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Well as I work on the rockers, there is a bit more rot than first thought. I defiantly graduated to Rear and under seat pans due to the rot at the rockers. This is no big deal need to do it right if im going to do it.

More troublesome to me was the amount of Bono that is in this car and the rockers brazed on in lieu of welding. Unless anyone knows if the rear wheel well bump in the door frame is available to patch in, I fear I have a date with an English wheel and formers in my future. Since I cant ask Dear Abby, I ask Dear Packard, Thoughts?

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The only panel I remember for that general area is this one. Looks like maybe it goes below the damage so probably not much help.

thanx Howard, Yep, I have two of those on the way to take care of the fender and bondo areas.

We defiantly need all new pans. At some point in its life, the Rockers were replaced and a really poor job too. the originals were just trimmed back enough and the new ones screwed on. This explains all the bondo I found. Obviously, there is more to the History of this car than the story I got. Having a blast even though it is quite nippy in the garage.

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PM sent.

Anyone making 56 pat floor pan braces?

Since you are doing such a thorough rebuild and will have the car all apart anyway,you might want to think about a different body shell. I know that Mike Dulinski has had some good ones in the past, and I will examine my parts car out back when it gets light. It is a royal pain to rebuild those doglegs when the rust extends so far into the pillar. Grafting in the floor stringers and the seat braces is not too hard while you are doing the inner and outer rockers.

Take a few minutes to check your rearmost bodymounts at the back edge of the trunk and the mounts over the rear axle from both top and bottom. Also the seams where the right and left pans were joined to the trunk floor.In cars that have been heavily salted, as it seems yours was, they are often bad. Since you are aiming for a high end job you would do better with another shell if they are bad too.

The underfloor stringers and seat braces are pretty much universal 51-56.

Thanx Ross,

I have gotten a few parts off Mike so I will keep that in mind if it is too far gone. The car was pretty solid until I started removing the rockers. It appears that the rockers were partially cut back and then slip fit a replacement pair on in which the person simply sheet metal screwed them on. Being a Michigan / Indiana car, it does not appear to be have been really rinsed well prior to 25 years storage and the rust took over mainly on the outer perimeter of the pans the middles are solid.. I literally removed 20 pounds of dirt packed into the rockets and front fenders. The rust weakened some of the floor braces and will need to be replaced or reworked.

I just found out I have to have shoulder surgery before year end and be out of commission for a few months, so I am holding off tearing in any further and I am building a couple jigs so I can go ahead and remove the body completely and get a real good assessment of how far I need to go. Right now, I have all the sheet metal for the inner, outer rockers, and the lower rear quarters. Obviously we have some pillar issues to deal with. A Packard is defiantly different than resorting Aircraft where the panels are all made from scratch with simple radius forms. Learning lots.

good grief man...that is some crazy rot! good luck on that....makes me thankful my car wasn't as bad off.

sounds like you are much more experienced then me with this type of repair. i got lucky with what i was able to do on my car. if you do decide to rebuild this body...i can't wait to see what you do!

Well, I am feeling like an Oncologist. The more I probe the more Cancer I have to deal with. thus far every floor brace I have opened up is shot. However, it makes me love the challenge even more. before I remove the body from the Frame, I am going to cut out the floor and install some temporary braces to allow proper support to be able to set the body off on a stand.

There is no one known to be making the floor braces for Packard. I have a buddy with a roll form shop so I guess I will be rolling my own. Who knows, If we roll good quality maybe I will open my own floor brace store online.

Enjoy admiring this Rot.

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