It's human nature to pass the blame onto someone else. So here it goes. We skipped an issue of our Bronco build because of the painter. No, really. It's the painter's fault. Cleaning up the newer tub took a bit more work than we thought. The first stage was to tear down the old body and remove components that we would need for the rebuild.
Removing the rust, dirt, and sand was, essentially, the easiest thing to do. It was just time-consuming. The owner of the Bronco, Franco, used to throw some pretty big parties in high school, which helped build his friend base to a fairly large number. This made getting some help a little easier for the enormous amount of hours needed to clean up the project.
Franco called on Big Ray and Little Johnny to tear apart the trashed carcass. Big Ray is an Albertsons meat cutter, so dissecting the old Bronco came easy to him. Little Johnny is another aggro construction worker, who took great pleasure in tearing apart the old pile.
The rest of the time came down to letting the painter prep and spray the project down. The problem is that most painters will paint over anything, so we spent many hours cleaning, cutting out rust rot, and welding in patch panels to pre-prep the prep work. Conrad, owner of Universal Customs, spent some extra effort on the rear quarter panels, and the tub came out pretty good. If you ever decide to take on a project, here's a glimpse into what you'll endure throughout the tedious process.
 1. The old Bronco was ready...  1. The old Bronco was ready to fall apart after most of the reusable components had been removed. |  2. Whoever said a dog is man's...  2. Whoever said a dog is man's best friend obviously didn't do much more than sit on the sofa. The Sawzall (reciprocating saw) is a garage essential when it come to cutting anything, hence the name "Saws all." |  3. More than a decade of off-roading...  3. More than a decade of off-roading probably added 150 pounds to this Bronco's mass. We were covered in more sand from disassembling the truck than we'd ever been from riding in the Glamis sand dunes. |
 4. Franko's friend John Giberink...  4. Franko's friend John Giberink felt like king of the hill after conquering the old Bronco. |  5. If it wasn't a pile before,...  5. If it wasn't a pile before, it certainly was after Big Ray and Little Johnny zealously tore the Blue Oval apart. |  6. The only parts remaining...  6. The only parts remaining were two small sections of the old frame, which were still bolted to the bent tranny crossmember. |
 7. Prepping the newer Bronco...  7. Prepping the newer Bronco tub for paint was the next step in line. Removing all the bolted-on components allowed the cleaning process to begin. |  8. Upon closer examination,...  8. Upon closer examination, our new Bronco tub was going to need plenty of work as well. There were a lot of typical rust areas, which had been rust-rotted completely through. The whole inner fender and core support flexed, due to the rotting of the upper section of the inner fender. The rust under the battery tray had also wreaked havoc on the metal beneath the paint. |  9. The rear quarters panels...  9. The rear quarters panels had been pushed in, and the upper body rails had been tortured from a hard top that had been somewhat bolted to it before. |