I'm starting to do some body work on the old van. I'm removing the verticle braces along the sides and the horizontal braces along the top and repairing the rust behind them. Some places have been rusted thru, and I'm going to cut and weld patch panels in. Does anyone know the thickness of the sheet metal? 16gauge? 18 gauge?

It's a '64 Econoline panel van (only two windows in the rear).

There is alot of rust on this girl, but she's a family van (grandad bought it new) so I'm committed to bringing her back. I'll post pictures soon.

Thanks for the help,

Ole' Green

 

i think you,ll find most of it will be 16 ga.
best place i have found for patch panel metal is the top of a lot of early cars. most places will let you cut a chunk out for little money, and there is nothing like good old heavy steel to patch heavy steel!

when you get each patch finished, be sure and coat the snot out of the inside with por-15 or some other rust killer. beats having to do it again in 40 years!

 

I have a chunk of Arizona Econoline Roof you can HAVE for the price of shipping from here in Canada ... gotta all work together to keep these crates going ...

 

The patching job didnt go so well, we warped a bit of the sheet metal around the patch that we put in. I'm going to experiment with some panel bonding adhesive and try to expoxy the sheet metal patch from the inside. Ive been reading about it lately and it seems like the side of the van is a good candidate for it.

j-md, thanks for the offer, I'll keep you in mind, but we have a pretty good chunck of old f100 fender to use for now. Does that chunk of roof have any of the drip rail still on it.

My next project will be to figure out a repair for some rusted away drip rail. Has anyone had any luck fabricating drip rail? What is the common fix for the drip rail repair?

I hear you on the rust killer, those old vans sure have alot of places that's hard to get paint on!

Thanks.

 

Actually have chunks of drip rail as well ... rust free ... same deal ... Good Luck! ... and look at my gallery to see what I am into with my '65 Supervan ...lol ... post divorce insanity ...