Problems areas

[Zapato]

After reading my crow's post thanking you guys for tipping him off about problem areas common to 57 Fords had a thought. Maybe we should share that info with everyone. Obviously any area that EMS makes a patch panel for should be examined prior to purchase.What other areas should cause any of us concerns?

A real good list could prevent a lot of us from being taken to the cleaners.

The obvious to me
   Headlight eyebrows
   Rocker panels
   Spare tire well
   Lower edge of front fenders
   Battery box

What Else? Keep me and others from this fate

Zap-

[Ford Blue blood]

The rear panel just forward of the bumper and of course floor pans and toe boards.

[Frankenstein57]

The windshield cowl area where the water drains away, bad on mine. Mark

[rmk57]

The dogleg by the front windshield. I've had two southern California cars that have had issues there.

[RICH MUISE]

inner rockers and floor support ends where they meet (repops avail)
rear wheel well flange where it meets fender (repops not avail)
inner rear quarters (avail)
under the battery tray (not avail)
front deflector splash panels (behind front turn signals) (currently avail)
rear panel just under trunk lid gutter (avail)
interior:front kick panel trim,dimmer switch sheetmetal cover, (neither avail)
front fender caps and headlight surround (both avail)
And let me emphasize the excellent point Zap made...if EMS makes it..there's a reason.      Rich

[JimNolan]

Guys,
   Cars are funny when it comes to rust. There's almost always some common rust area's no matter what part of the country the car came from. mrk57 and Frankenstein57 pointed out the cowl and windshield area. And, one of those comments was on Southern California cars.
   As you guys know my car came from Montana and it had more rust on it than it did good metal ( seemed like that ). But, the cowl area, the windshield areas and the radiator core supports were spotless. One friend that restored fliptops commented to me it was almost impossible to take the original windshield out and not have to rebuild the metal underneath the rubber and the cowl area. Go figure.
   I'd like to hear from someone who had very little rust on a 57 he restored and see if there is a common progression as to where rust first starts. ( Understanding that the floor boards are exempt due to tracking snow or leaving windows down when setting outside.) Jim 
   

[Ford Blue blood]

The 44K mile 2dr ht I just got out of TX might be a good example of "wonder why that is like that?).  The cowl and windshield post are trouble free, no sign of rust or problems (flaking sealer/paint).  The front floors, toe boards and lower hinge area are near perfect.  The rear floor pans had some rust, mostly surface, but the area around the carpet screws was very weak.  The rockers are perfect, the bottoms of the front fenders still have factory paint (over spray) on them on the inside.  The radiator support is perfect as is the battery tray and the area under it.  The splash shields behind the grill still have the flat black paint on them, while the entire splash pan has no paint at all on it, no rust through, just surface rust.  The quarters in front of the wheel wells are perfect.  The passenger side quarter behind the wheel well is perfect but the drivers side has five pin holes, no weak areas around the pin holes, just the pin holes.  Trunk floor and tire well are solid as a rock but the rear panel has some rust through in it (the first real "rust issue" I have found in the car) and the trunk lid is very nice (some surface rust under the gasket).  This car is waiting it's turn but has been taken apart to clean the spiders, rat droppings, TX fauna and a sundry list of other "stuff" that accumulates in a car that sits for 40 years.

Going to look at the brakes tomorrow to see if they might on the off chance still function a little.  Car rolls easy and the drums all make little "dragging noises" when I move it around.  Have to fix a few wires (rodent damage) before I power it up, (just want to see if the lights work)  before it gets pulled down for rebuild.

[Zapato]

my 57 has rust in 2 areas only, in the void just to the right of the spare tire well resulting in a mail box like slot on the quarter panel and corresponding rust on the inner panel. then a bit of swiss cheese looking rust around the gasfiller radiating out mabe a couple of inches.

It lived its prior life in the Fresno California area.

Zap-

[clubcoupe57]

My 57 WAS a rust free car when I bought it! Yeah right, rear corner panel down low but it had been wrecked, I also had rust pin holes in the deck lid, the guy  that did the bondo before I got it did a very good job, all the rust is gone but there is still a little bondo here and there, I don't know of any resto that dosn't have some bondo somewhere!