Not only did the floorboards have the usual rust, so did the rear wheel
wells and the rocker panels.
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The outer rocker panel was pretty solid metal,
with some putty. But the inner rocker panel was almost non-existant.
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Closeup of the inner rocker panel, what there
was of it.
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Both the inner rocker panel and the outer rocker
panel were removed, weld areas cleaned up, and prepped for the new metal.
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What was left of one inner rocker panel.
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The inner rocker panel was welded into place.
The helmet was pinstriped by our daughter as a practice piece.
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To prevent future problems, the inner rocker panel
was coated in POR 15 to seal it.
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The outer rocker panel was braced into place.
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Clamps held the rocker panels in preparation for
welding.
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Dad was brave, letting his 13 year old son spot
weld the rocker into place. Kurt is leaning against the kid's Ranchero,
supervising.
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The back edge ended up with a very ugly weld to
dress out.
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The kid did a pretty good job spot welding. He
had to get practice somewhere as his Ranchero is next.
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The original tailgate was too bad to reuse so
Kurt located a replacement, but even that one had problems.
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Both lower corners had rust holes that had to be welded up.
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Someone did a very bad body job at some point.
The Bondo here is almost a 1/2" thick!
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These holes show the reason for the Bondo.
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The rear fender had several shallow dents that
had layers of putty in them.
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Several colors decorate the steel under the turquiose
paint.
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Even the back passenger door had lots of putty.
Not only had the front of this car been in an accident at some point,
but the passenger rear most likely was as well.
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The passenger side was stripped of paint before
the body left the frame.
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Even the doors had rust in the corners.
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Small pinhole rust spots in the passenger rear
door. The offset was hidden by the putty.
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The driver's side rocker was replaced as well and in doing so, Kurt
found major problems with the door jamb and dogleg area. A doner was
found, the rust cut out and replaced as well.
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Even the inside of the roof had rust.
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The inside window channels had surface rust.
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The rear hatch trim had rust. While this isn't
too surprising, the drip rail also had rust.
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The other end of the hatch trim
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The passenger side inside window channel and door frame had rust.
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