Sanded a 63 savoy fender today...

[Rolling Thunder]

...and found nothing!

Oh its great to have some nice sheetmetal for my old wagon finally. Bought a great pair of fenders awhile back and getting ready to pull my patchwork ones off and do the wagon some justice. After the fenders I'll be replacing the passenger door. The door is soooo rusty. I have a hardtop door and will be grafting in the window frame in from my original one.

 

[RubyredSavoy]

Very nice fender! It is always nice to find shiny metal under the paint

 

[RubyredSavoy]

Here is the pair I bought from a fellow in California (Mayo Performance). Super clean and straight with most of the original white paint (minor surface rust), lucky California guys

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Well the ole wagon has officially started coming apart today. Pulled front sheet metal all off to clean up and sand down before putting new driveline in and bolting new sheet metal back on. Im going to really clean up the front section and work my way back. Rear of car is pretty nice so probably just blocking down some more to straighten and the attention to detail kind of stuff. I'll be replacing the ps door for a nice rust free one also but will have to graft in window frame since new one is ht door. Oh what have I started??????:drowning:

Have decided car is going to be "shiny" black as wife calls it versus primer so have a LOT of blocking to do. As of right now then it will be going black with gold interior and most likely have gold candy cane stripes on roof section. Car name is undecided as of now but have thought about: Rolling Thunder, Texas T (ie. black gold) or maybe Night Stalker

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Etch primed the fenders. Turning out great.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Yanked off drivers side fender today and found out the last guy that patched my fender for me had welded the patch to not only the fender but to the rocker panel as well. Heres a shot of the boys cheesing it up after about 30 minutes of listening to daddies cursing...sorry neighborhood.

Oh yeah, not only pulled a fender today but got to pull sons 2nd tooth out also.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Started working on replacing the passengers side door today. I have a great ht door that I need to graft the sedan doors window frame onto. The ht door has a different front wing window section that needed spot drilled out and the rear of the door has a spot welded section that needs to come out. Front was easy, drilled out welds and frame loose. For the rear of the sedan door since metal is different (see pics) I ended up just leaving frame welded to door section and cutting complete marked area out to graft on ht door. Will be fairly easy job as all I need to do is reweld front frame into front of new door, open up rear of new door area and trim frame/metal rear to fit into removed area. Should have a completed door by this weekend and will post pics.

 

[RubyredSavoy]

Great idea on the door! My left door has a spot of rot and was hit at one time, so it was drilled full of holes and slap hammered "into shape"... As you probably know, '63 sedan doors seem to be made of unobtainium I am on the hunt for a rust free '63-5 hardtop door or a NOS left door skin to fix mine and the basic door structure is straight and rust free.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Tell me about it, could not find any 63 doors. The old ones were 64 doors with the frames changed. This one is a 65 door. Heres some shots of it today, I still need to trim the metal on the rear to butt weld in but you can see how it'll work out. Easy to make and sooooooo much cheaper than factory sedan doors.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

What did I start?

Oh boy I really did it now. Pulled out back and side glasses, rear bumper, all tailgate guts, busted out what had remained of its original wood spare tire cover (nasty!), pulled most of interior and front windshield trim.

I'm dedicated to redoing her now for sure. About 2 years ago slapped her together half azz like and sprayed her satin black just so I could enjoy her for a couple summers, well now is the time to make her shine...literally. Pulled the junk carpet out of the rear and found the rear pans hadnt fixed themselves so new ones are about to be welded in, going to take the seats over to a buddies place and actually attach the new seat covers versus slipping them on and tucking so they looked nice :rolling:, replace the old army blanket "carpet" with the new one I have in the rafters and more. I believe I actually like working on the car more sometimes than driving it...go figure.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Bolted in ps door to align and test fit window frame to mark weld locations.

 

[savoy]

I have a 63 savoy that needs doors and youre right! Ive been looking for quite a few months now to find some. Your idea might be the way to go. Could you tell me a little more about whats all involved?

 

[Rolling Thunder]

This is what I did to mine. Took the ht door and removed the front vent window mounts on front of door jam face (drilled out spot welds). On back of ht door there is a spot welded rectangle area that is ht specific-I trimmed that specific area out.

I was lucky as I had a door, although rusty to take frame from. Using original door I drilled out spot welds on front of frame in the jam area. And for the rear, cut the entire top out leaving the sedan specific metal on it. I then test fit on new door and trimmed to butt weld in ht door. Pretty straight forward and easy.

If you notice on my doors, the frames are patchworked together. I couldnt find 63 doors so I had to use 65 frames originally. What you have to do is weld in the 63 sloped vent area frame to the later rear frame areas. Sound like alot of work? Its not really, just careful measuring.

I've been told if you cannot find later 2dr sedan frames that you can splice a 4drs frame into a ht door to do the same thing. Only issue I think would be adding in even more metal frame to lengthen the frame.

Notice for reference in the last pic. The circled areas on doors are exactly the same which allows for easy alignment of patched section.