John’s 65 sedan

[Project65]

I’m focusing on the back seat floor area now and with some of the edge of the hump in the floor corroded badly as well as some area under the floor cross brace, I had to cut out some bad areas and replace with new steel on the driver’s side. (Just to be expected with the overall general condition.) Along the edge of the hump is where the tunnel edge is welded to the floor and even with the new floor pan sections to be welded in on the top side, the tunnel still needs to be true. Besides it does add additional strength to the rear floor.

Moving to the passenger side, a lot more areas need repaired. Tonight I was disappointed to find a large hole up through the floor right under the rear door pillar. Looking up I could see that it went up through the inner rocker panel. Initiating the repair, I removed the support brace that is simply welded on. But then there’s a stamped steel corrugated plate under that. The corrugated plate is spot welded to the inner rocker panel, so I had to drill the welds, cut it in sections, and chisel it out.

So the support plate and corrugated plate provides the structural support for the door pillar.

The repair will start with cutting out the rusted out inner rocker panel and welding in new 16 gauge steel. (Easy) Then I’ll fabricate a new corrugated plate and weld that in in pieces. (Time consuming, but I’m ready for the challenge! ). Then re-weld the outer support brace back on. Here’s some photos…click on them for your viewing pleasure.

[Project65]

Tonight I decided to tackle the repair of the inner rocker and corrugated support for the door pillar. I thought about how to do this and came up with a plan.

First order of business was to cut out the rusted area and clean up the edges. Then I cut, shaped, and welded in a 16 gauge plate and ground down the welds.

As for the original outer corrugated panel, it was also 16 gauge. Not surprising as it’s a structural member for the door pillar. So my plan is to install a plate, then weld some C-channels on in place of the stamped corrugations. 16 gauge is pretty stiff sheet metal, so there’s no-way I could stamp out a piece worth installing and expect it to function as desired. I’m thinking my C-channel when completed will be stronger than the original. I bought a short stick of C-channel that should be perfect for the area. It’s 1” wide, by 1/2” deep, by 1/8” thick steel. That 1/8” thick is heavy and will add a lot of strength.

So next was cutting, shaping, and welding in a top plate. That went in well. So next will be the channels…

[Project65]

I took the day off to play some more in the garage.

In about 3 hours, I was able to fabricate the channels and reconstruct the door pillar support. I like how this turned out and it looks super strong .

I did apply 6 spot welds under the outer pillar support bracket between the channels.

I hope the plastic pillar trim piece fits over it. I tried to keep it all lined up like original and at a trim dimension. We’ll see…

Anyway, time for lunch.

[County98]

Looks good to me. I'm curious to see how your project goes after you start reassembly. A ton of work going into it for sure!

[Project65]

Thanks Shayne. I’m laser focused on the end goal.

Today 5 more hours in the garage with floor repairs, cutting, fitting and welding.

Was able to get the floor repaired underneath the passenger side cross brace, along the rear hump on the passenger side, and underneath the floor under the door pillar.

After one additional small hole repair, the rear floor pans are going in.

[Beers]

That’s some great work John, you’re really getting after it! It’s enjoyable to watch the progress.

Paul

[Project65]

Thanks Paul. It’s hard to believe how far the car has transformed from a rust bucket to now.

Today was the tedious effort of installing the rear passenger side floor pan. It took several hours lot of trimming to fit it up just right, then an extra set of hands just to get it fit down flush and tack welded down. Once tack welded, then I worked my away around to weld it down along the edges.

The floor is feeling really strong now. I actually had to lay down in it to complete some of the welding. At that moment, I smiled as I was actually sitting in the car with the new floor. I knew the worst of the work is almost behind me.

I’m posting a photo of the car before the restoration work right after the carpet was torn up, and how it’s looking now. Wow! What a difference.

As a side note, since I started working on the car, today I finally had to put a new spool of welding wire in the welder. I finally used up the first 10 lb. spool of wire. I loaded up with another 10 lb. roll, but don’t think that I’ll get through that one while finishing the car.

The driver’s side will be next, then floor is essentially done except for a few minor spots. When done, I’ll probably have replaced +90% of the floor. I’ll still plan to back-weld the floor pan seams underneath as the pans are laid over the hole and lap-welded.

[Project65]

A day to celebrate! The last floor pan is installed! More or less, the floor is finally done! There’s a minor spot to touch up, and I still want to back-weld the underneath, but I’m happy with the finished look! And it’s strong. The floor humps are double layered front and back. I crawled up inside and was sitting on the floor finishing the welding. Very rigid.

[Project65]

I’ve moved on to a new area of focus. On the sedan, the area of the rear air intake in the engine bay is pretty badly rusted. I cut out the engine air inlet section from the donor car that I bought and scrapped to use as the donor. It was a 66 coupe. I know the overall area construction of the two are different (sedan vs coupe); however, I think that I can still make my repairs work.

The area that is bad is when you lift the engine cover, the panel between the hinges has several rusted through areas as well as the weatherstripping channel. My plans are to cut out the panel face along with the weatherstripping channel and the interior weather sill and replace with the donor. I think it will work.

On the sedan, I had to remove the rear window to remove the inlet grille. What a PAIN!!!! Whoever redid the car previously put WAY too much window sealant tar on. I did have a windshield removal tool, and it worked, but talk about a tough job. Eventually I got it out and cleaned it up with a razor blade and acetone. The window frame on the car doesn’t look too bad. Two small rusty areas. Probably all of that tar is what saved it.

Just started laying out the area to cut. I’ll also likely have the donor panel sand blasted and primed before I weld it back in to remove surface rust on the hidden back side.

[Project65]

Monday, I took the donor air intake panel to a local shop that specializes in sandblasting, painting, and powder coating. They indicated that they’ll work it into their schedule and it should be done within a week.

I proceeded to cut out the rusted out panel and begin further evaluation on the integrity of the remaining steel in the area. The bottom is badly corroded and will be cut out and repaired with new steel. Follow the repairs, I’ll trim, fit, and weld the donor air intake panel back in place.

I’ve also more closely assessed the rear taillight panel and it’s badly pitted. I’m planning on replacing the entire rear panel from the top to the bottom with a clean donor.

[Project65]

Tonight I kind of started poking around more in a different area of the car for about an hour. (I’m hoping to get my rear air intake panel back from the sand blaster tomorrow and get it welded in this weekend.). So I got into the driver’s side rear fender well. I put on the N95 and with a hammer and paint scraper, started scraping off the tar and undercoating. Yeow! Yeah there’s quite a mess in there. A lot of metal rusted away. I ended up with a Big hole. It also exposed more of the original maroon paint which is kind of cool to see. I’m working on getting the dog-leg pieces for both sides which should hopefully have most of the metal that I need for sectioning in. I’m not going to begin any repairs here until I get the donor pieces, but thought that I’d at least begin some prep work. I’m also not worried. Granted it’s a tight area to work on, but it’s in the inside and will be covered eventually with undercoating. I’ll make a good repair here and close it all it good and solid.

The rocker was also loaded with sand. I’m thinking that likely the car when it was redone once before was likely sandblasted. My prep here is to chisel away the undercoating just to fully expose the metal and assess the areas for repairs.

[Project65]

Today the weather was great (for PA in early March), so I decided it was time to open the garage door and make some dust!

I also received my most recent order of parts from Clark’s. Lower rear quarter panels and the battery tray and rear inner panel on the driver’s side.

I got into the rear section of the car with a right angle grinder with a coarse wire wheel and decided I needed to blow through some bondo and get down to metal.

Yep. A ton of dust! But had the garage door open with the drum fan on high and the N95 mask on.

Underneath a layer of bondo, likely 3/16” in some areas, it kind of looks like it the car might have been hit in the back end gently once? There’s some wrinkles in the sides near the back, and the corners look like they were hammered out. Also there considerable patch work where again, someone brazed in patches. It’s really rough down at the base metal. I’m definitely going to replace the entire rear panel and corners with a donor. That will take care of 90% of the issues. The right rear quarter panel also has a large dent and I have a donor for that to replace it.

The rough part will be removing the rear panel and drilling out all of the spot welds, but I’m used to the routine now.

[Project65]

So I’ve been bouncing around a bit it seems the last week and a half as I was waiting to get the rear intake panel back from the sandblast shop. Well I got it back today. It’s primed, but it too had some areas in the trough pan that came through with the blasting. I’ll see if I can perhaps puddle weld the holes up, but otherwise I’ll section in a new area. However overall it’s much more solid than the original. I’ll return my efforts on welding this area back together along with additional repairs.

The other evening I started working on the gauge cluster. My ‘65 sedan gauge panel and glove box are painted silver. I’ve looked all over the internet and can’t find any domestic source for silver wrinkle paint. I need to think about options here, but for now I’ve disassembled the gauges and started the cleaning. I have a few donors that might be suitable for parts. But this will be a side project as I’m in the process of securing additional body parts. As with the rest of the car, the gauge cluster components are in rough shape. I’m most concerned about the silver wrinkled surface for the gauge panel and glove box.

[Project65]

Back in the garage again, so I decided to focus on the engine air inlet area. I have the donor engine bay panel back now, so I need to address the inner pan. The inner pan was rusted out. The repair to the inner pan area was straight forward. Cut out the rusted out metal and weld in new. I felt that since the pan area is relatively hidden, that I could lay in a new pan and have the sides lap welded in rather than try to butt weld. Just make it solid, strong and as reasonably neat as practical.

Fitting up the new steel was time consuming as typical, but bending the lap weld tab would have been impossible without the metal break. And ideally, I would have loved to have the new steel go in as one piece, but I couldn’t bend it as such so I cut it in two, then welded it back together.

Overall, the finished work it is very strong, relatively neat, and should work just fine to channel water away.

[Project65]

Didn’t get any progress in the last week due to other things that popped up.

Today I was able to return focus to the rear air intake. I was able to trim to fit the donor panel. I’m anxious to get it welded in; however, it needs some additional minor repairs. When I was trimming it, I accidentally made my cut too deep and cut through it. I’ll weld it shut and grind it down. No one will ever see. Also in the rain pan there were some areas pitted and spot rusted through. I cut out one side and welded in a patch plate. Still have to do the other side and also extend the hanger plates on the sides. It’s going to fit in very well.

[terribleted]

WoW!! Lots of work to save a More Door especially. I would have to have a very high sentimental attachment or just a desire for a challenge to see if I could make it nice perhaps before I would even think about doing one this rusty. Kudos. More power to you. What you have done so far looks good and strong.