Metal work Finally complete on Dad's 50 Champion

[wdills]

It seems that no matter how solid a car looks, when you dig into it, you always find more "tin worm" damage than expected. Well after several delays from the "events of life", we have finally finished replacing rot on Dad's car. Now we can move on to the chassis. Here are a few photos of what we had to replace.

We knew the trunk floor had to be replaced before we bought the car. We didn't know the tail panel across the back of the trunk was also rotten.



There were a few small bubbles showing through lower part of the trunk lid when we bought it. Ended up replacing the bottom 3 inches of the inner structure and outer skin.



Also found rot on the inner quarter, in front of the rear tire on the drivers side.



It wasn't obvious until we got the front fender off and turned upside down that the inner apron was all rotted behind the battery box.



Continued in next post.

[wdills]

We knew there were small holes in both front floors. They turned into complete floor replacements plus rebuilding the bottoms of the A pillars.



The big surprise came when we discovered the car had been T-Boned in the past and had an inch of mud caked in there. We replaced a big chunk of the side because the metal was too mangled to fix.



Even had to open up the A pillar to straighten out a little damage from the accident.



Hopefully we are done with the hidden surprises on this car.

[christophe]

This is very nice. I wish I were equally gifted with a welding unit.
Did you use CE panels for the front floors?

[sweetolbob]

Love to see talent at work, well done and thanks for posting. Bob

[jts359]

Nice work , Ed

[BobWaitz]

That's going to be great!

[tsenecal]

I know what a good feeling it is to say "metal work is finally complete". It is a tedious job, but makes the car whole again. Now you can get on with the fun stuff like prep work , paint, and reassembly!

[BobPalma]

Excellent work; thorough. Congratulations. BP

[Metman]

Really looks great!! Nice work!!

[wdills]

Thanks guys. Looking forward to the fun stuff.

Christophe, the floor boards and Trunk floor came from Classic Enterprises. The Trunk tail panel came from SI. They had one NOS piece left that wasn't showing up in their inventory, but I got lucky and Jim thought recognized what I was looking for and grabbed it for me. The big chunk in the side of the car came from Vern Ediger. Dad and I formed the smaller pieces out of flat sheet.

[christophe]

Christophe, the floor boards and Trunk floor came from Classic Enterprises. The Trunk tail panel came from SI. They had one NOS piece left that wasn't showing up in their inventory, but I got lucky and Jim thought recognized what I was looking for and grabbed it for me. The big chunk in the side of the car came from Vern Ediger. Dad and I formed the smaller pieces out of flat sheet.

Thanks for the info, Wayne. This kind of challenge is always very interesting (at least, to me!), so don't hesitate to post the rest of your good work.
Nice day to all.

[Mike Sal]

Definitely not a project for the squeamish!!!

[54stude]

Looks great!

[Mike Sal]

Wayne, did you fab the trunk lid patch from scratch? If so, how did you do the bends for the crimp?
Mike Sal

[wdills]

I did fab the trunk lid patch from scratch. I didn't have the equipment to do the bends for the crimp. To make it "look right" I made a narrow strip to simulate the bent over outer skin and plug welded it to the underside structure. I then then ran a weld bead on the edge to tie the outer skin to the strip I welded on underneath. I was able to grind that edge weld down and round it off where you can't tell it is not crimped like the factory joint. I know that is not how it should be done, but that is what I could do with the tools I have to work with.