Roger, I still have my original yard at the north edge of town, but seven or eight years ago I was leasing two city blocks in town where an old towing yard was. The city fathers decided that having all those old cars downtown was an eyesore, and knew that I was grandfathered in, so the city administrator re-zoned a ranch at the south end of town to include industrial businesses such as mine.
I purchased that property, and fixed up the old farm house to live in. I've already filled up the five acres with close to 600 cars, oldest being a 1930 Franklin, and the newest, a '74 gold Duster. ---John
With my overly hectic schedule last summer trying to complete a restoration on a '58 Dodge Sierra wagon, and then taking the car on an 8000 mile trip around the country with my wife, things have finally settled back down here.
Looks like I may finally have time to get back to the convertible project, before I lose too many of it's parts-LOL!
Good to be back here, I had been having log-in troubles prior. ---John
I, for one am happy to have you back with the 59 group again. I hope to re-live my car's restoration years (1994-2004), thru your entries. Yours will be fastForward!
I wonder what sort of restoration you want to achieve...to my mind, Tom Fox has attained the highest level of restoration performed on a 1959 Plymouth. He has several Best Of Show awards to back up my personal opinion. Who else may be in Tom's high-altitude" neighborhood? Richard Carpenters? The reclusive (never hear from him) Robert Hinds? If I recall correctly, Mr Hinds car is an unrestored original...
On the other hand, a "driver" has big value on its own. (Mine is a "driver".)
I was originally going to restore this to show standards, but after all the fun I've had with the '57 Fury and the '58 Dodge, I may decide to just have a great driver, that won't be looked down at in outdoor shows.
The last thing I have ambition for is to spend all my labor and money to produce a show car, and have to haul it around on a trailer everywhere I go. Done that in the past, and not much desire to do it again.
Being able to hop in one of these old cars and head for destinations far away is what brings a smile to my face, as well as people I meet along the way.
I will continue to post pics of any progress, the next thing I will need to do is to fabricate rear inner wheelhouses that replicate the originals. This will be a major challenge in itself.
I must fix the wife's DeSoto and have it roadworthy before progressing with anything else, however. ---John
big m wrote: Being able to hop in one of these old cars and head for destinations far away is what brings a smile to my face, as well as people I meet along the way.
I actually found the time to resume work on this a few weeks ago.
After some research, [Thanks, Roger] I found that I needed to use the convertible rear inner wheelwells, as they were completely different from those of the hardtop. The originals from the convertible were like lace curtains, not much left. I found a pair that were a bit better after searching for a year. The one on the top fits the hardtop, the one on the bottom is the convertible one.
This pic gives you an idea of the extent of damage.I carefully removed the spotwelds from the wheelwell in the hardtop body. I took my time, as I would be using the lower section of this well.I had to use and modify sections, and repeatedly fit it into the body of the car. There was no room for error. Here is the inside that will connect to the quarter panel, welding completed. Butt welds were used in order for the weld not to show on either side.Here's a simple tool I made from a piece of copper pipe, fastened to a piece of broomstick. Used to hold behind the steel when welding small holes, reduces the need for as much grinding.
Great news that you cn get some more done on this car-
I am very curious..would you be able to explain what the obvious difference is? Although it is too late for my car,
I know of another person here in WA who says he can't seem to figure out why is cvt top won't fold down all the way (it's a wheelwell issue)
Electrolyte bath- using reverse electrolysis to remove any heavy rust.After running current through the solution, Here is what it looks like-After allowing the fenderwell to de-rust for a few days, I removed it from the electrolyte, and wire brushed the black residue from the surface. Here is the completed wheelwell, ready for re-installation into the body.The inside of the wheelwell still had heavy undercoating in the upper areas that the electrolysis did not touch. It did loosen, and I scraped it off with a putty knife. Note, the original grayish primer is intact beneath it.
I will tack weld this wheelwell back in place, and the next step will be to do this same process on the passenger side well. The one side took over 60 hours to complete, so there is nothing to hurry about.
Once the body is completely assembled, the plan is to drop the entire body shell into a tank to de-rust it entirely before doing the finishing work on the body. I have a 20-foot fiberglass tomato bin that the body can be submersed into. ---John
Roger, the offset of the wheelwells are completely different- the ones for the convertible fit farther into the quarter panel, leaving more space for the top assembly to fold down.
Big M (John) , If you need any locating dimensions taken from my convertible while it is still apart let me know. It might be helpful checking critical measurements before final fitting and welding.
Looks good! Another one saved!
John Q
Passenger side convert quarterDrivers side convert quarter
John thats incredible. The electrolysis process has me mystified. What is the electrolyte and how much current and for how long do you do it? I imagine you can reuse the electrolyte? About the only somewhat intelligent thing I came up with when doing my convertible was a solution for coming up with the missing tranny cross member if you have to cross that road I can help you with that one. Great work!
John,
I really appreciate your offer of photographing these areas.
There are two things that I will need some details of, the first being the small stamped steel piece welded to the front of each wheelwell, used to divert the water from the boot area down into the fromt of the wheelwell where it can drain. There wasn't enough of anything left of these to even roughly determine their shape.
The other thing is the extra body mount that a convertible uses. I believe it is somewhere in the vicinity of the top ram mounts. This is not an immediate need like the other pieces are however.
The electrolyte is simply water, and washing soda mixed together until saturation. The suspension allows a small electrical charge to pass through it.
You can use Arm and Hammer washing soda, or here, I used the brand that Borax sells. Baking soda with a small amount of detergent mixed in works as well.
There are no environmental problems with the water that is left in the container, it can be poured right on the ground. Of course, the rust may stain concrete.
I use a battery charger for the current, I set it at a 40 amp charge, the electrolyte will only allow 3 amps or so to pass through it, so the setting is really not important. Just be sure no one moves the electrodes and shorts the circuit! An arc welder can also be used, but is less safe in case of a short, as there is not a breaker in the welder.
