For years I have not been able to use my running board steps on my 1993 Ford Explorer Limited as they moved around and would make crunching noises with the slightest bit of weight put onto them. I got sick of warning people not to step on them when they were getting into the truck. So I decided to start taking things apart to see what I could do to fix it. Boy was this going to be a lot of work! The running boards literally just fell off because EVERYTHING they attached to and everything the brackets attached to was rusted away to nothing. I had to weld on new metal strips, new rockers, new doglegs, and various other little patches including the wheel well area. The wheel well had rusted away on one side to the point where it was just open to the inside of my vehicle behind where my factory mounted audio equipment was for the jbl subwoofer. I set to work after I ordered a couple doglegs and rockers online and borrowed an old portable welder (never welded in my life). Unfortunately this welder had a problem and would kick off every couple of seconds so we could not actually weld a bead....we had to stitch weld the entire thing and the welder did not do a good job. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me and I invited my neighbor over to give it a shot, (he welds every day at a body shop), and he said the welder definitely had issues, haha. Oh well, it was free for me to use, so I made it work.
I read up on ld50's rusty rocker repair thread for guidance. I will not be describing everything thoroughly as he did. The process is the same. Knock out or cut out old rusty metal, weld in new metal to fit. But I will show you before and after pictures.
I decided not to finish out the body work completely as I was coating everything in a cheap spray on truck bedliner and everything I was repairing would not be seen for the most part, except for small areas in the door jambs. I went with the money-saving route to just make thing functional. The truck has 211,x.. miles on it. I also went to the local junk yard and pulled off some second gen fender flares for $10 total, so I could do less body work and just modify and install the flares to cover the wheel well areas.
Also, you will see that I welded on a piece of metal conduit to the inside of one of my wheel wells in order to strengthen the thin metal I had used. It also worked well to bridge the gap between the two pieces of metal and seal out the elements from the cabin area of the truck. I also used spray foam. Also, the headlights were beyond salvaging because of their severe plastic fogging from UV damage, so I replaced them with oem lights. Truck needs a new paint job and I plan on getting a new cheap paint job soon.
I will initially post a link to all the photos on photobucket. I will come back later and directly put the photos in the thread if I have time and nobody else does it for me. Enjoy.
Link to Photobucket Album
Edit: The photos uploaded backwards, so you will be starting with the finished product when you view them on photobucket.
I read up on ld50's rusty rocker repair thread for guidance. I will not be describing everything thoroughly as he did. The process is the same. Knock out or cut out old rusty metal, weld in new metal to fit. But I will show you before and after pictures.
I decided not to finish out the body work completely as I was coating everything in a cheap spray on truck bedliner and everything I was repairing would not be seen for the most part, except for small areas in the door jambs. I went with the money-saving route to just make thing functional. The truck has 211,x.. miles on it. I also went to the local junk yard and pulled off some second gen fender flares for $10 total, so I could do less body work and just modify and install the flares to cover the wheel well areas.
Also, you will see that I welded on a piece of metal conduit to the inside of one of my wheel wells in order to strengthen the thin metal I had used. It also worked well to bridge the gap between the two pieces of metal and seal out the elements from the cabin area of the truck. I also used spray foam. Also, the headlights were beyond salvaging because of their severe plastic fogging from UV damage, so I replaced them with oem lights. Truck needs a new paint job and I plan on getting a new cheap paint job soon.
I will initially post a link to all the photos on photobucket. I will come back later and directly put the photos in the thread if I have time and nobody else does it for me. Enjoy.
Link to Photobucket Album
Edit: The photos uploaded backwards, so you will be starting with the finished product when you view them on photobucket.
