First step was to remove the majority of the odor, starting with the carpet. The carpet was removed and trashed due to mildew. The floorboards had very minimal rust, mostly in the driver footwell area.
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Overall the floorpan was solid.
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The previous owner had to fix the fuel sending unit in the tank. There are two ways to do this, either drop the 32 gallon tank, or cut into the floorpan. He choose to cut the floorpan and did save the cut out piece, but since it was a flush fit, there was no way to seal this easily. Need to fix that before we hit the trails.
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The cut hole was treated for rust and the edge smoothed. Cap shell weatherstrip will be added around the edge for an airtight and watertight seal.
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The cutout piece had a new edge added, spot welded into place and seam sealed to be watertight.
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The moisture caused the headliner to turn loose. But that is an easy fix.
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So why is there a significant water stain on the driver wheelwell carpet?
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The rear cargo area interior panels look ok, just in need of a thorough scrubbing.
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Once the majority of the smell was gone, the next step was to weatherproof the truck - starting with that sticking rear window. We pulled the front of the dash off to get to the window switch.
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Kurt removed the cover from the tailgate to work on the rear window problem.
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The cover plate is in good condition.
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Guess where we spent New Years Day 2016. Betcha didn't guess a local pick-a-part salvage yard gathering interior bits, a hood, and front fenders for the Bronco. And parts for a friends 2002 Ranger. And another 1994 Ranger. And a 1994 Cherokee. And a 1991 Miata. And ... a Pizza Hut car topper. Long story.
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The inside of the fiberglass cap shell is in very good condition.
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Recall the interior panels from the salvage yard were gray. Well, not any more. Kurt sprayed them red to match the rest of the interior.
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With the interior stripped, the old heat and sound proofing was removed, as were the door and cargo bay panels Now we can check out the rust stains and maybe find the cause of the water stain on the driver wheel well.
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The passenger wire tray has some surface rust.
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The driver wire tray is much worse, but still all just surface rust.
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The driver door has a high water mark inside, along with rust and mud. This Bronco has been mudding, not just off-roading.
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The passenger door is not as bad as the driver door.
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Kurt wanted to waterproof and protect the floorpan, so he decided to coat it with a spray in bed liner. We taped off everything we did not want the bedliner on.
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The bedliner would also protect the tailgate. The little square in the center of the tailgate is the reworked gas tank access cover.
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The tailgate access panel had been sprayed black but was prepped for bedliner as well.
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One thing about the bedliner, it does not bounce. At all. It is so heavy that it drops and stay, so there was minimal risk to the dash getting overspray.
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The tailgate access panel coated in bedliner.
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The front floorpan with the bedliner. This should also help, albeit minimally, with heat and sound.
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The rear cargo area with the bedliner. Not having a cap shell on made spraying this so much easier.
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The rear wheel well carpet was cleaned thoroughly and sprayed red to match the rest of the interior. We added the soundproofing mat to reduce the vibration noise from the long body panels.
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Even with a good scrubbing and redye, the water stain is still visible on the driver side wheel well carpet. We only found a couple of large screw holes where something had been screwed into the wheelwell, then removed. The holes were plugged, so hopefully the cause is fixed.
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