how to repair a rusty trunk super cheap

Unbelievable, I'm going out for a tetanus shot on my lunch break... a project not for the faint of heart!

Bob

 

WOW! A true inspiration, you Sir have a high degree of testicular fortitude! Looking at the condition of this gem makes me almost feel good about my rust issues. Thank you 1.) For being crazy enough to tackle a project of this magnitude...on the cheap! 2.) Posting it here...with pictures! to give lazy, un-skilled, lumps such as myself a good boot to the butt to try to take on issues such as these with ingenuity and imagination! Keep up the great work, and keep the pictures coming...please!

 

MMMMMM rust ! I love threads like this...I think mostly cause it proves to me that there are other people out there as crazy as me fixing stuff this rusty!

 

Ya gotta love this!

 

Inspiring.

 

This is a great tech post! I'm about to tackle some similar work on a couple of much more solid cars.

Here's my wife's old '51 Bel Air. Just a hint of what you can look forward to when you're done with that beautiful car.



still missing some trim in this pic.


She re-did the interior, too, headliner and all.

 

.....What a great thread!!!!!!!! really enjoyed....

 

i viewed your 47 ford thread KoolKemp, that's what made me start on this one...and yep, we're both crazy

 

wow ,way to go,that really inspires me to work more on my Stude!
subscribed!

 

Well done! Good job.

 

today we got started on the floors. the first thing i want to do is get the door opening tied back together. the first thing i'm gonna need are the under floor braces. they are 3 of them on each side. the front one is the most complex so we built it first. the seat mount reinforcement goes between brace 1 and 2 so we got it done today also. to start we need to remove whats left of the floor pan over the mounts. just one layer of the metal.



that allows us access to the braces to get a pattern made.



first we made a pattern of the seat mount and cut it out on some 16 gauge metal.



it has 2 recessed places that have to go in where the seat bolts up. we cut 2 slits and bent it down to 90 degrees.



now we placed a steel rod at the bend and hammered it back to make the recesses.





then we weld in tabs to make the sides of the recess and roll the edges between the dips



all that's left is to drill the access holes and weld on the nuts for the seat bolts.

 

Very inspiring and I agree, you took on a job that many would consider too much work needed and propbably would end up parting the car out. Good save, and neat that it has the family history to go along with it.

 

now for the front brace, we made a pattern for it with the bend lines and cut lines. you have to do the pattern in a way that looks like you flattened the brace all the way out.





this was traced onto some 16 gauge metal. we then cut it out and started the bends.





to get the lip bends we clamped it in the vice and hammered them over.



after all the bends are made it looks like this. the bottom angle at the rocker is about 80 degrees and the upper angle is about 15 degrees.



now we welded all the cuts up and filled in the gaps, weld, grind, and now have a new front brace.





a few more braces and we'll start putting some new stuff back in.

 

subscribed - looking forward to seeing you continue

 

great job on the braces , man that floor is a daunting proposition ,more holes than floor , great to see this one saved

 

Great project, and nice work. It's good to see a car like this being saved with more sweat and creativity than $$. My kind of build!

Brian

 

I spent a lot of time in Ohio and saw a lot of rusty stuff. I would have never thought that Tennessee would have so much. What is it that causes it? Salt? Something else?
BTW, GREAT JOB

 

Tbird,
On page one you told us you used a Cougar roof and a Tahoe hood to make much of the trunk floor. Can you tell us if you bought 16 ga. (or other?) for the floor or what?

I've got some VERY minor rust issues - compared to yours - in my 55.2 Chevy truck, but I have a couple Harbor Freight angle grinders, a Hobart 140 MIG welder (I dont know how to use - yet!) some hammers, vice grips, and a vice so I'm inspired to give it a go if you can do THIS with what you started from. I've read here that some guys use old cereal boxes for cardboard templates.

Do you have any other tips, tricks or words of advice? I've got an otherwise unuseable door for my truck that I intend to scavenge as much sheet metal from as I can for my patches. ANY advice appreciated.

 

subscribed...I really appreciate your efforts at bringing this one back. It also reminds me of the fun times I had with my sons, working on the old stuff... thanks...

 

Hi Dan, the hood and roof I used are 18 and 20 gauge which will work fine for the floor. we use 16 gauge for the braces and the supports. the old door you have would work great for the floor patches. cereal boxes work good, i used cardboard on some of mine just because i needed something big. sounds like you have most of the tools you need. an air nibbler would make it easier to cut and you can find one on ebay for 27 bucks shipped. get some old scraps of metal and fire the welder up. practice with it . play with the wire speed and voltage settings till you get good results. do spot welds instead of a solid seam on sheet metal. take a big job and break it down into little parts, makes any job easier to do. if you have any other questions just PM me,be glad to help..... oh, and have fun .

 

a bad exhaust made the drivers side a little worse, and really bad at the trunk. they use a lot of salt here in the winter because were in the mountains, the car sat on very damp dirt for 37 years and so far i have swept up maybe 40 pounds of dirt road mud from every crack and cranny so far.

 

Tbird,
Thanks so much for the fast response AND the tip on the nibbler. Frankly, I wondered if I'd be able to cut everything I needed to with a cut off wheel in my angle grinder. I'll check out the eBay nibbler tonight.

Regarding the welding: yeah, I agree the way to go is practice, practice, practice. I've still gotta get an Argon/CO2 mix gas bottle as I bought my welder used without one. My plan has been to start welding up the myriad of mirror holes in the bad door and to advance to evening out the jagged speaker holes someone cut in it in the past and repair them to see if I can butt weld sheet metal without blowing holes in it? I'll keep referring to this thread when I feel I'm getting in over my head....then I'll go back and laugh at myself.

 

we've been super busy at the shop with paying customers and it's been a while since i've got to work on my stuff but this week i got a some done. we got the drivers side rockers and quarter cut out so i can really see how bad it is.


this is what came out, a patch over the rusted out original with a lot of lead.


this is what we have to work with.


now we could see the rear window drain channel was rotted out also. now we cut the quarter higher up to gain access to it.





looks nasty.



we decided to build a lower cap with a drain to repair it.





now we'll weld it in and access it from the inside to seal it. the tube goes through the floor and inside a body mount to drain same as the oem one did.

 

Holy shit. You guys are rust masters. No one I know would touch that. Boat anchor to driveable classic. Wow.

 

Wow! Nice job!!! i can dig a nice HT!

 

I REALLY respect you guys that tackle this stuff.

Saving old American history is a great thing, and I place you guys right there with those who strip a Victorian house down to nothing and make it great again.

You're inspiring me to learn metalworking and go find something rusty that someone has given up on. (After my 54 is done)

It seems to me (correct me if I'm wrong) that if you tackle something like this with the intention to enjoy the metalworking (instead of dreading it), that it can actually be a lot of fun and good entertainment.

I know, at a minimum, you must get a lot of satisfaction when you step back occasionally and look at what you've accomplished.

 

What an inspiring thread! I'm currently attacking rust on my '50 sedan. Fortunately not as bad a case as yours, but far enough for a beginner like me.

My respects for saving a cool Chevy and for documenting it for us others to see.

 

may i ask where did you get the quarterpanel from? i`m been trying to find a full replacment panel

 

Wow, thats some extensive work. I think most people would have written that car off and sent it to the crusher. I'm glad to see it didn't go that route. I can't wait to see the finished product.