New build thread; 48 Plymouth

[falconvan]

Got the patch trimmed and tacked in tonight.

[Dave Severson]

Nice patch, Falcon! does the wheel opening lip continue down into the new patch, or did you get lucky and it will just end where the patch is????

[falconvan]

It continues down but it's a factory reproduction piece so it looks like it's going to transition smoothly. The guy that makes these sure is proud of them; I paid a mint for these considering it's just a small piece of sheet metal.

[stovens]

Nice job Falcon. Got to love welding sheet metal!

[Itoldyouso]

I bet you guys who play with non Ford type cars pay a premium for most of the stuff you buy...............there is just so much more for Fords that the parts have gotten competitive, not so with Mopars, etc.

I just went back and reread this entire thread, you have really come a long way and are doing a great job on it. Very interesting thread, thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Don

[falconvan]

Yeah, I think I paid about $120 a piece for those little patch panels. Lucky I had the sedan body to cut from for the floor; he wanted about $2K for a complete floor pan set. I read some of my old entries, too. The one where I said i'd be finished in 18 months was particularly amusing. I guess it takes as long as it takes. Back to work tonight, my wife is going shopping with the girls so I have a full night in the garage. Thanks for the comments, guys.

[35fordcoupe]

I went back through a bit too as a refresher and man I hate to rub it in, but my car required no patch panels . Just the lower tailpan area had to be cut out, banged out and welded back in since it was hit and filled with filler way back when. Good work plugging along on all that sheetmetal.

I am excited for some more frequent updates now

[falconvan]

Go ahead; rub it in, 35. I've got it coming for thinking I can throw this together as quick as some of my other projects. It's funny how when Mike told me he was giving this to me and I looked at it in the garage I thought,"How in the world can a guy have a 40's 2 door coupe apart and not want to finish it?" Man, doing a car like this is nothing like taking some old beater and throwing in a big engine and a cheapie paint job. Even with starting with what I thought was a decent body; the commitment to get 65 year old sheet metal back in good shape to paint is huge. You definitely learn a whole new set of skills along the way. Looking at it as a whole is overwhelming so I decided to divide the body into quarters and concentrate on 1/4 at a time. I know this is going to take a few months to get all the way around the car and get it right so I'm mentally prepared for slow steady progress.

When we brought this home from the blaster we ran into rain and it started to rust before we got home so I decided to spray the whole thing down with this green rust inhibitor I got from Advance. It did it's job of stopping the rust but the whole car looks like a giant glazed donut so part of the task is sanding all that crap off. I spent about 4 hours tonight sanding 1/4 of the car, finish welded my patch, and ground down several welds from previous patches. A couple questions: I have some All-metal body filler I was thinking of using to smooth out the joints where I did some patching. Can I just use this right on the bare metal or should I wait for the first primer coat and the use filler on top of that? Also, here's a shot of a factory lead joint by the rear window. It looks fine; can I just leave it or does something need to be done with it before top coating?

[Dave Severson]

never have had a lot of trouble with the old lead, but I usually grind a bit of it off and start with the Evercoat filler with the fine strand 'glass... Evercoat also makes a product called Metal to Metal that is both air and moisture proof that works good to seal up leaded joints, just a light coat of it though!!!!

Two schools on applying filler, some say use it over bare metal, others say use Epoxy primer first.... I've done it both ways, usually do the Epoxy primer first after sandblasting and lots of cleaning time to seal up the surface of the metal and prevent surface rust from forming....

[lamin8r]

That looks kool falcon..Nice old body you have,Plymouth,that is....Not too much rot in it by the looks of it..Most of the Mopars of that age we have down here are shot now,,rotten in the bottom 6 inches..Nice job,brother..

[falconvan]

I figured you were talking about the car; my old body needs a lot more work than this does. I think it's beyond saving; lucky for me Alicia loves me anyway.
Somebody asked me on another site why I used a 5.3; here's a video of a car that i read an article about and it convinced me to try a 5.3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk9uU_3VHT0

Thanks for the advice, Dave. I'll get some of that metal to metal and give it a shot.

[falconvan]

Spent the day on the trunk; I had several patches that I still has to grind down the welds plus a lot of general cleanup. I also had patches of old undercoating to scape out and I removed the spare tire well and mounting bracket and patched that in.

[falconvan]

Looks much better, now onto the other quarter panel after I get the patch fully welded.

[1gary]

I am not sure if you guys know about this ref for metal shaping.I would think you would given the work I have seen done here.But here is a link of one of the better sites I found devoted to just metal shaping.

http://allmetalshaping.com/

Hope it helps some.

[falconvan]

That's great info, Gary; thanks! I'm going to save that one in my favorites.