Rocker Panel Replacement...And Beyond

[petew]

Hey Ron, just Google Black Car rust repair panels and their site will pop up in the search results. Also look at EMS repair panels , they make really nice panels. They are expensive but nice.

[Ron]

Pete--Thanks.  Found their website and will go over things later.  Question: were you 100% happy with the thickness, fit and overall compatability of the floors you got from them?  Just asking since you also mentioned EMS.  Thanks, Ron.

[petew]

EMS floors are better and their stampings are right on and very crisp . Black Car offers some smaller panels that are quite a bit less expensive and they fit my needs so that's how I went. I couldn't see chopping up any more of the original floor than I needed to or spending big money for patch panels and just carving small sections out of them.
Metal thickness was good at I believe 18ga for everything I used.

Pete

[petew]

Been making steady progress ,all the doors are on and they have fresh seals on them. That was quite a job to get the door on, gaps lined up and strikers adjusted. The doors close but are tight as hell because of the new seals . You have to slam them the get them shut hopefully they will compress and make closing them easier.
Trim is back on and I am pleased with the look since I deleted the the gold inset and the top trim.
Waiting for battery cables to arrive so I can start it and see how it runs. Interior is next.

[Jerry Box]

Doors look great good job. Are you going to do anything with the drains that go into the front fenders our you leaving them original. That's the part that made my floor and my rocker panels rot out.

[Frankenstein57]

Nice job Pete, always enjoy your work,   Mark

[petew]

Replaced the drains with original stuff, this car will lead an easy life so they should last forever.

[Jeff Norwell]

Looks Wonderful Pete.Are the paint codes same as factory,Flame Red and Colonial White?
Maybe you already mentioned it.
At any rate,Stellar!

[petew]

Thanks Jeff, yes they are factory colors. Flame red and Colonial White. Everyone that looks at the car loves the colors.

[Ron]

Pete:  Your wagon is looking beautiful.  Can't wait for your installments.  In an earlier post you said you "replaced the drains with original stuff."  I'm going to be pulling the front fenders off my '57 Ranch Wagon soon and plan to also replace the drain "system" and I'd like to know where you got your parts and what is involved in replacing everything.  I've never done a Ranch Wagon before, so I'm not sure what I'll be looking at when I remove the fenders.  Is it just a couple rubber hoses running from the cowl vent to an exit hole at the bottom of the fenders, or is it more complicated (probably ).  Does the cowl vent below the windshield also have to be removed to replace the drain hoses?  Thanks for any pointers and suggestions, Pete!  Ron...

[petew]

Ron,
Thank you, It is turning out well and I have enjoyed doing it.

A couple of cowl drain pictures for you , one shows the cowl drain on the outside as it will present with the fender removed. Second shows the rubber tube from the inside as it exits through the pass side of the cowl.
Heat box is the structure to the left and the antenna wire can be seen exiting as well.
It is simply a rubber tube with a rubber flange on it , the rubber is available through most of the parts houses the sell parts for the 57 Fords. It attaches to a drain pipe that exits the lower portion of the cowl on both sides and is held on with a clamp. On the outside a metal flange and 3 screws hold it in place.
You will most likely need to remove the heater box from the pass side to gain access to that drain, I would take out the front seat for sure to give yourself room to work.

[Ron]

Thanks, Pete.  The info and pictures are a great help.  My front seat is ready to be lifted out so I can determine the extent of the rust damage I've got on driver's side floor and rocker.  I'll proceed from there to remove front fenders and take a look at the drains.  Ron...

[petew]

Well it runs. Started it yesterday and it purrs like a kitten , no leaks and the Waldron's exhaust sounds great. Had the rear on jack stands so I put it in gear and ran it up a bit in first and second gears . No noise so I guess I set the rear up properly, some times tricky with used gears. All the gauges are working.
That is all of the good news, now the bad... Generator is dead so i did something wrong in there, tried polarizing it but no luck so it's gone to the local generator hospital to be checked.
When I took the gas tank out of the car it looked great , I cleaned it up and gave it a coat of paint and when the time came back in it went. Well during the clean up I must have disturbed a rust bubble cause now it's leaking. Good news is Drake has them for a wagon bad news is $425.00.
Suppose I could have tried one of those sealers for it but there have been some horror stories associated with sealers and ethanol so I held my nose and ordered the tank. Found that my low horn was dead , took it apart as far as I could, bounced it around a little and filled it with Liquid Wrench overnight. Still dead but I was very lucky to have found one on ebay for $12.00 ! Cost more to ship than what the horn cost but I consider myself lucky to have found one at all, seller says it works.
All in all I have been lucky and this resto has gone very well. We start on the interior next week.

[Jerry Box]

So cool- I like hearing from you. Sounds like it went pretty good to me.

[Ron]

Pete:  Bet it sounded nice when it fired up and went into a nice idle.  What are you doing with the interior, going original or other?  I got the front seat out of my '57 wagon and took a closer look at the rust in the floors.  Some PO in the distant past did a quickie repair on the driver's side using 1/8" aluminum, rivets, caulking and hot tar on the top.  It was installed over the old rusty floor, half way up the toe board, 1/4 way up the trans tunnel, and back to the seat pedestal, and over to the rocker panel.  I managed to remove all that so I could get a better look at the rusty floors and from what I can see there's plenty of solid toe board and trans tunnel to effectively weld in new replacement panels.  Next I'm going to take a wire wheel to everything to make sure I'm replacing bad metal, and not replacing good metal.  I'm probably not going to take on the actual sheet-metal replacement part of the job myself--I've never done it before, don't have the necessary welding equipment or skills, and I wouldn't have fun doing it, which is a must because this is a hobby!  Anyway, I'm in So. Cal. and will start looking soon for someone who's good at this sort of thing and is maybe retired and working out of his home where there's not a ton of overhead costs that he would have to pass along to me.  Wish me luck!  Ron