I started in the front. I know when I’m building, I should start from the back, but since I plan on using the front with a new floor, I wanted to solidify it first before I take it off. I also don’t have the floor yet, so this is what I can do. My goal is to replace the battery apron and radiator support while cleaning up anything else I find. That means the passenger frame rail mess.

While speaking to Barry from JoDaddy’s Garage, he suggested to take off the previous repair and make sure its good inside was solid. What wasn’t solid was the inner frame rail. I had a couple of places where I can see light through it. It appears to be contained to the front 10 inches roughly, so I think I can get away with replacing that section without affecting the sway bar mount or corner braces. I should also have several inches to offset the outer rail replacement so as to have a stronger section than if I just cut it clean.

Even though the battery apron is toast, I still used it for practice with spot weld cutting. It’s also surprising just how much rust is between the panels where the welds are.

The Bottom 2 piece didn’t want to come off clean. In the end, I won though it was in smaller parts, not identifiable as the original piece. About half way through, I remembered I have an air chisel which suddenly made everything go faster and easier. I am also very happy with my new body hammer and anvil kit. It may be my new favorite tool set. It made getting the flanges back to their original shape quick and easy.

Test fitting the radiator support. It fits really well without modifications. The only place I will have to do some work is on the flanges on the inner frame rail. They are supposed to be touching, but each is about a quarter inch off the rail. I am confident the rails didn’t move with how it is on the cart and the outside of the rails line up correctly. I will most likely just re-bend the flange and see if I can get it closer. Since it’s one piece, it doesn’t have a plug weld, just a weld along the gap, so it needs to be closer, or really ugly.

The radiator core support is from NPD. The shape matches the original and most of the holes match as well. The only ones I saw that didn’t had oval rubber plugs in the originals, but they are square on the replacement part. I expect those won’t matter if they were plugged originally anyhow.

For the battery apron, I bought a Spectra Premium panel. So far, I have not liked any of their parts and don’t think I will buy any more. They are heavy steel, but all the stampings and holes are wrong. Some other brands are thinner steel, but so far, all of the Dynacorn have been 18 gage like the Spectra Premium. The Dynacorn parts i have so far are all well stamped and cut as well. Unfortunately, I can’t find a Dynacorn battery apron in stock anywhere, so I ordered the NPD version and we will see how it looks. So far, the NPD parts have been thinner steel than the Dynacorn parts, but I don’t have many choices.

Since the battery apron has a hidden VIN on it, and the top is solid and not wavy like some replacement parts, I am currently thinking I would like to keep it and avoid any VIN stamping if I can. Looking at the contour, I think I can cut the bottom and up the rear, keeping the back welds and the top. Along with that, I am doing some surgery on the overlapping pieces which have all 4 rotted. The rot is impressive since the bottom layer appears to be 14 gage and the rot is clean through it. The top looks like 20 gage, or maybe 19 as I have heard is what ford used originally. I have to find a local steel shop where I can get some scrap to work with.

Back to waiting on parts.