opinions on amount of metalwork required?

[13lazer]

here are some pics of the dents and rot in my '72 k5 project. i put this project on hold last year, now that im back to it. i don't think its as bad as i remember. this will be my 1st sheetmetal job beyond patching hacked radio holes, and i'd appreciate any information on how much metal i should replace. i will upload the rest of the pictures in my member gallery, i think 5 is the limit here. ignore the primer and green blazer, im asking about the orange one. will i be able to get away with some patch panels, or should i do major reconstruction? i'm leaning towards patch panels. the toughest part of the job looks like repairing the holes at the front of the quarter panels behind the doors? the support boxes are solid and i dont think the holes in the floor by the kick panels are too serious. thanks in advance.
13lazer

 

[RustyParts]

I'm afraid that once you cut out a piece of the floor to repair it your going to find that you have more rust than you think.

I can almost guarantee that the cab support under the floor is rusted through, bottom of kick panel, lower door post, and inner rocker panels are shot. It also looks like you have some coming through in the tailgate area.

Rust usually rots through from the backside where you can't see.

The dents are no biggy, easy repairs compared to panel replacement.

Go to the 69-70 first gen forum 69-72K5/Suburban/Truck a lot of people have posted their repairs with pics.

Good Luck!!!

 

[botboy]

and i'd appreciate any information on how much metal i should replace. i will upload the rest of the pictures in my member gallery, i think 5 is the limit here. ignore the primer and green blazer, im asking about the orange one. will i be able to get away with some patch panels, or should i do major reconstruction? i'm leaning towards patch panels. the toughest part of the job looks like repairing the holes at the front of the quarter panels behind the doors? the support boxes are solid and i dont think the holes in the floor by the kick panels are too serious. thanks in advance.
13lazer

I'd say replace panels until the rust is all gone, then protect your work with some POR-15, rust bullet or something along those lines.

Oh, BTW, nice work picking up an orange 1st gen, I've got one of those myself and will be going thru the same struggle you are with rust repair & panel replacement, only I get to mess with the rocker boxes too.

For the quarter panels behind the doors, I've seen people make patch panels out of fleetside bed panels, otherwise LMC truck and most of the other places that sell patch panels for the first gens sell it as a "bedside leading edge" patch panel. I've gotta do both sides on mine, the drivers is rusted out by about a 4" radius in that area, but first I'm just going to cut out the rusted section to make it easier to replace the floor and rockers at the same time.

 

[outsider223]

I found that even though the metal looked good, it had rotted and the paint was holding it together on both sides. I found it by putting my hand through the floor I ended up replacing a lot more metal than I thought I was going to.