1966 F100 Short/Fleet Full Stock Resto Build Thread

[plainred65]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Take a look over on thesamba.com in the Barndoor Bus section and have a look at what those guys are saving... That basket of green patch panels are just a little bit of the patch panels going into this bus... 10k worth of patch panels isn't unheard of in the Barndoor bus world!!

All I know about Vdubs (which isn't a lot but I really think they're cool) I learned from my brother. He's got 3 beetles and a bus. The only one I know the exact year is his oldest beetle, a 56. The bus is a 60 something. Knowing how much you love them here is a pic of his bus he sent me on the Iphone. Sorry bout the crummy cell phone pic. All original paint, he's always showing me places where they rot out and his is as near perfect as it gets. When he found it I thought he was gonna wet himself!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

I agree 1000%. If you compare a Chevy/GMC cab to a comparable year Ford, there's no comparison. Ford likes to single-wall in places that GM will double wall. The GM cabs are WAY stronger structurally. The make-up of the Ford cab is such that it was like it was built backwards. The overlays are completely backwards, like you unfortunately discovered. You wind up damaging good metal on top in order to fix the bad metal underneath because the wrong part is flanged and spot-welded in an area that's completely inaccessable.

I know most guys are brand loyal, done to the bone. I have had the "discussion" with the Ford guys about the comparison of the '60s Ford and Chevy trucks, and have laid out all the differences. EVERY aspect of the Chevy is better, from the suspension, the engine, the transmission, and the body structure. I will give Ford credit in one area, though. Whoever designed their door latches did a great job. You can go to any clapped out Ford in the wrecking yard, and the doors close and latch soooo nice.

Other than that, their trucks are not even close.

I whined about it on the Ford truck forum, they just said that atleast you couldn't build a Ford with a credit card like you can with a Chevy... Isn't it a bad thing that reproductions aren't available for Fords? Some people...

Originally Posted by plainred65

All I know about Vdubs (which isn't a lot but I really think they're cool) I learned from my brother. He's got 3 beetles and a bus. The only one I know the exact year is his oldest beetle, a 56. The bus is a 60 something. Knowing how much you love them here is a pic of his bus he sent me on the Iphone. Sorry bout the crummy cell phone pic. All original paint, he's always showing me places where they rot out and his is as near perfect as it gets. When he found it I thought he was gonna wet himself!

That is a very nice bus, especially being all original!! I'm still kicking myself for selling my '67 13 window deluxe right before the prices went sky high.




A little more deconstruction this morning. Got a couple spots left to cut out on the back of the cab and we'll be ready for blasting and epoxy.

[theastronaut]

We blasted the inner channels and painted them with Chassis saver to help prevent future rusting.






Made, fitted, and welded in the driver side kick panel.






Patched the inner rocker, it's fitted and ready to weld in.

[chevyrestoguy]

Nice work!
It looks like the "Ford Sheetmetal Origami Puzzle" is progressing nicely!!

I'm blown away at the quality of all of the weird little sheetmetal parts you're having to make to piece it all back together.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

Nice work!
It looks like the "Ford Sheetmetal Origami Puzzle" is progressing nicely!!

I'm blown away at the quality of all of the weird little sheetmetal parts you're having to make to piece it all back together.

Thanks Alex, its starting to go back together. The floor panels haven't been much of an issue to remake so far, but I'm not looking forward to making the side cowl box drains! Once we get the panel replacement finished we'll flip the cab and smooth out the welds on the bottom side. We want it to look just like the factory assembled it with no signs of panel replacement. I'll use the fake spot weld trick to help with that, although the factory spot welds are sloppy and will be harder to replicate.

[theastronaut]

Inner rocker welded in, added three spot welds along the top to help hold it tightly against the kick panel. The factory had no spot welds there on either side...




Tight fit that won't move or open up later on.




Started smoothing the welds on the kick panel.




Finished fitting the right rear floor section and prepped it for welding.




Bottom of panel prepped.




Welded in.




Fitted and prepped the left side.

[Russell Ashley]

Just found this thread and read through it, now I'm looking forward to more updates. That's some beautiful work going on there.

[aggie91]

Love looking at your work. Where are you at now on this one?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Just found this thread and read through it, now I'm looking forward to more updates. That's some beautiful work going on there.

Thanks Russell!

Originally Posted by aggie91

Love looking at your work. Where are you at now on this one?

Thanks, I've been working on the International mostly so it's slow on the F100. I have welded up the other inner rocker piece and trimmed it to fit, the wheels are prepped and ready to paint, and we are working on getting the bed ready to take to the media blaster today. We hired a new guy to help with bodywork so things should start rolling better now, I'll be doing the cab metalwork and he'll start on the bed once it's blasted. He's done restoration work for years so he's a good fit for us.




The passenger bed side has some cracks in the paint, so we figured it had some old damage repair coming through... It's been hit at some point and packed with bondo. It was a hair over 1/4" in a couple places!








Measured the mask lines and documented the grease pencil marking on the header panel. These will be replicated exactly.

[theastronaut]

I dropped off the bed, tailgate, and inner fenders at the blaster this morning while the new guy painted the wheels. I think he did ok for having never sprayed much single stage, and never sprayed with a gravity feed gun.

[theastronaut]

We picked up the tailgate and inner fenders from the blaster and started straightening the inside of the tailgate.




This is what you do when stud guns/slide hammers won't work!




Ready for epoxy and bodyworking.

[Low Elco]

I like that trick!
Posted via Mobile Device

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks like I learned a new trick today..

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

I like that trick!
Posted via Mobile Device

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Looks like I learned a new trick today..

Where there's a will, there's a way!



Picked up the bed from the blaster today. The left side won't need much at all to be perfect. The right side is caved in pretty bad and the corner has been "worked on" before.

[duallyjams]

Ah that's nothing for you, whatcha going do after lunch

[CC69Rat]

Looks great man! What color are you going back with on the body? Wasn't it a vanilla color?
Posted via Mobile Device

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

Ah that's nothing for you, whatcha going do after lunch

I actually started on it before lunch. Just started... it'll take just a bit longer than that!

Originally Posted by CC69Rat

Looks great man! What color are you going back with on the body? Wasn't it a vanilla color?
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks! It was, but we're going back with the original two-tone Wimbeldon White and Sahara Beige, just like this truck. We could actually use these pictures as the finished pictures, the two trucks are identical. This one was a 15K mile OG paint truck that sold at Barrett Jackson.

[theastronaut]

We prepped and primed the tailgate and inner fenders today using PPG DX579 Metal Cleaner, DX520 Metal Conditioner, and DPFL epoxy.




I used a shrinking disc to straighten between the letters on the tailgate. Only high build primer should be needed to get this area 100% flat.




Inner fenders. We'll bodywork these tomorrow and shoot them with high build primer.




Bent wheel arch on bedside.




Started straightening that area.




Found rust in the front of the bed floor, so we cut out the floor and found more hidden rust underneath. We'll have to patch up the bed floor and replace the front floor brace, and bottom of the header panel.

[theastronaut]

Finished cutting out the front brace and bed floor this morning. Having a fab shop bend a new brace, just the center part since the outer edges bend up. The outer bed floor panels weren't rusted through but we knew they'd be hidden rust so we went ahead and cut them out.







Brace and header bottom cut out.




Drilled the spotwelds out of the bed mount plates and crush spacers to swap onto the new brace.






Inner fenders bodyworked and shot with black high build.






I taped over the stamping details to keep the primer from covering them up. This way the details stay sharp.








Started working on the fender lip, smoothed out a crease on the right rear corner, and did some heat shrinking and hammer/dolly work below the lower body line. Forgot to get after pics.

[theastronaut]

We had a local fab shop bend a new floor brace using the old one as a pattern. We blasted the end pieces, then I aligned them and welded them on.


Set the middle section on a flat table and checked the angle with a level. A very expensive level.




Used a note pad as an adjustable shim to level the two end pieces.




.15 degree difference. Within spec.




Tacked it in place on the table, then fully welded and smoothed.




The floor panel had plenty of rust holes, and it isn't reproduced. I used copper tubing as a backer on the curved areas, and copper tubing with one end flattened for the flat areas. The welds won't stick to copper and keeps the metal from blowing through. Less cleanup on the other side too.











Prepped and primed all of the floor pieces. Ready to weld these back in.

[theastronaut]

Got the floor back in place today. First the corners of the floor, then the brace, then the center section of the floor.


Outer panels clamped in place.






Welded in.






Welds ground down.






Inner crush sleeve and outer mount plates welded in place in the new floor brace.




Floor brace clamped in place.




Spot weld holes line up perfectly.




Center floor section aligned and clamped in place. This was a CHORE to get all the ridges exactly lined up since the panel "grew" when it was removed. Each hump had to be hammer/dollied in place starting from the center and working out. It took about two hours just to align and tack weld the center floor in place. Time spent here will make the bodywork that much easier though.






Slight dip in the center that will be worked out before fully welding the panel in.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Good god what happend to that phone.. Awesome work btw thanks for the details..

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Good god what happend to that phone.. Awesome work btw thanks for the details..

Was racing go karts with a few friends at Frankie's Fun Park and I didn't take it out of my pocket. Got hammered against the frame rail the whole time... $240 buck mistake! I did win the race though! Glad you like the progress!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[theastronaut]

Monday's progress. We finished welding the bed floor and header panel flange back in, and started grinding the welds.








Header bottom flange ready for welding.





Before welding the header flange on, we slipped a sheet of .060" aluminum between the bed floor and header panel to keep an even gap all the way across. This kept the weld from blowing through on the back side of the header flange, and will allow enough room for seam sealer later on.





Header flange after welding and grinding.




Tailgate bodyworked and shot with Slick Sand. I masked off the center section to preserve the spot welds, and also the details of the letters. Slick Sand is too thick for those areas. We'll mask off the letters themselves and shoot normal high build on that area.

[theastronaut]

I worked on the right bedside today while Rodney blocked out the tailgate and fixed any high/low areas that showed up.

This is the bedside after working with it for awhile using a porta-power, various hammers/dollies, and a shrinking disc. It's still popping in and out, but it stays out and has the overall shape back. With some more time we'll have it ready to shoot epoxy and skim coat it. Using a straight edge during the metal shaping helps find the major high/low areas. One the overall shape is there, I'll switch to using a long sanding block to find the high/low spots.






The seam at the bed corner and bed side was really badly repaired... they didn't even fix the inner spot welds that had broken loose! The only thing holding the bedside to the corner was the brazing in the seam. Once that was cut through the two panels came apart easily.








This pic doesn't show it well but the two panels weren't flush with each other.




Flange removed, this shows the busted spot welds.




These two show how much the bedside could move.






Straightened and blasted the corner flange. This is test fitting it to check the shape against the bed side.




After reshaping the flange with a shrinker/stretcher.