The driver mirror area, finally dressed out.
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Remember that small spot of rust on the driver wheel arch? The area around it was almost as bad. The area in behind is worse. Broncos have two layers here for reinforcement. The problem is that water and debris get in between the layers and eat away at the metal. Add to that the stainless wheel trim and it is a recipe for rust.
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The creased section was pulled out using a stud welder and slide hammer.
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The inner part of the driver rear wheel arch.
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This is the passenger side wheel arch. We decided not to believe that small speck of rust that was starting to show and removed the stainless to check.
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As expected, there is a problem, though not where the rust speck was.
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Close up of the rust hole. Note the fine sand and dirt mixed with the rust debris.
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The driver front fender had a few small areas needing smoothing with filler, mostly in the filled in holes for the Bronco badge of the truck we took these off of. Kurt didn't like the black and silver Bronco logo and preferred the chrome letters. But that emblem takes different holes.
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The passenger front fender had the same badge, so the holes were filled in and smoothed.
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The driver wheel arch, ready for welding in the replacement metal.
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While Kurt fixed the wheel arches, I used the time to find more minor spots.
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Before we reattached the cap shell, we sprayed a new layer of protective paint into the channel where the seals and cap shell would sit. New weather stripping was purchased all around. Most of the mildew had come from the leaking weather stripping as much as the hole for the gas tank.
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A different angle on the driver wheel arch.
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The driver door all dressed out and ready for paint.
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The passenger door had a couple of small dings as well.
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The replacement hood is rough. It had several colors on it and bubbling paint possibly due to heat in a couple of areas.
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Tha driver side wheel well took dressing out with filler after the welds were ground away. I have a body shape tool and I used the untouched passenger fender as a guide to be sure I got all the complex curves here correct.
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Once the rear wheel well was finished for metal work, I also worked on that dent in the rear driver fender. There was a shallow crease on the body side as well as the dent from the back.
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The passenger sail panel needed a bit more filler around one edge.
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The hood had small rust pits all over it. Against my better judgement, I was convinced to only take the hood and fenders down to a base layer instead of all the way to metal. Next time we do this my way. The new paint peeled up because the "base layer" did not adhere to the primer underneath.
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The rear driver fender dressed out and ready for paint.
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Once the driver fender had the correct shape, Kurt removed the bad metal from the passenger wheel well, both layers.
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The driver front fender dressed out and ready for paint.
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The underneath side of the hood was sprayed gloss black for easier touch up.
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Kurt patched the holes on the passenger inner rear fender with new metal, since it was worse than the driver inner rear fender.
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The welding is done on the passenger wheel arch.
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While Kurt is fixing up all the bolt ons, I'm still working on the body work. The passenger rear fender is the last spot to finish before paint.
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The passenger rear wheel arch is finally ready.
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The body work is all done. The new automatic transmission is in. Time to move it outside for paint.
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We painted the hood already while doing the rest of the body work. And the cap shell is already painted as well. So we just have to worry about the main body at this point.
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