Hello Everyone, Ill start a thread on my 58’ I know this is a 59 forum ,I Dig the 59s as well and hope to someday own one.Ive owned this car roughly 4 years and thats about as long as its taken me to get to where I am now on it,It was a car id bought, sold and bought back again, I kinda had no clue it would take this long but its been an experience Im very close to finishing up the welding stuff and starting up on my paint/body work.Pics to follow..
I know! We need to get you a 59 Plymouth front clip and all would be well! You are welcome here even if you don’t have a 59 but just like that year of car. Enjoy your 58!
John Q.
heres what I started with roughly 4 years ago , at this point Id bought the car in 2005 sold it to a fellow in houston ,tx he didnt do anything to it, other than have the exterioir shel of the car media blasted.
I then dismanteled car to get ready to send to media blast all the rest ,the inside innermost parts and the frame undercarriage-
Then I seperated frame and body treeshade style, and then appled dupont epoxy 2540s to provide a rock hard seal protection for the freshly blasted metal
next i started on the floors they were a mess ,used ebay stuff they were close enough ,the trunk floor not soo much.
I made the under the seat brace, was simple enough cleaned treated all the rest of the braces , they are re-popping the under seat braces now, I beleive r/car was making them too at the time I just didnt want to wait and made one.,I did buy a repop for the other side recentley
the most involved piece for me at the time was the inner rocker panel noone at the time made one affordably priced for me and the ones on ebay werent correct, so I made that too I bought a 4x8 sheet of 18 guage black sheet metal cut down to size and had the pieces made, its just a straight 90 degree bend,but has to have sufficient material left on both sides of the bend
I almost forgot,the tricky part for me was making the end of the inner rocker taper off like the original, the original inner was a stamped piece not quite a straight 90 degree piece I carefully removed the old one and made the new one as close as possible.
ive owned 4 57-58 hts prior to this one and they all became aborted projects they were too big too soon for me at the time,watching Big M Johns Rusty the 59 convert convinced me to take the full plunge and go all the way on one.He may have to change its name as his 59’ is no longer Rusty.
I also had the top of the rockers made on a brake,then outer rockers were re-pops
once that side was done moved onto the trunk floor which proved to be the most difficult part of the car as the re-popfloor I bought was nothing more than a flat piece of metal,was missing the spare tire hump I had to re-use my old one,was a lot of work ,In retrospect if I knew Id of bought an r/car trunk floor as they are lots closer
Wow! Outstanding work! Brings back memories of working on the floors of my 59. Keep up the great work!
John Q.
Thanks John indeed its the toughest part about these cars ,the rust repair, John u what type of harness did you use on your 59’? I bought a universal type harness from jegs but dont know if I should move forward on it because of the plugs ect..
Next I ground down welds and applied aluminum filler over the welded areas as well as plastic filler
This is a bit out of sequence as I’ve done this recently
I skipped many steps,in the thread because my pics are scattered but engine ,transmission,front suspension and differential have all been fully rebuit,right now just need to finish welding up rear seat brace and outer rocker panel driverside then I can start the body paint work.
Out of sequece but earlier this year I bought a parts car, and dismantled it, all the window regulators were cleaned and treated and greased up I installed all the sideglass, so all these parts wouldnt be lying around and possibly getting lost, Ill very likely remove it again when im into the body/paint
Very nIce! I like the picture with the car at night outside your garage…I think we have all been there…
John Q.
Looks great, Carlos!!
—John
Great Job Carlos - My first new car was a 57 Belvedere Convertible, just keep plugging and before you know it you are at a car show.
Dick.