1959 Skyliner Frame Restoration

[59Sky]

I hauled a '59 Skyliner out of a field in November and while the roof, relay box and all the screw jacks and mechanism for it are present and functional, it was without a driveline and had spent what I'm guessing were the last 30 years laying frame and abandoned in that spot. The body is saveable, but the frame has a complete inner section about 16 inches long that dropped out when unloading. The frame is still continuous all the way around, which is holding the body straight, but I'm either going to have to chop out the damaged section and weld a new one in, or use the frame from my '59 4-door donor car and weld the center x-brace, which is in excellent condition into it.

I have seen just the X-braces for sale at swap meets/online and every one I have seen has had the sections of perimeter frame still attached at all four corners.

I'm new to perimeter frame car restoration (all work will be performed by a competent chassis shop, as I feel my welding skills are inadequate) and am wondering if anyone has any experience with converting a standard frame to convertible using factory bracing w/o resorting to custom fabricating a tube frame cross-brace, and if so, what I should be looking for. For example, my intuition would tell me the X-braces I've seen for sale have the perimeter frame segments so that they can be trimmed off to get a good fit between it and the frame, as hacking the new frame apart to adapt to the old perimeter remnants would introduce geometry changes in the chassis that would make proper alignment impossible.

Am I on the right track here?

*Edit* Added frame damage photo

[Frankenstein57]

If the frame is that bad, the rest of the car has got to be pretty soft. I saved my brothers 57 ranchero for years after he died, when I got around to working on it ,the jack went right through the frame. Used it for a parts car, just sayin. Mark

[SSsssteamer]

Sounds like the rusty 1959 Skyliner all by its self could be a money pit. Another good retractable parts car with the correct needed parts could make a slam dunk affordable restoration (if you do all of the labor yourself for free). I just purchased my nice 1957 Skyliner that had $50,000 in receipts for parts and labor for what had been done on it from 1998 to 2004. The fellow fell on the California hard times and I purchased the Skyliner from him for $30,000. Don't let that upside down financing happen to you.

[59Sky]

The body is actually in a lot better shape than that picture would indicate. The driver's side in that one section is actually the worst on the vehicle. It's going to take a lot of sheet metal work in that one area, since that's where is was sitting lowest. The passenger side actually doesn't need much beyond the rear floor, and the frame all around until you get to that one point is itself pretty decent. We've been able to manipulate the car on jacks and blocks pretty easily without anything bending. Right now its rear is elevated to put most of the weight on the front tires and sitting on blocks. Sitting like that my doors still open and close without a hitch.

After that frame section dropped out, being 26 and restoring one of my dream cars, I went into quite a panic, but once i was able to get inside and really see what I had to work with I calmed down.

That being said, I know I have to be fully prepared to eat those words, since I've been working on cars long enough to know I can miss things, and rust never sleeps. My sheet metal skills are good, but I can't work a miracle if it needs one.

[Frankenstein57]

I've seen lot's worse, Mark

[1pieceatatime]

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mark if its your dream car and its what you can afford then go for it! sometimes its just more feasible to pay alot more for something in small lumps over the course of several years than it is to just buy something perfect all at once. there will be skeptics along the way, dont let them get under your skin unless they have something constructive to contribute!! good luck with it

[rick55]

The fact the car still holds together with that section of he chassis missing is testament to how good the X frame is. If you lift the body off the frame on both your cars you will see that it is not that hard to graft the X frame to the sedan frame. Lots have done it before. These days with a little time and practice and a MIG welder you will find that it is not that hard to do. You could always just pick up one of the frames you have seen at swap meets.
Either way you will be pleasantly surprized how good it will look if you take your time, do it once, do it right.
Regards

[59Sky]

Been busy the past few weeks, but I am indeed going to do an X-brace transplant.

And yeah, I'm pretty anal retentive about my work. Kinda have to be being a dealership mechanic. Doesn't matter if it's a 2007 Subaru STI or my dad's '68 Camaro. If I'm going to do a job, I'm going to do it right the first time, schedule be damned. Do it once right or spend the rest of the time you have with that car fighting annoyances instead of driving.

And when I posted that I hadn't found alot of info on X-brace transplants, but speaking to few Tulsa T-Bird club members who have retractables it's apparently a pretty common practice.

And Mark, thank you for being the voice of caution! The biggest thing being a young guy is trying to make sure my reach doesn't exceed my grasp, so to speak. I appreciate all input. Now that I've spent some time with the car I really feel I've got a good one to work with for what I want to do, but I recognized even at the time it was pretty boneheaded to buy a car pretty much sight-unseen. Just got lucky my enthusisasm didn't bite me. "Got lucky" being the main part of that statement. Could have ended up a full on disaster.

[Gene F]

I have a 57. I agree with Rick about the welding. The thicker metals are actualy easier to weld. The other gentleman's comment about first cost vs incramental costs are true, as well as the other gentleman that bought the California car. I guess I'm thinking the one thing you haven't said anything about, that is getting to be a bigger deal for me is time. If I can't do it right I don't wanna mess with it, and I can see where you are going to have about three years of every minute you can spare invested in this car. Can you spare that? If not, sell it, part it for use on another car, or just plain part it out.

In the end it's your decision, and I wish you luck.

[59Sky]

As far as time goes, I've been trying to set modest goals. The plan is to have the chassis done by the end of the year. I've done quite a few restorations on unibody cars over the years, and it's something my wife and her family have been doing for longer than I have. I work pretty fast, to the point that it's going to really come down to waiting for money to accrue to buy the next round of parts as I go along.

In any case I've been planning on at least 3 years to get to where I want to get. I don't get in hurries, and I don't get frustrated when I do a rebuild. I've just never been in a position to do a restoration for myself, always working for other folks, and I'm excited to finally put all the skills I've developed over the years to use on a car that at the end of the day, I actually get to keep.

And the whole point of this project wasn't just to get a retractable. I could just save up and get one if that were all I was after. It was to keep another piece of history from getting squashed into a cube, to haul something out of where it'd been sitting for decades, and get the road back under its tires. I've done more to save less valuable cars in worse shape for folks that at their age are less and less able to work on the cars they love.