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53 Belair conv rust repair

1M views 6K replies 111 participants last post by  Eduramac 
#1 ·
I just brought home a 1953 Chevy convertible Monday that is 100% there. 100% there except for the bottom 6 inches that is. I have always built rusty cars no one else wanted but have tried to do a quality job of repairing them on a budget.

The key wordhere is budget. I admit to being frugal but friends all say I am cheap. Whatever, for me to be able to enjoy this hobby I must be able to build the car and have my money invested, not just spent

The cost of replacement floor pans, floor braces, inner rockers, outer rockers, lower quarter panels, tow boards, trunk pan, rear pan extension, tail pan, and rear splash apron is well over 3000 dollars. That is money that will buy front suspension, rear axle, and good buildable engine. Maybe even a complete parts car.

I have basic sheet metal tools but nothing exotic. Small 3' brake, Shrinker/stretcher jaws, home made slip roll, and a home made english wheel and 110v mig welder.

My purpose here is to show the new hot rodder who is apprehensive about what he can do what is possible with a little time and patience and not much money.

Below is the patient. She has stage four cancer but we are going to try to save her. If we don't who will? :mwink:








So far I have stripped the inside, removed the front fenders and adjusted the doors. If the body shifts or moves during the build process I want to know it before everything gets welded together. Frequently checking door gaps will let me make sure it has not moved.




Tomorrow I plan to cut the toe boards loose from the front floor brace and expose the brace. The first job will be to remove the brace and reproduce it.

I hope you guys follow along and feel free to comment share thoughts, opinions, etc.

 
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#1,382 · (Edited)
Frames are repairable. This is that '57 Chev wagon I repaired.

I guess I will really fall in love with my Pazma cutter when the time comes huh?

Hand building a whole frame would have to be easier than the pieces I have made so far but I still would really like to find a solid frame. I have ordered a frame and allignment drawing "just in case".

John
 

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#1,386 ·
Yea, That is why I dissapeared last night. :D

John


The specs will be VERY nice to have !!!

If your frame needs more than a few patches, a better one would be in order. Finding a frame may not be too difficult, but prying your wallet open will be the hard part...:p
What year frame is interchangeable will a 55-57 work,??:confused:
The 49-54 frames are the "top hat" design. The 53-54 only has the shape that is correct for the car.

To complicate things more, the hardtop and convertible have an inner reinforcement that runs full length inside the top of the frame which means I really need a convertible frame or a Hardtop frame that I can transfer my X-member into. Parts of my frame are really bad where the water has stood on the flanges of the frame.

John
 

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#1,388 ·
As I mentioned earlier in the thread I bought an EMS inner quarter panel a month or two ago because it was really marked down as an overstock piece. Since I could not find the other side at anywhere near that price Tim and I started to make the other side. Here are the three pieces as they stand now. Lots of work to do yet but I think it will come together nicely.

John





 
#1,399 ·
Let's not go that far but if I can produce a piece in 10 hours that sells for 145 dollars and spend 5-10 dollars for material then I have cut the cost of building a car by a whole lot. Especially when you multiply that by 20 to 30 pieces made instead of bought.

That is a lot of money to a guy raising a family on a working man's income and may be the differance between building his car or seeing his dream go down the road to a new home. Of course there is also a great deal of satisfaction in making it with your own hands.

Thanks to all for the incouragement and kind words.

John
 
#1,404 ·
I worked on the other end of the inner quarter panel for a while. I started with a piece of 18 ga bent almost to a 90 degree length wise and then worked it into the rough shape with the planishing hammer. I may be able to smooth it out a little better with the English Wheel but the tight radius will make it difficult. This front piece is the inner wheel well and the piece on the other end is the "pocket" that the bumper braces fit in.

I will post a picture that will give a view of how this piece goes in.

John




 
#1,405 ·
Great looking piece of fabrication.

Having the installed pic is great too. I was having a hard time envisioning where it went inside the car. I see it doesn't.

Around these parts we call that a "trunk drop off". It transitions the trunk floor to the bottom of the quarter panel.

I'm guessing there wasn't much left of the original to copy and the new one gave you the pattern...:cool:
 
#1,406 ·
Trunk drop off is the perfect name for it. I have been calling it an inner quarter panel because that is what EMS calls it in their catalog but trunk drop off is a much better name for it.

There is not a whole lot of mine left but the side that is the best is also the same side as the EMS panel I have so I would have still had to make a mirror image piece. I had this last piece 60% made before I realized I had duplicated the other one instead of making the mirror image of it. :evil::drunk::nono::pain::mad:


John
 
#1,422 ·
The proof is in the pudding but as far as I can tell this trunk drop down is dimensionally very close. This was a fun piece to make and I feel like I learned a bit while making it. There are things about it I can nit pick but all in all I am pretty pleased with it.

There are still some welds on the back side that have not been ground but with an hour or two more it will be ready to use.

There is still more welding to do on the last floor pans I installed so I need to get back on them. Then we can move on to cleaning out the trunk area and getting ready to put the trunk floor in.

Man I am ready to get on to that!

John





 
#1,427 ·
Yes, but that goes back to what we were talking about a few days ago. When you are doing it for the fun of it the time involved is not an issue.

I have 10-12 hours in this thing and it is a 145 dollar panel so you could say I paid myself 10 dollars an hour to make it. Our president thinks minimum wage should be more than that. :)

John
 
#1,432 ·
Good to have this piece done. I ground the backside today and have it ready to send to Pugsy to get it polished. :D

I also jury rigged some all thread to support the rear of the body when I install the trunk floor. I have a couple of camper leveling stands that I will stick under the frame to keep everything in alignment. As it stands now if I put wait on the car and the springs move the body will flex. Easy fix but needs to be done.

John






 
#1,438 ·
Just think in a couple weeks it will look like this ,,the second one I just threw in for kicks , they were posted at a show today :D

I think I have a STRONG lead ,the blue car is from Cartersville ,, you know what I am saying,
 

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#1,434 ·
Thanks Jeremy, I went in to change the insurance on the roadster to Grundy on Monday but it did not go as planned.

Grundy's computers were down and they said to come back tuesday. Tuesday the agent had an emergency and was out of the office. Wednesday they submitted it and as of today Grundy has still not processed the application so I have no insurance yet.

I thought about you guys and am at least glad somebody missed me.:)

John
 
#1,441 ·
They are both beautiful cars. It sure would be nice if that Mercury's top folded. :D

When I was 12 my 18 year old brother had a '49 Merc with a 392 Hemi in it and then when I was 16 one of my good friends had a 53 Merc hardtop. I loved both cars and as you know built a 49 years ago.

Of course, in those days you could drive a 100 dollar V8 ford or a 100 dollar babbit rod chevy. That is why so many of us old guys grew up Ford guys.

Lord, it was about 1963 before I conceded that a Chevy V8 could out run a good flathead.......Just broke my heart.:p:confused::mwink:

John
 
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