A little light entertainment: 1939 Ford 1 ton Utility restoration

[jack neville]

The inner panel looks promising but there were signs that the outer skin had already been re-skinned once before.

[jack neville]

Most of the locks and catches are there and can be salvaged. Not one screw or bolt could be removed even with plenty of heat so the two outer skins were cut off. I melted most of the bolts out and removed all the fittings leaving the inner panel bare.
The first photo shows the second skin over the original.

[jack neville]

The inner panel needs sandblasting obviously and a fair bit of repair and straightening. I will need to make new catches and housings and then reskin the outside.

[jack neville]

The tailgate and other salvaged rear body parts are off to be sandblasted.
I dragged out the new panels to start on the new sides.
First knock a bit more shape back into the original side and then lay it on the new panel and scribe out the shape to cut.

[jack neville]

Next cut some excess back.
I cut two formers out of 17mm formply.

[jack neville]

After clamping the new sheetmetal between the two formers I tapped out the wheel arch and front bottom edge. The rear bottom edge has a curved shaped section so I folded down some excess metal to form that up.

[jack neville]

The edges turned up ok and look good. The rear shape is a large curve so I carved a piece of timber the correct shape to use as a form block. It fitted neatly into the original old panel.