'66 F100 Custom Cab Short/Styleside Factory Correct Resto

[theastronaut]

The bottom right bed corner didn't fit well at the seam against the bedside so we made cuts and re-aligned the two panels.




After cutting welding, and smoothing the welds.







The very bottom of the corner didn't fit either so we cut/reshaped it.






The rolled curve in the body line didn't match, same treatment.










Finding the dents in the left wheel tub with sandpaper and straightening them with a hammer/dolly.

[skidoorulz]

I have started looking forward to coming home and looking at that days progress report. Imagine my disappointment when today, there is nothing. That is like waking up on Christmas Day to discover nothing under the tree

[theastronaut]

I have started looking forward to coming home and looking at that days progress report. Imagine my disappointment when today, there is nothing. That is like waking up on Christmas Day to discover nothing under the tree

Good things come to those who wait... you'll get double updates this time! I had church last night that I had to get ready for right after work, then ate out with friends afterwards. Didn't have time to post!

[theastronaut]

We have the bed prepped for epoxy so we started on the doors. The top of the passenger door was pretty beat so we finally decided to cut the whole skin off to get to the damage better.





Checking the damage with a straight edge.






Skin off, more rust than expected. This would have come through in a few more years if not addressed now. We blasted the frame and welded up the pin holes.









The new emblem studs were slightly off from the original holes, and slightly larger. I stuck the emblems on and marked where the holes needed enlarging to make them fit properly.








Checking the fit of the clips.




Inside of door blasted and painted with Chassis Saver.






Door skin before straightening.





Finding the high/low spots by block sanding.





Door skin straightened above the body line.





Marking the location of the sunk in areas on the bottom skin.




Rolling on an english wheel to bring the skin up.





Sound deadener inside the door frame.




Ready to start on the driver's door next week.

[skidoorulz]

I have started looking forward to coming home and looking at that days progress report. Imagine my disappointment when today, there is nothing. That is like waking up on Christmas Day to discover nothing under the tree

Good things come to those who wait... you'll get double updates this time! I had church last night that I had to get ready for right after work, then ate out with friends afterwards. Didn't have time to post!

I forgot it was Wednesday. Church is important, I will forgive.

Amazing work by the way

[totten]

Love your fab work and metalworking art. Beautiful !

[MadMaxetc]

Damn that's a lot of work... Thanks for posting. Now I know what I need to do!

[thenephilm]

I would love to be able to work with metal like this. The work looks great and I am real jealous!

[theastronaut]

I forgot it was Wednesday. Church is important, I will forgive.

Amazing work by the way

Thanks!

Love your fab work and metalworking art. Beautiful !

Appreciate that!

Damn that's a lot of work... Thanks for posting. Now I know what I need to do!

Glad it's a help!

I would love to be able to work with metal like this. The work looks great and I am real jealous!

Thanks, been looking through your build- neat project!

[theastronaut]

Here's what we did yesterday and today. We moved the cab around to the stall we usually work out of since the doors were nearly ready for fitting.


Driver side door finished, coated with Chassis Saver and two layers of sound deadening. They don't sound like tin cans anymore!





Doors installed to check fit and rework the edges where things didn't line up.





Front edge against cowl box didn't fit the shape.





Heat shrunk to pull the edge down, then shaped with a hammer/dolly to match the shape of the cowl panel.







Back edge fit was decent already.




Bottom edge needed some straightening.




This was one of the two areas that fit terribly.




Difference between the door skin shape (red profile gauge) and the cowl edge.




Relief cuts.




Reshaped the edge, checking the shape.








Cuts welded and smoothed.




Fits flush, it looks a little off since the gaps aren't even yet.







This was the second area that fit really bad. The cab stuck out from the window frame by 3/16". Both sides were like this, tapering in towards the top.










After relief cutting the door jamb, aligning, welding, and smoothing.

[thenephilm]

Dang, it only gets better. I love your attention to detail.

[digler005]

Unbelievable skills, this will probably be the straightest slick anywhere.

[skidoorulz]

What kind of sound deadening mats are you using?

[theastronaut]

Dang, it only gets better. I love your attention to detail.

Thanks!

Unbelievable skills, this will probably be the straightest slick anywhere.

We hope so, after spending this much time on it!

What kind of sound deadening mats are you using?

Uhh, it's not actually sound deadener... it's Peel and Seal from Lowe's. Google it! Same butyl backing as Dynamat, just not as thick. So we double wrap it. Works great and saves the customer a ton of money. We did the doors with less than four rolls, around $50 bucks worth.

[theastronaut]

We cleaned off the back of the fenders to see what the original primer color was... light gray. There was a very thin coat of Sahara Beige that would wipe off with wax and grease remover, we'll replicate this when we paint the fenders.






Mocked up the fenders to check their fit. The passenger side has a bulge at the bottom. We'll try to find another one since there are 5 long creases hiding under the paint; it's full of bondo.







The driver's fender was much better, it won't need much work to fit the door perfectly.





Didn't post this earlier, but we shot weld-thru coating on the door skin flanges.






Rust in the right rear cab corner.






Blasted, pinholes welded up, inner cavity painted with Chassis Saver. Used a long dauber to reach farther up into the cavity to get more paint in there.









Marking the door edge for cutting. I use 1/8" steel welding rods on the edges of the doors to reset the gaps.






Door edge cut back, inner/outer skins tacked together.




Nylon feeler gauge for checking the size of the gap.




Welding rod bend to fit the door edge, tacked in place.




Fully welded.




Welds smoothed. The gap is too small, but there is a full 1/8" of material to grind back without the edge splitting.

[theastronaut]

Shot the bed with PPG DPLF epoxy thursday night.





Masked and applied epoxy seam sealer Friday morning. Don't use blue tape for seam sealer, it's tough to get it back off without it tearing to shreds!











Turned the bed up so we could hammer/dolly the dents out of the bed floor.




Skim coated a few spots.

[MadMaxetc]

Looking killer!

What tape would you suggest for the sealer?

[rickairmedic]

Max the green is usually fine as it is more for automotive type work the blue is best left for the honeydo's inside the house . I learned this the hard way when I 2 toned my old aluminum starcraft boat and almost had to completely start over .


Rick

[MadMaxetc]

Green it is!

I also see you sealed the back edge of the bed. Do you have any other drainage paths? I plan on sealing it too and having a small hole (1/8") on every vally. I also plan to put a tonno cover and a rug in.

[theastronaut]

Looking killer!

What tape would you suggest for the sealer?

Green or yellow. I like the yellow 3M tape the best. Sticks better than green or blue, even when wetsanding around it. Peels off clean too.

Max the green is usually fine as it is more for automotive type work the blue is best left for the honeydo's inside the house . I learned this the hard way when I 2 toned my old aluminum starcraft boat and almost had to completely start over .


Rick

Yep, green works well. The places where the sealer even slightly overlapped the blue tape made the tape rip, then we had to cut the edge with a razor blade.

Green it is!

I also see you sealed the back edge of the bed. Do you have any other drainage paths? I plan on sealing it too and having a small hole (1/8") on every vally. I also plan to put a tonno cover and a rug in.

There were two small factory drains that we'll open back up. I'm not too worried about it since the owner will get a stern lecture about never having the truck out in the rain, or even washing it. These kind of restorations usually never get that dirty; just dust them and wipe over them with some quick detail spray.