Making Rear Quarters: If a fabricator can do it, how hard can it be?
- Thread starter duffontap
- Start date
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duffontap.... You are a master. And you gave me a great idea. I think Ill build my own. Getting body panels shipped to Alaska is very very painful. From what Ive gathered from getting different quotes from different vendors (If they will ship to AK), is basically double the price for any body part shipped. So a 150 dollar panel would cost me right at 300 dollars to get it to my door. This is really difficult to swallow when you are trying to do a build.
Another good idea for the floor replacement is to just find a good pickup bed and cut the floor out of it. This way you have the correct ribs already there and you just have to cut it to the correct shape and weld it in.
Another good idea for the floor replacement is to just find a good pickup bed and cut the floor out of it. This way you have the correct ribs already there and you just have to cut it to the correct shape and weld it in.
Those look great. You'll find that the floor is much easier. I'll start a thread to explain more.
Rear Qtr Panels Great Job
I purchased my Qtr panels from PACOL $500 and change, they included the tip rail, which many replacement panels do not. However, I had a great deal of metal work and finishing work to complete the installation, even with new panels. They did not fit correctly. In the end the panels turned out OK, but not as perfect as I would like.
I like your idea with the metal bend.
Post more picts when you complete the install
I purchased my Qtr panels from PACOL $500 and change, they included the tip rail, which many replacement panels do not. However, I had a great deal of metal work and finishing work to complete the installation, even with new panels. They did not fit correctly. In the end the panels turned out OK, but not as perfect as I would like.
I like your idea with the metal bend.
Post more picts when you complete the install
John McVicker
SILVER Star
Duffontap,
Don't sell yourself short. You did a very good job on a project most of us would not want to attempt. Good work.
John
Don't sell yourself short. You did a very good job on a project most of us would not want to attempt. Good work.
John
- Thread starter
- #26
Thanks everybody! 
Eshu, I love a chance to snag a few tools, even if it's a set of Harbor Freight hammers and dollies.
LSUfj, I can't believe that RS hammers the rolled lip on their panels. It really was very manageable.
twoyotas, I've been practicing my sheet metal welding. It's going to be the toughest part of the project for sure. Especially if I have to do it with flux core wire.
byrd_hntr and jetranger, beginners' luck I guess. Honestly, 16 gauge is pretty forgiving to work with (so far).
bikersmurf, thanks--sent you a PM.
DacotasFJ40, I'll keep posting pics as (or if) I make progress.
John, Thanks for the kind words. I probably wouldn't have attempted it either if it weren't for money being tight. But then, when I bought this rig I told myself it was a chance to learn to do some welding and fabrication work. We'll see on the welding.
Looks like I get some time in the shop tomorrow to work on the floor
. JD
Eshu, I love a chance to snag a few tools, even if it's a set of Harbor Freight hammers and dollies.
LSUfj, I can't believe that RS hammers the rolled lip on their panels. It really was very manageable.
twoyotas, I've been practicing my sheet metal welding. It's going to be the toughest part of the project for sure. Especially if I have to do it with flux core wire.
byrd_hntr and jetranger, beginners' luck I guess. Honestly, 16 gauge is pretty forgiving to work with (so far).
bikersmurf, thanks--sent you a PM.
DacotasFJ40, I'll keep posting pics as (or if) I make progress.
John, Thanks for the kind words. I probably wouldn't have attempted it either if it weren't for money being tight. But then, when I bought this rig I told myself it was a chance to learn to do some welding and fabrication work. We'll see on the welding.
Looks like I get some time in the shop tomorrow to work on the floor
. JD
That was a fantastic job! If I were in the market for a set of quarter panels I'd hit you up for sure, whether or not you were in the business of producing them. I'm not a fan of 3/16" thick panels with no lip on the bottom and whose corner radius consists of a dozen or so small bends rather than one rolled radius. If money is tight, fab up a few sets to throw on craigslist and see what happens.
I have welded lot and lots and lots of body panels with flux cord. Just take your time. My cj8 had rust holes all over the floor, the floor was straight and very solid, just had rust holes, so I cut and welded lots of small patches. Main problem with flux cord is the splatter, but an cheap angle grinder will clean that up quickly.
Great work on the panels, I love when I see great work without spending a ton of money on fabed panels or outrageous tools to be used once. Just shows you do not have to spend a ton of $$$$ to fix rust rust issues.
Great work on the panels, I love when I see great work without spending a ton of money on fabed panels or outrageous tools to be used once. Just shows you do not have to spend a ton of $$$$ to fix rust rust issues.
skully3
SILVER Star
can't wait to see these installed. Nice work.
- Thread starter
- #30
Thanks Chris, good to know flux has worked well for you.
misterpepper, thanks! I could barely find time to make my own, but I kept my template and jigs.
skully3, that makes two of us.
Byrd Hntr - If you decide to fabricate your own panels you should let me know. I have done it a few times and I have a pretty good pile'o tools.
LSUfj
SILVER Star
Yes. I thought it was too simple to be effective, but honestly the hammered edges look a little better than the OEM quarter panel on the other side. Maybe my OEM side has just see better days.
- Thread starter
- #33
Rear Floor
Well, I've had a couple hours to work on the floor and I'm about to get a couple more. I was originally thinking about doing a 1/8" steel plate floor like JohnnyC and bikersmurf have, but I've got this 48"x39" rem. of 16 gauge so I'm going to use it instead. It has the added benefit of being almost free (I'm not that cheap, but the project fund is tapped out at the moment so it's use this or wait), but the drawback is that 16 gauge is flimsy without the corrugation that appears in the original.
So, I've been trying to figure out a way to more or less reproduce the corrugated rear cargo floor of my truck and I've settled on trying to use a crude die block to hammer the shape into the floor. It's pretty simple, and I'm pretty sure it will do at least something. I have an OEM cargo mat for the back so it doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect.
The green paper represents the sheet metal of course:
You can hold the applause on the beauty of my welds.
Well, I'll try to post an update later today.
Here is a good pic of my rear cargo floor for your amusement:
Well, I've had a couple hours to work on the floor and I'm about to get a couple more. I was originally thinking about doing a 1/8" steel plate floor like JohnnyC and bikersmurf have, but I've got this 48"x39" rem. of 16 gauge so I'm going to use it instead. It has the added benefit of being almost free (I'm not that cheap, but the project fund is tapped out at the moment so it's use this or wait), but the drawback is that 16 gauge is flimsy without the corrugation that appears in the original.
So, I've been trying to figure out a way to more or less reproduce the corrugated rear cargo floor of my truck and I've settled on trying to use a crude die block to hammer the shape into the floor. It's pretty simple, and I'm pretty sure it will do at least something. I have an OEM cargo mat for the back so it doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect.
The green paper represents the sheet metal of course:
You can hold the applause on the beauty of my welds.
Well, I'll try to post an update later today. Here is a good pic of my rear cargo floor for your amusement:
John McVicker
SILVER Star
Neat. I want to see how this turns out....and I mean this in a positive way. Good luck.
John
John
Looks better than what I started with. Some PO fiberglassed over my rusty floor... Looked ok until it rusted more. When I cut it out it folded in two like paper. The roll bar had chunks of wood under it to keep it from falling through the holes in the fenders.
I like your train of thought. You may need a press or heat. Or to turn it over and use a ball-peen hammer to beat it into shape. Looking forward to seeing how it turned out.
Some have also used the floor of an old truck box or station wagon to get metal with ribs in it. If you're lucky they can be super cheap.
I've seen people finish the ribs by using a big socket as a die, a piece of wood with a horseshoe cut out, and applying the bfh.
Your work looks great!
Your work looks great!
You have motivated me...
- Thread starter
- #39
Let's call it 'utility chic'
Hey thanks for the encouragement everyone.
Well, I've been getting in little bits of time here and there but this process is so loud I have to work around the kiddos sleeping, and I got sidelined by a goat feeder project, but I finally have something worth updating you with.
The hammer and die approach was a partial success. The profile of the rib it created was really good--it was controlling it down the length of the floor that was a huge challenge. I spent some time working out a jig (a track essentially) to keep it going straight while I hammered the die, and you had to hit it very squarely to keep it from digging in and making a major corner dent. AND, you had to hit that thing HARD!!! I used a 6-8lb. splitting maul and I really had to wallop it to produce a nice profile. Well, we're working with 16 gauge here. Here's what's left of the die--probably one more floor in there:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/jig.jpg
If I currently had access to heat, I would have used Bikersmurf's suggestion to see if it would have made it easier.
Since this was really a major experiment, I wasn't prepared for the insane panel warpage. I went to bed last night with nothing to show for my work but what looked like a large, inedible potato chip. A lot more hammering, flexing, hammering, and a lot more hammering and some hammering and it would finally lay pretty flat. The corrugation stiffens it a ton, which was the desired effect. Well, here's where I'm at right now:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/Floor1.jpg
Here's a small part that I thought turned out really good, and shows that it is possible, at least at random moments, to produce decent looking work with the hammer and die method.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/Ribs.jpg
Here's a pic of the back side. I wasn't even going for a specific depth, but I ended up right around OEM depth (+/- a dozen 1,000ths of an inch) on average.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/BackSide.jpg
You can see clearly in this one that I somehow mis-measured somewhere and got two ribs too close together. Good thing the whole floor looks like it has been beaten to death to distract your eye from details like that.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/FloorMore.jpg
(My 4-year-old daughter just looked over my shoulder and said, 'what's that garbage can doing there?').
I'm perfectly happy with the results. It was cheap and it will probably look fine under a thick coat of Raptor Liner, and even better under a mat. Alternatively, I could fabricate a back story about how this truck used to be owned by a small engine mechanic in Arizona who used it for deliveries for decades.
Hey thanks for the encouragement everyone.
Well, I've been getting in little bits of time here and there but this process is so loud I have to work around the kiddos sleeping, and I got sidelined by a goat feeder project
, but I finally have something worth updating you with. The hammer and die approach was a partial success. The profile of the rib it created was really good--it was controlling it down the length of the floor that was a huge challenge. I spent some time working out a jig (a track essentially) to keep it going straight while I hammered the die, and you had to hit it very squarely to keep it from digging in and making a major corner dent. AND, you had to hit that thing HARD!!! I used a 6-8lb. splitting maul and I really had to wallop it to produce a nice profile. Well, we're working with 16 gauge here. Here's what's left of the die--probably one more floor in there:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/jig.jpg
If I currently had access to heat, I would have used Bikersmurf's suggestion to see if it would have made it easier.
Since this was really a major experiment, I wasn't prepared for the insane panel warpage. I went to bed last night with nothing to show for my work but what looked like a large, inedible potato chip. A lot more hammering, flexing, hammering, and a lot more hammering and some hammering and it would finally lay pretty flat. The corrugation stiffens it a ton, which was the desired effect. Well, here's where I'm at right now:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/Floor1.jpg
Here's a small part that I thought turned out really good, and shows that it is possible, at least at random moments, to produce decent looking work with the hammer and die method.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/Ribs.jpg
Here's a pic of the back side. I wasn't even going for a specific depth, but I ended up right around OEM depth (+/- a dozen 1,000ths of an inch) on average.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/BackSide.jpg
You can see clearly in this one that I somehow mis-measured somewhere and got two ribs too close together. Good thing the whole floor looks like it has been beaten to death to distract your eye from details like that.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q35/duffontap/FloorMore.jpg
(My 4-year-old daughter just looked over my shoulder and said, 'what's that garbage can doing there?').
I'm perfectly happy with the results. It was cheap and it will probably look fine under a thick coat of Raptor Liner, and even better under a mat. Alternatively, I could fabricate a back story about how this truck used to be owned by a small engine mechanic in Arizona who used it for deliveries for decades.
The rear pan turned out great for what was essentially an experiment. Once its welded in with a few layers of paint it will look great. Well done, thanks for sharing your idea.
BTW...how did you do the nicely rounded ends of the ribs?
BTW...how did you do the nicely rounded ends of the ribs?
