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Re: Body Repairs
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Forum Ambassador
 
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Hopefully the damage is not including the door jamb areas or you will also need to do a lot of extra cutting and splicing at the door opening to make the new short wheelbase fenders work with your longer wheelbase car. While the pre 51 models predominately had the wheelbase difference ahead of the cowl 51 and later years has it between the front seat and rear axle as evidenced by where the vertical gap at rear of the door falls in relation to the skirt cutout.
Posted on: 7/26 22:32
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Howard
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Re: Body Repairs
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Home away from home
 
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Quote:
That's a good point. I looked before I picked up these clipper fenders and I'm fairly confident that they should graft in well and take care of the areas that are rusted out. But there's always more than meets the eye!
Posted on: 7/26 22:49
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Re: Body Repairs
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Quite a regular
 
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I am surprised you picked a Clipper fender. They look quite different to me (maybe length, and taillight housing, stamping, tailfin etc)
but any body panels won't be too easy to find especially for lower volume models (senior cars) And it really doesn't help when they changed the stamping again for 1954 for the backup light housing. I know that type of bondo work, my '78 Volare was like that. Both side of wheel lips rusted out. Eventually the car rusted out (not driven in the winter since 2003) last summer : O Usually some colours hide the rust better than others. Black, tan/brown/beige hides it the best, while light blue or green, silver/white shows the rust easier.
Posted on: 7/27 0:00
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Re: Body Repairs
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I'll only be using the bottom 1/3 of the fender, so wasn't worried about the taillights, fins, etc. What I really needed was the portion for the skirt and from the skirt to the back of the car, which is the same. That's the skirt for my car in the donor fender.  If there would have been a good set of fenders off a senior car I would have got them, but most are rusted out. These clipper fenders are pretty solid, and were ready to go, so I grabbed them. I'll spend a bit of time comparing and measuring to make sure everything lines up the way I think it should. After I have a good plan, then I can start chopping up my car, which I don't want to even start until closer to the end of summer.
Posted on: 7/27 1:35
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Re: Body Repairs
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Home away from home
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I've got the same issue with mine: poor bodywork around the rusted out rear wheel openings. Fender skirts do not fit on mine either. My problem is that if I do any bodywork to the area then it will require a repaint of the entire car. The blue that's on there now can't be color matched....I've tried with several different places. I'm not sure I'm ready to dive into a project that big yet.
I'll be watching how you approach yours with interest. -Kevin
Posted on: 7/27 9:51
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Re: Body Repairs
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Home away from home
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Unfortunately, the rear quarter panel around the wheel arch is a commonly rusted out area on 1951-1954 model Packards. Many of the surviving cars from this era are rusted out to the point that the skirts may no longer be mounted. I have also seen more than a few that were loaded with Bondo in this area. I once had a 1951 Convertible that was pretty much completely rusted out on both sides about up to the speed line. The skirts were stuffed into the trunk when I bought the car, but there was almost nothing left of mounting area. Ended up later abandoning the project when the restoration shop I had it at suddenly went out of business. The person I sold it to brought it to another shop and later told me that he had to put about $30K into the body work and paint to finish the restoration. So, unless you can do the work yourself, it probably is not worth it to have one of these restored professionally.
When looking at one of these cars for sale, especially online from photos, my take is that if you do not see the skirts mounted, the car is likely to have a lot of hidden rust, so beware. Wish you luck with your project.
Posted on: 7/27 10:12
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Re: Body Repairs
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Home away from home
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Below my stainless steel side molding the car has been painted once already and if you look hard you can see that they don't match, but nobody, other than me, has ever noticed. I think I should be able to match up the black okay, and not sure I would want to repaint the entire car. I'm not ready to dive into this project either, but one day I'll muster up enough courage to start chopping up my car! One thing going for me is that it's pretty bad right now, so it should only get better! 
Posted on: 7/27 14:15
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Re: Body Repairs
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Home away from home
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Most parts cars I have looked at around my part of the world have the same rust, so I was fortunate to find a decent set of fenders only 20 minutes from my house. Body work is not my specialty, but neither WAS engine work or upholstery! I love working on my car and doing any of the projects I can, even if they take a ridiculous amount of research, learning and time! I could never justify paying a shop to do all this body work on a 53 Cavalier, but I'll enjoy learning and doing it myself. I had a little practice this spring doing my floor pan and floor pan braces.   
Posted on: 7/27 14:28
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Re: Body Repairs
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Quite a regular
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That makes sense, but still, that will be a lot of work. A lot.
Mine is quite rust free (as seen on the bottom) but there are patches of bodywork in the same area too. The rear fenders were really badly made then.  This car is as rust free as it can be for a car being used daily (and obviously never touched the salt) but few places trapped too much water/mud to cause corrosion.
Posted on: 7/27 14:47
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