home made low buck 1957 trunk pan

You did a real good job man. Made of steel, welded in place... I've seen waaaaay worse.

Is there room for improvement? Sure. But you can hold your head high knowing you did a good job and above all did the job to the best of your abilities. That's part of the beauty of what we do, everyone is learning regardless of skill level, even the pros.

 

That's my thoughts exactly about my Buick. The car is a total rust bucket. The trunk was gone, the front floor is toast and the front door pillars broke away from the floor. On top of that the engine and transmission were stuck. When I first got the car I found a couple of Buick sites to find information. One site is populated with by the numbers, concourse type restorers. Practically no tolerance for any one who is just trying to have a nice driver. You'd think people would be happy that you're trying to save a piece of old iron instead of have it hauled away to a scrapper. My car will never be a show winner, just a decent driver that will look good to the general public. The by the number guys would rather have their cars torn apart for twenty years while they look for the correct fine thread 5/16" x 1 1/3" bolt with the Buick stamp than get the car together and enjoy it. I've run into quite a few Buick guys, both on the net and in person, who when I tell them what I am doing, go off the deep end trying to convince me to do a show quality restoration. I want to build the car with what I have on a very limited budget. I build them to drive, not to show. I don't have time, money or patience to do that.

The beads are put into the metal to stiffen it. Without them you will have "tin canning" on larger pieces of sheet metal. The metal will move up and done, flexing whenever you put weight on it. Check out this post for some helpful ideas:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435411&highlight=floor+bead+roller

 

I believe doing what you can with what you got, is the way to go.

it will definetly last

 

I did a low buck floor replacement for a friend a few years back on a 64 t-bird. If you have a car that doesn't have to be factory correct, but you want it to look professional, you can often find cheap aftermarket rust repair panels at swap meets. On his car I used floor panels from an early 80s Ford pickup - trimmed them in to fit and when it was done, it looked factory....naturally the beaded ribbing wasn't the same configuration as original, but it provided strength and each side looked the same. The panels were $15.00 and just needed cleanup of surface rust.

 

how did you make those beads in the panel? I wouldn't mind learning how to do that! looking good man!

 

Looks good, here is Dad's 1970 buick that I am going to have to finish this spring and its going to take some work to.

 

Well put, I just sold an old Bug to a guy who was excited to work on it and I knew deep down I would never get to it. I hated to see it go but I have enough on my plate. The trunk looks nice, Good job

 

The trunk looks very good. It only has to hold up to whatever you put in it and keep out the rain as you enjoy the 57.

 

You did a good job,,,most of us are not pros and learned what we have by trying to do things ourselves,,sometimes it works other times it doesn't but refusing to give up is the only way to learn from mistakes.

The wagon was my first attempt at replacing major amounts of sheet metal and I had a friend that knew what he was doing and guided me along the way,,I ask a lot of questions,,,

At the time I started 7 years ago patch panels were nowhere to be found so 4' x 8' sheets of steel were my material.

This is a sample of what was accomplished in the spare tire area.

All rust gut out,,



New metal cut and bead rolled to stiffen and cut filler pieces for the sides.



Sandblasted,,,



And finally a coat of red metal primer.



And when it's got the spare down in there and the carpet covers the opening no one will know what it looks like except use. HRP

Wagon build photos