1969 F250 4x4 Highboy 7/9 rubicon

[1971ford]

-bump surgery, cut out old bump, cut out new bump, trimmed, taped on
-door surgery, cut out donor doors panel and trimmed to fit inside hole
-gathered all trim, i am in need of 5 peices total, i also need some 390 emblems
-drilled EVERY hole on the whole trim for upper and lower trim. that stole my weekend
-por-15 patch panel/hinges/cab mount access doors/ash tray inside
-fit inner fenders on, traced line so i know how much to strip/por-15
-tried using my grinder.. until the button to lock the wheel (for removal) fell into the case and locked it and through the wheel. its broken for good now

new toy




The fit is a little better than pictured, the tape is sagging.





holes holes holes

see, the lower chrome is in pretty good shape. check out the reflection of my hand where the dust was

Bling Bling Bling!

covered in dust from storage

wiped





next weekend i am going to weld in those patch panels, weld up a bunch of holes (hood trim holes, holes in tailgate, old hood letter holes (i need to redrill these for the correct year letters) and some other holes.
Then i need to weld up all the bed seams. then metal work will be close to complete with the exception of taking care of a couple dents.
Oh, and i also decided im not going to run a incab tank. im going to weld up the filler hole and fab up a storage box in the future.

[dcbullet]

-drilled EVERY hole on the whole trim for upper and lower trim. that stole my weekend

How did you know where to drill the holes? Did you have another truck to copy from or is it obvious somehow?

[1971ford]

i could look on the back of the panel at where a weld was, then get a pretty good idea of where to drill the hole. if i have room behind the panel i would get a hammer and a punch and then i would be able to barely feel bump on the other side. Also, every hole i drilled i slotted vertically so i can adjust the trim once truck is going back together

[dcbullet]

Oh, so the non-trim trucks had their holes welded up?

[72stepside]

Been a while man. Looks like you're making good progress.

Be careful about using concrete blocks for jack stands. They have a tendency to fail.

[1971ford]

no, factory no-trim trucks dont have holes and dont have welded up holes. the PO of my truck stripped the trim off and welded up all the holes. It sure would be hard to drill out the lower holes without reference spots (welds).

72stepside,
i had to resort to cinder blocks for a while since i used all the jack stands we had, and then i finally got the front wheels on so i felt much safer. I then was carrying a cinderblock and dropped it... it shaddered never using cinder blocks every again! im lucky my frame didnt fall and the cab didnt fall off, that would have been horrible

[HRDROKN]

Hey,

You are really doing a nice job on this project!

[427blackpearl]

-tried using my grinder.. until the button to lock the wheel (for removal) fell into the case and locked it and through the wheel. its broken for good now

a broken tool is a trip to the tool store for a new one
you are doing a fine job ryan, keep it up

[1971ford]

Thanks

I took apart the front of the grinder and a few big chunks of metal. hmm, interesting . so i picked them out and it works fine now

i did get some work done like welding the seams and the patch panels in but ill hold off on pics until i get alittle more done, like next weekend.

but the big thing......... The truck is actually mine now!! this whole time, we never put it in our name and now my dad went to the DMV and got it done! Talk about procrastination

[Ranchero50]

Hey, when you get that one finished I'll mail you mine, I can't finish anything...


Looks good,
Jamie

[1971ford]

hey atleast you've got some paint on yours

Ive got tons of welding done today, i welded up tons of holes, grinded down tons of welds, patched some stuff, and pulled a bunch of dents!!! But you have to wait until tomorrow to see pics! Ive got alot done today and tomorrow is a whole other day

[1971ford]

Bump so i can put my update on a fresh page

[1971ford]

I am ALMOST done with metal work!!!! All i have left is a couple dents to pull on the hood, and to weld in the dentside fuel filler door. Then its time to buy filler, epoxy primer and highbuild. But first i need to make sure my money tree sprouts I am getting some money off ebay though.

-cleaned out all bed seams
-welded up all bed seams, ground down. im going to put sealer over it, i dont like how the welds came out.
-patched door speaker hole
-patched incab tank hole
-searched and found all 5000 gallons of filler on the truck hiding dents
-pulled all dents
-screwed with grinder
-stripped and prepped firewall corners for por-15
-plugged lots of holes
-Got ANOTHER hood. This is my 3rd hood i have gotten for this project. Im not even happy with this one.
-screwed up my hold passenger bedside by being extremely stupid

Patched in-cab tank hole

new hood

I took my grinder and a wire wheel and zig-zagged all over each and every body panel looking for filler. and boy did i find some on the bed I found several places of thick bondo. I stripped the filler out to get the area to metal, then hammered and pulled and welded and grinded
I dont have before and after pictures of allll the dents i pulled but heres some.


Here is where the motherload of filler layed. I dont think you can see all the dents though.

After tons of pulling, grinding and hammering i got it straight enough so i wont need more than 1/6in. of filler.


Of course it doesnt always turn out so nice. sometimes it will pull your sheetmetal apart. i had to cut a piece of patch panel out and weld it in.



There was a dent here, this pic is after pulling and before grinding the washers off.


I also welded up tons of holes. I welded up a bunch that were on the top and bottom of the tailgate ( the top ones must of been a tailgate edge protector, and the bottom i have no idea. and no i didnt weld up the drain holes. ). I also welded up a few interior holes on the kick panels, and all the old mirror holes on the doors.



Patch panel came out decent. i still have some grinding to do on the welds.




stripped and prepped for por-15 (corners of firewall, so the wheel well will be all black, not orange)


It looks like i lost some pictures, like the pictures of the door speaker hole patch. hmm.

Next weekends task. THANKS to BigBlueF250 on here for donating this to my project!!!!


sooo i only have a weekends worth of work to do before i am out of things to do due to lack of money for paint. Were going to the junkyard though and im going to gather up all the parts that go for alot on ebay and make some money. I want the whole truck to be in highbuild primer within a month. then i can block it for a month atleast, and have it painted early june. Then back together in July Thats the plan anyways

[papabug71]

Ryan, I see you were distracted by the body grinder. Looks like you wrote your name & drew stars

Dont worry, I did the same thing on my Valiant parts car. You must customize your work ya' know!

[LANCE65]

Man you are dong a great job! Keep it up.
-Lance