1966 F100 Short Bed Styleside Metal/Body/Paint Work

[theastronaut]

Got started on the rear bumper.  The original has a deep offset in the middle that prevents it from being tucked in closer to the tailgate to close up the gaps, so I started looking into other options.  Decided to use a front bumper and take the curve out of it, so I ordered a cheap repop hoping it would be thinner than the original to be easier to reshape.  It ended up being 14g, much more workable than the originals.  





I used a reverse gear from an old transmission to linear stretch the top and bottom flanges until the curve was gone and the outer face of the bumper was flat.  









There were weird bumps stamped into the top flange of the bumper above the license plate mount area, I hammered those down then used a sand bag and mallet to bump the surrounding low spots up.  







Once the overall shape was roughed in I started picking/filing to prep it for chrome.  









The peaks of the stamping around the tag mount weren't consistent so I used a rounded over punch from the backside to tighten up the radii where needed, then filed it smooth and blended the transistions.  

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Clamped in place for the first test fit. It still needs the ends reshaped to match the width and shape of the bed, and the brackets need to be modified for it to bolt up.