, before I started digging. It does well reminds me of the 71 lc I has except the ride is a lot less bouncy in this patrol.
bob
This is not scaring me that much, yes it more than the PO said, but I was aware of it going in. I thought about doing a recessed set of lights but I may just go with round trailer lights. This rust has made up my mind to keep the custom tire carrier. It hides a lot.... I'll just fix the center section and paint it. the same color as the wheels .. machine grey.
This is how I plan to "fix" it. 16ga metal. then I'll move on to the seat belt anchor area. More 16 ga and some plate and finally the two spots above the vent in and out.
I know many folks cringe at the idea of not welding these panels in place but, I plan to drive this thing. And I'm a strong believer in fusor or dura- bond by 3m. I cut 99 % of the rust out on the drivers side pic, next is the pass side, I just don't want to pull a darwin. I slathered on some rust neutralizer, that's really only on the surface and is pretty solid. I will rust bullet the back side and then spray undercoating.
The more I dig the more I realize this "new" rig has just a little less rust than my plow truck. The selling point was it has less than 10K on the entire drivetrain..... although the plow truck only has 48K orig miles. I had it out on the trails behind the house on Sat, before I started digging. It does well reminds me of the 71 lc I has except the ride is a lot less bouncy in this patrol.
bob
