Best source for body panels

[Dan Crowley]

Hi Christopher, When you swap the Vin tag, you cut the metal, leaving about a 1/2" around the tag so that you can weld that piece into the new cab.  Do not drill out the tag it shelf, because the sticker inspectors will know that the tag has been changed.  I hope you understand what I am trying to say here.  Dan

[delco1946]

Thanks all for the suggestions! The body shop actually said its probably better/easier to just pull the roof dents out and re-shape it and then add more metal on top to smooth out. Hard for me to picture but he said no bondo, so I said sounds good.

They said the can reshape all panels except for the hood, but the right fender has me on the fence. It is $150 Ford surplus for 'new' Ford surplus which i think basically means NOS - i imagine it will cost the same or more to reshape the old fender so part of me is thinking it might be wiser to just buy the 'new' (old Ford surplus).

He confirmed that the paint codes and year are sufficient. Single stage paint will be cheaper and i'm leaning towards that as that is stock/original, plus I can polish it over the years vs a clear coat. However, my concerns are that the entire industry has switched to clear coats and base coats, presumably for good reason AND my paint is has a metallic flake which I think might oxidize faster with single stage paint.

The shop also said they have a guy who can recreate the cab stripping

They will POR15 any rust they see, including inside the cab walls and the interior. I'll get new carpet, too. I'll probably skip rebuilding the bench seat for now as this is already going to be crazy expensive.

They don't touch the aluminum trim, and some was damaged, but I can replace that on my own over time. It all needs to get polished anyway. The bed will have to wait until I become financially solvent again

[Gary Lewis]

Sounds great!  I'm so glad.  

But I think I agree with you on the fender.  A replacement might be better in the long run.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I would rather see a new (Ford) fender than have the shop spend even an hour pulling and beating on the crumpled one.

Single stage is what it is.
Where are you going to be 35 years from now?

[delco1946]

@Jim lol. Well i'm 'only' 35 now so I better still be kicking around these parts still. All the vehicles I have now are keepers in my mind so I plan to still have them for decades/til I die! I don't have kids (and no plans to have them either) so the vehicles are my kids.

1981 F250
1983 Datsun 280 (daily)
1955 Crown Victoria (summer daily)

[ArdWrknTrk]

I guess I mean to say that your paint is serviceable now.
And you take better care of it than it seen in the last ~35 years, so it should be fine.

Nothing wrong with 70, if you can recognize where you are and the world is still habitable.
I certainly hope petroleum will be viewed the same as whaling or slavery by then.


(No offence Gary.  )

[Gary Lewis]

Nothing wrong with 73 3/4.  

[farmboy60]

Hey how about us youngsters63 1/2

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, you are a youngster.  Ten years ago I was building the shop and working 8 - 10 hour days doing it.  Now I don't make it nearly that long on easier tasks.  

[delco1946]

Update - so the body shop working on my roof and they’re asking if I can just cut off an old truck roof to provide them so they can take the skin off. Any tips or tricks to do this, should I accept the challenge?

Also, I need new vent windows. The bottom metal piece is so rusted that it’s just breaking when they remove the vent assembly. I’ll be researching the usual candidates for parts, but i wondering if anyone has ordered new vent window assemblies and been pleased? I’m preferring nos, oem etc versus something from LMC simply for quality purps, but I’m sure my options will be limited.

Thanks

[Rusty_S85]

delco1946 wrote

Update - so the body shop working on my roof and they’re asking if I can just cut off an old truck roof to provide them so they can take the skin off. Any tips or tricks to do this, should I accept the challenge?

Also, I need new vent windows. The bottom metal piece is so rusted that it’s just breaking when they remove the vent assembly. I’ll be researching the usual candidates for parts, but i wondering if anyone has ordered new vent window assemblies and been pleased? I’m preferring nos, oem etc versus something from LMC simply for quality purps, but I’m sure my options will be limited.

Thanks

There are some junkyards out there that sell old car body parts.  I found one that I am waiting to get them to chop the door pillars off a '56 fordor so when I do the body work on my 56 I can just have the body shop chop out my rusted parts and graft the non rusted pillar parts in place.  Same place has some old ford trucks but not much I am waiting for them to get back to me if they still have the flareside bed on this one truck they got as I really want to get the fiberglass fenders at the very least.  Thinking about possibly trying to use it to make a mold to cast some new fiberglass fenders from or just using it to build a second flareside bed for a flareside trailer for my flareside truck.

Some of the new parts are good quality but I personally prefer NOS or good used pieces over new reproductions.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Passenger or drivers side?
I saw some NOS on U-techcenter a couple of months ago.
If you have a part number, even better.

If you don't know of U-haul's surplus pages. They have all kind of truck and van parts going back into the '70's!

But they have been on a binge lately, not bothering to list individual items, and selling pallets full of  things like 144 3G 7.3 Alternators for a couple of bucks apiece, and $75 shipping in the US.
IDK how much a pallet of alternators costs, but for $400 at your door it seemed crazy.

Their usual shipping is not even the price of packaging. (Ask Gary!)

I will do a search tonight, when I have some quiet time.

[FuzzFace2]

If you cut the pillars and rear window area down low enough it might be easier for the shop to cut your roof off and weld the other on than do patches.

On the vent window frames measure yours and any that you find.
There are 2 different frames out there.

If you do a search in my build thread under projects for vent window I am sure you will find the answer of how many.
The frames between the wing & door glass come thin & thick, think the thick is the later years and told you can use them if you also swap the door glass as it would be skinnier.

The thick frame was also longer and I could not fit it in my door IIRC.





The wing glass was the same between the 2 frames so I was able to come up with what I needed between my parts, the wrong frames that had the glass frames, and the right frames.
Dave ----

[ArdWrknTrk]

I had a look at U-techcenter.
Don't see those NOS '80-'86 vent windows listed any more.

They were dirt cheap too...  

[Rusty_S85]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

I had a look at U-techcenter.
Don't see those NOS '80-'86 vent windows listed any more.

They were dirt cheap too...  

I feel responsible for that considering I always buy NOS parts from the U-tech ebay pages lol.

Where I got my NOS 82 flareside fuel tank sending unit from for $45.  Sadly they dont have any 85-86 16gal fuel tank sending units for my EFI conversion and there are only two listings last time I looked on ebay both over $100.

[delco1946]

Thanks for looking for me! I did see the “upside down 7” shaped metal piece that wraps around the vent glass for sale - a whole 10 bucks!

This is the piece that’s rusted and broken for me - anyone know If this screws into the vertical rail or is it all one piece? If so I might be able to Frankenstein together one complete vent assembly. I left the original vent assembly at the shop, unfortunately.

Regardless, I’m excited to check U-techcenter regularly. Thanks for the tip!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Dave's photos above offer better details than I can put into words.

[delco1946]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Dave's photos above offer better details than I can put into words.

Can’t tell from the photos, but Murphy’s should dictate that they are all one piece as that would be the least helpful for me. Worst case I’ll stop by the body shop sometime this week to pick up the parts and figure out a strategy.

[FuzzFace2]

The glass frame dose come off the main vent window / door glass divider.

You undo the nut & spring at the bottom you see in the pictures.
Then at the top IIRC there are 2 screws that hold the top pivot to the vent window / door glass divider frame.
Once the screws to the top pivot are removed the vent glass frame and be tilted away from the main frame and the bottom pivot pulled from the main frame.

Is that the answer you were looking for?

To remove the vent frame from the glass I think I would use a cut off wheel and cut it off from the bottom of the "U". Just watch heat that it does not get to hot for the glass but with the felt / glue part between the frame & glass I think you should be ok.

I think you can also heat it up to soften the felt / glue that is used to hold the glass in and tap the metal part off the glass. Again watch the heat on the glass.

I don't know if you can still get that felt / glue stuff but if you take it to a glass shop and they use the same stuff they use on new cars & trucks for the windshields just note you will need to space the glass out some to take up for the felt not being used.
The space will be on both sides and the bottom as the glass will now sit to low in the frame.

I will not tell you how I know about this spacing if not using the felt / glue stuff
Dave ----