Re: 1956 Packard Patrician Rebuild Project

Posted by bigmoparjeff On 2013/11/16 1:40:51

Hi Troy, Tough break on the Packard. I don't envy your situation, but I've been there in the past. Back in 1988 I bought a very rusty 1965 GMC pickup truck, which forced me to learn how to weld and fabricate patch panels. My hood had 32 separate patches along with another 75 to 100 tiny rust perforations in the outer skin that had to be welded. The fender and door bottoms were gone, the rockers and front cab mounts were gone too. There was a six inch long hole in the roof overhang above the windshield, and the cowl was rotted out across the entire width of the truck up behind the dashboard. There were additional holes in the fronts of the fenders, tail gate, bed sides, wheel wells, inner fenders, firewall, the filler panels between the hood and doors, and the big panel behind the grill. Parts availability back then was just outer rocker skins, cab mounts, lower door skins and fender bottoms. It's more important to make sure to completely cut out the old rust than it is to have your new metal perfectly match the original parts. The only way to completely stabilize the car is to make sure no rust remains, even if it means being real aggressive when cutting away the rot.

Jeff

Attach file:

---

  (49.17 KB)


  (62.05 KB)


  (48.69 KB)


  (37.10 KB)


  (77.18 KB)


  (50.12 KB)


  (61.19 KB)


  (42.05 KB)


  (92.10 KB)


  (36.67 KB)


  (37.47 KB)