1957 Ford Country Sedan mocha silver V8 4dr wagon

[djfordmanjack]

That's just the sound foundation for the doglegs. The outer skin will still have to be fabricated, probably another day worth of work and then on to the other side . It's a pitty that nobody makes repair panels for that area, they'de be highly needed on many 57s.

[mustang6984]

Ah...an opportunity to make some money! LOL!!! Luckily...mine are good. whew!

[RICH MUISE]

Mine was all good in the areas shown on the last group of pics. You'll never know for sure until you dig out the 3 pounds of seam sealer/body putty Ford put in that A pillar below the windshield ends.
Mine had a short stack of washers under the fender bolt flange. When I cleaned up my a pillars, I replaced all the oem putty/seam sealer with Rage Gold body filler to the thickness of those washers, minus one. That way when the fender was reinstalled, one washer under the flange and it was back to where it was.
DJ..please confirm for the records...that fender bolt....no fitting/hardware/receptical?? in the A pillar, correct? and just a large 1/4 ?' hex head sheetmetal screw....no machine threaded bolts.

[Limey57]

Nice work, mine had gone in the same area on the A-post and gutter.

Rich, my Ranchero also uses hexagon head sheet metal screws for that upper fender mounting.

[djfordmanjack]

absolutely correct Rich. its a hex head metal screw. My car is absolutely untouched and I have seen it on all other 57s before. it goes into double layer of 18 or 19 gauge steel. I just happened to restore these last week so here they are:
that's also the og speaker grille hardware with the rubber coated wire loom keepers and the black spacers for the dash pad.

[djfordmanjack]

Rich. what you mentioned about the body sealer in the a post doglegs, I plan on using a rubber hose or something like that instead of the sealer. I want to be able to pull these after years and get access to clean out any debris or moisture and being able to paint and wax it. I want to change the design of the overlapping seams including drain holes if any water should come in again, but more later when I have done the job . In my mind I have it bulletproofed from now on  what you see in the silverish preparation pics is all bare steel. I used a little sand blasting device.

[djfordmanjack]

working like a dog....for the dogleg....

[mustang6984]

I am going to start referring to you as MASTER Gunther! 'Cause that is the work (as is all your stuff) of a MASTER creator of answers to problems!   

[RICH MUISE]

Double wow.....it would have taken me 2 weeks to get that done, and it still wouldn't have looked that good. Gold star on that one Gunter!!
Rich

[hiball3985]

You are amazing, a real wizard.

[mustang6984]

He sorta makes me want to either ship MY car to him...or bring him over to my place for a week or two...hehehehehehe!

Double wow.....it would have taken me 2 weeks to get that done, and it still wouldn't have looked that good. Gold star on that one Gunter!!
Rich

[djfordmanjack]

thank you very much guys. It's all about saving our beloved 57 Fords! We have to confess that they put some design flaws into making the body. There are some problem areas on most 57s, like lower front fender ends, rear rocker to fenderwells and those A post doglegs. All of them are double or triple layer spot welded areas that see a lot of moisture along with bad drainage, getting dirt trapped and little to no rust protection from the factory. Basically these overlapping areas were all bare metal inside when they left the factory. no zinc coating on the steel, no submerging in a primer tank (like other manufacturers of the time already had) and no wax. that's why on most 57s we see rust colored streaks coming out from under the a post dogleg. condensed water comes down the inside of the windshield a post and as soon as it mixes with debris and surface rust, it cloggs the narrow dogleg drain path down into the a pillar. I didn't want to have those overlapping seams so I made it from one piece but stepped the areas to make it look like the original

I had long dreaded making this part. It can be done with simple tools and isn't so difficult, but it takes a lot of patience and time (12 working hours).















my repaired area compared to the original overlapping pieces on the Del Rio.


I made the upper a post corner from 1 piece for the same reason, but I cut a little groove in it with the Dremel to make it appear like the original seam.




I even made a little cut into the perfectly straight repair panel to make it look like most factory aposts, where the body parts join 


The most important thing to me was making those drain holes. If ever again moisture should get in there it will easily drain to the inside of the A pillar, down in the rocker and out the rocker drains, just the way it was supposed to be from factory.

[mustang6984]

Art work...pure art work!   

[Jeff Norwell]

INCREDIBLE G!!!!!!!

[Limey57]

Agreed, some excellent work there!  On mine the inner panel had rusted through so after removing the outer and sand blasting it I was able to re-weld it to the repaired inner panel, I doubt my patience would be strong enough to make one from scratch!