Restoring a RUSTY Tailgate

Finally found the pictures of the tailgate restoration. I thought I had lost the before shots. This is a great resurrection story.

 This is the rusty tailgate that came with my donor truck. Here you can see where I finally sanded through 4 coats of paint (it was originally a green jeep not brown!) to get to base metal. Finally can see the degree of rust on that tubing part of the base of the tailgate, and over 40 years of beating that tailgate took having things thrown around in the bed.

I was pretty much able to poke a screw driver through all along the top edge.

 Same was true on left side, in the same location. Although the top edge, and the main center panel only had a couple of spots of rust that went all the way through. so I drilled and welded those up. You can see in this picture in the bottom corner the brown paint this whole tailgate started with.

I took my grinder with a cutting wheel and just cut out long rectangles of that rusted thin steel until I got to solid metal. Then I sanded and grinded again to get rust out of the areas.

The one thing I was most worried about was that this is a hollow tube with plenty of rust inside even if it hadn't reached the outside. So I seriously hosed the inside of the entire tube section with rust eater and converter, twice.

 The back was really really beat, but not too rusty once I got really deep into the metal. I started pounding out dents and quickly gave up. Too many and really, who cares?

If you look closely you will see some of the holes I talked about, that I later drilled and welded up. I ended up sanding this with 40 grit, A LOT, to get through that really hard rust coat that forms on old pick up beds.

In the end, I welded in long rectangles of steel into the holes where I cut the rust out, and welded up a lot of holes. Grinded, welded, worked to get the worst of it sealed up. Then a light skim coat of bondo to hide my ugly welding, and it turned out pretty well in the end. Very solid and WAY better looking.

Radio mount - Cutting into the dashboard

I finally set aside some time to cut out the the mess the PO made of the radio section of the dashboard.

You can see in the center, where they cut the knob opening on each side and bent them inward, then took pliers and peeled back the base edge, to force fit a modern radio in the space. Sigh. My donor truck has this part of the dash, so I cut this section out of the donor dashboard. Used that piece as a template, you can see the sharpie marks here outlining the piece I need to cut out of this dash.

(yep, the defroster tubing in the back is torn, that's a diff. project)

AND, here is a "during" picture. I cut out the old section (above), and welded in the new section (left)

Then I liberally applied filler to fill in the scratches of my amateur welding and grinding job. Most of that will sand off, and hopefully leave me with a stock radio opening, while keeping the little ashtrays and glove box opening original.






Here is the "After" of the old radio opening, now out and in the trash.

And the dash as it is right now, with the bondo sanded off, and primed with a matte black for now.

I swear, my sloppy grinder work is more telling with some of the divots in the metal, than my amateur welding!

(Top of the left side dial opening) but overall very pleased with how it turned out. If I can get the speedo side of the dash as smooth with a rattle can, I will just leave the dash matte black rustoleum!

Prime front, reassemble, mount new winch

The previous two posts really outline how much work has gone into getting this thing stripped and in primer (well, and fixing and adding little things along the way).

But let's cut to the more fun part.

Front end now primed, and looks great just to have in one color. Already the ugly welded brackets look better.

I scrubbed trim rings and grill with a scrub pad soaked in mineral spirits, to get the corrosion and the many years of over spray off of them, and they brightened right up. Remounted

AND the final product (well as soon as I get the front bumper back on).

Here is the front sanded, primed, chrome cleaned up a bit, and fender fixed.

What is very cool is the new winch mounted on the heavy duty base, and the fairlead mounted on my fabricated brackets. In the pic, I had just unwound the winch, and used it to recoil the steel cable. Works perfectly! So pleased with the look and the work.

Front winch removal, new winch platform, fairlead brackets,...more bodywork

Back to the new winch. I had a coupon to get a 12,000 pound winch from Harbor Freight. (I know, but these Badland winches are supposed to be ok) The price was under $300, and they gave me the 2 year warranty for free. AND did I mention the front winch I have is a patched and pieced together thing I can't get working?

 So to pick up the story. The old winch and it's patchwork of taped together wiring and weird hookups was gone.

Here is the base support plate underneath. The new winch has a wider footprint, and you can see here on the left, there is a gap in the sheet metal. So I sanded, and ground down the rust, treated both sides and prepped for some fabrication.

I then took a piece of 3/8 inch plate steel, and welded it on top of that base. You can see how thick this is now, and strong with a heavy weld all the way around the base.

While I was at it, I welded up four unneeded holes, and drilled four for the new winch. Finally, I cut two brackets to mount the fairlead onto. (Note: there are often a set of rollers in front of a winch that lets the cable roll on and off of the winch drum. Those rollers are called the "fairlead" and in my case there is no way to mount that to the winch, so I needed to fabricate mounting tabs or brackets). You can see the new base fills the space better, and is wide enough for the new winch.

The brackets are ugly from recycled steel, but you won't see them when done, so yep, ugly, but it's ok.

AND while I was at it, I needed to sand the front grille area and prime it anyway, so that took some time.

The front is all disassembled and about halfway through sanding process. I did end up eating dirt taking the bumper halves off.

That front driver side piece below the fender was torn free, loose and floppy from an accident in the past.

So more bodywork.

I tack welded that piece to the bottom of the fender (it was just too much work to remove the wheel, get behind it, drill and rivet and then fix the tear in the steel). So I filled in the tear, an just tacked it to the fender (hey it's a project truck, not a concours restoration).

Then I took a fender strut from the donor truck,and beat and bent the bottom of that torn piece, drilled it and bolted the bottom to the frame. It is really solid now, and certainly doesn't look any worse than it did.

AND finally, I have the fairlead brackets welded on. I measured about 5 times and they still seemed a little off when I mocked it up. Since no one will see this, I cut a long lateral hole in the right side mounting bracket to give me some room to slide the bolt as needed.

I am still amazed at what great shape the sheet metal of this truck is in. so little rust!

Continued stripping of the hood, and took old winch off the front.

So it continues, another lesson in MANY layers of pain on the other half of the hood, and hidden rust underneath. So that big piece is done.

I already primed the fender under the hood, and the side edge, since I was finishing the front fender as well. Man that's a lot of work, or it's just too dang hot in Arizona to do body work in July.

Here is the remainder of the driver side front fender, cleaned up and primed. I have a big whacking dent in that front fender, I had to pry out a piece of bondo about as big as an egg. Don't know what to do about that yet, but will sand it clean and prime it for now. As well the small body piece under the fender, that connects it to the wheel flare, is loose and beat up. Will have to bend and reattach that.

Thinking about taking off the bumpers to get to everything in the grill

I unbolted that damn heavy winch that was on the front. It has a nice platform, 3/8th inch thick, welded well to the frame. I have a Badlands winch (big one) that was on sale, and it is still a little smaller than the huge one I took off that was a mess.

I think I will weld up the holes in the steel platform in the picture, and then weld the base plate onto that so it's a little wider. then redrill new mounting holes for the new winch and fairlead. that should look pretty good.

Tailgate, P-side door, and hidden surface rust!

Finally! I had lost the pictures of the tailgate rehabilitation. It had big rust holes, several coats of paint, and dented like crazy. I welded up several small replacement panels into the base. sanded all down, beat out a few dents - but gave that up pretty quickly. It is now primed on the outside, and treated and POR 15 on the inside... and Installed! looks great.

Apparently these are hard to come by (and this was a primary reason I bought the donor truck). So glad to have that in place. I will eventually do the entire inside of the bed and tailgate with some kind of duraliner. but for now I know all the rust and old paint are taken care of.

Small progress on the body as well. I further sanded the inside door frame, passenger side door, and the back half of the front fender. Uncovered MORE HOLES in the dang door. So will have to weld them up.

Just how many different mirrors have been mounted to these doors?

Then I tackled the first half of the hood to strip it... And found a archeological dig!

That is, there were at least 7 different layers of paint on top of the factory. It had been skim coated a couple times so it was very thick. They were hiding a dent/kink in the hood. not a big deal (unless you are the one stripping it).

You can see however, I found a bunch of old rust under ALLLL that paint, when I finally got down to base metal.

It is that surface rust from too many years in the sun I think, without paint. No biggie, once all stripped, I will get into the rust and treat and prime.

FINALLY, finished sanding and POR 15 on the Bed, and started body

After over 40 years of rust and things being mounted in this bed, I finally got it all cleaned up and POR 15 throughout. Up and under the side rails, it should be in good shape now. Whew, floor panels and bed clean up done.





Here is sort of a before and after. I sanded the driverside door for the after, and the passenger side still shows the many layers of paint and grey. slowly a consistent finish in primer...