Hot Rods Barn or in this case, garage finds still exist!!

Got the top of the door stainless off and the wing widows out, so treated and primed some rusty areas underneath them.

 

Had a buddy come up yesterday and we pulled the engine & tranny out to clear the way for clean-up on the firewall.

 

Found this '62 Impala just by chance. An old fellow came up to me in a restaurant after noticing my car shirt. He bet I had not seen a 6 cylinder with 12 ports. Now you got my attention. He also owned this this Chevy. He bought it new in SoCal and brought it to Idaho in '76, not running. He ordered it with a 6 and a 3-spd/OD. It had not moved since bringing it up here, and was covered with an old "Tarp". I opened the drivers door which had not been opened since 1980, and expected to be blown over by mouse smell. Negative, smelled like new naugahyde. It wasn't even dirty, as the owner had sealed all holes prior to storing....

 

Great story and save. This one stayed in the family until they didn’t want it any more. I think Larry (the gentleman I purchased it from is happy that I bought it, Brother in-law to Sister that bought it new) likes that I bought it and gets to see nearly once a week. I’m leaving this one alone.

 

Well, everytime I walked out and looked at the floor I seen more small pinholes opening up and areas that will certainly be worse when I try and clean the rust off.
I figured with the time and effort I am putting into getting this done, it would not be right to piecemeal the floor together, so I decided to just suck it up and will get it done with all fresh metal.

 

I think the floor pan is 2500 bucks

 

Says it is in stock and scheduled to ship tomorrow, so guess we'll see how accurate that turns out to be as soon as I get shipping confirmation & tracking.

To my door, freight & taxes totaled $1408.53, with $169.00 being to my door freight charge and $105.54 being sales tax.

So all in all, didn't think it was terribly bad considering the investment I have into the car so far...

 

Did well ,I subscribe to DDs speedshop on YouTube and he has replaced floor pans in several tri-five Chevys in a normal two car garage.

 

He is one of a few that I watch regularly.

Don't always agree with his level of "done," but I do appreciate his philosophy that he wants to drive them and not worry about parking lots, etc., so really can't fault him too much.

 

Yes but he is pissed that the new cam shaft was trashed due to bad lifters.Brand new and he did follow all break in procedures and used assembly lube and the correct engine oil

 

Seems to be happening more and more...

 

Poor quality Chinese steel

 

Shipping and tracking notification says expected delivery date on my new floor is Tues, 10/18, coming out of Texas.

 

Floor is here...WOOT-WOOT!!!




Eight days from ordered to in my truck bed, not bad with the way things seem to be!

 

Pulled both doors off to get a closer look at what needs done.
Starting on the passenger door as it is in the best overall shape as far as rust work needed.

 

The inner door bottoms are for the most part solid, just a lot of surface rust so far other than some small holes at front lower corner.




Working my way through cleaning & treating.
First pass with a wire wheel & Rustmort.

 

Little more clean up and another round of Rustmort...

 

I have come to the conclusion that I may as well just take about 2" or so off the whole door skin bottom. Had a few more small holes open up when I stripped the paint, so much like the floor, just going to bite the bullet and not piecemeal it.


I have door skins for both sides and the driver side door bottom, so if I just open it up all the way across, I can concentrate of cleaning the door bottom which is pretty solid on this side and can also have easier access to the inside to treat and seal that as well.


This will also correct a small crease at the very back, bottom end that carried over into the lower quarter where I had earlier found an area of filler had been applied before the red paint had been done.

 

Seems like a good idea. I prefer sandblasting over rust converters personally, but you're right about just replacing the whole door bottom rather than bits and pieces. When I did the door bottoms for my '57 I unfolded what was left of the lower crimped edge of the door skins but left them in place so I had a reference point as to where the inner door bottom pieces should line up (I had to weld in large sections) and I tried to salvage some of the outer door skin at the bottom but when I hammered the flange back over it just cracked apart. Point being, it looked OK at first glance but once I started working with it, it was thin and weak all the way across. I don't think you'll regret doing the whole section. Just weld slowly and carefully, it's a very easy place to get warpage issues.

 

Yeah, sometimes it is just not worth the effort to try and save a few inches of steel, and I like the thought of being able to get inside easier so I can clean up the upper insides of the door.

Sandblasting is not an option for me, wish it were, but have to do with what I have.

The car has made it this far in life with what issues it has, so I feel pretty lucky that it was not worse. Hoping to buy a few more years and give the next caretaker a little better foundation for when he or she takes over responsibility for her care...

 

Opened up the bottom of the door to see what I was in for.
Started working on the lip area getting the scale off.



Not looking too bad after today's efforts.

 

Worked on a little hole filling.

Just need to smooth them out and see if I need any touch-ups.

 

Inside lip of passenger door bottom was not as crusty as the outside.

 

I bet a large part of the problem of rotting out door bottoms is clogged weep holes that allow water to stay on the bottom of the door and cause bad corrosion.

 

I did not have clear any of the door bottom drain holes, they were all clear as can be seen in the pictures. Guessing that is why I got so lucky with this door.

The driver side door has way more rust damage to both the skin & the door frame bottom, so that may be the case there, have not looked that close.

Just happy to be able to repair and not have to replace them.

Looked at Classic Industries just to see what new ones would cost as they had them in stock, and with tax & shipping was just under $2900.00 for the pair.

UGGHHHH....

 

Started fitting the lower door skin patch.


Inside lip treated with OSPHO and rust inhibiting paint. I figure I will clean spots away where it will welded after the new lip gets folded over.

 

I can do a lot of welding to avoid spending $2800, and personally, I'd rather have repaired original pieces on my car than reproduction ones, even if they were heavily repaired.

I like your style, I didn't buy a single new exterior sheetmetal panel for my '57 build, just worked with what I had.

 

Thanks, just plugging along, working from front to back...

 

The last couple of cars I did (unfortunately, off topic cars), I used Por15 on every seam before epoxy priming. Been over 20 years since the first one I did that too, and not a single sign of corrosion anywhere, on any seam. Stuff works great for sealing seams permanently, not allowing moisture to even get a start.

 

Like Variprime