Restoring a Dodge '49 Business Coupe - sloooooowly

[casper50]

Paul I'll go out in a few and take a photo of mine.  Seems as though they were all 1 piece.  Maybe spot welded together.  I'll check.

[casper50]

Paul I don't remember welding up any joints there and mine shows no joint.

[falconvan]

Looking great, Paul. I just noticed you're from England; did Plymouth import a lot of cars over there in the 40's or did someone else bring this one over?

[mm289]

Paul I don't remember welding up any joints there and mine shows no joint.

 

Thanks Casper, I can only think it is blended into the top of the rocker as the rocker is one piece front to back.......

 

 

Looking great, Paul. I just noticed you're from England; did Plymouth import a lot of cars over there in the 40's or did someone else bring this one over?

 

Imported from the US a few years back and sat around waiting for someone (me!) to be brave enough to start work , as yours is a business couple as well, do you recall how the rear quarters blended into the rocker? I have looked at your build thread and can see you did some work around the base of the quarter but can't see if you actually had to remake the qtr to rocker join?

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

Edited February 26, 2016 by mm289

[mm289]

SO started work on repairing the rear rocker. I could see there had been some work done higher up on the quarter panel so stripped that back whilst I was at it.

 

Under the bondo was a leaded area, so guessing is an old repair as not many people lead in repairs now (and certainly not the PO of this one!). Strange though, as the area had obviously been pushed in and then leaded over, but they had then drilled the lead and bondo'd over the lot.

 

Would have been easier to push out the panel and only skim with lead (which is what I will do).

 

Then cut away the bottom of the quarter panel, which had been welded to a repair of the rocker. Rather than make a new rocker, they had just wrapped some new tin over the old rocker then tacked to the quarter panel.

 

Once the old rocker panel was exposed, I could then cut that out to look behind it. Inner rocker is gone, as is the face plates on the two outriggers.

 

Also had a "repair" done to the inner wheel arch area on the back of the rocker.

 

So, time to step back and start again

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

[falconvan]

I did this same repair on my 48 2dr coupe, Paul. The 49 had already been repaired when I got it and I just straightened up some of the crappy fiberglass work over the welds.

 

Here's my other thread:

http://p15-d24.com/topic/9003-project-48-build-thread/page-5

[mm289]

I did this same repair on my 48 2dr coupe, Paul. The 49 had already been repaired when I got it and I just straightened up some of the crappy fiberglass work over the welds.

 

Here's my other thread:

http://p15-d24.com/topic/9003-project-48-build-thread/page-5

Thats great thanks, - so it looks like the lower edge of the qtr panel overlaps the top of the side of the rocker then gets smoothed over to give the finish that makes it look like one panel?

 

I know these usually have a trim panel that goes along the rocker which probably covers/draws the eye away from this area, but mine has no side chrome trim at all. Getting it over here is pretty much impossibly/very expensive, so I am going for the smoothed '50s Kustom look anyway and will lead all thisin I think to give a nice clean finish.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

[falconvan]

That's pretty much how it is. The thing I didn't like on the 48 was that the front and rear fender lower edges sit about 1" lower than the factory rocker. The rocker trim hides it but if you want to delete rocker trim you have to make an extension for the rocker to make it line up. The 49 isn't like that; it lines up without the trim; just need to plug the trim clip holes if you don't want to use it.

[mm289]

Productive couple of days this week/end.

 

Having cut out the rocker I could see the ends of the outrigger and rear body support were badly rusted. Given the problems with access I decided to make up and patch in new ends rather than remake both brackets like I did for the front.

 

So few hours later and we had nice new ends fabbed up and fitted.

 

With those fitted next job was to make up a new piece of inner rocker panel and drop this in. Welded from the inside with a copper backing plate so from the "outside" I.e. looking at the rocker from underneath the car you can hardly tell there has been a repair. Then spot welded to outrigger. Not to fussed about dressing the welds as they will be invisible once the box section is complete.

 

Then made up a closer to seal off the back of the rocker. On the other side this is all open, but it looks like a poor quality replacement rather than factory and given this is in the rear wheel well, I want to keep it as water tight as possible.

 

Made up, welded in and then treated with seam sealer.

 

Final job was then to make up the replacement panel for the outer rocker. Was a bit tricky as it has a right angle return to the inner rocker and a step and I was very keen to get the curvature spot on to the front part of the rocker. I won't be fitting a trim so want it to be near perfect in the metal so I don't have to use a lot of bondo to get it straight.

 

This is it clamped in place.

 

It doesn't show well but this is the curve, very happy with how it has come out. Will weld in then grind down and if necessary touch up with lead, should be impossible to tell it has been patched when finished

 

So pretty good day, just waiting for the seam sealer to dry, then will paint all the interior metal before closing up the new outer panel.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

[casper50]

very nice

[mm289]

Not much time this weekend, but got out to the workshop this afternoon and closed up the rear rocker repair panel. Seam welded to the original and filed back. Really happy - it is very close to spot on with just a few small depressions in the panel, which given you can't get to the back of the weld and some of the original metal was a bit thin  -  I am happy with.

 

When i have got the rear quarter lower repair in place then I will clean all the metal with a grit blaster beofre leading in and filing back so that it will be arrow straight without any filler

 

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

 

[casper50]

looking good Paul.  Keep at it.

[casper50]

Paul what's up with progress?  Don't tell me that life has gotten in the way of the car.  Lol

[mm289]

Hey Casper, thanks for the interest, sometimes it is people on forums like this giving you a "nudge" that keeps ya at it

Summer is never a good time for the long terms projects for me, spent time getting a beach buggy up and running, then a VW camper van ready for our holiday - so it could break down whilst we were away and now stuck in some house stuff (we have a C18 farmhouse built with lime mortar and none of the builders around here now how to work with it so I am having to do a lot of the work myself!)

So thats all the excuses, hope to get back on the dodge in the next month or so when it gets too cold to work on the house.

Cheers,

Paul.

[casper50]

I fully understand Paul.  One of the reasons that I finished all my house projects that we could think of before I started on my 47.  The wife has decided that when I finish mine I would need another project, so she bought herself a 55 Pontiac wagon.  Work is never done.