My restoration project (update)

[clarkede]

Hey fellow enthusiasts!  I kicked my restoration project in to high gear about 5 months ago with the end goal of painting the car.  I posted a few months ago with some of the background and details of where I was at that time:

I've done a lot since that post.  In April, I planned to do things a little backward and paint the car first and then go back and restore the interior, but as I started cleaning things up to paint, I went down one rabbit hole after another.  Every time I removed a fender, or a bumper, or a door, I found more things to fix first before painting.  I finally got the entire car taken apart, sanded, primed and ready to paint... Oh wait, I now decided to fix the rusted out rocker panels before painting, which also led me to removing the floor pan to fabricate a new one.  Here are a few pictures that will show the story better than my words:

[clarkede]

As you can see, I'm now working on re-fabricating the floor pan and the floor supports.  I decided to keep the center floor hump as it would be too hard to recreated.  Therefore, I've cut away the rusted parts and I'm now working to weld in some new support beams.  I have a short section of a 1x2" rectangular tube to work with.  As you can see I was going to follow the bending of the existing floor supports by cutting and welding the rectangular tube, however, it is about 3/8" too high as you can see in the pictures below.  I contacted the metal shop and they are going to bend some steel to match the current beams.  I thought it would be super expensive, but turns out to not be that bad.  I will then cut them into sections and weld them to the existing floor pan (center) section that I am keeping.

[bartenderfloyd]

Wow.  Looks great!  Please keep posting as I love watching these old cars get freshened up.

[Sam Buchanan]

Impressive!

[Ivan_B]

How did you remove all the rust from the hidden cavities on the body panels?  🤔

[Sniper]

It's probably too late now and it doesn't look like it's really necessary but they do sell prefabricated transmission humps. Typically they're for race cars, but that don't mean it won't work elsewhere. You can usually find them at Jegs or Summit places like that. Just something to keep in mind.  Your work looks really good keep on.

Edited August 27 by Sniper

[clarkede]

14 hours ago, Ivan_B said:

How did you remove all the rust from the hidden cavities on the body panels?  🤔

Luckily, I did not have a lot of rust on the fenders, doors, hood, trunk, and interior panels that were up around the engine compartment.  For all of those I removed them from the car and sanded them (often to bare metal, but not always) and coated them with POR-15 Rust preventative paint (two coats) (See the first couple photos attached).  There were no hidden cavities of these pieces.  Where I found hidden (but rusted out) cavities were the rocker panels.  Basically, my inner rockers were gone and the floor pan supports were not attached to anything.  My plan there is to just cut them out completely and replace the inner rocker with a 1"x1" steel square tube since I can't find inner rockers anywhere.  This is the part that I am working on now and I have a lot of thinking of what to do.   Was there a specific hidden cavity that you had in mind?

[clarkede]

8 hours ago, Sniper said:

It's probably too late now and it doesn't look like it's really necessary but they do sell prefabricated transmission humps. Typically they're for race cars, but that don't mean it won't work elsewhere. You can usually find them at Jegs or Summit places like that. Just something to keep in mind.  Your work looks really good keep on.

I was trying to find the entire floor pan from front to back (with the transmission/drive shaft hump), but I could only find the front transmission portion toe kick area(see example in first picture attached).

Once I cut out the floor pan I realized the entire center portion of the floor was in really good condition, so I would really only need to replace the sides of the floor pan out to the rocker panels.  The second image show that I've removed the floor and the driver's side rocker panels completely with the goal of figuring something out.

 

 

Edited August 27 by clarkede

[Ivan_B]

On 8/27/2024 at 11:29 PM, clarkede said:

Was there a specific hidden cavity that you had in mind?

Yes, I was mainly concerned about the are underneath the floor reinforcements, as well as inside the doors, and all the door/fender seams. Not sure if the POR15 will take care of that. I would personally use a liquid rustproofing, for something like this, but since you are re-painting the surface, this is obviously not an option.

[OnlyMopar]

Great project, appreciate all the pics and info. Am currently working on my '47 Dodge Custom,seem like everytime I start in one area I find myself going down another rabbit hole. The lip,/panel below the trunk lid is totally gone on mine. Was wondering if you had any pics of that area on your car, especially if you have made any repairs to that area. Have included a few pics of the area I am interested in. Again any pics or advice would be appreciated,thanks

[Booger]

you sir are bad to the bone

[clarkede]

On 9/1/2024 at 12:20 PM, OnlyMopar said:

Dodge Custom,seem like everytime I start in one area I find myself going down another rabbit hole. The lip,/panel below the trunk lid is totally gone on mine. Was wondering if you had any pics of that area on your car, especially if you have made any repairs to that area. Have included a few pics of the area I am interested in. Again any pics or advice would be appreciated,thanks

I'm looking up some pictures of my current trunk lip, but in the meantime, I thought you might be interested in this ebay posting that has a great picture of the area you are most interested in.  Not trying to sell it, just saying it has the downward view you are probably looking for.  I will find a few more pictures of my P15 (or take a few pictures) to help you out.

In the meantime, here is the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/176175763617?_nkw=1948+plymouth+floor&itmmeta=01J7BYP2MPXHFABFNHXTRBJJ6G&hash=item2904e4d0a1:g:WygAAOSwxo5kzYXE&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlG21QeaNYE%2FLtFSx9jBGg3OCChmFnHzDvifvU0EtlMTJbYivPrFimBDurJCKSYvCig6LoAGDLKp%2FuJdVLdtDuxT6%2B%2BX78%2FuAZos2dkBNUEILepzPa880Tp4QG9yRZAJvgvMMtfZZUXBa6w%2B8hW%2BV7scQRjEHFd%2BM2ShVEhMo9OgdMfIKeV0qAVt--GsqiBlckEAGGgPsyUES9uYQP2jDo6LQQWLW%2FkmC82LGwvpWqc8gtb4DvM5ZkBsw3ktGz3bSc%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7qq2P66ZA&edge=0

[OnlyMopar]

Clarkede, thanks for the response. I have seen this, and may help fabricating something that fit my Dodge. Haven't been able to find anything for a Dodge as yet. Hoping actual pics from different angles would help more, again thanks

[clarkede]

I found a few older pictures that show a groove that the trunk weatherstrip molding goes in which goes all the way around - including the bottom lip area where the trunk latch is.  Downward pictures of the lower trunk lip may not show this weatherstripping groove. 

You asked if I have done any repairs to this area - Well, I definitely have some serious rust inside the trunk (like you do) which will be my next project to repair.  Ahead of this, I am still working on replacing the interior passenger compartment floor pan and rocker panels, followed up by painting the exterior of the vehicle.  I kinda want to get all the fenders, hood, doors, etc. back on the car before winter so my wife can use the other garage bay for the cold Winter months (she's been very patient so far, but I don't want to push it ) 

As you can see to the bottom left of the of the trunk lip that I've already done some body filler.  These pictures are before I did some quick "JB-Weld Steel Stick" mends to the bottom lip that had some rust holes.  I first wire-brushed the area to remove loose rust and paint to clean up the area, then kneaded the two part putty and re-formed the lip groove.  I'm having issues uploading the next few pictures... gonna reboot and upload them after dinner. 

[OnlyMopar]

Thanks for the pics, are spot on for the area I need to fabricate. Been searching every site I have been provided.Nothing yet. I have fabricated new rocker panels, installed new body mounts, lot of floor pan repairs/replacement. Will.start total rewire this weekend. Unfortunately,very few parts,if any from the Plymouths will interchange with the Dodge and Chryslers.

[clarkede]

Here's a few more pictures that I just took that might help. A few different angles including one that is straight up showing the trunk latch screws from the bottom.  Let me know if you need any measurements or a ruler in the picture for scale. 

 

Best of luck.

[OnlyMopar]

Thanks for the pics, are spot on for the area I need to fabricate. Been searching every site I have been provided.Nothing yet. I have fabricated new rocker panels, installed new body mounts, lot of floor pan repairs/replacement. Will.start total rewire this weekend. Unfortunately,very few parts,if any from the Plymouths will interchange with the Dodge and Chryslers. The pics help a lot

[clarkede]

Question: 

Does anyone know if the body mounts that are just inside the front doors of a P15 can be removed without causing the body to lose support?  There is another major body mount (to frame) 8/10 inches inches forward of this mount where the firewall comes down to the frame.  I want to replace these metal supports and fabricate new ones that will sit on the rubber mounts and then weld in to new rocker panels that I will be installing.  Here is a picture of the drivers side front door frame with the support that I want to replace.  You can see that the rubber mounts are gone and it has two rusty and degraded bolts that are holding things together.  They are actually pretty firm and would probably last another 70 years (LOL), but while I'm doing the rest I might as well fix these.  Thoughts??

Edited September 10 by clarkede

[Conn47D24]

You are doing great work  !  Keep at it .

 

[OnlyMopar]

11 hours ago, clarkede said:

Question: 

Does anyone know if the body mounts that are just inside the front doors of a P15 can be removed without causing the body to lose support?  There is another major body mount (to frame) 8/10 inches inches forward of this mount where the firewall comes down to the frame.  I want to replace these metal supports and fabricate new ones that will sit on the rubber mounts and then weld in to new rocker panels that I will be installing.  Here is a picture of the drivers side front door frame with the support that I want to replace.  You can see that the rubber mounts are gone and it has two rusty and degraded bolts that are holding things together.  They are actually pretty firm and would probably last another 70 years (LOL), but while I'm doing the rest I might as well fix these.  Thoughts??

I had the same issue with my body mount sites, that ran from under the door sill/rocker panels. The brackets attached to the actual frame were good 😊 ther that the rubber mounts and bolts being rusted/rotted away. I just removed the brackets running from the outer edges of the door sills /rocker panels to the frame brackets and fabricated new ones.  My car has body mount brackets at each door pillar, front, center, and rear, and a much smaller one in between those three. They appear to me to take on a lot of weight(doors mainly) outside the main frame and body.  Your pics of the door pillar / mount bracket area is almost identical to mine and the floor pan areas. I think they should be replaced, they carry a lot of weight, door sills, door pillars and doors.