how to repair a rusty trunk super cheap

today we put our gas filler tube back in.




first thing to do is clean the old fender metal off the tube and get it where it needs to go and clamp it to the fender.



at the bottom where it meets the trunk floor we need to add a wedge shaped piece of metal to join at the tabs . the original floor had a hump here.





weld it in and grind the welds down smooth.





looking down the tube inside you can see how the tabs hold it.



now all we have to do is seam seal it .

 

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You do some Fine work!!! Just shows anything is possible.

 

Great job, I know that was a lot of work, but worth it.

 

For what it's worth, you could remake that spare tire well with some flat tin and part of the spare tire cover from a conversion van, I bet. That would be super cheap. They usually rot out at the bottom. The edges of the cover have some curvature to them as opposed to something just made out of flat pieces.

I got lucky, a guy in a divorce had to clean out his car stuff and had one of these all cut apart for some reason ages ago - I picked up a decent trunk floor right off the ground, all cut out already. I forget what all else I got with it but I have zero invested at this point.

 

Nice Fab! And on a budget no less.LB

 

Looks great ,Saw the ***le and thought it was a roofing muck and screen thread,Good work ,Man that was gone

 

I salute your dedication! Great work and a nice project.

 

Man! You guys rock. Makes me want to get off of my lazy ***!

 

Nice repair. Are those rear fenders after market? If so who sells them?

 

rear fenders are oem chevy that were screwed on in the late 1950's. the one good thing about the car. i don't know of anyone making complete replacement fenders.

 

Nice work so far! Kind of gets a bit dicey (fun) when there's not enough left of the original parts to see exactly how it was shaped.

And it's great to save one that a LOT of "car guys" would give up on. When you have mad skills, you can get by without a mad checkbook

 

i have found the history, or it found me, of this car back to 1959. seems that it was purchased from a local buick dealer's used car lot in 59' by my uncle. at the time it had already had rust issues and a set of new oem chevy rear fenders had been screwed on after the original fenders had been cut off with what looks like an ax. a patch had been put in on both rear rockers and leaded in. when he bought the car it had nice paint and leather seats. after driving it for a short time the engine developed a noise so it was taken back to the buick dealer. they reached a deal and my uncle was given another car and the dealer took the hardtop back. it then was placed at another property that the dealer owned for parking cars. nothing indoor and on dirt. it sat there for the next 37 years till i bought in 97' and stored it indoors till now. it's kinda cool to know some of where this old girl has been........but today we are repairing the inner wheel house behind the rear fenders. i opted to use 1/2 inch heavy wall conduit to make the inner arch with. that will give us a good place to spot weld the fender back on to the body.







we bent the conduit to match the arch of the fender. make sure the fit is good because this will be spot welded when we put the fender back on.





now we want to get the conduit into the proper place and clamp it. we cut the rusty stuff back to good metal on the arch.





after tacking the conduit in a few places to hold it we now want to cut a strip of metal to fill the gap with. put it in the vice and do a 90 degree bend. we cut 2 notches on each end so we can follow the curve of the arch.



start by tacking the center part in, then weld it solid if the fit is proper,



then we want to get the end to roll with the arch. we spot weld it at the top and hammer the roll, welding it every 1/4 inch as we work our way to the end of the patch panel .









the fender will weld on stronger,and be easier to seal out mud and water than it was when new because the little bolt in cover that had a rubber seal has been eliminated.

 

outstanding , i love it when the rust goes away , and metal comes back in its place

 

Nice work, inspiring to say the least!

 

Usually a lap joint consists of two pieces of metal overlapping and trapping moisture and rot. How are you avoiding that?

 

9 years old and having rust issues I was beginning to think maybe they did not build them as good as we thought back then but if it stayed on dirt roads most of its life and the county put down a salt brine solution to keep the dust down I could see it getting rusty before its 10 years old,my family had property in Michigan where they used that stuff and after 5 or 6 years the local vehicles were getting a little rough. Keep up the good work and cant wait to see it finished.

 

good job man glad to see another hardtop chevy being saved

 

Lovin your work!
Gonna be a cl***y ride!

 

You are doing a bang up job! Beautiful metalwork. That car is a keeper. Way to go!

 

the lap joint is better because i think it is a stronger joint. we use a good grade of oem style seam sealer on the joint on both sides to prevent trapping moisture. the use of a weld through primer on the seam would help also. most cars have lap welds when new (rocker to floor pan, etc.) that are spot welded together but as long as the seam is sealed properly they will last for years.

 

Great build, or should I say rebuild. Subscribed to keep up with your build.

 

Two points A local livestock trailer manufacture paints all metal laps with zink primer. Nothing causes rust guicker than a little cow piss and manure. Second cheap metal I've used old washer cabnets to build fuel tanks and floors.

 

Nicely saved, I woulda p***ed on the car, but it is a rare hard top.

 

Cheap and effective great combination
The rear end is coming around nicely.

 

we have been getting a few of the little things done. got the wheel arch on the p***enger side done.




we also cut the trunk stops and reinforcement strip from the old tail pan and put them on the new one.







we had to fab some fender skirt mounts for the p***enger side. it only had an old one someone had made years ago. we used 16 gauge metal and bent a few new ones on the vice.



the old and the new







we have had a few requests for pics of the whole car and today we managed to get it out of it's space to take a few. we are slowly working our way from back to front. looks like the floors are going to be fun.

 

You're doing some fantastic work.

The car will be a credit to you when it's done, especially with the family history from way back.

Mart.

 

Keep up the good work. I've got an Olds that looks as bad as your Chevy and will be following along as you tackle the rust demons.

 

A nice save on a car I would have walked away from. You're inspiring me to take another look at what might be "saveable." Good work!

 

we got the seats pulled and got our first good look at the floors ....then had a second bowl of wheaties. this is gonna be fun. our plans are to do it like the trunk. bought cheap floor pans and rockers off ebay, very basic stuff. the pans cost $50 each, rockers were $100 per side for inner and outer. the rest of the pans and braces we are going to fab.



one good thing was the under seat heater that we found.



good time to look at the frame rails to see if they need any work.





we found this little fellow under the seat, figure he died of exposure in the late 50's