Request Input, Terminal Cancer On Subframe

[JohnnyRB]

Just joined this forum, Im the owner of the aforementioned rusty continental. The car has got body rust on the rear quarter panels around the chrome fender trim, and the floors are rsuted out. I cut out the bad floors and the bad parts of the rockers are getting cut out as well. Between those and the two rusted out subframe rails, I can say im fairly certain thats really the extent of the dangerous rust. Ive pulled up all of the carpet and completely got the inside of the car and trunk down to bare metal, and the meat is pretty good. The rest of the structural members on the car are in remarkably good shape, which is why I cant understand how the rust in those photos occurred. Im doing this out of a garage by myself with the direction of folks on facebook and now on here, and funds are fairly limited. Id be happy to come out and get the rails if that would be the best option. My original thought was that i could place the car on jack stands, remove the leaf springs so there isnt as much tension/stress on that region, and cut out all of the cancer, and then weld up either steel box pipe or fab in 3/8" steel rails all along where the old rails used to be. i figured this was too far gone to be a patch job, but maybe a fab job would get it road worthy? otherwise the car is solid, the drivetrain is pristine and runs like a watch. if i had a rust free body id just throw that into it, but i did get this 69 for free... any advice is welcome, and thanks TonyC for pointing me here.

[Dan Szwarc]

We hope to provide better support than FB, but don’t have the traffic they do.

[elcad70]

"I guess complexity is all relative to your knowledge base." I believe this is the critical issue followed by the cost consideration. If there was only one left in the world the options would be limited and worthy of a different response but that rust is EXTENSIVE isn't it? A healthy donor would be my initial call. Just saying . . .

[Dan Szwarc]

I never discourage a project. Especially if the owner starts a thread and documents it here!

[TonyC]

I agree; there is no question John's plight will be a long and expensive venture. But I do not believe it to be impossible. I seem to remember a member of the Forum whose '65 was catastrophically anal-probed by an irresponsible gal who bulleted into it at 55 mph. He was able to replace the wrecked structure and salvage the car. If he could do that, John can, even if much of the work involved will be a new experience. After all, we were all newbies at some time; even we wind up learning new things as time ticks by.

---Tony

[Mike]

If you're going to start cutting out rear frame sections you should come up with some sort of jig first to make sure the new parts go in the same spot. Once it's on jack stands and you've cut them out don't take it off the stands or re-adjust the car as that could throw everything off.

[frasern]

I can't help it, I have to discourage it. Now, if you are able to do the work yourself, the cost would be manageable, and Dans offer of a platform would be a great starting point, it will be a big undertaking. However, to hire someone... very few shops have the skill to repair that properly, and the cost will exceed whatever you have budgeted. Gordie Jenson (I think) had some bodies for sale a while back, you can transfer everything onto it yourself, without paying for body shop labour.
Here is a picture of my '68, just to show what is inside there. It is not one box section, but a labyrinth of small channels and gussets, all tied together.

I still think you can use the car as is, and if you like it, find a donor body. Please forgive the negativity, but I live in a rust zone, and have seen a lot of money wasted on rusty vehicles.

[1Bad55Chevy]

If I really wanted to save this car and keep it original this is how I would do it.

1. Find a parts car in a salvage yard
2. Cut the salvage car in half tight behind the front seat
3. Brace the roof of you car and Cut the top off at the C pillar
4. Cut you car in half somewhere in the rear door section
5. Mount rear doors to the new rear section (I might actually tack weld rear doors to the B pillar depending on how things would go back together)
6. Align body based on rear door fitment
7. Weld together

This is where I would cut the car. This is basically how you rebuild a salvage car and put it back on the road.

52358260211_b5df85030c_k.jpg (33.95 KiB) Viewed 207 times

Have you put any consideration to mounting the body to something like a Caprice chassis? Stretching or shortening the wheel base on a bare chassis would be easier then all this other work. Also once you had the the floors cut out it's really easy to weld mount the body to the frame.

If it was me I would put a frame under it and fab up some really basic floors using a trans tunnel kit from jegs. It would look like a rusty rat rod that would kill Tony from the inside every time he saw it!

[Lee]

Orrrrr…..you could start with something like this (assuming it’s not rusted as well ), for a fraction of the cost of repairing this one. I’m with Fraser.
https://peoria.craigslist.org/ctd/d/peo ... 42896.html

[TonyC]

Have you put any consideration to mounting the body to something like a Caprice chassis?

If only it were that simple. On a '70 model that could be more practical, but John's car is a '69 clap-door. Unibody. Can't splice a separate frame to a unibody, especially if we're talking about such conflicting cars like Caprice-vs.-Lincoln. Even if one could, the cost of customizing would be outrageous, far out of his reach.

I did steer him to Dan and this Forum, so we should see in the near-future what comes of that, from John directly.

---Tony

[Dan Szwarc]

I talked to John today and told him to send all his uncles to this forum. They are the 60s Lincoln brothers (like 8 or so) and they all love their 61-69 Continentals (my speciality).

John sounds like he has the skills to make this happen, but it is a challenge for anyone.

[1Bad55Chevy]

Have you put any consideration to mounting the body to something like a Caprice chassis?

If only it were that simple. On a '70 model that could be more practical, but John's car is a '69 clap-door. Unibody. Can't splice a separate frame to a unibody, especially if we're talking about such conflicting cars like Caprice-vs.-Lincoln. Even if one could, the cost of customizing would be outrageous, far out of his reach.

I did steer him to Dan and this Forum, so we should see in the near-future what comes of that, from John directly.

---Tony

What's the end goal with this thing? High end factory restoration? Weekend warrior? Car cruise build?

Putting a frame in a uni body car would be cheaper then you would think. I have been a part of multiple 2x3 drag car builds where we cut the floors out and mounted Novas/Camaros to full chassis. You just cut all the floors out, weld the frame to the inner rocker panel, and build sheet metal floors. You would have to tie the front frame section into the factory core support and use a fuel cell. Would this be a high end concourse restoration? No! But the reality is the car is a parts car and will never be worth painting. It's no different then the rat rods the purist hate because someone did a low $$ build on a body that was rotting in a field.

This is how it looks on a drag car. The only thing that holds the body to the chassis is the out riggers to the rockers. You would do ot the same way minus the roll cage.

The more I look at pictures of the bottom sides of these 4 door sedans the more I see the similarities with the Mark.

Here is a high end sedan with a frame! This one is built over the top extreme but I bet it was still Cheaper then restoring one that was rusty and missing a ton of parts!

the-body-of-a-1963-lincoln-continental-on-a-custom-chassis-v0-tl1un7towusa1.jpg (39.51 KiB) Viewed 166 times

[Dan Szwarc]

I think the goal is driver-level reinforcement, not restoration, not racing, not tubbing, not lowering.

John got the car cheap from his uncle and the motor is newly rebuilt, the car is good condition, but this rot could force junking it. He wants to save the car from likely scrapping. On a budget. Think band aids, not perfection.

[TonyC]

Here is a high end sedan with a frame! This one is built over the top extreme but I bet it was still Cheaper then restoring one that was rusty and missing a ton of parts!

Proportionally-speaking, maybe. I'm pretty sure the builders of that static display will never confess the actual $$$$$ involved in that job. I'm more confident that John will spend numerically less (though maybe not proportionally, after all he's not a for-profit customizing bizz) restoring his car.

---Tony

[Mike]

What he needs to find is an old style shop that will do whatever repairs like that to make it safe and no more, no less.
The big problem is like you said being uni body. That chunk of frame is intertwined with the rest of the body. If all the metal around it isn't rotted out you can drill spot welds and replace it. If it is rotted out you're into a lot more work.
You really need to know how far forward the major rust goes because we can already see from those pics it goes all the way back.