Not a 58 but a success story nonetheless
When I recieved my '61 Newport, (I won't even go into how bad the
drivetrain was-to put it mildly-nothing worked), There were holes in the
body you could put your hands through-both of em. It had floor over the
driveshaft and that was it-there was no trunk under the trunk lid,
although a little floor left under the rear deck. The rocker panels were
removed by hand (I broke off the peices with my fingers) and of the square
four-sided box type frame, only the top was left. Well, having no idea
what I was doing, I figured I wasn't off too badly. I came up with a nice
little arc welder and some gas and practiced my welds out back upon the
picnic table. I cut up an old office cabinet and laid out a floor and
welded it into place-was easier than I expected. Before I laid carpet down
I smoothed the whole thing out with several gallons of body filler. The
same thing was done in the trunk. The frame was a different matter-I
bought 1/4" angled iron and made a box around what was left (cutting the
pieces with a reciprocating saw and using an anvil and a small sledge to
curve them where necessary) and welded it into place. I ran rods under the
floor I had made and welded those up, too. The rocker panels were
reproductions made by a company in J.C Whitney, and having no clue what
the originals looked like (turned out later they were the right thing) I
bought them, put them in place and welded them up. I brought the front
fenders out about 1/16" and no one has been able to tell yet :-) It took
about 3 months and change to do this, but I've had the car on the road for
several years, driven it ummm, well, we'll just say hard for now and
nothing has decided to fall off or bend. Only advice I have to give is
make sure you have a GOOD welder.
~dave in the bustle of moving
'61 Newport
'67 Kaiser M-715 (aka monstro)
On Mon, 4 Dec 4 2000, George Sazdoff wrote:
This car is a Belvedere 2 door hardtop
> with some serious rustout in floor areas, and trunk pans. The areas on each
> side of the rear glass is also rusted out. I have a parts car, (from a
> forwardlook member), which will supply decent floor supports and a trunk pan,
> but I need some encouragement here and would love to hear of any similar
> restoration success stories.
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