Unchopping a chopped 57 Ford Ranchero windshield

Should have read what I typed "was horribly bad" should have read... "wasn't horribly bad and it" created a wrinkle in the trans tunnel under the seat section... reality check with the support of the wells being minimum it makes sense that the tunnel would have to take all the impact stress

 

Thom, Looks to be a big project to do the floor repairs. It's looking good though !

Dave

 

I'm back just in time to follow the floor repair, glad you desided to keep it with the first part of the rebuild.

 

The grayed in area shows area of replacement from the bottom side... the backer plate from the Ranchero will removed and the front section will be installed as a unit

 

This is the donor front section... complete with rocker backers, reaer cross brace, and both front support braces

 

Since we were replacing a major section of the front floor and we did not have the benifit of frame support - cross braces were installed... although not visible from above support braces are under the recessed mounting holes - two short ones in the front and the back on in the picture above goes all the way across... we trimmed the rear floor section so half of the edge of the rear brace was exposed and was trimmed Ranchero to overlap the brace... enough of a gap was left so both section were welded to the brace... so now a weld would be continues all the way across rather than factory spot welds... notice spot weld on center hump were full weld has not been completed

 

Sorry... but, I just got caught up in the progress of > http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=535571&page=24

I couldn't help steal a top comparision shop...

 

Glad to see the thread back in action.

 

Another top view... and you can see the splice point where it is tacked along the edge of the rear brace...

 

Awesome job so far! Can't wait to see more.

 

With the replacement front floor, braces, and rocker backers in place you would be hard pressed to tell it didn't come that way and now I know that everything is back to factory spec...

 

Did you apply any sort of rust proofing inside the floor braces or other places that were exposed while it was open?

 

Scott sandblasted the inside of the braces and primered them... I was luck in that they were in really good shape... the uderside was pretty muh free of surface rust and the the undercoat was tight... can't say that about the top side... jute padding topped with a rubber mat is a rust trap waighting to happen... the rubber cracks in the western climate and anywhere else it is a disasterous combination... as mentioned before, the front braces are available in repro which leads me to believe the has a tendency to rot out... at this juncture I'm not thought out how I can seal or prevent rust mine since we didn't separate them...

 

Even the foot boards can be an issue for the same reasons... the CO cowl had heavy pitting in the triangle reinforcement area which we decided to replace... again these are available in repro panels too

 

Ironically the original AZ cowl had no pitting in the same area so it became the donor for that section... I know the first phase on the floor repair doesn't show much since it was basically spot weld removal, fitting in the replacement sections, and welding back in old spot locations of the donor panel...

 

This is a very good point that is critical when repro floor sections are being installed... if my stash didn't include a complete floor section I would have been installing the panel over esisting braces... which is the normal way to correct the problem... the route we took was by no means easier and with what we dealt with installing replacement rear panel which I'll cover next - I think it may have been harder... our gaol was to insure that the cab was squared to factory spec and when this larg of an area is replaced it eliminated any tweeks caused by the previous bump...



the above photo shows the braces... in our case the were all removed along with the rocker backing plates... so as I mentioned I haven't determined a way to treat the ones in the replacement section since they are sealed

 

Another point that I keep forgetting to mention... the donor cowl was cut short to salvage the floor of the rear-ended Retract so an extention was made to extend and duplicate the factory floor overlap... still hard to believe what we faced with today in rusty repair and back in the day they were scrapping rust free cars because the repair wasn't worth the value of the car... and worse yet how many were canabalized for part and the shells scraped be cause they were undesirable models... prime exsample are wagons... Ford outsold Chevy in 57 primarily due to wagon sales - 120 thousand units... and today they are rare because they were the parts donor of choice - cheap and narrow rear ends... go figure

 

I'm jumping ahead again... this shows were the front section mated up and the rear repro panels inplace... tomorrow I'm backtrack and start showing the steps in between... notice the center section missing - everything to the front was rplaced as a unit and the only remaining section of the original Ranchero is the with of the opening

 

rad

 

Glad to see an update to this build ! One of my favorites!!

 

well executed metalwork

 

Thanks for the comments... I keep posting and wondering if this is like watching paint dry, am I texting myself, or if it is helpful info... anyways here is where we are going...



and here are the repro panels that most folks would be working with... we incorporated the rears since those rear wells are generally pitted at best and I didn't have any OEM ones in my stash...

 

AMAZING WORK and great vision from Scott the metal man!

 

I just ordered all new floor panels for my ranchero..so yeah Im watching and its a huge help!! thanks for posting!

 

I'm definitely watching this too. My Ranchero is going to need the same floor repair work.

 

I've still learning on this project... back when I was Scott's age I had a 23K miles 57 Ford Amblewagon... I keep going to body shops with 57 Ford Body Illustrated showing cutaways and wanted to use a TN wagon rear clip and floor sections out of two others to repair rust issues... no body shop was willing to tackle it... then one said "kid ya seem to know what ya want - you/we can't afford the time - but, if you cut'r up we will do the alignment and weld it back together"... I did and drove it for years but it was never removing one layer at a time and getting it right so it eventually began to show and I sold it... this time I'm guiding Scott on what I want done... many professionals wouldn't spend the time on things that wouldn't show simply because it is a time burner with little reward when it covered...

By the way... my name is Thom and I'm a recovering 57 Ford addict... recovering because good ones are becoming to damned scarce for me to afford...

 

Thanks again for the feedback... meanwhile, back to the rear floor... Freddie would be proud

 

This is what LN7 NUT was referring to... these braces are spot welded to the floor and have limited (almost none) acess to be treated unless you do it before the new floor sections are re-welded back in... repair and/or replacement is common... mine were pitted which was expected but they were solid... just a good blasting and proper prep required

 

While I am not doing anything of that caliber, the technique is translatable to what I need to do to the floor of my truck and I am fascinated by what you are doing. Keep up the good work and please, keep posting your progress.

 

When I'm doing floors I often drill some holes from the top and spray in a rust inhibitor on the inside of the braces, we don't get a lot of rust in Alberta but I've never had anything I've done that too give me trouble later on. I have an 82 EXP that someone had rustproofed by Ziebart when it was new, and the only places that rusted where the places they missed, and those places rusted almost completely away while the treated areas are like new still, so it might be something worthwhile to have done on cars that are going to get used a lot (like mine do) in the places that are notorious for rusting out like braces etc.