We met a couple from Bullhead City (Paul & Mittie) who belong to the River Cruizers car club that put on some of the car shows that we attend. Paul became interested in the restoration work that I have done on the Fords and the Kaiser by looking at the build photo albums and ask if I would be willing to some rust restoration work on his 1953 Packard. While at the AVI Resort car show Paul and I went to his house (a short distance away) to look at the Packard. He thought it needed replacement rocker panels and some patch work at the bottom of the car.
I told him I could do the work, we agreed on a price and a couple weeks later he brought the car over to my shop along with the replacement inner & outer rocker panels. I started by removing the door sill scuff plates and pulling back the carpets that revealed badly rusted floor pans.
Left rear
Left front
The pictures were E-Mailed to Paul and we decided to patch & repair the passenger side and purchase replacement pans on the drivers side.
I started on the right side removing the rockers & damaged floor pan areas. The substructure supports were in good shape.
The inner rocker was cut and fit, patterns made of floor pan patches then pieces cut & fit before any welding started.
Front and rear floor pan areas had to be ground clean with grease and under seal removed so I would not catch the car on fire while welding.
The piece at the rear of the rocker under the rear door was completely gone and a new piece had to be fabricated and formed to fit the contour.
This is a shot (below) looking from the bottom of the back seat to the rear wheel well that was rusted through.
(Bellow) is fabricated end of rocker and wheel well patch in place.
The drivers side was worse as about 1/3rd of the floor had to be removed along with the rockers.
The main body supports at the bottom of the "B" & "C" pillars were rusted all the way through including the bolts. (3 pictures below)
The bottom of the rear door at the end of the rocker (like the right side) was gone.
Front finder bottom door rusted through.
I repaired the substructure floor supports and painted them (next 2 pictures).
The replacement floor pans were not large enough to cover all the damaged areas so pieces were cut, fit and added, then primed with self etching paint leaving the edges bare for welding.
Left front floor pan
Left rear floor pan.
Bottom of the "B" pillar and body mount after repair.
Bottom of the "C" pillar after repair.
The new inner & outer rockers were cut, fitted and welded in, then the bottom of the front fender & door repaired.
Patch made and installed over the rear wheel opening.
Finished left front floor pan.
Finished left rear floor pan.
The right front fender bottom had rusted through including the main fender support behind it that had to be rebuilt before the repair of the outer skin could be done.
Above & below shows the right front fender & door repair with the new rocker.
Above & below show the damage above the rear gravel pan at the rear of the car.
Areas cut out then patterns made and pieces cut out to be welded in.
Right & left sides repaired.
Finished rocker.
The rain gutters on both sides had rusted along the seam and had to be scraped, wire brushed and sanded.
On the right side it had rusted through in 2 spots and had to be repaired.
After all the cleaning and repair were done the areas were primed then seam sealer / metal repair was applied in the seam and gutters.
A lot more work than first anticipated if I do another one it will be taken apart and looked at before it leaves the owners place.
Comments
So thanks for the post, it's given me food for thought.