1966 F100 Short Bed Styleside Metal/Body/Paint Work

The owner decided to do away with the stock column and column mount and use an Ididit column instead. I cut out the original opening and welded in a smooth panel to prep it for the new mount.

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I made a doubler panel for the clutch M/C to sandwich to stiffen the firewall and prevent flexing from the added pressure. I just freehanded the beads so it's not the best looking but it's functional. The Pullmax came with beading dies but they wouldn't work to make intersecting beads without flatting the first bead at the intersection point. I carved out a new lower die to match the original, but with a relief to clear the first bead.

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Welded up some random holes, and smoothed/straightened the 90* edge across the firewall.

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The clutch switch needed a mount, so I used 16g with slots cut for it to clip into.

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16g wasn't quite thick enough for it to clip in tightly, so I dimpled the slots to tighten the fit. There are curled plastic tabs to tension the tabs against the slots.

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I got the cab about 90% blasted over the weekend. The owner came by this morning to drop off the new column and swivel mount so I installed it after lunch. I stuck the pedals back in so he could make sure the gas pedal was in the correct position for him before I weld the mounting bracket to the firewall.


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When I was blasting a pinhole opened up on one of the cowl boxes, so I stuck my phone in the cavity to see what it looked like from the inside. There was some scabby dark patches that indicated deeper pitting so I went ahead and cut both sides open.

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Patterns made and transferred to 18g.

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I used the vice, a delrin block to back it, and a rounded over chisel to form the drains.

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Forming the drains shortened the flange from the steps added so it made the panel curve. Before and after stretching to make it flat again. I also added an extra drain to help prevent water building up in the future.

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While i was working around the cowl area I made a template of the vent openings so I could make block off plates.

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The owner requested that I "clean up" the transition between the bottom of the dash and the column. The lower flange was oddly shaped and had a really oversize cut out to mount the column. The new mount on the Ididit column was taller than it needed to be so there was a large gap between the column and face of the dash.

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The tabs of the mounting bracket hung down pretty far, making them visible.

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I taped steel wire to the wiring harness so I could pull it back out of the way of the bracket area, then cut the bracket off and shortened it.

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Column back in place, bracket tabs no longer show.

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I made a couple of filler plates to finish out the opening between the column and lower dash flange.

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One side finished to show the difference.

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Man, you do some clean work!
Thanks!!


I pulled the column to finish up the filler panels.

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While the pedal assembly was out I found a spot to mount the clutch safety switch. Had to carve out a spot for the stem to make enough clearance, so I used a 1/2" round carbide burr to make the face of the cut concave, that way the convex face of the stem will always center itself on the pedal arm.

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Forgot to take pics, but I chopped the clutch pedal pad off and raised it up to match the height of the brake pedal pad. Also slightly tweaked the brake pedal pad to get it inline with the clutch pad.

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I ordered cowl bottoms a few weeks ago but UPS sent an email about the address being wrong, so delivery was delayed until last week. They're very nicely made, probably the best fitting patch panels I've used.

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Trimmed, shipping primer stripped, two coats of epoxy applied, and welded on.

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The cavity is accessible so I brushed on a couple of coats over the welds and soaked the seams to let epoxy wick in and seal up the spot welds.

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I made a panel to mount the fuse box so there would be no fasteners through the firewall.

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Also deleted the original pressed-in wiper motor mounting boss- welded up the holes and welded a nut between a couple of fender washers to make a new mounting pad for the wiper motor. The accelerator pedal mount got welded in permanently after confirming that the location fits the owner.

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The firewall to kick panel flange was really wavy around the spot welds so that was straightened, then I ground back the edges until the height of all the layers matched. (I thought more of this was visible, but it's mostly hidden under the inner fenders after test fitting them.)

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The flange of the cowl skin was wrinkled and uneven so I trimmed both sides before final blasting.

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With those spots finished up I rolled it out and blasted the inner layers of the cowl sides that were cut open, and I lightly blasted over the floor, firewall inside and out to prep for two coats of epoxy.

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I started bodyworking the firewall by skimming the upper face and flange.

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Once both sides were filled/blocked into the correct shape and straight I masked off the inside corner and used a spreader with the corner rounded off to make an even radius from side to side.

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Floor pan and tunnel welds smoothed up enough for Raptor Liner.

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Starting to straighten out the stamping distortion in the firewall.

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Another coat of epoxy to seal the filler and extend the 7 day recoat window. Both mom and dad have had covid for the last 2.5 weeks so I wasn't able to get much done within the first 7 day window. They're both doing much better now and things should be back to normal soon.

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Now that my fingertips have grown back enough to type out an update... This is the real reason shaved firewalls are so popular lol.

I finished skimming and correcting the distortion in the firewall, then shot it with a few coats of Clausen All-U-Need. I've been wanting to try it since it's waterproof and is supposed to sand easier than Slick Sand, which I believe it does now that I have some experience with it.

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The top section and it's flange was sanded flat up to 150 grit, keeping the edge of the paper slightly off the edge of the block to not sand into the corner and cut a sharp edge.

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Guide coat applied, then the corner was sanded with a Durablock with a corner rounded to the correct diameter. Tape was used on the upper half of the block to keep the block from digging into the section that was already flat. Just the radius is shaped this way.

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I blocked the tops of the raised stampings first, using a block wide enough to cover the areas where a section split off when applicable to keep the two sections on the same plane. The inner flat sections were next, same approach using custom cut blocks to leave the corners untouched, then the inside corners were shaped after the inner flat was fully flattened. Forgot to get pics of all that.

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Brake brace details. I sanded the flats first, scribed a line of where I wanted the corner to start, masked on the line, then rounded the corner evenly top to bottom.

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Some of the inside corners had large radii so I sanded a short durablock to the correct shape and used it to sand the corner.

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The raised area around the heater box had four flat spots so those were blocked first, then guide coat applied and the outside corners blocked until they rounded into the flats evenly.

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Same process on all of the random shapes.

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Top edge and corners of cowl masked on the flat then blocked out to establish a consistent starting point for the edge radius.

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Lower seam lip blocked straight.

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With the shaping finished I shot a couple coats of black SPI epoxy to seal up the areas that were low and needed filler, and to make the surface somewhat reflective so imperfections could be addressed. Some of the lower areas have 80g stratches showing and weird sanding patterns; those areas will be hidden under the inner fenders and shot with Raptor Liner later on so they were only quickly sanded for adhesion, not to correct their shape. The gloss level of the epoxy will really help with being able to spot fix the areas that need touching up, then shooting a few light coats of red epoxy so it's ready to wetsand and paint.

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Back of the cab stripped and shot with epoxy. I left the drip rails and the cab corners bare since I'll be reworking those areas when fitting the doors.

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Awesome work. I am curious how many hours up to this point? How many more estimated to completion of painted truck?

Don
As a hobbyist working on my own vehicles I don’t want to think about it, and if I was the buyer who commissioned that work I sure wouldn’t want to think about it. ;)
He documents the most intricate work with attention to detail as I’ve been able to admire and learn from.
 
A lot of us have to think about it, and it's the source of many a headache. When I see work being done like this, I have to wonder how much of it is a labor of love, and how much is funded by someone with very large amounts of disposable income.
 
There goes John raising the bar again.. Beautiful work!!
Thanks Robert!

Awesome work. I am curious how many hours up to this point? How many more estimated to completion of painted truck?

Don
I haven't kept up with total hours so far, just keep up weekly. I can check with the office for a total. I'd like to have it finished by the end of the year. I'm pretty terrible at estimating hours on such a large scale, there's always the small details that take longer than expected.


As a hobbyist working on my own vehicles I don’t want to think about it, and if I was the buyer who commissioned that work I sure wouldn’t want to think about it. ;)
He documents the most intricate work with attention to detail as I’ve been able to admire and learn from.

A lot of us have to think about it, and it's the source of many a headache. When I see work being done like this, I have to wonder how much of it is a labor of love, and how much is funded by someone with very large amounts of disposable income.

It's a labor of love for sure, I love the challenge of making the details as nice as possible. I hate seeing a straight car at a show but the more you look the more you see details that were overlooked. I get that it's excessive to go that far on a firewall, and I've been extra detailed on this job since it's my last full body/paint job; I'm switching over to just metalwork after this one is finished. I want the last one to be the best it can be and have been spending more than the usual amount of time on it. I'm modest with the amount of hours that are billed, that way I can be realistic with what it's costing the customer and still reach this level of detail. I also hate looking back at something I did and think "I could've done better", and I won't have to worry about that with this project. I feel like I've done my best at the time on all of our past projects, but I've learned new techniques and furthered my skills with each one and I've tried to put all of that to use on this one. I think to raise the bar any more I'll need to 3D scan the body and CNC carve the filler work for better results.

The initial estimate was roughly based on the hours spent on the first F100 we restored a few years back, and tweaked to fit what work the owner wanted us to do differently on this truck with the added disclaimer of "possibly a lot more depending on what we find when it's stripped plus any added work". The owner was good with that, and has tacked on work like the column/pedals/clutch/etc so of course we'll be over the initial estimate. It's not cheap by any means but he's out of state and was willing to travel and wait for an opening to bring his truck based on the quality of work we did on the last F100. He knew we had ~2000 hours into the last F100 from that truck's build thread and contacted us about his truck after seeing how the other truck turned out.
 
Thanks for the reply! I think 2000 hours in most body shops is going to be in excess of $100,000. It's nice to have a client that recognizes your skill and can pay for it. You certainly deserve it!
 
Auction results show that car prices are way up and sales are good, cost of living is up and still rising, houses are sold to the highest bidder over the first week-end, help wanted signs posted on almost every business, (I think I retired too early), and I hear on the radio that some trucking companies are trying to recruit drivers for $90,000 a year. Any body can learn to drive a truck, but not everyone can do what a body shop requires.
 
Thanks for the reply! I think 2000 hours in most body shops is going to be in excess of $100,000. It's nice to have a client that recognizes your skill and can pay for it. You certainly deserve it!

The other F100 was a full stock build where we did everything; the owner of this one is handling the drivetrain, wiring, reassembly, etc so I'll have less time in this one. Currently the plan is to get it painted and assemble the sheetmetal, the owner picks it up to wire it and make it driveable, then it comes back for glass, weatherstripping, and upholstery.
 
I did a quick/light blocking with 220 on the areas that were already pretty good, and 180/220 on a few spots that needed a little more flattening. 3-4 spots needed a small amount of filler, and it was ready for the last coats of epoxy to seal it and make it ready for wetsanding and paint.

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I mixed in a bit of red epoxy on the first coat, then shot two more coats of black epoxy. When I wetsand it to prep for sealer/paint I don't want to sand through the epoxy layer, so I'll be able to stop sanding if I start seeing the red tinted layer.

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Checking the reflection for imperfections while it was still wet. That's the look of a man who's happy to be finished sanding such a detailed panel. :lol: The local shop I buy supplies at just started carrying SPI; I went to tech with the owner's son who's worked there since we graduated and I've been trying to talk them into stocking SPI since I switched from PPG a few years ago. His dad was showing me which SPI products he had in stock when I visited earlier today and said that he'd heard that the epoxy was "the best". I showed him these pics of the firewall, he asked "Why does it look like chrome?" and said that he'd never seen any primer lay out as smooth. I told him that he'd have people throwing DPLF in the trash if they ever tried it.

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The vid shows how flat each facet is.



The blocks used, plus the PVC tube with slots cut to make it flexible for the double concave area on the back of the cab above the rear window.

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With the firewall finished, I moved on to assembling the panels to start correcting panel fit and gaps. I mounted the cab back on the frame along with the front clip after blasting the header panel and doing a bit of initial straightening on the inner fenders. The fenders and radiator support are aftermarket and the fit so far is really good, I haven't had to do any cutting, bending, or slotting of holes to get them to bolt together.

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The new hood hinges held me up from getting the hood mounted. The old hinges were super worn and sloppy so the hood would never stay in alignment if they were reused, and reproductions were available. Their fit left a lot to be desired... with the mounting flange flat against the firewall the lower mounting hole was off by half of the bolt diameter.

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Tilting the hinge to show how far the flange needed to be bent to align the lower mounting hole.

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When the two bolt holes on the main flange were lined up the inner mounting flange was also off; not just width-wise but the shape of the flange didn't match the angle of the firewall.

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The curved lip on the back side of the inner flange interfered with the lip on the firewall so I reshaped it and ground it back to fit better, and so the edge had a shape that flowed better.

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After about 40 trips between the firewall and vise to tweak the flanges into shape the hinge finally fit flat against the firewall and all four bolt holes were in pretty good alignment. Now when the bolts are tightened the flanges won't pull or twist the firewall out of shape, and won't chip the paint from the edges digging in.

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Same process on the other side.

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I shot epoxy over the bare spots last Monday to seal them up, and let it sit all week before spraying Slick Sand Saturday night. This lets the epoxy dry fully so any shrinking has occurred before applying the poly primer, but before the epoxy has cured so the poly still bonds chemically.


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Mirka dry guide coat, ready for blocking.

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just curious on what block are you using in the valley on the body line reveal transition from one plane to the next plane (something like maybe a round durablock? or flexible fuel hoseline on the curve part wrap the sandpaper in?)
 
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