body seams

[Fossil Dawg]

ok, what would y'all do;
1) weld em up
2) caulk em
3) use a good body filler
4) ?????????????

I don't know how I want to go yet, and I appreciate/value everyone's suggestions, it is not gonna be a show truck but an everyday driver that looks good hopefully.

Fossil

[69bumptruck]

Since it's a driver, I would vote for the seam sealer too. Alot easier to apply.

[averagef250]

Seam sealer! If you have a good body shop around you have them apply the seam sealer. Top-notch body shops use two-part epoxy seam sealer just like what's used on new cars. It's far better than anything any of us regular Joes can buy at a paintshop. The regualr single part seam sealer will expand and contract, cracking the paint in time.

[jzjames]

I used Por15 putty in the tube after thoroughly cleaning out the hood seam and roof seams. It seems to have worked. I totally made sure there was not a pinhole the entire length of the seam. Sanded with the folded edge of the sandpaper, and reapeated several times to eliminate all pinholes. It was time consuming, but the seams are in pretty good shape.

[FormerMarine1981]

Whats the best way to inspect the bed seam to see if it has major rust?

[averagef250]

Rust is always 10 times worse than it looks. Look at the seam a bit, see the rust in it, imagine in your head what it might look like inside the seam then multiply that by 5. That's how bad it really is.

[69rangerman]

I'm hoping this isn't a hi-jack...

Can the spot welds holding the lower fenders be drilled out and then the back sides of upper and lower flanges be POR'd or whatever?

Could you conceviably then reattach everything with hardware instead of welds?

[Galaxie64]

You are talking the rear fenders I assume, then taking the skin off the bed? Thats a good idea, although would take forever to get all the spot welds out. I am also curious what that would entail.

I haven't decided what to do with mine yet, I thought I wanted to weld it but don't know if I want to spend that kind of time on it.

[Fossil Dawg]

same here I will probably/most likely use the sealer then paint, I thank y'all for your input and time


Fossil

[f100ranger1969]

i think its been a hundred years since i posted here but this topic brought to mind some probs i fear i will have in restoring my truck. the bed seams are pretty rusty, especially on the one side. i will include a pic. with rust that bad is it possible for a good body man to fix so rust will not return. my experience has been that repaired rust always comes back as on my grandmothers 1991 buick that has been fixed three times in 4 years. the rust comes bubbling back in about 9-12 months. my ranger is a california orig owner with no other rust issues except the bed seams
anyway heres a look:

[FORDification]

Those pics show a pretty severe case of seam rot...and I'll step out on a limb and say that while anything can be repaired if you want to invest the time and money, that bed is not worth trying to save.

The formation of rust requires two things...moisture and oxygen. If rusted metal is either completely removed (by welding in fresh steel) or treated with a rust converter and then sealed, it probably won't return (or continue). However, in the case of that body seam, most folks don't bother with sealing the BACK SIDE of the seam which is in the wheelwell, and is where a majority of the moisture comes from that causes the rust in the first place. If the factory had made a solid weld along the entire length of that seam, where the upper and lower bedsides connect, we wouldn't have rust problems there. But because they spot-welded those panels together, moisture gets into the seam from the back side and is held in the open areas between the welds, and starts the corrosion process. The rust then progresses through to the outside of the box, finally reaching the factory seam sealer, which can't stick to the rust and falls out, and then you can finally see it....but by that time it's way too late for an easy fix.

The rust in your grandmother's Buick is basically the same scenario. Whoever is the 'bodyman' working on it hasn't been "fixing" it, only covering it up. He's not sealing off the SOURCE of the moisture, which is on the other side, so obviously the rust will continue to show up.