Replacing Rusted Cab Corners With Panel Adhesive - (way too many pics)

[Casual_Reader]

that pesky door jamb area...

I fitted the driver' side first and the door jamb section of the corner fit in well after I flattened the section of the truck's jamb that I mentioned earlier. The lip on the corner that lays flat against the jamb would have to be smoothed over with bondo, but no big deal as it's inside the door.

However... the passenger side caused a change of plans. The jamb section of that corner was over an 8th inch wider than the driver's side was... with the lip against the body, the corner was an 8th off from being flush with the outer body at both top and bottom.

Options... cut off the lip or cut off the flattened part and perhaps slide the lip behind it. The lip is maybe a quarter inch wide so the adhesive bond would be weak (either way it's done). I ended up cutting the lip off both sides so they'd be the same.

With the lip gone, adhesive in this section is out of the question. The section is 4" long, but the upper inch of it is glued to the side of the backing flange, so only 3 inches will be unsecured.

Options... have that section welded / tacked in... or put a bed of bondo glass on the flattened part of the jamb and bury the edge of that jamb section into it when gluing it all up. I'm leaning toward the latter. The bondo glass is tough stuff and should be fine in that short section.

seems I've hit the pic upload limit... links below

https://www.dropbox.com/s/40ym51uu6ehb2aa/p160.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/njhg84cxy3bswmp/p161.jpg?dl=0

 

[Casual_Reader]

With the change of plans, I re-bent the piece that I had previously bent back flat to sandwich the bondo glass.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/do0y087qd74z0bu/lip.jpg?dl=0

 

[Casual_Reader]

masked off the gluing surfaces and coated the rest with etching primer and basement shelf paint... flat black high heat that she got for a grill? Ended up unused until now... new grill!

A bit of tracing with a sharpie and best guessing was involved.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xmnv11zuul1ol8c/paint.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzmq3nvowqhmwk8/taped and painted.jpg?dl=0

 

[Casual_Reader]

ok - milked about as much fun I could out of all of this - time to glue it on.
A 50 count box of self tapping screws and washers came in handy. Bondo glass will seal the holes up later.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sz4dilr014qyff9/screws out.jpg?dl=0

flap wheels for the grinder are great...but don't last that long.

an incandescent light is the cause of the bronze reflection.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0kgn549km79vbj/flap wheel.jpg?dl=0

 

[Casual_Reader]

Bondo glass!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fq1ieie4yfbh7n7/bondo glass.jpg?dl=0

a rough coat for now... The bondo glass is water proof. Regular top coat bondo is not (contains talc?). Once I put bondo over it, I'd need to coat it with primer, at the very least. Paint is out of the question for a while.

The delay is the weather... a 10 day "lost in transit" (USPS ground that took the long way home) delay of the panel adhesive really destroyed the schedule. Once it arrived, winter hit and slowed me down. And now, I'm in the middle of a cold snap... Highs below 20 for as far as the eye can see.

It'll have to stay like this until I get a window of opportunity where I can work for more than a half hour without my fingers going numb. I'll be able to flash primer dry with a heat gun... but think I'll wait 'til much better weather for the final, much thicker, paint

 

[Casual_Reader]

ah - forgot to mention what panel adhesive I used.

http://www.evercoat.com/adhesives/us/

$50 on amazon... in hindsight, I should have sprung for the faster shipping.

Much cheaper than hiring someone to sit and weld those two in for me.

I went with the 815 long working time version... because I'm a newb and wasn't pressed to rush the job out the door like a pro would be.

the obvious advantage of this brand is that it doesn't need a special $100 gun to dispense it. You'll definitely need a heavy duty caulk gun... the strongest one you can find because it take a lot of squeezing to get it out and through the mixing tip..... still a lot cheaper than a $100 specialized gun that I'd only use a couple of times.

All in all, I'd do it that way again... it allowed me to treat the rust behind the corner the way I wanted.

One tube goes a long way - next up, a matching pair of these:
https://www.fixmyrust.com/Item/1993-2011_Ranger_Rear_Lower_Section_of_Bed_Driver_Side