Josh's Bronco II Body Restoration Thread

[Shran]

But a word of warning, those cheap mig welders have a high and low setting, and even on low, you can easily burn a hole in body panels try to weld them. I have one and the can be a challenge to work with. Strangely enough, body work is all mine's ever used for.

Yeah it takes a lot of practice to get it dialed in just right. Wire speed has a lot to do with how well it works too.

I have a Craftsman 110v MIG, AKA Clarke 110v, AKA Harbor Freight 110v... funny how everybody sells the same stuff.

 

[PetesPonies]

I have used Clarke MIGs for over 20 years. I like them. I even bought them for my school and taught with them. They offer some good quality equipment at a reasonable price. If they are supplying for elsewhere, I can't vouch for what they are using. But the one's I have used and own have been high quality.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

It looks like you have the hatch with the wiper. Could you take pics of the water and elec. routing? Especially where it goes through the roof. I forgot on the one I removed and the body is crushed.
Thanks,

Richard

 

[Shran]

I have used Clarke MIGs for over 20 years. I like them. I even bought them for my school and taught with them. They offer some good quality equipment at a reasonable price. If they are supplying for elsewhere, I can't vouch for what they are using. But the one's I have used and own have been high quality.

Same here, my only complaint is the duty cycle on high...but what do you expect for an inexpensive tool. That's what I have my 220v stick welder for anyway.

 

[88B2EB]

It looks like you have the hatch with the wiper. Could you take pics of the water and elec. routing? Especially where it goes through the roof.

PM sent

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Pm received.
Thanks,

Richard

 

[88B2EB]

Took off the liftgate last night by ratchet strapping it to the garage rafters, unbolting, and lowering the straps one by one. I do the same thing when taking the box off my Ranger and it really makes easy work of an otherwise impossible job. Will need another day or so to remove the remaining door latches, weatherstripping, etc. and then finally can get back to the rust.

 

[88B2EB]

Well after spending most of the weekend in the garage I was able to finish grinding/sand blasting off all the rust. That picture I posted before of the passenger wheelwell seemed to be the worst of it.

If you remember from before I'd been nervous about the driver wheelwell since there was evidence of previous body work there but was pleasantly surprised to see it had been done right, so it stays. In the picture you can see the outline of a patch panel just behind the door and another centered over the wheelwell.

Here's a closeup of the patch panel.

Under the driver door, pretty solid.

Above the hatch door, really glad I took the liftgate off and found this.

Passenger side was much better.

Found a small hole starting behind the driver side tail light. It'll get tapped in with a hammer and covered with fiber reinforced filler.

Same with the driver door corner. At least 4 body panels come together at this point and it just seemed to catch all the rust.

Well that's the worst of it. Everything else was just surface rust. I'd hit any paint bubble with a grinder until I got to good metal and then sand blast the 'black' off the metal and follow up with Duplicolor 'Rust Fix' to protect the spot until it's time to paint.

Me working on the driver door with the die grinder. That stupid headband flashlight definately gets my tool of the year award.

An overall in the garage. Where's a pole barn when you need one?

Next is fiberglass/resin for the passenger wheelwell and new putty for a few of the panel joints (Some direction on both of these would be really helpful).

Until next time

 

[PetesPonies]

Yes that is a good patch. You are in good shape.

 

[88B2EB]

Yes that is a good patch. You are in good shape.

Glad to hear that coming from an Auto body instructor I know it's good. I had fully expected to find bondo over a big rusty hole there (plan for the worst I guess) but was relieved to find the professional patch job. There's also what appears to be closed cell insulating foam sprayed on the repair from the inside that I would guess helps keep air off the patch. Is that common? It surprised me quite a bit when I took the interior trim off and saw it.

If anybody could offer some direction on replacing some of the panel joint epoxy (along drip edge, etc.) and tips on applying fiberglass it would really help.

 

[PetesPonies]

ex instructor I would say not that is not common. If I can in any way get to the rear of the panel, I definitely paint it. I use a rust paint to seal the weld. It's a very good idea to seal up the backside if at all possible.

 

[88B2EB]

Recent purchases:

- Sand paper (60 to 600 grit wet/dry). I'm lucky enough to have a neighborhood industrial tool store just a few lots down from me that had them for $.49 each. Can't beat it!
- DA Sanding disks (80 to 320 grid). About $3 per 5 pack.
- Stick of 3M Ultrapro Sealant ($18) - for a few of the badly cracked panel joints (Didn't know what to call it when I was asking before).
- 3M Fiberglass/Resin Repair Kit. The smallest quantity FinishMaster had was a gallon of resin and basically a pillowcase full of fiberglass cloth (that's about a 100 year supply for me!) so I looked a bit and found this kit from AutoZone for $20. Much better.
- Duraglass filler with red hardener ($32) and regular filler with black hardener ($14). No idea why the hardener tubes are different colors...

Started taping off. It's probably a bit early for that but with the heat lately I haven't been able to do much else. We've been in the 90's here all week and today got to 100. Hoping it'll cool off a bit this weekend so I can make some progress.

 

[PetesPonies]

I use different color hardeners for filler. I use red and blue. You do that to be able to tell easily when you are sanding that you have gone through the top layer and are into the layer beneath. It is actually quite useful this way. And it's not always bad to go through that's not the point. But knowing at what level you are is helpful.

 

[88B2EB]

Now it makes sense.

 

[88B2EB]

Big thanks to Jim Oaks who I'm gathering wrote the tech article on bodywork. Without it I would have given up a long time ago.

It cooled off for the weekend and I was able to spend a lot of time in the garage.

Fiberglass: The outer panel got 3 layers of fiberglass/resin via an access hole under the jack compartment and the inner panel got 2 layers inside the wheelwell.

Here's inside the wheelwell. Sorry for the bad picture it was a little cramped in there.

And the fiber reinforced duraglass filler: I also applied it thinly over the fiberglass inside the wheelwell for better weather protection.

Sanded smooth:

First coat of regular filler: 1 or 2 more coats will be needed to get everything nice and smooth. It's covering paint a little right now but after sanding there should be a nice smooth transition from paint to metal to filler.

I used to work as a drywall finisher and it surprised me how similar it is to applying body filler. If anyone's ever done drywall, bondo's like durabond on steroids. In 5 minutes it's to stiff to work with and by 10 minutes the bondo's hard as a rock.