The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[JTR70]

Very unusual places to have rot Phil. I think your right on, the tar must have peeled back enough to create a nice pocket for the moisture to collect. I understand your hesitance to disturb the original lead, I felt the same way. Keep chipping at it! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Phil,

I looked at my front door gaps to the front wings in detail and took some photos. I will post these separatly on another thread as this might otherwise look as though your thread is being taken over!

I can say knowing now after your work and the special tool info I understand why my door shut gap is from 3 - 5 mm on the closure. If I reprayed the car I could rectify it now I know exactly what to do now.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

At hour 1301. Put in 62 hours in January which is probably a record. I can thank the extremely cold weather and deep snow, as it has not been good for getting out and doing anything other than clearing snow off of the drive. Got the patches finished up. Had to enlarge the first one another inch, as I miss-judged the extent of the rust. Spent a lot of time repairing accident damage from years ago. From the top of the crown to the wheel opening, many deformations. Slow process, but the center section of the fender is now pretty good. Can't finish up the butt joint on the rear patch until I weld the rocker in as just too much movement of the metal. Borrowed an acetylene tank so next up will be getting out my plumbers torch to remove the lockpost lead.

[John Pierce]

You've got a full time job there!! Looking great. I wish I could get some time on my car. The real job keeps on getting in the way, though.

[JTR70]

Nice work Phil! Yes, this is some stretch of weather you guys are having up there! I understand that there is another round is coming your way beginning next week. All considered you are really making progress between the snow dumps.
Understandable John, you have to keep the lights on.
Justin

[Phil Planck]

I have been busy with several other projects but managed to remove the lead from the lock post to expose the rust. I think I will order one of the quarter panel repair patches for this area rather than struggle with making that double bend and curve.

[JTR70]

Hey Phil, I contemplated ordering the repair section as well but soon came to the conclusion that it was going to be leaded over again anyway so a hand made repair section would suffice. Hard to say from one photo but it looks repairable with a 90 degree filler strip and some heat as you go. Is the outer skin portion at the corner too thin or can you weld to it? Justin

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Justin. Good tip. I will crawl under and try to see how bad the outer skin is at the fold. I have already replaced the top 8" so know that is good. Just one bend I could handle, and weld it like you did at the outer fold.

[Phil Planck]

Quarter panel metal looks good underneath so made up a filler flange:


Cut out the rusted flange and ground down the sheet metal at all of the welds. Need to move the quarter cut back about 1/16" so flange will fit properly:




Trial fit of new flange:

[John Pierce]

Nice work! Did you use a shrinker/stretcher?

JP

[Phil Planck]

Hi John

For the low crown area I just stretched the wide flange on an anvil, working my way along and test fitting as I went. For the high crown area I clamped the low crown wide flange in a vise used my mapp gas torch to stretch even more in 3 areas.

Phil

[JTR70]

That repair strip you made really turned out clean and you ended up saving quite a bit of the original metal! This is going to be nice repair all the way around. Looking forward to seeing it all welded up!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Need to make a decision on this repair. I spent another hour working on the quarter panel, as I welded in 2 patches way back when. Don't even remember doing it, but I have pictures to prove I did. I must have welded from underside, as there was a mess of weld glob that I ground down today. Then did some smoothing with hammer/dolly as there were a lot of low areas. The shiny area in the middle part of the quarter is very low. I can push it out but it draws down the upper and lower area. I can planish the welds, as I know I did not do this originally, but it seems much lower than just stretching out the HAZ. Am thinking of ordering a repair piece, but the one shown on Stoddard and Restoration Design sites don't show the double flange, only a single. I have sent a query to Restoration Design about this. It's about $50 so not bad if it is "correct". I just don't need a lot of fitting hassle at this point, so may start planishing tomorrow to see how much it comes up. Also, the lock post was pushed back about 1/8" in the center area where the striker is. This explains the poor engagement of the door latch. Got that moved forward and engagement is better, about the same as the other side. So at least cutting the lock post free was worthwhile.

[JTR70]

Phil, All of the repair panels I have seen are a single 90 degree flange only. I was telling Frank that this is part of the beauty of that short coming; you can control the elevation of cornered edge against the door a lot better this way provided you still have the original to weld on to.
So your thinking a fresh piece in there would help to stabilize the area? The two most difficult areas to shape and stabilize are those near flat sections just to the front and back of the doors. They can be tough!! Keep us posted on what you decide.
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Very good point about being able to control elevation. I have 2 things to try with my existing quarter panel. 1st I will planish the heck out of the areas I welded. If that does not help enough, I will break loose the bottom and see if I can reshape the upper area with that being free. If these do not work, I can salvage my fabricated flange with a repair panel and weld it to the repair panel flange when I get the proper flushness with the door.

Thanks for that insight Justin.

Phil