New old geezer with a 64 truck.

Purchased a 64 a few months ago. Stripped off 11 coats of paint and primer to find 1 rust hole. Dents were another matter. You'd think that if someone went through the trouble to drill holes for the dents, they'd at least use a dent puller, maybe a hammer and dolly. Nope. Filled those suckers right in. Some up to an inch thick. After 10 weeks of dent pulling, hammer and dolly work, welding in one patch, and a lot of heat shrinking the body is straight and in primer. Decided to fill in the body panel seams also.

Being retired lets me work at my own pace and having an autobody background that dates to the mid 70's helped.

My plans? Got a nice 302 HO from a 88 Mustang GT that has been massaged a bit. C4 came with the engine package. Tim and Vic have been tremendous help. Went ahead and ordered the window/door kit from Tim. Vic is supplying the engine cross member for the 302, the solid output short shaft for the C4 and the tranny cross member. Both will be asked for a lot of advice, lol.

I'm going to try and start a build thread on it with pics.

I picked up a 1967 HD Van for the rear end and dog house. Currently stripping it down for anything useable and will salvage the rest. I posted some info in the parts section.

Great forum with a lot of informative posts.

Tell us about heat shrinking stretched metal from dents so it does not take 1/2" of Bondo to cover it up,,,,,,,,thats something just about every 50 year old van owner has to deal with here,,,,,,I tried using pot covers to generate heat once upon a time  but that did not seem to  do anything,,,,,,,

Never heard of that. lol

Do all of your dent pulling and hammer/dolly work first. You'll need a gas torch set-up. Use a regular tip, heat up an area about the size of a quarter cherry red. Cold wet rag. Repeat as needed. The roof of my truck took about 16 heat shrinks. If you can hammer and dolly it before you apply the wet rag all the better. Some areas you wont have long enough arms, other areas like the bottom of the front doors you don't really want to unless you enjoy getting burned. Nothing wrong with heating areas as described like around the headlamps cherry red to hammer it back into shape. Anytime you pull a dent or crease on a flat panel, you are stretching the metal with the chance of getting the oil can effect. Just heat shrink it out. Plenty of YouTube vids, just don't use the cutting tip because you can't control the size of the area you're shrinking as well. I did a 35 Ford P/U back in the mid 80's. Close to 80 hours of heat shrinking on the original metal.

Nothing wrong with a skim coat of bondo to smooth it out. There will be areas, creases, that you may have to go up to 1/4". If you have the patience and the right hammers and dollies, you should be able to get most of it out.

When I taught autobody I used to tell the students; "You're not good enough to take shortcuts. And when you are good enough, you'll know not to take them.". I figured about one out of every five students ever took my advice.

welcome to vintage vans .. lots of great people and help here

Hey Welcome in !!!!!!

I'm anxious to see all the hard work you put into the truck...sourcing out to Tim and Vic for their specialties is a very smart move!!! Congrats and welcome aboard. You're the kind of teacher a student never forgets!

Welcome to VV. Can't waite to see some pics. Heat shrinking worked well on my old 20's Dodge fenders, but my patience took a beating...lol.

I'm new hear but sounds like we are doing the same thing. I just had some frame work done to mine and had the 9" rear end narrowed and tubbed and getting ready to do the motor and trans. It has a 289 and a C4 but i'm going back with a late 80's 302 and the C4. My problem is who ever put in the 289 built a crossmember that is just horrible, i mean just scary to even look at. I heard a 65-67 factory crossmember will support the 302 and it will bolt right in? I'm open to suggestions if someone knows if this will work and where to find one or knows of a better option.

thanks for listening

You might want to check with Vic, old skool, he can tell you if will bolt in and might have one available for purchase...

Thanks vanny, I'm still trying to maneuver thru the site so how do i find him?

For the V-8 cross member that has been modified, get Vic's.

As I said, I went with the cross member, short shaft, and his tranny mount cross member.

I figured that he had the experience and put in the time to have everything properly engineered, so it was a no-brainer to me. Why try to build a better mousetrap?

Same with Tim and his weatherstripping.

These guys put the time and effort into making sure we have the quality parts and invest alot of time and their money into making it happen.

Spooky, Ok, accross the top of your screen there should be about twelve tabs. Click "member", when the next screen comes up, type "old skool" in the Username box(don't include the quote " marks). Click "OK". Vic's userid should come up in a box below. Click on the orange triangle, it will say "view profile, send a PM(private message), send an email, read all posts. Click send a PM or send an email and you have reached out to touch him. You can really learn alot about Ford Econolines by reading his posts but he has so many that you may not have time to work on yours. Hope this helps.

Jim

Nice instructions Jim! If you want to contact Tim, follow the same instructions but type "EconoUSAparts" in the username box and click OK

Yes, welcome aboard!