Projects 59 Custom 300 rust bucket... A journey back to the road

Yeah, you've certainly got a clean one there! We all make mistakes I suppose when it comes down to it.. It's just going to be a question of was the mistake the vehicle you chose or starting this "hobby" in the first place! Definitely no fear of getting in it though. It's just a fact of life that things could always be worse... When you expect them to be, it makes the moments when things are actually ok that much sweeter!

 

I have not read the entire thread so I am no doubt repeating something someone else has said.

I am not against glass repairs and have even used kitty hair for places where there is minor pitting but not rusted all the way through. But unless I am not understanding what I am seeing the rust is in the roof near the drip rails. The roof even the drip rails themselves are structural piece of the car. You really need to do the repair in metal.

 

Many years back I recall a local car accident (1980?) involving a '57 Chevy that was heavily rusted out. Not a really huge impact, but the body and the frame became separated. Something to think about with old cars.

 

Thanks porknbeaner, yes any glass I would do would be only a cosmetic fix. I am very cautious when it comes to structure. If I have doubts, I will rebrace, double brace, whatever it takes. Bob, that sounds like the nightmare I'm trying to avoid... Well any accident would be worth avoiding... But I don't have room or time for a catastrophe of that type... Trust me, I'm going to be showing every step of my work... For those of you that don't mind checking of course. I really appreciate all of the interest in my success. Thank you.

 

To me spending money on rust repair, just not worth it. I spent plenty, about double what I originally thought I would. But went the extra mile on everything I did. I have a build thread on the 1952-1959 Ford forum. Fortunately used parts for the '59 are out there.

 

Which ever car you end up working on an excellent ongoing tutorial where you can ask questions is over on "The Garage Journal" Ryan's other mega message board. Search for member name of BP&B hobby shop and read his threads. He goes through in great detail all such rust repairs from floors to roofs to door edge. You will learn lots and lots.

 

My 2 cents: in the past I have started projects similar to yours. I had a 61 Buick 4 dr that was very rusty without engine and trans .I pulled the body off the frame, repaired the rotted areas, blasted and primed it. On my search for a better rear bumper I found a running and driving "donor" car in Seattle. It had a busted back glass and bald tires, clean interior , paint was faded, and it was like 1000$. I bought it, had or shipped to Germany and couldnt believe my eyes! This car was totally rustfree, i only changed the backglass and used the better parts of "my" 61. I really came out on top, had a lot of fun driving, made some money, both selling parts and finally selling the 61 4 dr lesabre for an amount that would get me my pristine 65 Riviera...
Long story short, if a car is too far gone and Parties out it's still not dying in vain. It helps other builds being finished. Part it out and help yourself pay your next real project... It's not like it is a one of a kind car that has to be saved... There's still a lot to be learned on a better car, but my guess is, I would burn out not even halfway through the build plus I would be dissapointed by my build quality.
Realizing you spent tons of money ,Hard work and time on something that doesn't turn out close as well as you hoped for can be really a PITA.
Off my soapbox, thanks for listening...

PS: one of my better lessons I learned is, to quit when I catch myself asking if it makes any sense to do it...

 

Thank you Gahrajmahal! I will definitely be checking that board out. Great tip. Baumi, thank you for the advice. I'm not completely shut off to the idea of seeking another car. If I find a better car for a price I can do, it'll be parked out back if I can work it out. I'm keeping my eyes open. That said, if I get this car on the road again, even if it's just temporarily til I find something better, I'm going to have a blast. It would be worth it to me. Thank you for the insight!

 

I see them on Hemmings all the time, also evilBay. Like I said earlier, the sedans were plentiful compared to other models. It all depends on how deep your pockets are. I needed a lot of things for mine, considered a parts car but was able to find the parts at Owens in Texas. The car ran me $2500, spent about $600 on interior parts, trim from A-Z. I have about $900 in that. Rebuilding the doors, I have about $800 in those. Total glass related costs were around $900.

If I started out with a $5700 car that had everything, I would have saved countless hours of labor. And I'd be about 6 months ahead of where I am now. I made decisions along the way like taking out the dash, gutting what was left of the interior. Took out all the old wiring, the only OG wires in the car are on the heater and dash cluster. Primed and painted the floor pan. It did get out of hand.

 

'59 Ford for sale in Florida. no reserve and 4 days to go. I'm watching it, may be worth grabbing just to part out.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Other-...65e6da14:g:OnoAAOSwlfxXFTJq&item=182098254356

 

If it was me I would get her running 1st and go from there. A running car is worth more than none running one.Get her running and if your up to it start with the floors. Believe me I know about tight bugets. I bought this running and driving buick wagon NOT!!!Got her running 1st than worked on the rust.Bruce.

 

Good running motor and trans my ass.LOL.Bruce.

 

Rusty floor boards too

 

Just got to lick your wounds and keep plugging away.Good luck Bruce.

 

Why in hell would anybody part that car out???

 

Very good question Peanut... I was thinking the same thing! That's a sweet ride Bruce. Thanks for the inspiration! Bob, I wish I had started out with something as clean as what you have. I only paid $700 for my little work in progress. Once again I apologize for the dead spell... It took a little longer than what I thought to recover. I'm back in action now though.
The old gal is sittin right now though, on all fours. Started cleaning up the rust pockets up front. Going to buy a bondo buster before the week is out so I can start getting rid of the bad cracked bondo... It's creating water pockets... No good.
No doubt there is plenty of ugly to work on... But a glimmer of hope, after a new set of points and a starter, she fired off for the first time this weekend! This engine MUST have been rebuilt shortly before being put aside. It runs so smooth. Great compression. A load off my mind. I will be rebuilding the carb as soon as I get my hands on a kit. Then on to brakes and clutch. Things are getting exciting. Thanks for patiently following. I know great things are on the horizon now that I can reasonably work again.

 

Great to hear you are better and have the car running! Just keep plugging away on the body work.And drive the car.

 

Thank you steinauge. One would think that I would focus on the mechanicals first but I'm trying to keep the body from going south too quick also. I don't know if any of you on here have ever experienced this problem before but it is driving me nuts. The metal cover the ole gal is parked under has a terrible case of raining condensation. Now when it rains outside, it stays dry as a bone. When it's humid, and I'm in the south so that is 99 percent of the time, the metal cools down in the evening , water condenses, and it might as well be getting a shower.... I have considered enclosing it in an effort to stop it but that's another project to take on. Has anyone else faced this kind of nonsense? Also, once I get the paint and bondo stripped, what would be the best thing to do to seal the metal? I've heard primer is porous. I just want something durable enough to last until I'm ready for paint. Thanks in advance for input!

 

You could use POR 15 (or POUR 15 in your case...) to stop the rust. Eastwood has stuff as well. I got a Councors catalog, thought I saw patch panels for, the '59... looked on their site, nothin'. I'll look at the catalog when I get home.

Well, it runs and it doesn't look that bad, nice bumper and so on. Be careful taking the trim off, some of that is hard to come by. The front fender spears are the same on all Customs, the rear fins may be common as well, around 62".

 

Thanks again Bob! I want to make sure I stop the spreading til I get to it. She's a diamond in the rough I know. I found some pans in a Dennis Carpenter catalog... I think I'm going to start there. The rockers they have though are weld overs... As in you put the over the existing rockers... I am a newbie but that sounds like a no-no to me... Sounds like a moisture trap. Body sheet metal does seem to be scarce for our birds though... Please let me know if anyone has or does come across any full length floor pans...

 

I live in Florida so I truly do understand your problem! Any rusty but still sound metal can be cleaned up with a cup wire wheel on an angle grinder,blown off with compressed air,washed with lacquer thinner and painted with POR15. The POR has to be top coated if it is exposed to sunlight.Do this as soon as it is dry enough to feel tacky.Use any paint you like for this. Where you are doing body work and just need it not to rust until you get back to that area I use rustoleum rusty metal primer,it seems to be waterproof and holds up well. As far as the rockers,cut away as much rusty metal as you can,treat the rest with POR and weld in your new panels.Welding the patch panel over the rust doesnt work out too well.

 

There is a place by me that is going out of business, Joblot Automotive. They may have patch panels or know who does carry them. The '49-'59 Ford is one of their product lines.
http://www.joblotauto.com/

Also check Owens Salvage in Texas, he may be willing to cut something off that you need. He's on here too, flattopbob or something like that. I bought $500 worth of parts I was missing from him in late 2014.
http://www.owenssalvage.com/

This guy is worth a look as well, think his name is Steve. he has loads of '59 parts and parts cars.
http://www.64galaxie.com/1959.html

 

Thanks steinauge. I'll probably be picking up some of that primer for my worse off areas. I bought a cup wire brush only to find I got the wrong shaft size for my grinder. That said I should be going to town cleaning off as much rust as possible this weekend. I'll give the laquer rinse and primer trick a go, with POR15 reserved to cover the finished product just before paint. Also need to cut out my torn head liner... Still enough up there for a good moisture trap.

 

This is my car as of a couple of weeks ago. I swapped to longer front springs after these were taken. I had a tire scrape issue.

 

Thanks for the leads Bob! I'm in the market for a radiator support... Mine is ok, but is rusted out along the bottom edge. Also my driver side inner fender skirt has mild crash damage that was never fixed, which paved the way to my excessive rocker damage. I found 20 years worth of road dirt packed between those panels. And how about those lovely fresh air vents? I don't even know what I'm going to do about those yet....

 

Beautiful car Bob... I'm jealous

 

There's a lot of great advice for you here.

At risk of repeating the general consensus, spend as little $$ as possible. If you don't see yourself being buried in the car when you die, ultimately you will use it to flip/ trade/ part out or whatever to get you closer to what you ultimately want.

My game plan (if your ride was in my garage) would be to focus on getting it running and operating safely enough to drive. Once you have established that there isn't something fubar'd with the drivetrain, and you can reliably drive the car, only THEN think about spending your time on the body stuff. My logic here is that it is pointless to spend a bunch of time and money on fixing the floors, only to find out that the clutch is shot and the rear end is fragged. Then all you have is negative equity save for a 6-cylinder engine that nobody wants.

The upside, in my opinion, is that having a running driving car, even if it is a rusty piece of shit that nobody wants, is better than having a non-running and driving piece of shit that nobody wants.

Lastly, those floors can be patched up enough for you to safely drive the car with $50 of material from Home Depot. That is all you should spend...

This has been long, so lastly, it's your car, do what you want and have fun!

 

Lol thanks mjlangley. Even if she's a rusty pos, she's mine. But I will say that is exactly what the voice of reason in my head has said... Focus on the running gear. Right now I just want to mitigate as much rust damage as possible. Stop the spreading. So to speak. Believe me, my goal is to get her on the road before all else. I just want to do so safely. Thanks for the input!

 

My radiator support was mint, those are abundant as used, so are those huge fender well vents. Look around on eBay, again, tons of parts and most are buy-it-now.

You really should join the Ford Barn (lots of parts there, cars, etc.) as well as the '52-59 sub forum here.

 

Go to harbor freight.For about ten dollars they usually have a combo pack of different wire wheels and a set of adaptors to make them fit your angle grinders.If they dont PM me your addy and I will mail you a couple-I have bought quite a few of those combo packs You REALLY need that angle grinder!