1966 F100 Short Bed Styleside Metal/Body/Paint Work

[theastronaut]

I posted earlier about the rear outside edges not matching the outer corner panel edges.




After reshaping.









Tons of test fits, lots of minor tweaks, and drilling a ton of holes for plug welds later, it's all welded in.





Mounted on a rotisserie, then flipped to finish welding everything underneath. I'll start bodywork and prep for epoxy primer and seam sealer inside the bed tonight.

[MP&C]

Awesome work John!

[67C10Step]

I try not to look at this thread since it reminds me of one of the trucks that got away from me but I just cannot help myself. You are doing such fantastic work I gotta look.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by MP&C

Awesome work John!

Originally Posted by 67C10Step

I try not to look at this thread since it reminds me of one of the trucks that got away from me but I just cannot help myself. You are doing such fantastic work I gotta look.

Thanks guys!!


I roughed in the bodywork on the inner bedsides and outer floor panels, stripped the cheap primer off the wheel tubs, and shot a couple coats of SPI epoxy. A great thing about SPI epoxy is that it's glossy enough to easily show all the places I missed.







I started straightening the passenger outer bed side. I used a sanding block inside and out with 60 grit to find the highs/lows, then hammer/dolly to straighten and level the panel. Then DA sand it to remove the sanding marks, resand to find the smaller highs/lows, more hammer/dolly work... repeat until it's good enough to skim coat then DA sand it for an even finish and to prep for epoxy.






























Wiped down with wax and grease remover to check the reflection.




Straightened the rear of the wheel opening flange.

[mongocanfly]

John, that spi epoxy looks as good as paint..!!

[Ol Blue K20]

That's looking awesome. The seams look far better than anything the factory did....

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

John, that spi epoxy looks as good as paint..!!

It looks really good when its wet and only slightly duller when it's dry. After going back and blocking to find all of the highs/lows I missed earlier I'm really surprised at how much build there was with only two coats, allowing me to block out areas I thought I'd have to skim coat. It also blocks easily without clogging the paper.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

That's looking awesome. The seams look far better than anything the factory did....

Thanks! This side was surprisingly good from the factory, only needing a little attention at the very bottom.

[theastronaut]

I have a new respect for anyone capable of metalfinishing large areas of old crunched metal. I’ve only worked metal to perfection on very small areas with lighter damage before this. The front section of this bedside had been giving me trouble so I decided to challenge myself and attempt to go farther than my usual “good enough to skim coat” straightening efforts. The grid is 8x10” and I’m only about halfway through it, and it’s still a little wavy from the heavy damage around it so I’ll have to go back over it again to correct the overall shape once all the major damage is smoothed out.


Starting point. Lots of damage, both from the initial damage and prior attempts to straighten it using a pick hammer improperly.






I laid out a 2x2" grid so I could focus on a small area at a time. I used a sharpie marker and a plexiglass sanding block with 180 grit to show the high/low spots, then began working the low up and the highs down with a hammer and dolly. The metal was very stretched so I made a few passes with the shrinking disk to start with, but the more I straightened the more the overall area became a high spot again, similar to planishing out a panel after beating it into rough shape on a sand bag.






The back side of the grid. You can see hot spots from the shrinking disk, high spots from sanding to find the back of the low spots, and a ton of tiny hammer marks from working up the low spots.




Progress pics.













Where I ended up after around 6 hours. This won't be charged to the customer since I'm doing this to push myself to learn how to do this, and I'm not anywhere near proficient at it yet. This is the worst spot on the whole bed so it's been a challenge to make it this far. It's not perfect but it's a start at learning the skill of metalfinishing.





I also worked on correcting the overal shape down the length of the bedside. This side was concave down the length from the factory, and reflections off the paint in concave areas magnify any imperfections so making the panel straight or slightly crowned is important on such a long panel. I cut the inner braces loose, then moved them until the panel was straight overall. It only needs light stretching in a couple areas to bring up low spots, the worst of the two is only .014” deep.





You can see how the lower section in front of the wheel opening moves inward from front to rear in relation to the straight edge that is held against the lower panel behind the wheel opening. This points to the inner brace holding the panel in the wrong orientation.









There was a second brace holding the outer skin at the front of the wheel opening. I drilled the spot welds and freed the outer skin so it could be repositioned.




Once the overall shape was straight from front to rear I found a low spot in the body line near the rear of the wheel opening, and that was pulling a low spot in the open area above it. I used a portapower to push it out.




That left me with only two small low spots down the length of the panel, the deeper one was only .014" low which I can easily move up with light hammer on dolly stretching.




Inner flange straightened.






Flipped over with the rotisserie to start fixing the minor imperfections inside the bed.




Close up of the surface finish of the SPI epoxy. The level of gloss acts like a built in guide coat when blocking so you can easily see any low spots, pinholes, rust pits, etc.

[nlped]

Phenomenal work!!!

[mongocanfly]

/\/\/\ what he said/\/\/\

[Russell Ashley]

I'm always amazed at your attention to detail.

[Ol Blue K20]

Yep, amazing as usual

[Low Elco]

Maaaaaaannnnn, that's purdy! Nice work!

[theastronaut]

Thanks dudes!!



I have the other side finished and both in epoxy primer now. It was sunk in almost 1/2" above the wheel opening, again mostly due to the braces pulling it inward too much.






The rear corner needed reshaping towards the bottom, too much to just shrink it down flat. I made a few cuts to bring the bottom up and the side in, then welded it back up.






After.









Higher up there was damage around the taillight opening. There was a deep flange on the inside of the opening blocking access to the back side, so I cut out the damaged area to straighten off the truck.




After straightening and welding back in place. The metal measured almost 1/16" thick.








Ready for epoxy.






The reflections show that it's not perfect but the overall shape is really close. A skim coat will make it 100% straight. I posted these on facebook last night and it got shared to a collision repair page... they were complaining about all the orange peel in the "paint" even though the description clearly said it was epoxy over bare metal

[mongocanfly]

Haha...who is that masked man?......

[theastronaut]

Got both sides skimmed and blocked. Getting the metal straight first meant I only needed to skim it once, then touch up a few areas. I tried something new; using spring steel spreaders but couldn't get the hang of them so a few spots were too thin on the first section I did. I switched back to normal spreaders for the rest of it.


I blocked the upper part above the body line front to back, then blended the lower front area into the upper section, being careful to not make a low spot in the upper half. The transition from flat to round around the corners of raised wheel opening stampings have always given me fits, so this time I wiped off any filler about 1.5" away from the raised part before it dried. That let me do the initial blocking without worrying if I was getting the transition to the rounded raised edge shaped correctly- I only had to worry about the overall shape. Once the flat areas were blocked straight I skimmed the transition and shaped it by itself later, which was easier since I was working against the open area that was already straight.








I used an angled block around the wheel opening stamping to work up to the raised area while keeping as much of the block on the flat surface as possible. You can see in this pic where I initially left the transition bare.




I left the paper shy of the edge so the block doesn't cut into the transition- the smooth edge hits the transition and raises the block up before it can cut a groove into the raised part.






The outside corner of the body line had more guide coat applied so I could block it into an even radius front to back. This was roughed in with 80 grit, watching to see how far into the flats the block was cutting. I didn't cut it all the way down with 80, I finished shaping the radius once I had the whole bed roughed in with 80, then applied guide coat and reblocked it all with 150.








Same idea at the front of the bed where the metal folds around to the inner panel.






After applying more guide coat and blocking the panel with 150. The guide coat shows how evenly the edge is rounded into the flat part of the panel. This is something you'd have a hard time getting even if you didn't skim the whole panel.




Everything finished with 150, ready for more epoxy and polyester primer. And then more sanding.






Check out how well the filler adheres to SPI epoxy. I didn't sand or scuff the epoxy before skimming, the epoxy stays open for 7 days for filler or other primers to bond. You can see how well it feather edges, and the orange peel of the epoxy is visible- the whole two coats of epoxy are still there without any breakthroughs to bare metal from the typical process of sanding/scuffing before filler. I'll spray more epoxy before polyester to keep the metal 100% sealed.




Here's a "torture test" to see just how well filler sticks to SPI epoxy when applied within 7 days, using both proper and improper bare metal prep.

http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.ph...ure-test.3807/

Spi epoxy primer & Ospho torture test -...

Now it's time to go clean the shop...

[Low Elco]

awesome looking work. What's the handle on FB?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

awesome looking work. What's the handle on FB?

Thanks! Here's a link.

https://www.facebook.com/john.glenn.5205

[theastronaut]

I shot epoxy over the bare spots last Monday to seal them up, and let it sit all week before spraying Slick Sand Saturday night. This lets the epoxy dry fully so any shrinking has occurred before applying the poly primer, but before the epoxy has cured so the poly still bonds chemically.

?66 F100 Bedside Reflection Check - YouTube

Mirka dry guide coat, ready for blocking.

[Ol Blue K20]

My arms are sore from all the sanding you're doing....lol. It's looking terrific.

[theastronaut]

Getting started back on this one... The owner brought back the finished frame, that let me mount the bed and fabricate a filler neck, along with repositioning the center gooseneck stamping to use as a flat spot for the gas cap.

The frame- Coyote/Magnum T56 swapped with M2 front suspension and a four link in the rear.






I made a template to cut exact matching size holes in the ribbed section over the tank and the center gooseneck stamping so that they could swap spots without excesive welding gaps. Also bought extra thin cut off wheels and slightly thinned them myself even more for less kerf.




Double offset filler neck.




A normal gas cap would look to small and wouldn't hide the hole for the filler neck so I started looking online for larger caps with standard threads. Ended up finding an aftermarket billet cap for a BMW motorcycle that looked like a good fit for the truck. The tank is vented already so I removed the cap vent and drilled/tapped/plugged the hole so it can't leak fuel out onto the bed floor paint. The top was flat and sort of chunky looking to begin with but I liked the rest of design..






I used a mug (it was the right diameter ) and an english wheel anvil in the press to dimple the opening around the filler neck.








Finished up. I used the lathe to slightly dome the top of the cap and round the edge, then sanded it smooth up to 1000 grit. I used a red scuff pad for a brushed look, then metal polish to slightly polish the cap without losing the brushed look. It could easily be fully polished if the owner wants to but I thought this finish might hide fingerprint smudges and scratches since aluminum is soft and its an item that'll see a lot of use/handling.

[67ChevyRedneck]

OH my.... that's going to be one badass truck...

[mongocanfly]

Looks good John..really like the cap and the radius ...was really wanting to see the mug at work in the press..!!!..haha
That truck with the yote/56 will be fun..!!

[youngrodder]

Wow...I'm just blown away by your talents. Very cool build. I have enjoyed the build up to this part....Keep it up.

Thanks for thoroughly explaining each step for those of us with far less talent.

Marc

[theastronaut]

Got the metalwork and rough bodywork on the bed floor finished and sealed with a couple coats of epoxy.


I used the rear rib section that was over the gas tank to fill in the section where the round stamping was.






I knew that the ribs were all different heights, but I didn't realize they also changed shape from front to rear slightly. I thought I could make a spreader for skim coating each rib to simplify spreading filler, but the shape of the ribs ended up being wider or narrower from end to end. This also meant that I couldn't make a sanding block to fit the intended shape, so I had to manually block the bottom/sides/top of every rib.

My attempt at making a spreader-






Tons of blocking later. This was a chore to shape/sand the width of base of the floor, the angle and height of the sides of the ribs, and the width of the top of the ribs consistently, along with keeping the radii of the corners and edges consistent. There are a few small imperfections I need to touch up before I shoot it with polyester primer, then more blocking to make it 100% straight.