THE AUTO BUILDER

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If you think you’re particular about your street rod—the quality of the build, the effectiveness of the drivetrain and chassis, and the aesthetics of the entire effort—consider what it must be like for someone who has specialized in high-level manufacturing for most of his life.

SUM OF THE PARTS

Jason Whitfield never intended to hot rod a station wagon. It just sort of happened. You see, he had this Mitsubishi Diamante wagon that Rage Performance and NuFormz used as a parts-getter. After a few runs, the guys decided that the car needed some better tunes. As the parts pickup runs got longer, they decided to add TVs. When a few extra parts were lying around—like a Turbonetics T04/T03 turbo and an intercooler—they just sort of made their way onto the car. The parts were already paid for, so why not use them?

CIMTEX RODS SUPER CAMEO: PART 10

In part nine of our Cimtex Rods Super Cameo Buildup Series, we covered the installation of the Classic Industries Parts and Accessories reproduction ’55-’59 Chevrolet/GMC lower door hinge panels, doorsill rocker panels, upper and lower door hinges, new right- and left-side front floor pans, inner and outer lower cab patch panels, and right- and left-side truck cab supports. To put it in a nutshell, the crew at Cimtex Rods in Jarrell, Texas, basically rebuilt the whole bottom end of our Super Cameo ’56 Chevrolet big window truck cab from stem to stern. Now, with a rock-solid truck cab firmly bolted onto our Cameo’s highly modified C4 Corvette-suspended truck chassis, we closed with the promise that we would be installing a new set of Dynacorn International Inc. ’55-’59 Chevrolet/GMC reproduction truck doors, followed by angle-chopping the top on our ’56 big-window a total of 3-1/2 inches in the front and 3 inches in the rear. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go according to plan.

Spotlighter

Patchy Progress

Using Basic Metalworking Skills to Repair a Rusty Door

“Rust can put fear into the hearts of many hot rodders, but with enough work, nearly anything can be repaired.“

Author

Tommy Lee Byrd

Words & Photography

Common Rust Issues in Classic Cars

Patching a rusty hole in an old car is a common occurrence, especially on the East Coast, where the cars are more likely to rust out. The humid air is part of the problem, and then there is that whole thing of salting roads in the winter, but some rust is simply caused by car manufacturers using lower-grade metals and primers on their cheaper models. This example is a ’53 Henry J, and it has the usual rust issues on the doors, fenders, floor pans, and rocker panels. Most folks would pass on a car this rusty, but this one is considered decent by Henry J standards.

The History and Challenges of Henry Js

The cars were built on a budget and sold at a low price, but the bodies just didn’t last long. Proper care was not taken to make Henry Js hold up to moisture, and it wasn’t long before many of the cars were crushed or patched together to run on the dragstrip. While we are performing this rust repair on a product from Kaiser, the techniques can be transferred to nearly any car, as long as it’s metal.

Tools and Techniques for Rust Repair

For this project, we needed a MIG welder, a grinder, a cutoff tool, a new piece of sheet metal, and a body hammer. Other tools can be used to speed the process, but we made the patches without the use of any extravagant metalworking tools. If the rust had traveled any higher on the door, the process would have been much more difficult, but it was a simple project that only took a couple of hours.

Finishing Touches and Considerations

Of course, we’ll have to use body filler to give the door a perfectly straight surface, but with the right methods, we can use a modest amount to obtain the look we want. All welding should be complete when the bodywork starts, since the heat will soften the filler or primer and cause it to lift. This can create cracks or bubbles after the car is painted, and it’s never fun to find one of those on a recently finished hot rod.

Moving Forward with Repairs

Rust can put fear into the hearts of many hot rodders, but with enough work, nearly anything can be repaired. Most rodders can pick up the phone and order the patch panels they need, but in our case, there are no reproduction panels for a Henry J besides fiberglass race parts. Now that we have the passenger-side door finished, we can move on to repairing the rust in the other door, fenders, hood, and decklid—wow, this thing is rusty.

1) This is what we’re starting with: a rusty and rugged door on a ‘53 Henry J. While the rust damage is minor compared to the other body panels, this repair is essential to giving the car a smooth look. We might as well fire up the air compressor, because we’re going to need it.

2) The front of the door is considerably worse than the rear, so that’s where the process will begin. Although the holes do not look severe with paint on them, grinding will tell the tale and will give us an idea of how much metal will need to be replaced.

3) After grinding the door to bare metal in the area of concern, we can see that a long patch panel will need to be made. Even though the rusted area isn’t any particular shape, we’ll cut out a rectangular piece so the patch panel can be made with ease.

4) With a marker and straightedge, we can mark the area we’ll be removing and make sure we have a large enough piece of metal to repair the area in one section. We always try to leave 1/8 inch of metal on the edge so we can retain the door’s original shape and dimensions.

5) We used an air-powered cutoff wheel to remove the rusted metal, since it doesn’t create as much heat as other methods. After cutting the old metal, we used an angle grinder to remove any burrs or sharp edges, and then cleaned up the inside of the door before we progressed further.

6) Using a measuring tape and the piece we cut from the door, we marked the new piece of sheetmetal to fit the dimensions and made sure to cut it on the outside of our marked line. We’ll cut it out initially with the cutoff tool, and minor adjustments can be made with an angle grinder for a perfect fit.

7) After cutting the piece and smoothing the edges, we can test-fit it to the door and see how the initial fit looks. We’re sure that grinding the panel to fit will be necessary, but this will give us a guideline. The door has a slight roll from top to bottom, so we rolled the metal in the vise.

8) We made several test fits to ensure the proper fit and needed a helping hand to hold it in place while a few tack welds were made. After the patch was tacked, we could make any adjustments with the body hammer and then continue welding when the metal cooled.

9) Welding on a corner and moving to the opposite corner helped prevent warping, but the metal still needed time to cool periodically. After the welding was complete, we stepped back to look at our progress and began the dreadful grinding process.

10) Grinding can also cause the metal to warp, so we took great care to skip around and keep the steel reasonably cool. The first step was to use the cutoff wheel to knock the welds down, and then a small angle grinder to finish the panel.

11) We then sprayed the panel with gold spray paint and used a grinder to reveal the low spots, similar to a guidecoat on a fresh coat of primer. This step isn’t essential to the process, but it helps reduce the amount of filler used on the panel.

12) Now that the worst part of the door is repaired, we can patch the smaller portion and complete the passenger-side door. After grinding, we kept finding holes, so we cut out this section to remove any pinholes that might come back later. We can prep the inside of the door while it is accessible.