Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

No, I didn't do a frame off. Check out my blog for all the gory details.

Yes the front rocker is welder to the rear rocker and forms the bottom edge of the body. The floor pans are welded to that.

The back back of the outer rocker is overlapped be the dog leg. That is the vertical seam line you see under the rear door.

I looked at your blog. I see what you mean.

I saw patches you welded recently. Lots of work.

But imagine a 6 foot long weld all the way from front to back to weld a new rocker panel. (If I am correct that this would have to be done to cut and replace). I can't imagine this being a few hundred bucks of labor. Makes me think the thing to do is grind, blast, treat, cover and move on..... (But it would be a real drag if it only lasted a year or 2.)

As long as you can treat/remove the existing rust, and then seal it with something like POR-15 so it doesn't propagate, and you are not driving through salt water, then I would think a good repair with something like "Kitty Hair" or other epoxy based solution should last many years. Eastwood sells a internal frame coating kit that would be useful to seal the inside of the rocker space once all the repair is done.

I know in our shop with a labor rate of $55 per hour you would probably be looking at $2500 give or take. The rockers can be purchased but everything else is hand fabrication. Let me warn you that any fillers will start to bubble in 6 months to year unless there is no way for water to get to them.

Dear JeffM:

West System's G-Flex only requires a surface clean of oil and dirt. Thus you can paint rusted areas with a sealer then use the product or you can use the product first and paint over it. I would prefer the later because the bonding superior that way. G-Flex is very tenacious. You can also treat the metal first with something like the Hirsch product.

There have been all sorts of de-rusting methods over the years and some have done more harm than good. I guess the popular method today is soda blasting.

What you can do with G-Flex as well is patch in pieces of metal. Remember I'm saying patch not remanufacture. On my modern car I spray oil into the uni-body so that I don't have to buy a new car. But if I ever tried to paint it that would be a disaster. I don't care because I use it for transportation.

I don't know what your plans are for the car, but the metal in today's cars is much better than 1955 so you will always be fighting rust issues. As far as structural integrity goes, a modern car will win against a Packard and most of the load in the Packard is taken by the frame. The body pretty much tears away from the frame in a serious wreck.

I got the car on a lift and was able to see better.

The rockers attach to the floor pans. The floor pans are rusty near where the rockers attach.

I like the West G-Flex idea because I don't want to sink loads into the car. Here are my questions:

First Question: We can use a bristle wheel to start cleaning the rust off, but really, there are some parts where the rust has permeated the whole sections, giving it a flaky, pie-shell texture. So, if I get ALL of the rust out before applying the epoxy, I will have no surface for it. So, what do you do? Do you just give it a good "surface" cleaning with the wire brush and go over with the epoxy to try to "seal in" the rust we couldn't get to?

Next question: Exactly which West G-Flex product(s) are good for this? When I look on the site, it seems they have a lot of choices?

Welding is not brain surgery, and can be a highly therapeutic exercise... why not buy one of the new $200 wire feed welders, practice a bit on scraps, and do it yourself? Not only would the results be far stronger and safer, but you'd save the car for the long run as well as having the great satisfaction of a job done properly. The material costs are relatively negligible, a 4 x 6 of 18 or 16 gauge sheet metal and the sealer and paint mainly, and since it's not exterior panels that need work, the cosmetics are not critical. You can do it piecemeal, and so what if it takes a year or 2. Unless you're getting to be my age LOL. Just putting goop on it is to, my mind, a mistake. If I can do it anyone can, sure I goofed, but I just made patterns using thin cardboard to make my mistakes on, cut the sheet metal with tin snips, and spot welded it in. Do it yourself and do it right. That's my 2 cents!

Dear JeffM:

Best try calling West Systems and present your case. The stuff I've used was the boat hull manufacturing product. That is - they use it rather than steel to make boats. They also have various binders that can be added for panel building.

Welding new panels is great but piecing together welded metal to recreate a stamping is not so great. I knew people who could run a line of weld five feet long on OEM rocker and quarter panels to recreate the original build. However, in the modern car the rigidity comes from a combination of spot welds, stampings, and seam sealers. It is all engineered. So glue is an integral part of body rigidity.

If your metal is so bad that it won't weld then patching it up with glue isn't going to hurt anything because it all has to be cut out and refabricated.

Now the case I used G-Flex for was a fender that was rusted and falling apart but still had paint on it. So I just threw the glue behind it and let it soak into all the rust. The alternative would be to knock everything onto the ground and tell the poor chap he needed a new fender (among other things). But instead he got his car back in one piece. I thought that was a pretty good result.

What I would do in your case is buy some of the product and test it. It takes 24 hours to cure. If you don't like it, you will find dozens of other uses for it. I glued a hammer together with the stuff and just today was swinging that thing hard enough to drive out ball joints.

I've used it to plug holes in oil rusted oil pans on vehicles that required removing the motor to replace the pan. Who wants to pull the motor in some clunker to put a new oil pan on? Not me, I have better cars to work on.

I recall the initial objective here was to patch up the car so it could be driven around. If your goal has changed then take every rust spot and tape a perimeter six inches from the spot. That is what you will be cutting out to refabricate with metal. On 55-56 Packards it can take your breath away because that is a lot of work.