Last month I started the re-build on my 1959 Convertible. I purchased this car on Ebay in April for the meager amount of $7500.00. It was a good 50/50 car, it ran and looked good 50 feet away. Up close though you could tell the prior body work was a patch job. After opening it up, I found you get what you pay for.
I was going to do all the work myself. I knew it was going to need rocker panels, inner rocker repair and floors. I also did not like the wavy look of the quarter panels so I decided to replace them also. After much investigation and research on this forum and others I knew the inner rockers were going to be a big job. Since this is a convertible strength is everything.
I had thought about cutting good ones out of a rust free parts car if I could find one. Then I read on the forums about a person using rectangular tubing to strengthen them. So I purchased some .125 wall 2"x4" steel tubing in about six foot lengths. They fit perfectly after cutting out all the rust.
I stopped by Tops Auto Body in Perris, California and talked with the owner Joey Sanchez. What a great guy. We struck a deal where he would do the rust repair, replace the quarter panels and rockers on both sides and give me a high quality paint job. His price was reasonable at $6500, but he admired my car so much I asked him if he would like a 59 Tbird of his own. He was interested so I traded him a 59 Coupe I owned in exchange for the work. Everyone was happy.
They took the car in immediately, first they fixed the floors, then they cut away the rusted inner quarter panels up to where the convertible L shaped bracing begins and welded in the rectangular tubing on the passenger side, when they pulled off the quarter panel we found the wheelhouse was worthless, more rust than metal. As luck would have it I found a parts car right here on the Square Bird Forum that was pretty much rust free. So it gave its wheelhouse as its first donation.
I have been taking picutures as I go and would love to share them if someone would help me with the information on how to do this. Do I have to upload them to photobucket first?
Anyway if anyone would like to see the pictures of this build let me know and I will try to update frequently.
I was going to do all the work myself. I knew it was going to need rocker panels, inner rocker repair and floors. I also did not like the wavy look of the quarter panels so I decided to replace them also. After much investigation and research on this forum and others I knew the inner rockers were going to be a big job. Since this is a convertible strength is everything.
I had thought about cutting good ones out of a rust free parts car if I could find one. Then I read on the forums about a person using rectangular tubing to strengthen them. So I purchased some .125 wall 2"x4" steel tubing in about six foot lengths. They fit perfectly after cutting out all the rust.
I stopped by Tops Auto Body in Perris, California and talked with the owner Joey Sanchez. What a great guy. We struck a deal where he would do the rust repair, replace the quarter panels and rockers on both sides and give me a high quality paint job. His price was reasonable at $6500, but he admired my car so much I asked him if he would like a 59 Tbird of his own. He was interested so I traded him a 59 Coupe I owned in exchange for the work. Everyone was happy.
They took the car in immediately, first they fixed the floors, then they cut away the rusted inner quarter panels up to where the convertible L shaped bracing begins and welded in the rectangular tubing on the passenger side, when they pulled off the quarter panel we found the wheelhouse was worthless, more rust than metal. As luck would have it I found a parts car right here on the Square Bird Forum that was pretty much rust free. So it gave its wheelhouse as its first donation.
I have been taking picutures as I go and would love to share them if someone would help me with the information on how to do this. Do I have to upload them to photobucket first?
Anyway if anyone would like to see the pictures of this build let me know and I will try to update frequently.
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