The frame on my grabber hood was in pretty bad shape ... The lip area was paper thin so i decieded to pull off the skin and replace the frame with another from a regular hood ... Taking off the skin tool less than an hour with only a screw driver and a recess drill bit (To drill out the tack welds). After i removed the skin from both hoods i was astonished to find that neither frame was painted or even primed on the back side!!! Same for the skin where the frame rested against it ... I am just wondering what in the hell ford was thinking !!??
They assemble them as bare metal so the weld will penetrate. Then the only time the backside gets any paint is from overspray.
Ahhhhh - the days before E-coating. I don't think any of the big three even used pre-primed metal before somewhere around 75-76? Anybody know when the change over was? Maybe some of the last Mavericks got parts stamped from pre-primed metal, but generally once the assembly line is set - not much big changes. Cleaver
Na Earl i wish i could ... I spent the last two weeks of my vacation working on the mav and now i have to spend the next two days trying to get the honey doo list finished lol ... As far as the hoods... The frame i used was from a 76 so it must have been after that ....