New Member, New Polara

[Stev]

I'm back in the "careful cuts to make careful cuts to make careful cuts" phase.

This whole pocket is pretty bad and it's about 4 layers deep. No one piece of it is too hard to fab on it's own, but getting it apart and even just getting myself in there is not easy.

The junkyard also cut up the inner tub so i only kinda have most of it.

Now that T shaped piece on there is much better than what's on the car. But the left hand bit is cut off and it's very deeply tied into every part of the car. And without removing the tailgate, I'm not getting those spot welds. I think i'm just going to cut out the original tub, leave that T shaped piece in, and whatever parts i'm missing i'll just fab. I'm not missing any compound curves so it shouldn't be too bad. The flanges I can make with the bead roller.


Next step is to wire brush the whole tub. 60 years of rust and dirt inside a tiny 2' x 3' box.

wheeeee.

 

[cuda hunter]

Your ride ceases to stop sharing the love.
Love of rust.

Gonna be awesome when your complete.

 

[3175375]

Your ride ceases to stop sharing the love.
Love of rust.

Gonna be awesome when your complete.

Think about how many cars are as bad as this, or worse!

Great work making this right!

 

[Polara_500_Jr]

Love Seeing updates on one of my 2 favorite current projects. I thought my project was formidable and you are making it look like a grain of sand on your beach.

 

[Stev]

Think about how many cars are as bad as this, or worse!

Great work making this right!

it gets worse?

 

[Just Carbs]

it gets worse?

Not much.

 

[3175375]

it gets worse?

I own a Corvair convertible that can’t get the door shut. Rust never sleeps!

 

[Stev]

Began brushing the tub. came out looking like a coal miner and/or victorian batman.

The hack fraud bodyshop strikes again. Complete with booger welds and failed weld wire sticking out. Though whatever undercoat they used is ******* amazing and not even the wire brush can dent it. I have to melt it with the blowtorch before it lets go. Quality hackery!

You can see they cut up the inner tub and just welded it to the quarter panel. They appear to have filled the entire lower quarter with bondo to make it look flush. I'm sure that's about 20 pounds of the stuff. Not sure what to do about it.

The entire corner looks to be junk and the entire tailgate sill appears to be bondo. Probably going to have to fab that entire panel from scratch once everything else is done. I cannot get it out without removing the tailgate.

I'm going to try to get the inner inner tub out in as close to one piece as i can so i can use it as a template to fab the missing parts of the new one. Everything else is pretty simple to draw up, just a lot of it.

Avanti!

 

[3175375]

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Began brushing the tub. came out looking like a coal miner and/or victorian batman.

The hack fraud bodyshop strikes again. Complete with booger welds and failed weld wire sticking out. Though whatever undercoat they used is ******* amazing and not even the wire brush can dent it. I have to melt it with the blowtorch before it lets go. Quality hackery!

You can see they cut up the inner tub and just welded it to the quarter panel. They appear to have filled the entire lower quarter with bondo to make it look flush. I'm sure that's about 20 pounds of the stuff. Not sure what to do about it.

The entire corner looks to be junk and the entire tailgate sill appears to be bondo. Probably going to have to fab that entire panel from scratch once everything else is done. I cannot get it out without removing the tailgate.

I'm going to try to get the inner inner tub out in as close to one piece as i can so i can use it as a template to fab the missing parts of the new one. Everything else is pretty simple to draw up, just a lot of it.

Avanti!

The vehicle just keeps giving!
I am glad that you have patience and are progressing!

 

[NZPolara]

I just read your thread from the beginning, a great read. Always amazing what bodgery can lie under the paint of an old car, I remember one holden panelvan I had where I discovered new outer sill/rockers had been tacked on top of the original rusted out ones - after grinding off buckets of filler I cut two tacks and then ripped them off by hand! Hopefully my Polara has no such suprises under the skin. Keep up the awesome work

 

[Stev]

Hey wow this sucks!

Looks like water got between the tub wall, tailgate sill and D pillar. Major surgery inbound, it's all coming out.

The tailgate sill has been revealed to be nothing but bondo. And annoyingly, appears to be an extention of the d pillar wall. At this point the tailgate is the only thing holding the bottom of the sill square. Can't remove that angle iron either, there is nothing else there. Going to have to patch the D pillar skin and just leave myself enough to weld to on the other side, and i'lll make the sill anew from the top afterwards.

Interestingly though, between the tub brace, tub wall and D pillar, there was a rubber gasket between the welded panels. I've never seen that before, and it must be original, there's no other way to get in here and all the spot welds are untouched. Very strange.

Taking templates as i go, cutting everything out. Just a lot of very simple stuff arranged in a very specific order. We'll get there.

 

[Just Carbs]

What are the chances of getting a whole back half or third from another wagon?

 

[Stev]

What are the chances of getting a whole back half or third from another wagon?

I got everything I needed off of the first donor really. The from the belt line up and C pillar forward it's perfect fine.

 

[Stev]

Starting to fab this corner back together. The outside/rearward facing section of the tailgate sill is junk, but I can't weld a new one in with the tail gate pressed right up against there. Probably going to very carefully cut out what needs to go, and then weld it in from the other side later.

Also hey, turns out this entire corner is just 1" thick bondo. Because of course it ******* is.

Who needs an english wheel when you have a fire extinguisher, a dolly and a hammer?

Chumps, that's who.

 

[Polara_500_Jr]

After rebuilding this, next you fab a car body from scratch?

 

[Stev]

After rebuilding this, next you fab a car body from scratch?

I do want to build that stock car rolls, that'll take some fabbing. After that, why not man. Always wanted a 30's roadster, i'll just have to make my own.

 

[Polara_500_Jr]

I do want to build that stock car rolls, that'll take some fabbing. After that, why not man. Always wanted a 30's roadster, i'll just have to make my own.

With what you've done here, I don't doubt it a bit. Please do post details of it here too !

 

[Stev]

https://ttiexhaust.com/TTiC6573-383178.htm

I'm pretty close to pulling the front end apart and I don't feel like making the exhaust twice on this car, so I just bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on longtubes.

Wild overkill for a bone stock 383, even the magnum motor that it has, but let's call it future proofing. I got plans.

Ow my money.

 

[Stev]

Started patching the D pillar, and set the quarter panel on fire.

Turns out this entire jank seam the bodyshop made by folding the inner quarter over, is nothing but bondo. Vaguely tack welded every 6", except not really, as the welds never got both panels, meaning the bondo was the only thing holding the garbage together.

This mystery bodyshop is worse than the rust.

The new lower quarter is also very very dense, I'm not sure what's going on. It feels like they used 3/16" plate to make it, or a sandwiched box section filled with lead. Who knows. I count it as a win that it's actually metal on both sides. Good enough!

I think the best call is just making a new factory style inner quarter from scratch. Could be worse.

 

[Dads300]

This body shop sounds like when my brother and one of our friends made a lower quarter panel for a 72 Toyota corona. We found an old water heater laying in a field and they stripped the outer shell off of it for the panel. They shaped it by hand and just bent 90s on the panel for flanges and drilled holes and used #8 machine screws and nuts to hold it all together, then slather it down with bondo. It looked surprisingly good, but was 100% butchery. This was 1985 I think. Good times I tell ya!
Travis..