1955 Ford Customline "facelift"

Thanks man!

 

Well, Got some more work done today...

Fabbed in a new sheet metal piece for the back of the rocker...

Had to cut out the rear bottom of the front fender... more gl*** and bondo... the hole was about 6" wide and about 7" tall...

i'll need to cutout the driver side floor pan... The floor around the body mount is rotten.

made up new bracing to support the rocker and floor.

More Pictures tomorrow...

 

Thanks!

I've been getting some of the patch panels from EMS.

Expensive... but Great quality.

 

Trying man, Its all about doing it right... It will be well worth the h***le when its done.

 

Thanks! got any pictures of your "56"?

 

Well-the wheels look really good! That's gonna be a sweet car.

 

I was thinking of plating my crossmember beacuse it's staring to look a little sketchy. Do you think that would do anything?

 

That rocker panel is worse then on my 55 sunliner that was in Ohio all its life and sat since 68,it still had a complete inner and was just gone on the outside. I had to repair the tail pan,both quarters,3 of the floors and some body mounts plus both front fenders and the extensions of the core support that go under the front of the fenders and the crossmember and the one rocker panel I mentioned first. My dad bought it new and drove it untill 68 when he bought a wagon,if he would of repaired it shortly after he stopped driving it I dont think it would of been as bad as the rust continued to eat it while it sat and I probably repaired something I forgot. Jeff

 

I have a pair of slip on rocker panels for a 2 door that I wont be using,they dont have the lip down on the bottom like the originals and thses have a Ford part number on then. There is someone in Montana or somewhere close to there that makes a excellent reproduction rocker panels that have the drains but I cant remember where I got the info. Jeff

 

WOW!

Ya, The next big can of worms is the rear p***enger quarter panel including the entire wheel well lip. It has all of the same "quality fixens" like the driver rocker.

the p***enger rocker needs about 8" of the front replaced.

The tail pan on this car is not to bad... very minor rust repair.

 

Do you have a picture of what they look like?

How much did you want for them?

 

I will get them down and take some pics of them and all panels are avaiable except for the tail pan which I found a cut up NOS part to use for patches,yours must of came from the rustbelt area as I never seen one that bad out west. What was wierd about mine was on the rocker panel I replaced the inner still had clean bare metal showing but the outer was toast,the body support parts that tie into the inner rockers are available if you feel like replacing them as I put on 5 in my 55. Jeff

 

You're doing a good job, a lot of people would have been tempted just to leave it as-is since it still looked good.

Crazy how rusty those rockers get. A few months ago I did the rockers on my '59 Edsel, and when I got the old ones off, I realized that they were replacements already. So my car is on it's 3rd set of rockers right now.

When I worked at the T-bird resto shop in town, we did a '61 T-bird convertible, and the rockers were good since they were galvanized, but we did have to replace the floor pans and the trunk pans, both doors, both quarter panels, both front fenders, the hood, the trunklid, and the removable front clip.

My '70 Cutl*** was the same way, rockers are excellent since they're galvanized, but I had to swap out both quarters, trunklid, both doors, inner fenders, parts of the trunkpan and floors, the bottoms of the front fenders, and the hood (the hood was solid, it was just the ugly flat one)

If Ford would have galvanized the rockers and lower quarters on their 50's cars, they would all have probably held together really well.

 

Looking at the first pics in front of those old buildings really reminds me of Gr*** Valley where we picked up our '56 Chevy Wagon. Looks like you're not too far from there.

My dad grew up down here but used to drive up there every weekend to visit his grandparents in his '55 Customline so I have a place in my heart for that car. Beautiful.

His was a bit different, though. Raised g***er with a big block and a 4 speed. I still keep my eye out for 'em and yours is lookin' good.

 

Hey Nitro,I was concerned about the same thing happening to me if I tore into this body to much. So I just did a cosmetic fixup and left it alone. This 55 Club Sedan was first done back in the sisties and what they did is section everything below the doors. I'm guessing the bottom was rusted out . By the way you're car looks wicked!

 

Your car is now 300 lbs lighter without the bondo and foam rubber. Heck I thought the oddest thing I saw was chewing gum over bullet holes. I am now waiting for someone with newspaper and bondo quarters.

Straight car, and I do believe rockers are available.

 

The top of the rocker was made out of fibergl***... It was rock hard but maybe over the years with car washing the sponges that were inside made it rot out so bad???

Those EMS panels that im working with are exc! And galvanized too!

Yesterday my budy Joe and i finished up the outside rocker,

Just need to finish cutting out the driver floor and make a panel for the bottom fender.

More pictures soon!

 

Great looking car! How much was taken out of the lid?

im actually excited about taking apart the p***enger rear quarter panel... It will be just as good as that rocker.

 

No doubt! Im convinced now that the foam rubber is was killed that rocker.

 

Yea Nitro, I've never compared a stock roof height to my chop but I have an old newspaper article on the car from the early seventies that claims 8" was taken off the top. Although I know it's got a pretty severe chop, that number seems a bit much. Keep up the nice work on your car.

 

EMS stuff is awesome.

 

Got the rocker panel in...

 

Heres a close up of the driver floor panel... it was a little more wasted than we thought...

 

Heres a shot of the p***enger rocker panel... The front 8" or so has got the same bondo and sponge treatment...