“The 6.9” project thread

[Laine D]

Pulled the fender flares off and found this. Pretty pissed. Wire wheeled it to get a better view. I’ll just cut it out and use the arch from the old bed. Could be worse but for a Cali boy I’m annoyed

 

[chillman88]

Pulled the fender flares off and found this. Pretty pissed. Wire wheeled it to get a better view. I’ll just cut it out and use the arch from the old bed. Could be worse but for a Cali boy I’m annoyed

As a rust belt resident I'll..... Keep my mouth shut

At least it doesn't look like it's spread too bad. I just hope you don't find more as you dig into it.

 

[Old Goat]

Ford welded a piece of curved sheet metal to the inner bed fender, and it is spot welded to the curved wheel opening. probably for strength. problem is water, dirt, salt etc... get between the 2 pieces of metal and cannot get washed out, and eventually rusts out the wheel opening arch.

There are patch panels to replace this section. You need to cut out the area and weld in the new piece.

Iam having a small area on my right side starting to rust through.
My truck started out it`s life in Calif. but in Ukiah which is near the ocean as I remember.
Now here in Nv., N-Dot uses brine they spray on the roads, and Caltrans also in Ca. in the mountain areas where it snow`s. So you won`t totally get away from the salt if you say want to go over I-80 to Reno or up Hwy 50 to Tahoe and play in the Snow.

Goat

 

[DaveBen]

I live in Ukiah and it is about 90 minutes from the ocean.

 

[Laine D]

Ford welded a piece of curved sheet metal to the inner bed fender, and it is spot welded to the curved wheel opening. probably for strength. problem is water, dirt, salt etc... get between the 2 pieces of metal and cannot get washed out, and eventually rusts out the wheel opening arch.

There are patch panels to replace this section. You need to cut out the area and weld in the new piece.

Iam having a small area on my right side starting to rust through.
My truck started out it`s life in Calif. but in Ukiah which is near the ocean as I remember.
Now here in Nv., N-Dot uses brine they spray on the roads, and Caltrans also in Ca. in the mountain areas where it snow`s. So you won`t totally get away from the salt if you say want to go over I-80 to Reno or up Hwy 50 to Tahoe and play in the Snow.

Goat

I luckily have my old bed that has wonderful wheel arches so I think I’ll be able to cut those out and use them

 

[Laine D]

As a rust belt resident I'll..... Keep my mouth shut

At least it doesn't look like it's spread too bad. I just hope you don't find more as you dig into it.

I took a good look around and I’m pretty sure this is the only spot. I know you have seen, maybe slightly worse rust. Lol

 

[snicklas]

Yea, our 83 was in worse shape than that in 1990…..

 

[Laine D]

Yea, our 83 was in worse shape than that in 1990…..

I really took for granted how much of a central California truck mine was, the most snow it saw was 1 snow storm lol

 

[chillman88]

I took a good look around and I’m pretty sure this is the only spot. I know you have seen, maybe slightly worse rust. Lol

Maybe I'll share a video of the frame on my parts truck when I get to that.....

 

[Laine D]

This is like a really big step in the right direction for me

 

[IDIBRONCO]

You know, some people would consider that forklift as cheating. Me, on the other hand, I consider it to be smart. During the two cab swaps that I did, we used a forklift too. I say we because I did it at work and it was inside. We didn't use a strap like you did. We slid the forks together and then slid a 2x12 through the windows (they were all the way down). It worked pretty well that way.

 

[Laine D]

You know, some people would consider that forklift as cheating. Me, on the other hand, I consider it to be smart. During the two cab swaps that I did, we used a forklift too. I say we because I did it at work and it was inside. We didn't use a strap like you did. We slid the forks together and then slid a 2x12 through the windows (they were all the way down). It worked pretty well that way.

I honestly do not know why I didn’t do that. And I just now found the fork extensions that were right behind the frame

 

[IDIBRONCO]

That would have been even better. With the 2x12, we used three guys. One to drive the forklift plus one on the front of the cab and one on the back of the cab to keep it steady.

 

[Laine D]

More photos because I’m pumped. I kinda made a 2 inch wide dent in the cab corner and it made me a little mad but I think I can pull it out or even cut and weld a new one in. I’ll already be slicing this bed up to make it as nice as my old one was so

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Looking better!