'66 F100 Custom Cab Short/Styleside Factory Correct Resto

[Gritsngumbo]

Stunning work!
I hate to be the one to rain on your parade but those wheels you have aren't correct,
they are for "outtie" hubcaps - Slicks had "innie" hubcap wheels.
I have on my phone a picture of an original Paint Quality stamp from one of these trucks.
I have really enjoyed reading through your build.

66s had outies Greg

Mike

Correct! With these caps.

[theastronaut]

Good job. Body work is a pain but I kinda enjoy it. Those rotisseries make life a lot easier. I built mine and it was 2 years before I used it. Got a truck bed on it now. Keep the pictures coming.

from Eastern North Carolina.

Lonnie

Thanks Lonnie! The first truck I restored was done on the frame, owner's didn't want to go full-tilt. I had to bodywork, sand, wetsand, and paint the inside of the cab's metal headliner without it on a rotisserie... last time that'll happen!

Stunning work!
I hate to be the one to rain on your parade but those wheels you have aren't correct,
they are for "outtie" hubcaps - Slicks had "innie" hubcap wheels.
I have on my phone a picture of an original Paint Quality stamp from one of these trucks.
I have really enjoyed reading through your build.

The wheels are stamped '66 inside the rim so I'm pretty sure they're the original wheels. It had the full wheel covers so the innie/outtie bumps wouldn't matter anyways. Thanks for following along, glad you like the progress so far!

Stunning work!
I hate to be the one to rain on your parade but those wheels you have aren't correct,
they are for "outtie" hubcaps - Slicks had "innie" hubcap wheels.
I have on my phone a picture of an original Paint Quality stamp from one of these trucks.
I have really enjoyed reading through your build.

66s had outies Greg

Mike

Stunning work!
I hate to be the one to rain on your parade but those wheels you have aren't correct,
they are for "outtie" hubcaps - Slicks had "innie" hubcap wheels.
I have on my phone a picture of an original Paint Quality stamp from one of these trucks.
I have really enjoyed reading through your build.

66s had outies Greg

Mike

Correct! With these caps.

It had full wheel covers, just like this truck. Actually the whole truck is identical as far as colors/wheel/whitewalls. Just didn't have bumper guards.

[theastronaut]

Picked up the bed from the blaster today. The left side won't need much at all to be perfect. The right side is caved in pretty bad and the corner has been "worked on" before.

[skidoorulz]

Not to long ago there was an NOS right side short box side that did not sell on Ebay. It was a complete side including the rear corner. You might do some research on there and find it. Seems like it was out on the east coast somewhere

[theastronaut]

I found a left side but not a right side. He says it's over 8" long so its probably for a long bed unless he's talking about the length of what it would be in a crate.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-64-65-66-FO ... 5c&vxp=mtr

[skidoorulz]

Keep looking. The one I saw was definatly a right side short box NOS body part. It was in ruddy brown or red oxide primer and had the part number in yellow stamped on it. I think 800 was the buy it now price. It comes and goes I have seen it probably 4 times in the last year. The seller has a ton of all kinds of NOS parts for everything.

[theastronaut]

I couldn't find it in either current or completed listings, I tried quite a few search terms. $800 wouldn't be bad compared to the cost of fixing what he has, and the insides of the panels would look better, especially the corner.

[Gritsngumbo]

The "full" car-type wheel covers you show (as well as others) were an option in 1966 (not sure if it was a factory or dealer option). The "dog dish" type that I posted were the "standard" hub caps.

[totten]

I have them wheel covers on my 66. DC sells them for 95.00 each. Thanks for the pictures,Tony

[Toyz]

Can't wait until you get to the trim and grille! I have tried a bunch of approaches for straightening and preserving; but really have not found anything totally satisfactory. I'm to the point of straightening and sending out for chroming.
Paul

[Mongrel]

Daaaaaaaammmmmmmnnnnnnnnn!

Nice! Love all the details...

JB

[Gritsngumbo]

Impressive build. I'm watching each post with baited breath. Very jealous.

[theastronaut]

The "full" car-type wheel covers you show (as well as others) were an option in 1966 (not sure if it was a factory or dealer option). The "dog dish" type that I posted were the "standard" hub caps.

I think they were a dealer option, a guy on FTE posted that he remembered waiting in the showroom while the dealership installed A/C and hubcaps on his dad's new truck.

I have them wheel covers on my 66. DC sells them for 95.00 each. Thanks for the pictures,Tony

Already picked up a set from DC! And welcome!

Can't wait until you get to the trim and grille! I have tried a bunch of approaches for straightening and preserving; but really have not found anything totally satisfactory. I'm to the point of straightening and sending out for chroming.
Paul

A guy on the 67-72chevytrucks.com recommended this place for stripping, straightening, buffing, and reanodizing the original trim. His work looks great from the pictures he posted, and he says everything will be better than new/NOS since he straightens out some of the factory wrinkles.

http://kingoftrim.com/

Daaaaaaaammmmmmmnnnnnnnnn!

Nice! Love all the details...

JB

Thanks JB!

Impressive build. I'm watching each post with baited breath. Very jealous.

Thanks, about to post today's progress.

[theastronaut]

We prepped and primed the tailgate and inner fenders today using PPG DX579 Metal Cleaner, DX520 Metal Conditioner, and DPFL epoxy.




I used a shrinking disc to straighten between the letters on the tailgate. Only high build primer should be needed to get this area 100% flat.




Inner fenders. We'll bodywork these tomorrow and shoot them with high build primer.




Bent wheel arch on bedside.




Started straightening that area.




Found rust in the front of the bed floor, so we cut out the floor and found more hidden rust underneath. We'll have to patch up the bed floor and replace the front floor brace, and bottom of the header panel.

[theastronaut]

Finished cutting out the front brace and bed floor this morning. Having a fab shop bend a new brace, just the center part since the outer edges bend up. The outer bed floor panels weren't rusted through but we knew they'd be hidden rust so we went ahead and cut them out.







Brace and header bottom cut out.




Drilled the spotwelds out of the bed mount plates and crush spacers to swap onto the new brace.






Inner fenders bodyworked and shot with black high build.






I taped over the stamping details to keep the primer from covering them up. This way the details stay sharp.








Started working on the fender lip, smoothed out a crease on the right rear corner, and did some heat shrinking and hammer/dolly work below the lower body line. Forgot to get after pics.

[theastronaut]

We had a local fab shop bend a new floor brace using the old one as a pattern. We blasted the end pieces, then I aligned them and welded them on.


Set the middle section on a flat table and checked the angle with a level. A very expensive level.




Used a note pad as an adjustable shim to level the two end pieces.




.15 degree difference. Within spec.




Tacked it in place on the table, then fully welded and smoothed.




The floor panel had plenty of rust holes. I used copper tubing as a backer on the curved areas, and copper tubing with one end flattened for the flat areas. The welds won't stick to copper and keeps the metal from blowing through. Less cleanup on the other side too.











Prepped and primed all of the floor pieces. Ready to weld these back in.

[theastronaut]

Got the floor back in place today. First the corners of the floor, then the brace, then the center section of the floor.


Outer panels clamped in place.






Welded in.






Welds ground down.






Inner crush sleeve and outer mount plates welded in place in the new floor brace.




Floor brace clamped in place.




Spot weld holes line up perfectly.




Center floor section aligned and clamped in place. This was a CHORE to get all the ridges exactly lined up since the panel "grew" when it was removed. Each hump had to be hammer/dollied in place starting from the center and working out. It took about two hours just to align and tack weld the center floor in place. Time spent here will make the bodywork that much easier though.






Slight dip in the center that will be worked out before fully welding the panel in.

[Max]

I cut out and replaced the exact same section of bed floor in mine towards the front of the bed. Up and down and up and down with the welds over those ribs.

[dennyboy]

That is some very nice work there buddy!

[slickstysix]

I marvel at your bodywork skills... Nice job!