Window frame cleaning and repair

Like the hood and the grill, I had to get down to metal and/or primer paint.  After about twenty minutes yesterday, here's what I had accomplished.

In the process of cleaning, I discovered this little flaw, which I've learned is a sign of rust exerting pressure on the metal to point where it splits.

I drilled out the seam to see what was inside.  It was not hollow, so I had to step up my treatment.

I just cut it off.  Here's what I found.  It's similar to what I've found in some of the hat channels that I've had to repair.  I cut it at an angle to make alignment during reattachment easier.

I drilled it out with a half inch bit as a start.

This hole was my attempt to find out where the packed mud stopped.

I beveled the edges so that the welds will penetrate deeper.

I welded up the holes I had drilled where the metal had split, as well as the main cut line.

I don't yet trust my welds enough to avoid or skip overdoing them.  So I found this scrap plate that will encircle where the split had been.

It's like a bracelet.  A bit thick, but it won't interfere with the operation of the window when it folds down, and it'll keep the piece from stress-cracking or flying apart, which is nice.

Today, I cleaned up yesterday's work and added a few more repairs to my to-do list.

Needed another band around where I'd cut it off to be as confident as possible in its strength.

At this point, I figured I was done.  Look how lovely smooth the bands are.

Not so.  Peeking into one of the cowl seal mounting holes, I found more of that mud/rust.  Out came the Sawzall to repeat the entire process one more time.

Cleaned out the hole and then welded it back together.

A third band smoothed out.

After dinner and the kids were in bed, I went back out in the garage to do a little more work.  I'm feeling the pressure to get these body parts done so that I can get to painting this rig.  First up this evening was a little rust treatment on the fenders.

Especially the battery box I installed.

Lots of bondo for the window frame.

Trying to smooth out the edges of the top band I welded in earlier today.

And the others.  Unfortunately, the bondo started to set up sooner than I had figured.

That thick junk will have to be sanded down significantly.

The tailgate patch needed another round of bondo.  I added more along the side edges to soften them.

Grill and firewall reinforcement

Cleaned the other half of the grill.  So shiny.

Found a dent under some bondo.  I'm going to leave it.  As with every other dent that isn't structural, it adds character.

More of the tailgate plate for greater firewall reinforcement.  This piece will be welded on the passenger compartment side.  Started, as before, with some spray paint to mark my holes.

Drilled them out so that I know for sure that the pedal assembly will mount up accurately.  I wasn't happy with how I aligned the holes from the engine-side, so this should work better.

Scrubbed and ready for fitment.

A rough draft, with the same paint-to-find-holes as before.  I was then able to drill a few big ones that will help hold the plate to the tub's existing firewall.

I had to remove some of the bedliner, but I'm okay with that.  I'll just primer it later with some of the black epoxy primer from TCP Global.

I bolted the plate in place to get it and the firewall as close as I could to weld them together.

Perimeter welds. and some of the plug welds done.

Partly welded and ground smooth.

Just about done.

It was tough to get the grinder up in here, but I was able to do decent enough job.  I have to make sure nothing is proud of the plate and may cause brake pedal assembly misalignment.

Paint prep

Today was all about getting the gray primer paint off so that I could put new stuff on.

I exposed some metal, but there's so little moisture that the tub won't develop any surface rust in the garage.

The hood was next.  The rubber bushings that the window frame folds down onto had to be popped off.

Most of the paint is gone.  This is some kind of base primer. Again, I'm not going down to bare metal.  Just not up for it.  Most of this work was done with 120 grit sandpaper on a DA sander.

I like this shot.