Project "Uncle Fester"- 9/21 Interior almost finished

[72stepside]

Well, alot has been going on, with some truck work mixed in there. Big thanks to my father for handling most of the body work by himself.

Here's an overall of where the bed stands. All the holes patched, dents hammered out then filled, seams cleaned out and POR15'ed.


Here's that side that was completely rotten.


Cleaning of the bottom has begun so the POR15 can be applied.




It got to the point that we can't manhandle the bed anymore for fear of screwing up some of the completed body work. So, the services of the F-20 have been enlisted...








The rust between the box and the outer body panels is pretty hard to get to. Most of the cleaning there took place with 60 grit sand paper by hand. It's not shiny metal, but the POR15 can says seasoned metal is better. Well, this is seasoned all right. Should be able to get some POR15 spread around in there this week.

[72stepside]

Finally got the underside of the bed all cleaned up and ready for POR-15. Took a few hours to find all the dents in the bedfloor and knock them out. Alot of hand sanding between the box and the outer 'fenders' to knock the mud and loose rust scale off. Applying the coating was a bit of a challenge as well. We used a 3ft long 1x1 board as a handle for the "throw away" paint brushes. We ended up using screws to hold the brushes to the handle at various angles to get it painted. Some areas could be reached with a small foam roller. All in all, it turned out pretty well and is far better than it was. I'll apply POR to the rear edge under the bed at a later date. All the dirt and crud from the upper portion accumulated there during the cleaning and wasn't coming out with the bed leaned against the tree.





Now the bed won't have to be turned upside down again. It is on tires and sawhorses for the box cleaning. Spent some time yesterday digging old seam sealer out of the cracks in the floor and the interior bed walls. After 37 years, most of it had held up pretty good.

We're experiencing far outer rain bands from Hurricane Ike today so I doubt much will get done today, other than what I'm sure my father has already completed.

Later...

[1971ford]

suh-wheet!
i just got my metal ready today so i can paint my bed this weekend just like you did.
looks totally spiffy cant wait to see more!

[Joshpow]

Looking good. That's a lot of good work done on the bed. You got it right though. I got to do the seams on my 72 swb. I guess I need to invest in some POR 15 for it. Like the handling system for the Farmall. That's one good way to keep down a hurt back. Keep us posted.

[72stepside]

It was sure good to get the bed flipped right side up and not have to worry about flipping it over again to work underneath.

My father (mostly) and I sanded, and scrubbed and scraped and finally got the interior to a place where etching primer could be applied. A 'Mouse' sander and a DA sander did all the work. The mouse sander did pretty well with 50 grit pads. I didn't want to blast due to the mess and I'm not real keen on chemical strippers, although we did use a little naval jelly in a place or two.

Here are a couple of before and after pics.





Remember, the lower portion below the gas filler hole was gone.




Tomorrow, I'm gonna get the seam sealer applied to all the floor seams and the side seams. I sealed the side seams up with POR-15, and primed while tacky. I had too much in there the first time and it bubbled up. I dug it all out and put a very thin coat of POR-15. Perfect, no bubbles !

[1971ford]

WOW
that is unbelievable knowing that the lower section of the bed used to not be there due to rust

great idea on the bed seam, ill do that with mine next time ive got the POR out

BTW: i think you have passed my lazy butt

[72stepside]

BTW: i think you have passed my lazy butt

Nah, you're working on two trucks now, only one for me.

[JWW]

That bed looks great! Great post with pics, will come in handy.

[67mann]

Nice job on the box--wish my floor would've that solid,but I guess I didn't have to do much on my box sides

[72stepside]

Just taking a little break guys. Been spending alot of time with my daughter, went to a shuttle launch two weeks ago, and am riding the Suzuki Bandit that I got back in September.

The bed is all primed and in the barn with a tarp stretched/suspended over it.

I'll probably start taking the interior and the front apart around Christmas time. I plan to take two weeks off around then so I should have some time.

[72stepside]

FINALLY... I'm back at it.

The weather was great this evening when I got home and we get that extra hour of daylight, soooooooooooooooo no more excuses.

I spent an hour or two and took the grill and stone deflector off.

Before...



After...




I love my Craftsman impact wrench. It makes short order of all those 1/2" bolts that hold everything together. Well, all except for the 'thank you' bolt that Ford put at the very tip top of the inner fender. Had to use one of my ratcheting box ends for those.

Also, why on earth would they put a screw behind the aluminum trim on the 71 grill inserts? Good thing I'm not re-using the plastic cause those little clips are broke off. Guess I should have posed a question or reseached on here before I snapped them off.

Anyway... onward we go!

[1971ford]

NIce!

I think behind the trim is a great place to hid support screws. I found them before breaking them off luckily

I look forward to seeing more progress!

[72stepside]

Allright!!!! Finally got that core support off. I didn't realize the metal part of the bushing assembly went through the bolt hole. That is what was all fused together.

After a good bit of PB Blaster, on the driver side I grabbed the bottom (what I thought was just a) washer then turned the bolt with the breaker bar to free up the bolt. That side came right out.

The passenger side bolt finally broke, leaving the bushing assembly/bolt still attached to the frame. Some pounding with the 3 pound persuasion tool and a chisel, mixed with the light touch of a sawzall got it removed.



I then moved on to getting the wiring harness loose from the inner fenders and took out the bolts holding them to the rubber strap to the cab, then they were off.



The core support is pretty bad now that I got a good all around look at it. I need to examine the one from my red parts truck to see how it looks before I start the massive patch job that it would take to fix this one.

Cleaning out the cab and removing it is next.

Stay tuned...

[f100fordtruck]

Looks great. Interested in doing the brakes on my crews?

You and I need to meet up somewhere and look at one another's trucks being that we live in the SAME county!!

Ha, just wait and let me get my truck running then we can just all meet up somewhere

[f100fordtruck]

Looks great. Interested in doing the brakes on my crews?

You and I need to meet up somewhere and look at one another's trucks being that we live in the SAME county!!

Ha, just wait and let me get my truck running then we can just all meet up somewhere, since i also live in Santa Rosa