I made some measurements from the convertible only mounts in my '59 Desoto, which still has its original floors-I had to remove the seat support outriggers, as the convertibles do not use them, and my floor was from a closed car-I found some steel the same gauge as the DeSoto's mounts, and fabricated one mount-Next was to drill a 3/8" hole, and weld a nut to the reverse side-The surface of the seat brace was cleaned, and the new mount welded in place-The completed mount-I made a reverse piece for the other side of the car, removed the outriggers, and welded it in place-
I am heading out now with mine!....Maybe this spring to Van Nuys for the Mopar Spring Fling and then Carlisle, So catch me at one of those places in 2013!
A bit more lead work, I had to redo the lead seam, as when the car was hit, it had buckled this upwards.
I melted the old solder out, had to re-weld the seam where rust had entered beneath the broken solder, and slapped the solder in-Finished the dogleg where I had patched it-Plenty of lead filings end up on the ground, I sweep these up and melt them down to pour new solder sticks-Front of rocker where it joins the body, smoothed out-Rear seam overlap, to duplicate the factory assembly-This was the quarter panel that was hit and badly repaired, just a small amount of lead necessary to finish it now-
Dick Koch wrote:John - You are kinda like me. No bondo in my car, like you I use body filler. Have you checked out USC ALL METAL.
Dick.
I haven't used the All Metal, but a friend of mine who has a restoration business in Cocoa, Florida, has highly recommended it as well. I still have a good quantity of 30/70 solder [probably left over from the '50's] so hopefully it will be enough to complete all my projects.
Taking a break from the '59 currently, as i am fabricating lower quarter panel sections for a '58 Sweptside a friend owns, and welding them in for him. Rather time consuming.
I saved the old quarter panel skins for a reason-Being the quarters on the car carried entry Fury trim, every trim hole had to be re drilled for Sport Fury trim. I was hoping the bottom line of trim holes would be the same, but no such luck.
I measured the old trim holes to figure out what height the SF trim would be, and placed one of the sportone inserts against the panel. I then secured it with tape, and drew a light outline. Next, the hole spacing on the old panel was measured out, and re marked on the body.1/8" holes were then drilled at each mark, then drilled the final size to match the factory holes.The process was repeated for the driver's side of the car-
Next was to fill all the unneeded trim holes, I mig welded them carefully to keep distortion to a minimum.Welds were then ground off and smoothed, both on the inside and outside of the panel. The same was done to the right side.The medallions took time to get right for drilling the holes, as the mounting pins are not equal, as each side of the car had it's own specific medallion to fit the contours of the panel. Here is how they mount up now.
I dug out the convertible top lift cylinders from my parts pile, this shows how rusty things were. I needed the mount pieces from the base of each, as they mounted to the floor of the body.These are the two pieces I need to save-Pretty bad shape!I heated each one cherry red, and then filled the pitted areas with brass-After grinding and smoothing, they look pretty good now.There was enough left of the original underbody brace that I had a good idea what to look for.I found a similar bracket that held the corners of the dash in on a '60 T-Bird, it just needed to be shortened-I found similar 'half moon' captive nuts, and welded them to the brackets in the right place-These are the completed brackets-Positioned and welded to the floorboards, these provide extra strength beneath the top cylinders. Thanks to Dick Koch for providing location measurements, it was a big help!
After all the work I have done, I didn't want to risk screw-ups or damage by hauling the body to a blaster, so I bought a sandblast pot and wheeled the body outside. I blasted inside, outside, and anywhere I could see any rust, but carefully so as not to warp the metal. I did find a few pinhole areas, but none bad enough to make the metal weak. These will be leaded in when I resume with the body. I spent two full days doing this, not a pleasant job, but it's done.
After blasting, it took nearly two hours rotating and blowing sand out of the body, and then I shot it with a good coat of etching primer to protect it. Once it had dried, I wrapped the car in plastic to guard it from bat guano, humidity, etc.
Wow John - Looks great, considering what you started with my hat's off to you. Looks like at the pace you are going you'll be finished before me.
Fantastic Job,
Dick.
