IML: The 1955 and the Rhinoceros

When we were at the CA statewide meet back in the spring, I was walking around with some buddies and just hanging out.

This guy walks up to us and proclaims "I want to be in your club!"

"OK. You're in the club." was my reply.

Since I don't run the club, it wasn't really my place, but why make things difficult for people? Anyway, we talked a little, I circled back around, and told him that membership in the Actual Imperial club that was putting on the statewide meet required $22 and a form, but that he could stay anyway, seeing as how he was already at the meet and all.

Turns out that he's a retired guy that had a different car, and Olds or some such, and he'd somehow decided that Imperial was the way to go. I try hard not to argue with sound thinking, and told him that if he needed any help, that I'd be happy to do so and gave him my card.

Well, he got really fired up by the show and went on a mission, looking for a 1955 (maybe a '56?) If you live in the state and own one, well you probably know who I'm talking about....

Anyway, he jumped in with both feet and bought a car on ebay. It arrived and had some medium grade omissions/faults, and he was really disappointed, but it wasn't the end of the world. He hammered on the seller and they came to a mutual agreement about what would be fair, and the deal was settled pretty quickly.

This was probably back in June or July - memory fails.

Anyway, my suggestion was to have the brake system redone and he wanted new paint and chrome. The rest of the beast looked good enough, and the car looked like a real driver. Nice straight metal, and very complete.

He asked me if I wanted to do any work on the car, and since I am already employed doing something else and spend my free time on MY cars, I declined.

I don't mind making dumb mistakes and dazzling breakthroughs on my cars, but don't fancy hearing from someone else that my work wasn't up to snuff after they had a problem with something failing. I could tell that he wasn't super-mechanical, and if you don't do your own work, its human nature to assume that doing work on an old car is a definitive, clean thing that always happens correctly the first go through. Since it's not (at least at my house), I just pass on doing anything but offering free advice to others.

The car got painted at a local Miracle that seems to do a good business in older cars, and the paint job cost about $2000 and came out really nice. I was surprised, and thought that it was a pretty good deal, all things considered.

So anyway, the car still needed brakes and the tires installed, so I suggested my buddy/mechanic, and he declined, saying that he had an old buddy that had a shop where he felt most comfortable having the work performed.

The shop, despite having several old cars out front, turned out to be woefully under-prepared to deal with this 1955 that had come in. They took their time working on it, and wound up pretty much destroying a drum during the removal process. Wound up translating into him buying a whole used rear-end from Lowell, which was a shame. I had offered to loan tools/help, but the shop never called. Guess they "thought" that they knew what they were doing.

The car was also to be fitted with Coker wide white radials and new chrome wire wheels, Turns out that there was a locating stud or something on the face of the rear drum that prevented fitting the wheels. The wheels needed a hole drilled in their hubs to allow the deal to work. Last I heard, the studs were to be cut off with a hacksaw to make the drum face smooth, rather than drilling a hole in the wheel. As soon as I heard about all of that, I pretty much tuned things out - That was another indication of the questionable skills being deployed against this poor car, and I just didn't want to watch the train fall into the river after wrecking on the bridge.

Anyway, I started bugging him about yanking the car and getting it out of there, as weeks were passing, and it seemed kinda obvious that the shop wasn't putting the car at the top of the list.

Then IT happened.

The Event:

The shop-employees returned from a weekend to find that the hydraulic lift that was holding a Bronco had failed and collapsed.

Guess what was parked underneath?

Yup.

The failing lift had landed in the center of the roof about a foot back from the windscreen, and had proceeded to push downwards and cave the roof in. The car looked like it was seriously squinting with furrowed brows.

Long story short, the shop owner was superficially sorry as far as I could tell (I stayed out of the conversations that followed the damage, so I can't say for sure) and he proceeded to complete the brake job and present a $2500 bill to the owner of the car.

Oh, did I mention that he did not have garage-keepers liability insurance?

The car's owner was obliged to report the loss to Hagerty. They settled fairly enough and it was not a painful process to get the claim paid as far as I know..

The car has been totaled, and is now sitting in my garage.

The deal that I have is that if I can fix the now totaled/Salvage Title car (I can), and am willing to do the work, then I can get a 50% stake in the vehicle.

I spent the morning using the engine hoist to pull the crunched-down roof line. At first, I just put the arm of the hoist under the lip of the windscreen opening, inserted a block of wood, and jacked the bent section up.

I then went over to the hardware store and bought a giant 1" bolt and put it into the end of the lift's arm, making what looks to me like a giant rhinoceros horn on the end of the cherry picker.

I used that to push the caved-in sheet metal up. It is now bent out about as much as I dare without fear of seriously deforming things.

I am now faced with a decision: The center section is bent backwards about 1.5 inches from where it should be, and I don't see a practical way of bending it back. I had thought about cutting a hole in the front section and using my 10,000lb winch that's on the truck to pull it back, but I suspect that the metal would get more warped than corrected.

I can either cut a similar piece out of another 55 and try to weld it in, grinding down where the welded section is and filling with body filler....

OR

I can do some free-form body-filler sculpture. Since the car is already totaled, the only goal here is to repair cosmetics, not really do it "right" to pass anything but casual inspection.

If I replace the headliner, none of the damage is visible from underneath.

I am currently leaning to doing the body-filler thing, although all of the manufacturers intend it to be 1/4 inch or thinner, I'm thinking that I can use a grinder to seriously scuff the metal and then to build it up and form the window opening. It'll be about an inch thick in some places, but I'm pretty much willing to take the risk of it failing at some point in the far future. I'll have to jury rig the mounts where the chrome trim gets bolted in, but I'm an expert at that sort of thing. Jury-rigging, that is.

My question: Anyone out there within a days driving distance of the Bay Area got a nice piece of front glass that fits a '55? I also need the 5 top trim pieces that are cast pot metal and stamped sheet that go from both A pillars across the top of the windscreen.

Lowell's inventory is not passable at the moment...

any leads greatly appreciated

-Kenyon