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Joey's Rust Bucket:

Joey is an apprentice at the shop where I used to work. We were talking rust removal and of course that means his 81 Bronco.

I had the OK to use the plasma cutter for this (special thanks Pete Duffey). We met and drove to his shop at 9am. He said that he would do it with my help but then he had to go to Nanaimo. Well now, that left me in charge. I have never used this rig before but it was like writing with a pencil. The cuts we're smooth, no slag, and didn't even burn the paint!

The first picture is of the truck before any cutting. See the rust in the rear quarters especially. I made a cut along the lower indent of the panel then across the very bottom; this exposed the inner panel to be cut. Reliefs were made every two inches and the inner panel was folded towards the outer skin.

Next came the fun, using a five-pound hammer we tapped the indent until it folded over to create the lip for the fender giving it some strength. Then we tack welded the inner panel to the outer panel.

This picture is of me banging out the rear quarter. As you can see it was the roughest and the quarter was rotten across the top so I couldn't fold the panel but was able to do so at the lower areas for a little strength. We couldn't reshape the plastic inner fenders and resorted to a zip disc, cutting them back until no longer visible. We will rebuild inners with old inner tubes.

The finished product is not bad looking, for homemade! The whole job took three hours. Now I want a plasma cutter.

The last two pictures are of Joey's Bronco with the hundred dollar rims and tires I sold him. 33 inchers do fit with no lift. This little adventure makes a rust bucket into a sweet custom ride with very minimal cost. Now for the rear door!

Text and photos provided by Mark Richmond