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Hi all.

I am considering a '50 Packard 4dr. I had a question:

Are the bottoms of the rocker panels (sills, metal below the doors) open on the underside? Are they not closed/enclosed underneath?

Specifically, on the car i am looking at, it has nice solid outer rocker panels, but the underside is open. So the outer rocker panel wraps down from the door openings & under about 1", then stops leaving about a 2" wide opening down the entire length of the rocker on the underside.

Normal? I wish I had a photo. Looked pretty deliberate, but odd to me. I am new to the 40's-50's cars.

Thanks in advance.
Mike

G'day Mike,
to PackardInfo, wish you well with the '50 if you do purchase it. Sorry can't help with your question, but there should be someone along soon who can.

They were sealed across the bottom. What I suspect has happened is the outer side and bottom rusted away and aftermarket "slip over" rockers were installed which look good from the outside but lack any structural support.

Inspect carefully for further rust damage.

I have a 50 4 door also...attached is a pic. My car has had body work for sure, but no open rockers that you're describing...i would think not boxing the rockers in the way i'm picturing what you're saying in your head, would promote body flex and make them weak and likely to bend or dent if kicked or struck.

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Hi all.

Great forum - thanks for the replies.

Apparently i described it well. you both got my meaning. the Photo Cortcomp posted is perfect - and NOT what this car has. This one is open on the bottom with a few 1" wide tie-ins down the distance.

It sounds like the replacement outers as described by Fred also. The car has had lots of body work - mostly welded-in new panels with fairly decent skill it appears. I would guess the rockers are just unfinished and need some metal welded in on the bottoms.

I need to inspect it some more.

thanks!

What you describe is typical of cheap bodywork. Used to see it all the time in the rust belt.

To do the job properly you have to weld on the inner panel first. It is about 5 times harder to weld it in afterwards, if it will even fit.

How do the doors fit? If the body sags the doors will be hard to close and it may even look like the doors sagged. But it's probably the body. You can check for door sag by holding the door nearly closed and lifting up and down. Any movement reveals hinge pin wear.

If the doors do not have an even gap all around and do not close and latch easily the body may have sagged. This is not too hard to correct BUT you have to do it before you begin the body job. If you weld a car up that way you have to cut all the new body parts out and start again.

JMG

If you want bathtub Packard (I can use the term, I owned one for 13 years) there are plenty of them around to buy. Unless you are handy with body work yourself, it would be easy to get "upside down" on this one .

These cars have the entire floor panel and trunk floor stamped from one piece of metal. The stamping is thin. Even on a sound one you can get it to move by standing on it. They were prone to leak as they get older, and many have holes in the floor and trunk. The usual repair for the floor seemed to be to lay a piece of sheet metal over the hole and keep on going. The frame is very robust and this won't immediately affect the safety of anything outside of your bank account.

Regards


John Harley