1968 Lincoln Limo

Not a stretch. It's a splice of two cars. Note the VIN tags on both front doors.

9-1-2007 It begins.

I was on-line one day and my wife passed my computer and saw the first two pictures. She said, "Buy it". I don't question things like that, so I did. I asked her later, "Why?" She said that she figures that by the time I'm done restoring it I'll be old enough that I won't see so good at night and it only makes sense for us to be driven safely to our destination. Whatever, it works for me.

I had a huge decision to make. While the car drove great I was really concerned with the splice. The splice in the floorboards is almost imperceptible. I really had to look for it. I found no surprises. A little bit of surface rust on the floorboards but I haven't found any rust anywhere yet. There was no visible cracking or warping of the floorboards along any of the welds.

I have deemed it restorable. The first thing I did was remove the vinyl to to inspect the roof splice. I found a ton of surface rust under the area above the windshield as the vinyl had split years ago. There was a thick (1/4") layer of bondo across the whole splice.

Removing the seats on either side of the partition revealed the window mechanism.

A little lubrication and removal of two layers of carpet, it was moving freely.

Peeling back the carpet revealed a little surface rust but no structural damage.

My next step may seem silly to some but I needed to get everything working before I tore everything apart. None of the windows worked when I started. All of the windows now work independently but I can only control the driver's side rear from the driver's door controls.

Getting it running was the next step. I put a new battery in and tried to start it. I notice that it bogged down and started smoking in the area of the solenoid. The connections were corroded and loose. Cleaned everything up, tried it again and it started right up and purred loudly. I noticed the battery cable leading to the starter was badly charred and had no insulation on it. It passed very near the exhaust pipe.

I'll finish gutting the interior and move it into the shop for further evaluation. I'll leave all the interior parts in the storage building so I'n not tripping over them.

9-9-2007 Rust hunting

I pulled the smelly, nasty carpet out of the trunk revealing that while the trunk had been wet at some time, there was very little rust. Just some surface flaking.

When I pulled back the last bit of carpet I found green paint. I also found it on the roof. The thing that's strange is that both VIN tags reveal that the cars were both maroon. I wonder if this is some type of primer.

In my search for rust I looked in a likely spot, the lowest part of the inside of the door. I found a bit of dirt and a tiny amount of surface rust. I'm amazed.

I knew I would hit pay dirt here. The rear dog-legs rot out on all slab-sides. The drain holes easily plug or were covered with rustproofing. Ironic.

To ease access The doors had to go. I gutted the doors while on the car and boxed all the components in marked boxes. Got smart this time.

Moved the limo, under it's own power, into the shop. It looks so small after having the trailer in there for so long.

Backed the trailer into the building next door in preparation of pushing the 36' trailer sideways into a 38' space. The only way to do that is to use heavy duty wheel skates.

Neatly tucked away for the winter.

One of the first things I did was remove the trunk lid. I got tired of bumping my head on the edge. The rear bumper came off with three wires and 8 bolts. It looks as thought its never had any rear damage.

The vinyl top created lots of water traps and caused a bit of damage at the lead edge of the roof and at the bottom of the rear window. It's ugly, but it's repairable.

The side trim was fasten through through these holes that were subjected to constant moisture. The metal in this area will be replaced. The car will not have a vinyl top so this trim will not be necessary.

Using a cutting wheel on an electric die grinder I cut away the rotted metal and ground all spot weld remnants smooth.

I had my fab shop bend an exact 3-foot duplicate of the rotted edge. The metal thickness matches the original.

Using my avation metal working tools I fashioned a backer plate for the splice.

I used an old trick a shop teacher showed me years ago. When brazing sheet metal layers together the top hole should be about twice the size as the inner hole. In this case the hole in the backer is 1/8", the proper size for the Cleco temporary fasteners. The outer hole is 1/4". When brazing the tip of the flame goes through the small hole and heats up both layers of metal. A dab of brazing rod and the joint and holes are sealed. This even works on metal that you can't clean the back-side of. The braze fuses to the walls of the holes you drill in the sheet metal and provides a strong bond.

I started stripping the paint off of the car to investigate other problem areas. This isn't as bad as it looks.

The rear quarter sheet metal is near perfect.

This is the extent of the rear quarter rust.

This car has had three paint jobs. The paint seem to get progressively thicker as the coats were added. I started stripping on the rear quarter and found some pretty attractive sheet metal underneath. The rear quarter had no physical damage and only a little bit of rust in the common areas. Once the original details were revealed I got a real impression of what the finished product would look like. The quality of the stampings and the sheer number of spot welds is amazing.

11-17-2007 Started stripping the doors. I've decided to reassemble the car as I strip it. As I work my way around the car I'll reassemble the sheet metal assemblies so that it ends up like the completed body came down the paint line. A light medial blast and it'll be ready for etching primer. That will protect the rest of the car while I'm making rust repairs.

I used a paint stripper on the rear quarter and it worked well. There was very little body filler so it was smooth and clean.

The rear passenger door had a layer of maroon paint. I sprayed a paint remover over its surface.

10 minutes later the surface bubbled up and was easily removed by a putty knife.

The second layer was a thick red primer That was pretty tough. It took two applications.

Another application of remover and the primer came off, revealing the white paint job. That paint was tough to cut, too.

Underneath almost the whole door was a thick layer of body filler. Paint remover doesn't work but heat does. I used a commercial heat gun and softened the filler and scraped it off. Some of it was 1/4" thick.

One last application of paint remover and the original green paint came right off.

Whoever made these repairs never massaged the metal, just slathered filler over relatively minor damage. About an hour with my body hammer should return the shape close enough to original that it will need very little filler.

11-21-2007 More stripping.

I spent about an hour with my body hammer and dolly and straighten out the dents in the rear door. Now they'll just require a thin layer of body filler over the damaged areas.

Unfortunately, the center door had a shabby home-made door skin that didn't allow for good body filler adhesion. It cracked and created this rust mess. I'm looking for two new doors or NOS door skins. I know, good luck.

Stripping the trunk lid was no small task. This pile of paint scrapings was just the top layer of paint. It had so much paint on it that the body lines were blurred.

I don't know if you can see the blur in this picture, but you sure can, in person. I'm still amazed at the quality of the original stampings. The pieces are almost sculptural.

The lower edge of the trunk lid is a very likely rust problem. There is no sign of rust on this trunk lid. Another super clean part.

11-24-2007 No need for door skins. I figured out why both center doors have been re-skinned.

If you look at the passenger side middle door you can see that it's top is flat. This door had to be altered to be this way because as a front door on the rear part of the splice it no longer rose to meet the windshield.

I have a friend that has offered to teach me lead work. This door might be the perfect teaching tool.

I found a sprayable paint stripper at Home Depot that works the best of any I've used.

The whole rear end of the car is stripped of paint. Aside from the door ding on the passenger rear door I've found no sheet metal damage and about the same amount of rust on both sides.

The vast majority of rust under the vinyl top was surface rust. I ground the rust spots to slightly below the original surface. The big holes will be brazed shut and all the rust spots will be covered in POR-15. The excess paint will be sanded away and the area covered with a thin layer of body filler.

11-25-2007 Might as well go all the way.

If anyone is going to rebuild one of these there is a simple production mistake that can be corrected. Wherever there was a seam sealant was used over bare metal it failed. Wherever it was applied over paint there was no failure. I believe that the edge of the sealant cracked the paint allowing, oxygen and moisture to cause rust under the caulk. I would advise priming at least before caulking.

11-26-2007 Dogleg repair. I don't believe there was ever a slabside Lincoln that didn't need this repair. I got off very lucky.

I started cutting away metal where I knew I had a problem. I was not surprised to see what I found. This is simply an accumulation of rust flakes and dirt. The leaks from the trim holes above kept this area damp at all times as the rust flakes acted as a sponge.

Scraped away as much as I could and determined that the damaged area was larger, but not bad. The metal on both sides was still substantial.

I fabricated a patch panel that fits in behind the metal edges. I believe I'm going to make all of my repairs and bring in a welder who did some great welding on the trailer. I'm pretty good with heavier gauge metal. Sheet metal is pretty touchy.

12-3-2007 Passenger front door. Just a light dent in the lower right and a couple of small dimples. Otherwise perfect.

Bad planning. This is the front door post area. This valley has no drainage. It has collected moisture for a very long time resulting in a rust-through. For those of you with this vintage car it might be worth removing the lower decorative shield to see what's going on. Not sure what to do about this.

Concerned that there was damage to the front fender in this area I stripped off the paint. I was very pleased to find a nearly flawless front fender. They shouldhave made this car in stainless.

12-7-2007 There was 8 pounds of paint on the hood. I used 2 gallons of stripper and wore out a stainless brush. Took me 4 afternoons to complete. No rust.

There was something different about the paint on the hood of this car. It was like iron. For some reason the hood had a dark gray primer while the rest of the car has red oxide. While the paint on the rest of the car literally falls off when the stripper is applied the paint on the hood appeared to be baked on. It probably was.

12-9-2007 Driver's side front fender.

Found the entire fender covered in body filler. Rather than bring the metal back to it's original position they laid up a 1/4" layer of bondo. I certainly expected to find some major damaged underneath.

Not so. Looks like there was a minor fender bender that was poorly bumped out. A couple of hours with dolly and hammer and this fender will be ready for a thin skim coat of filler. No rust.

12-13-2007 POR-15

Earlier, I reported that his car might have been virtually rust free had it not been for the sealant they used on most of the seams. They used two kinds. One was more of a filler and was porous, absorbing moisture but keeping it from passing through the seams. The other sealant was some type of silicone or rubber that was applied to raw steel.

This elastic sealant failed everywhere, causing water to be trapped underneath it.

I am going to remove all traces of remaining sealant and replace it with POR-15 (Paint Over Rust), specially formulated to neutralize rust and seal off future rust by eliminating oxygen from getting to the metal.

The POR-15 instructions call for degreasing of the metal surface. The degreaser should be mixed in a maximum 1:1 with hot water and weaker solutions up to 5:1. All of the areas to receive paint were treated with the degreaser, wiped off and allowed to dry.

Step 2 is to apply a rust neutralizer. The instructions say to keep the areas wet with the neutralizer for 15 minutes before allowing solution to air dry.

Step 3 is to apply the paint. I chose the silver paint because it has much more solids than their black paint allowing it to be used as a filler for small gaps and holes.

This step marks the beginning of refinishing the car as I've now stripped paint off of most areas.

In the instructions for the POR-15 it recommends that you paint both sides of any rusted metal. As a precaution I've painted the lowest level of the inside of the doors. There is an existing sealant that I couldn't remove in this area so I painted over it, giving water a clear pathway to the ample drain holes.

12-16-2007 Drain holes.

If you look at the angle of the bottom of the door you can see a downward slope towards the outer edge of the door.

Water seeks the lowest point which you can see with a straight edge in place. The only way these doors would rust is if the drain holes get plugged. It would probably take an hour a door to disassemble the arm rest and door panel but it would be worth vacuuming out any built up crud. new felts and rubber at the window should ward off future crud build-up.

Went back to work on repairing some rust damage.

Using the material I had bent I fit the pieces using the cut-out and paper templates. The side piece is straight but the original bottom piece has a slight curve to it. I'll duplicate that curve in lead or body filler.

The tail light area was covered in a different type of body sealer. It was very rigid and stuck to the raw steel very well. I removed it anyway in favor of a coat of POR-15. I'm starting to sound like a commercial.

Painted all areas except the body surface. The paint filled some small pinholes but not all the damage. The rust is encapsulated. The small holes will be sealed with body filler and another coat of paint.

12-19-2007 Brazing rear window opening.

This area was the very worst rust damage. I took a die grinder to all of the holes and opened them up until there was substantial metal at the edge. I installed a backer that also covered the worst of the rust holes. I also ground to fresh metal where all of the original spot welds so that the brazing would have a solid base.

Using a very small flame I spot brazed the backer in place. The slot allows for the vertical piece to fit. The backers were temporarily screwed in place. Those holes were welded shut.

Spot welding the patch panel in place keeps the sheet metal from warping. I found that the spot weld areas needed a hole in the underlaying metal so that both layers heated properly.

Brazing finished, ready for grinding and a top coat of POR-15.

I decided to strip all of the paint, even from the area behind the bumper. What's another hour or two? I found that the main bumper support was a substantial piece of galvanized steel.

All areas that are rust prone will get a coat or two of POR-15

You'll note that I installed the new pieces slightly below that of the original so that there will be minimal filling necessary.

A little bumpy but body filler will smooth this area nicely. Next step is to assemble the window trim and determine the proper curve to the body filler.

12-25-2007

Paint nor bondo stick easily to POR-15 but their super-bondo does. After painting the highly distressed area and letting it dry I applied a layer of their body filler over the whole area and sanded away all the high spots leaving the filler and encapsulated rust covered by paint and their bondo that's 5 times as hard as standard body filler. It's reinforced with glass fibers.

I fitted the window trim to act as a guide to the application of a coat of body filler. You cab see the gap I need to fill to match the original opening.

The patched area got a base coat of bondo, Thin layers of build-up are better than gobbing on filler.

After getting the patched areas to line up with the window trim I shot a layer of primer over the bondo to protect the freshly sanded metal. This layer of paint, when block sanded, will reveal further necessary work.

After block sanding the sides I applied a thin layer of bondo over the rest of the lower panel.

I was careful to keep the layer thin so that the curvature would be maintained. After it hardened I started hand sanding but all of my sponges or sanding blocks only made contact at their outer edges.

I resolved that problem by making my own sanding drum. I used 3M adhesive on the tube and back of the paper. It took a couple of attempts to get proper positioning but it produced a very effective sanding tool. I sanded lengthwise while moving the sanding tube in a cross-hatch pattern

A coat of primer to protect what I'd completed.

After it dried it looked flat and straight. I went on to the next task. The rust at the top of the window fooled me. I thought it was just surface rust but it was some serious damage. Apparently there had been a sealant installed but none of it got behind the trim clips. Each clip became a water trap and this is the result.

I used a die grinder with wire brush and holes started to appear. A burr revealed the extent of the damage.

The super-bondo instructions said that it required a backer but there was no way to install one in this location. A different approach was required. I decided to fill the cavity behind the damage with expanding foam. It will cut off all oxygen to the back side of the metal and it will act as a backer for the filler. I'll be making a small recess behind the metal edge so the filler will encapsulate the rust.

Next up is to clean the inside lip of the trunk lid and give it a coat of paint. I'll then reinstall it and fill the antenna holes. Then the sail panel repairs. I've got an idea what I want to do there.

12-27-2007

Wire brushed off as much of the rust as I could get off, degreased and painted the areas of the trunk that are exposed to moisture. Unpainted areas are inside the trunk and will just get primer and paint.

After two hours of tedious die grinding I sanded about four square feet of the roof
to remove any burrs. I found that the rust spots had a slight rise to them that wouldn't go away with sanding. The iron oxide was harder than the sandpaper grit but not the carbide burr.

I meticulously ground away as many rust spots as I could see. These left depressions that often still had a slight rust deposit at the bottom of the pit. After grinding I used the POR-15 neutralizer and rinsed with water as instructed. I towel dried the surface, allowed it to dry totally and painted on a thick coat of POR-15 over the entire area.

I sanded away the entire coat leaving each divot filled with POR-15 sealing the rust off for eternity, or so they say.

The product on the left is the fiberglass reinforced filler designed specifically to fill large holes. I used that to fill the rust holes in the window frame. This stuff sets up very fast (5 minutes) and is hard as nails. There's a 10 minute work window for final shaving or shaping, but that's about it.

The product on the right is their super fine body filler. It spreads like the consistency of butter.

This is the hole filler, shaped on the left and unworked on the right.

I used the fine filler on all of the divots and sanded it away leaving the roof extremely smooth.

I top coated the sanded metal with red oxide primer which will probably be sanded off by the painter. I started to reinstall the trunk lid to check the fit and to weld up the antenna hole in the trunk lid. I may leave it and install another type of antenna there.

Before and after left side.

Before and after, right side

12-31-2007

This is what I started with. The padded vinyl top had split and water sought the lowest level and was trapped by the rear moldings. the problem was compounded by caulking the bottom of the trim.

About twi hours of die grinder and I had removed all traces of rust on the surface. There was still some rust at the bottom of the deep pits. I ground away all the thin metal, requiring some extensive patches.

I gave the area a heavy coat of POR-15 and let it cure overnight.

I made some backers out of stainless steel and secured them with screws. I intentionally left a 1/4" gap in-between the backer and the finished surface.

I mixed a batch of the fiberglass reinforced filler and pushed it into the intentional gap and tightened the screws, compressing the filler behind the patch.

After the filler set up I removed the screws and filled the holes.

I used the fine paste to fill the divots left after sanding off the top coat of POR-15. I topped that with bondo as necessary and sanded the area smooth.

Before and after

1-9-2008 More reassembly

I've decided to reassemble and prime the rear of he car while I ponder whether to make new center doors or try to make these work.

My friend Dan lives a mile from my shop and has graciously allowed me to use his sandblasting booth to clean all my hinges.

I used the paint stripper first and then blasted off the remains. I'm now convinced that the white layer of paint was Imron or some other super hard paint. The sandblaster hardly touched it.

I sealed all the seams with POR-15 and primed the inner door.

Installed the door and adjusted it in the opening. Most of the doors show evidence of "final fit" sledgehammer marks on the bottom of the doors. Now that the door is aligned I can finish the bodywork on this side of the car.

1-17-2008

Slight distraction. My friend Scott is having the engine from his Lincoln rebuilt. He is refinishing all the bolt-ons and needed to degrease them. Another friend, Doug, gave me a cabinet parts washer about a year ago. I offered it and Scott came by to check it out. I always thought it was filled with cleaning fluid. Not, it was full of rusty nasty water and the motor only hummed when I flipped the switch.

I found everything clogged with some nasty stuff that had petrified eons ago. Scott took the cabinet without the pump, just as a place to contain the mess of degreasing. After several hours of sandblasting and degreasing I have all the components ready to be painted and reassembled.

I recently acquired some new friends and some willing helpers. My friend Shawn works for Ford but has a Packard. We met at a concours I'm on the board of and we hit it off right away. His son James is 16 and has a passion for cars. He really liked my trailer and asked a bunch of questions. I really enjoyed the conversation.

I told Shawn about my Mark II and that discussion led to the Lincoln club I belong to. He asked if there was anything he could do for the club. He was aware of all the auto sponsorship of the concours events drying up in recent years and asked, outside of cash donations, what he could do.

Shawn contacted me about a week later and offered to make arrangements to grant members of our club the Ford X-plan. We are the first automotive club to be offered this discount. Actual employees get slightly better pricing but the deal is hard to beat.

He also made an amazing offer to help me work on the limo. Apparently he has no current projects and wanted simply to keep his and James hand in it. I am grateful for the help and the friendship.

Now that they helped me take the massive front bumper off I was able to strip the paint off of the rest of the car. I had just read an article about using a plastic bag over stripper to keep it moist. It didn't seem to make a difference.

Oh, oh! another wad of body filler. Funny though, it was hardly necessary. They filled two holes from the original Star location and installed one on the hood. they installed nuts and bolts in the holes, ground down most of the screw head and bondo'd over the whole thing.

Looks good in gun metal gray.

The roof section they added had to go. It was wavy, wobbly and weak. Some places had 1/4 of bondo and others had none.

Major hack work. Will have to be redone

Ground out all the spot welds and exposed more hackery.

Actually, this gives me an opportunity to improve this car by installing a large moon roof where the splice is. The new roof section will be thicker and stronger as will the new side rails.

1-20-2008

I moved to the front of the car and removed the lower windshield trim and air intake panel. I found that this car had been parked under a pine tree for a long time.

I used a fine piece of welding wire to cut the butyl strip and popped it out. This made it very simple to remove the dash pad. Found some interesting things in the defroster vents. Mostly pens and bottle openers.

I removed as much of the adhesive as I could scrape away and then hit the metal with a wire wheel. I immediately found out that there was very little metal left at the lead edge of the roof. Water stayed trapped under the split vinyl top and ate it away. It was much worse on the driver's side.

A die grinder with a 1/16' blade too the rotted top off in no time. Since the outer skin of the car, while fully welded, adds little to the structure of the car. I almost expected to see gaps open as I cut along the edge of the roof. None appeared. The outer skin was not in tension at all.

The back side looks better than the top, but not much. The metal is paper thin.

When I find my donor '68 or '69 it will be a simple matter of cutting the top off, removing all the metal that's welded to the outer skin and re-spot-welding the replacement in place.

1-25-2008 "Peeling it like an onion"

Someone once posted that a slab-side Lincoln could be "peeled like an onion", removing successive layers of sheet metal to get to hidden rust within.

After actually attempting that on a small scale the contention has proven to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. There are so many spot welds, some as close as 1/2" apart that there is literally nothing left of the metal to salvage.

Now, if that writer had made the contention that the sheet metal could be separated in successive layers if new panels were to be installed, I would agree with that, but to say that the car could be put back together using the same sheet metal is simply the fantasy of the writer.

It's a good thing that they used so many spot welds because about 10% were not effective.

You can see the sub structure of the roof that makes the actual roof panel simply icing on the cake. The bits and pieces of metal on the wood panel are all that's left of three feet of roof edge. There was barely 1/4" in between the 1/2" long spot welds. Certainly not enough to reattach the roof with any integrity. I certainly question the credibility of the writer that made the claim.

The topic of dipping these cars in a primer bath came up recently and that thread answered a question I had about this car. At the upper right and upper left of the windshield opening there were small phillips-head screws in holes. These screws were covered over with the hard sealant used in various places on the car. They didn't screw two pieces of metal together, as one would have thought. The screws simply filled the holes.

Turns out, that's exactly what the holes were for. They simply filled holes that were left open during the body dipping process. These holes were to vent the huge air bubble that would have formed under the roof panel. Even with the vent hole a large bubble kept the underside of the roof panel from being primed.

1-27-2008 Mystery fluff

Very strange. I pulled down the headliner backer to find a pile of what appears to be charred insulation.

Splitting it open it appeared to be charred only on the top.

Looking up at the underside of the roof it is evident that there was some kind of flames or smoldering that came from the charred insulation. If you look all around the char you'll see remnants of the insulation that ended up in a small pile.

The pile appears to be the work of a rodent but there were no droppings and no sign of urine stains typical of this type of discovery. Two things baffle me. One is the pile itself and the other is the apparent near-fire that took place.

This limo was last used as a commercial taxi in Las Vegas. It had a full padded vinyl top that was intact over this area. I originally thought that heat from the Vegas sun cause spontaneous combustion but there was dry plywood used as supports and the backer was flammable inexpensive paneling and they showed no signs of heat.

I thought that there was a possibility that this could have been a biological reaction like mold. Decay has been known to cause a bit of heat, but spontaneous combustion

What could have cause this?

1-29-2008

Installed front door shell in middle door position. Can not figure out why the original fabricator replaced the door skin.

Still looking for a parts car. No urgency, still have lots to do without it.

Ground out the rusted metal from the door frame and found fairly clean metal underneath. When this area rusted through water seeped into the lower levels of the body and wept out the existing drain holes.

Fabricated some patch panels. Will braze in place tonight.

1-30-2008

Instead of brazing the patches were welded using wire from my MIG and the gas torch.

Now here's an oddity for you.

When I'm grinding metal on the car I get a straight line on the roof in metal shavings. The shavings line up perfectly with the brazed joint in the roof and sail panel joint. The metal panels are steel but the joint is brass.

Brass is non-ferrous so it can't be magnetic. How could there be a magnetic field between two pieces of steel if they're physically connected at the rear window opening?

1-4-2008 Final repairs to rotted out door frame.

The barrier that trapped the water in the lower area was rotted away and needed to be replaced.

It was handy that I had another door frame 4 feet away. I covered the piece with duct tape and marked out a pattern.

I transferred the pattern to a piece of scrap sheet metal and rough shaped it with the bandsaw.

I ground the piece to fit the opening.

Dropped it into the damaged door frame,making sure the drainage hole stayed open.

Torch welded the new piece in place.

Coated the area with POR-15 allowing it to flow out of the drain hole, permanently sealing the area.

3-12-2008 Back to work after much needed vacation.

I removed the grill that covers the air intake in front of the windshield. I found bags of pine needles and other debris. It had apparently been turned into a rodent condo at one time.

I observed that there were three cuts in the sheet metal on the cowling. Apparently someone felt it necessary to cut this metal and bend it out of the way to access the hydraulic motor for the wipers. I don't understand this as I was able to get it out easily.

After removing all the paint in the area I had Shawn do some more welding for me.

I'll treat the inside of this area to a coating of black POR-15.

After drilling a drainage hole for the area behind this patch Shawn tack welded the patch and proceeded to complete the welding on the dogleg and the rear quarter.

Let the leading begin! It's much simpler than I thought. I've used lead in art glass projects and the processes are the same.

Lead will only stick properly to clean metal. After using a flux on the area to be "tinned" the sheet metal and lead stick is heated to a point where lead will adhere to the surface of the steel. A quick wipe with a rag will reveal any spots that didn't tin. These areas must be redone.

Shawn brought a number of wood leading tools with him. I was surprised when he asked if I had any used motor oil. We wanted to use it to bathe the tool surface in to keep it from burning.

Using the tool and the torch I was able to melt enough lead to cover the repaired area. It looked pretty ugly when I was done and I was concerned that the dirty oil had embedded itself in the softened lead I had pushed in place.

I went at it with a body file and took it down to the proper height. It was a lot of work but very satisfying to see the repair take shape.

Before:

After:

I believe that this will be the final design. It solves a number of problems by getting rid of the center door. There is a lot of stress at the attachment point of the front "B" pillar and the roof. This is due to the lack of a rigid structure below. By welding the center door frame in place and covering it with a continuous piece of sheet metal the center of the car will be much stronger.

It will also allow me to use the space for entertainment and luxury items befitting a proper limousine.