Ford F150 rocker panels and wheel arch repair

[pfarber]

Video of the shit that is a Ford:



Door with all panels and harnesses out:

20181009_174205.jpeg (174.14 KiB) Viewed 58059 times

I heard the door was supposed to be heavy... so I rigged up a support. Door was about 50lbs.. not to bad.

20181009_174137.jpeg (175.49 KiB) Viewed 58059 times

Rear door off.

20181009_174153.jpeg (146.21 KiB) Viewed 58059 times

[pfarber]

Second day at it... a few mistakes. Always have more drill bits than you think you will ever need. Luckily Lowes and Harbor Freight had everything I needed for less than $20.

[pfarber]

Rusty bolts == general lack of progress.

[pfarber]

A little more done yesterday. Not much really. Bed off, rocker fitted... still need to shuffle some the garage around to weld on the bed.

[pfarber]

Almost zero work done... but did get some all of my paint stuff together... and I did fix the overhead light.. bad transformer. Luckily I had a second 8ft fixture that I never installed to replace it with so now there is plenty of light. I'll need it when I start to Mig the panels.

I did drive Uber for 4 hours. Didn't do so great. Only $35.. barely enough to cover gas for the night.

And yes, I made a few small mistakes explaining the stuff... so what, its not like you're paying for a professional course in painting.

[pfarber]

Rocker panel off! But I spent most of the day digging out my 4x8 sheet of 20gauge steel I had for years. Will make templates and get some rustoleum paint for sealing up the inside tomorrow. Hopefully will get to weld the rocker on.

[pfarber]

Rearranged the garage... not much done.

[pfarber]

After a week of vacation and a week of the cold/flu (don't care which one) I finally got some work done.. a TINY amount.

Went to the junk yard to get a bracket that supported the inner rocker panel. The old one's flanges rusted off and the metal is to rusted to do a quick 'weld an L bracket to and call it done'. The bracket is part of the cab floor support and actually crosses under the entire cap as one big transverse stamping. So I needed to cut it off the donor truck. The rockers on the donor truck were in great condition.. I felt kinda bad doing this to it:

20181031_143108.png (278.96 KiB) Viewed 57939 times

You can see the spot welds I needed to cut to get the bracket off. Once drilled I sawz-alled the other side and BAM done in like 30 minutes.

But since I am still a little under the weather I didn't get to do much more once I got home.. had to pass out candy for the kiddo's.

I'm eyeing up the bed on this truck.. it looks close to what I need but it would need a total repaint. I only have about $250 in sheet metal bought and the truck bed would only be $150 from the yard I'm seriously considering buying it. Its in MUCH better shape than mine but I am only 60% sure it will look right. The early 2004 F150s had a weird 'Heritage model' that was really a 2003 labeled a 2004. Since the build date on this donor truck is 12/03 that makes is 2004 model year but also a possible 'Heritage' model. The bed does look different on the inside, but I really only care about the body lines. Tomorrow will be a nice day so I'll take another look at it and then also see what other parts I need to cut off for the rockers.

[pfarber]

Used the junk yards engine hoist (free if you have it less than an hour) to carry the bed to my trailer.

20181112_151145.png (345.04 KiB) Viewed 57878 times

20181112_151132.png (322.89 KiB) Viewed 57878 times

[pfarber]

I got two words to say: COLD AS HELL!!!!!

[pfarber]

Still cold, just got back from looking at an airplane I might buy.

[pfarber]

Finally got my lard butt out to the garage and did more work.



And after the fuel tank is off

[pfarber]

[pfarber]

The website for the F150 frame section repair is: https://www.autorust.com/

framecap1.JPG (149.16 KiB) Viewed 56641 times

From my video I was trying to remember if they notched out the cab mount.. they did. So will I. Yay for saving some work.

If you look at the web site you'll see typical 2004-2008 F150 frame rust at the sloped part.

[pfarber]

PROGRESS!!!!

My welder is acting up.. may need some new parts or switch to GMAW and .025 wire.