A bit torn. Do body work now or wait?

[jhammel85]

So my truck needs body work done and I have just about everything I need to do it except for doors and a fender.

My worry is if i should basically piece meal the body work and do a little at a time over the winter or if i should wait and do body near the end of winter and paint in the spring.

My fear is that my truck is a daily driver and snow (salt) is always a problem. I dont want to do all this body work and prime it only to have it rust over the winter. Now i understand that the primer might seal and ill have to do the usual prep work before I paint in the spring regardless, it still worries me that I'll end up with a bad paint job if i dont do everything at once.

What do you think? Im itching to get out there and start welding!

 

[RonD]

I would do the body work now and prime it.
Reason being you may find other things that need tending to while doing this, which would mean more of a delay if you waited.
And any rust over the winter on repaired areas will just be surface rust and easily dealt with before final paint

 

[jhammel85]

I thought the same about the rust. Rust does creep though, you know? If I'm totally honest, i have cold feet. I shouldnt but I do.

Hmm, i should start a build on here.. Thanks again RonD

 

[dirtcowboy]

do the body work now, then use epoxy sealer. No rust. Primer absorbs water, could rust.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Yep, and try to seal the backside of the metal too if you can...

AJ

 

[jhammel85]

Will do. Thanks for the tips, all. I'm trying to save myself from headaches down the road. Outside of the typical dings and dents, I have rusty wheel wells to address (new panels are in my garage), Door Jamb rust, passenger side fender rust and a few pin holes here and there that need to be filled in. Overall, I've seen and dealt with worse but we'll see what happens when I get into it...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Will do. Thanks for the tips, all. I'm trying to save myself from headaches down the road. Outside of the typical dings and dents, I have rusty wheel wells to address (new panels are in my garage), Door Jamb rust, passenger side fender rust and a few pin holes here and there that need to be filled in. Overall, I've seen and dealt with worse but we'll see what happens when I get into it...

How are you dealing with the door jambs?

I haven't been able to find the pieces I need to fix mine.

 

[jhammel85]

Mine is rotted out as shown, except it has a hole all the way through now.

Luckily an awesome member on here had what i needed and chopped it out.

Its probably the only way to go unless you wanted to use metal mesh and bondo... Thats something the idiots before have all over my truck. Im making a build thread now so if you swing by sometime in the near future, you'll see the boulder of bondo coming out of my rear fenders. Literally a few inches thick..I'm doing my best to avoid bondo unless I'm skimming.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Yup, that is exactly what mine needs (not that bad though)

I wish LMC or somebody would get on the ball and make that piece. EVERY Ranger I have looked at in the JY is the same if not worse than mine so it must be pretty common.

 

[ab_slack]

Thanks for posting the question. Mine is in pretty good shape but last winter really beat up the paint around the fender wells bad and some serious surface rust has started to show.

Want to get at least those areas before they get any worse and protect up some others. Just not sure how to go about it really.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Thanks for posting the question. Mine is in pretty good shape but last winter really beat up the paint around the fender wells bad and some serious surface rust has started to show.

Want to get at least those areas before they get any worse and protect up some others. Just not sure how to go about it really.

I would like to coat the lower rockers with bedliner to give the gravel something to play with besides paint. The real stuff not the rattlcan crap.

Dunno if I am going black or tan yet though...

 

[jhammel85]

Yeah, there are quite a few body parts they dont have. As they gwt older, hopefully they'll start offering them.

Hell, im looking for the tailgate bushings on LMC right now. No dice.. They have them for third gens though so i suppose theres hope.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Yeah, there are quite a few body parts they dont have. As they gwt older, hopefully they'll start offering them.

Hell, im looking for the tailgate bushings on LMC right now. No dice.. They have them for third gens though so i suppose theres hope.

I don't know if first gens have bushings, I remember running into that when I picked up a different tailgate.

 

[jhammel85]

Oh really? Damn, well that might be why, lol. Mine rattles like crazy. It needs to be adjusted too.

I hope to find a decent tailgate around here soon. I dont really care fof the ss ford lettered panel i have on mine now. I wany a stamped ford tailgate. They just look perfect on a 1st gen.

 

[jhammel85]

I welded in my fenders and all seems well. I need to do a bit more of the detailed work like wet sanding it and all and i need to sand down an imperfection or two.

So if i shoot it with epoxy primer sealer, am i able to sand that down in a few months and do the wetsanding then? I just want to keep all of this sealed from the weather till then. I'd also hate to seal it and then wet sand it down, and then reseal it back up again if that causes problems. Im just too timid to let it stay primed all winter. I dont know enough about sealers...

Thanks again for everyones help.