Projects Unless your very lucky you will have to deal with rust

Your right, everybody don't start with a pristine body. HRP

 

Full speed ahead!

I have had some formal training on airplanes though, and while it doesn't all translate, many things do. That sped up my learning curve a bit, though if you're not learning something, you're probably not paying enough attention.

 

Not saying fiberglass is better than steel.....but it does have some advantages!

 

POKE! "you need to do a custom car".
Those were the first words Gary Glenn https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Gary_Glenn
ever said to me. I was Working at a small neon sign shop and my boss had just hired him to do some lettering work and was showing him around the shop and he had just looked at the sign I was fabbing. I didn't have a clue who he was, I did know what a custom was but they weren't really on my radar, at that time I was into mud trucks. I also hadn't yet connected what I was doing then with working on cars. Gary would poke me and say those words almost every time I saw him after that.

Fast forward a couple yrs. and I'm laid off from the sign shop. I no longer had the mud truck and instead had a El camino that I had basically done my first frame off on combining a very good but rusted out michigan car with a VERY worn out but rust free texas body over 7 wks. nights and weekends in the driveway of the sign shop. (Wish I still had that much energy now.) To make ends meet I put a couple of project cars up for sale one being a '59 El camino that I considered beyond my skills at the time.(I still hadn't connected the dots) I sold this to a painter who gave me 750 down and would pay the other 250 and collect the****le the following week.

The next week I go to his shop to collect the dough and he recognizes my car saying that he watched me build it while on his way home after work every night. I told him how I had just put a better interior in it that week and he asked if I would put the interior in a olds he had in the shop. After I finished that I just kept hanging around until he found other stuff for me to do and started teaching me bodywork. A couple of weeks later Gary stops in for a lunch date with the boss. He was surprised to see me there and this time when he poked me he said "Your gonna do a custom car now"

When the boss came back from lunch he waves me over and says " your a fabricator huh? go fix the wheel lips on that pontiac ". Dots connected, been doin it ever since.
God I miss Gary. He is also to blame for my interest in hot rod history but thats another story.

 

Rust*****s!

 

I hate doing rust repair, but I hate paying someone to do it even more! I'm pretty much self taught, started learning before the advent of youtube, but have learned quite a bit from that avenue now. I'm getting better at it, but I ain't getting any younger! Some before and after floor and rocker repairs:

 

I started at 15 with a rusted out 53 Ford and 53 years later I'm still doing it. Not because I like it but I've never been able to afford to start with anything really nice. It is a great feeling of accomplishment when you get done with a project.

 

I grew up in Maine. This was pretty much "normal". Not for the faint of heart...or those who wear their underwear too tight to see the humor. Ha!

 

Impressive work! HRP

 

To be honest after I saw the wagon in the daylight I didn't think it could be saved, Danny & Dave did a amazing job and I couldn't be happier.

 

Bondo usually gets a bad reputation with all the amateurs attempting repairs with it. Nice to see some professionals using it as 3M intended! Nice save in that Dodge truck video!

 

I started out with the usual rusty midwest bodies back in the 70's and self taught and got a bit of help learning to fabricate and weld. I got smart in the 90's and started buying rust-free cars from out west for builds, only to have everybody bring their rusty gems to get fixed by me. I learned the word "NO" a couple years ago and am finally working on my rust free stuff.

 

In my case with Brenda's wagon, I couldn't say NO, I did say I don't think I can but my pal Dave said WE can and I dove in head first, Since the wagon was purchased new by her grandmother it was special to her and she never complained about all the cars I had built over the years we have been married so this car had to be built. HRP

 

One of the many rusty friends gems I fixed...

 

Only issue I have with rust is, "How far back shall I go?"
I've seen some rust repairs that skinned over rusty subframing, (inside door jambs, rocker & quarter panels, etc.)
My '27 tub has some 'cancer', right quarter and rear panel: Car was parked behind a barn with a '27 roadster, some kids started a grass fire, and it scorched the right rear of the tub. Roadster wasn't touched, but the tub rusted from 'exposure'. Just indecent.
Bought 'em both.
Found a HAMBer selling a '27 tub, buyer wanted the front half for a lakes type...sold me the rear half, with doors.
Minimal rust, but bottom of drivers side rear door is rusted through right at the lower bead. (I hate welding right at beads...I oxy/acet weld body metal, and file finish. Call me old fashioned...)
I am very lucky, as where I live it's the edge of the desert. Local cars aren't usually rusty, but 'locals' are. Main issue is that it's a cultural vacuum.

 

I can well relate to that rust thing. This is the good side. Car laid on it' driver's side in a field or ditch for a lot of years from the looks of the other side.


The metal in the floors is great (won't say that about what's left of the wood) but the top of the drivers side is going to need some real work.

 

I've had two Model A Vicky's and they make great hot rods. HRP

 

What's the old saying......on a quiet night you can hear a Ford rust!

 

When I was in high school I got a job washing cars and sweeping up at a body shop owned by the local taxi company. They had something like 250 vehicles including cabs, limousines, busses and tow trucks.
I was a hard worker and the guys liked me, especially this little old French Canadian guy named Andy.
It started with me helping hang doors and do the heavy lifting and the more I helped the more I learned. The more I learned the more they taught me.
7 years later I had graduated high school, paid my way through university and learned how to fix cars.

I wonder how many CPA’s know how to make and weld in a patch panel?

I owe a lot to Andy and all the other guys at that shop that took the time to pass on their skills.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Danny, you and Brenda are the perfect pair, each complements the other. I don’t think either of you could have found a better match.

My wife and I are a lot the same way. When it comes to cars, we pretty much see eye to eye, except she has to keep me in check or I’d have a yard full!

 

Rust is another cancer , a gift to you for living in the Midwest . 90% humidity at sometime every day for 8 months of the year . I remember my Dad calling me years ago and asking me “what are you doing ?” My answer “ nothing just sitting here watching my car rust .” It*****s you western guys don’t realize the gift you have been given , not to have to deal with rust .

 

Some parts of the country a car guy sees a car with no floors,every panel crusty and think...perfect project.
A few years of 6 months of winter and it will be done.
Some parts of the country a car guy sees a a car with rust scale on the frame , scale on the floors and they walk away.To rusty.

 

I learn by watching YouTube videos,. I watch the video of a guy work with the shrinking disk and just help me understand the hole thing about how metal behaved...

Sent from my Moto E (4) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

It's hard to find a car that is not eat up with rust, even in the South! HRP

 

Wrap your**** in fiberglass!

 

I have to add I would rather see rust on a purchase consideration then bondo or primer. Anytime I see primer covering a roof or cowl area I try to inspect and tell tale signs but it basically turns me off.

 

Silent night, "holey night"?

 

Prior to buying my Suburban, it had been violated twice, once when wrecked and again when some yayhoo cobbled on a wrecking yard quarter panel, brazed it on actually, and poorly done, then slathererd a half inch of bondo over it, what a mess.
The way it was overlapped created a nice horizontal rust incubator when the slider window channel rusted allowing water to drain inside the quarter panel.
Better now.

 

i took welding in hs and college, stick welding for both so not super helpful for sheetmetal. i also have a massive admiration for the history of these cars so for a long time i was intimidated by the idea of somehow hurting them. one day i just had to try, didnt have the money and wasnt going to either, the rest is history! i rapidly realized metal is forgiving, a few small things to do like not overheating and warping panels but if you make templates, move slow and methodically, theres nothing that cant be fabricated

 

Hopefully my Olds will start to look like that soon!
Thanks to a HAMBer I now have a rust free cowl to replace the current rusty and damaged original. The replacement cleaned it pretty nicely once the 70yr old paint was removed.