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

A beautiful thing.

 

After a bit of final fitting, tacked in place.

 

Since it warmed up to the mid 40's today, did some grinding/smoothing on the welds.







And a little more spotting in between.




Not a lot of progress, but still moving forward.

Merry Christmas Eve to all!!!

 

Picked up a battery tray that I found on Facebook Marketplace yesterday. One rust hole in the bottom of the tray but the rest seems nice and solid. Mine originally had been replaced by a home fabbed one when I got the car.

Have it presently soaking in OSPHO then will add a little patch where the hole is, then seal it up for painting later.

 

Back on some more work on the passenger door, just cleaning up the ends where the panel is not a great fit.
Still more grinding and finishing, will need some filler work before paint, but at least the rust will be gone.

 

Got the battery tray out of the OSPHO and started work on it.

 

A little more filling of some pinholes and some primer to cover the bare metal for the time being and the rough rust work on this door is finished.

 

Some better pics after the primer was done drying.

 

Great job! It's just metal! Lippy

 

Thanks!!

 

looks good...keep goin..

 

Thanks!!

 

Been obligated to several other things around the house, property & shop so no real work done, but I was able to squeeze in a little shopping!

Another Ebay find that UPS just dropped off this evening. A windshield washer bottle & bracket, not 100% for a 57, but close enough to the correct era.

I think it will go just fine in the engine bay.

 

Break from the "Honey-to-do's," and back to some rust work on the driver door bottom & skin.

 

Looking for some solid metal to cut to...

 

Time for surgery!!

 

Spent a little time working on the door skin bottom. Had a few pin holes show in the weld, but will take care of them later, time to flip it over and start on the lower inner side rust.

 

Had a little time between other projects and after yesterday's primer had dried, I noticed a few more pinholes than I originally thought, so cleaned those spots off and filled them. Sadly, one of my grinders gave up the ghost in the process

 

Is that weld-through primer? If it's regular etch or epoxy, you probably should grind it back a bit before welding up pinholes, I've heard the gasses that stuff gives off when burnt is bad for you. Looks like a good repair though.

 

Thanks!

Nope, not weld through primer, like I said above I cleaned them off then filled them, that was when my grinder died...

 

Started on cutting out & fitting the inside door bottom.
Got close then stopped for the night while the inner door area that was surface rusted soaks in some Ospho.
















Always under close supervision so I can't slouch off...

 

Got the inside bottom cut to fit close and welded it. Also started doing a little smoothing of the weld seam.

 

Opened up another thin spot so cut back to solid metal and made a patch and got it roughed in also.

 

Time to get the metal strip that holds the door panel back in place.

Back in place, ugly welds and all...A little grinding, and they are still ugly, but now they are to closer to "closing time pretty."

Not done with welding & grinding, but have to cover the fresh welds & bare metal now that winter is around the corner and there is a lot of moisture in air now.

 

Got the driver side door bottom rust repair finished for now. Still lot of fine tuning in the body work stage, biggest share of known rust/cancer in the car is done, with the possible exception of the floor and that is for another time.

Time to step away from sheetmetal work and take a break.

 

Not going to have a stock or aftermarket radio installed in the dash so pulled this out of the mailbox this afternoon and added it to the parts stash for later.

 

Tore into the what I think may be the last large area needing work.
Found about an inch at the deepest point of filler.

Looks like something got hit at the rocker and caused a crease & large dent back to the wheel opening.

For now, going to wait till after the big swap meet first weekend in April in Portland, OR to see if any of the vendors have a patch panel before tackling making one.

 

That's a deep dent, kinda surprised it's so solid there yet. Any thoughts on trying to just pull it out?

 

I figured I would expose the area to see what the extent of the problem was so I could decide if I wanted to tackle repair or replacement with a patch panel.

And being that the swap meet is so close, would look for a patch panel there before really taking any further action.

Any thing under $200.00 for a patch panel if I see one at the swap saves me dealing with back orders & shipping.

Just one more thing on the list to be looking for while wandering the booths...

If nothing shows up there, then will probably give it a go on pulling it out, as I can always order one later if needed.

 

Spent a little time with the stud gun and got the area pulled out some, but found a lot of thin and torn metal with some rust though, so thinking I will just cut out the worse and weld new metal in.

A much smaller affected area and will be very little filler when done.