Patch panels '60-'62

[John Hertog <crossram@xxxx>]

Hi Mike and all,

My bodyman, Walt, has indeed made such patch panels as you describe. We've
done them for 300F and 300G and 300K. Basically, Walt's a very talented
fella and can hand-make these, beating them out of sheetmetal, and
hand-forming them using a brake, wheel, and other tools.

Basically, in the case of a typical rusted Chrysler, the outer section of
the rear quarter panel ( under rear quarter window) is completely removed,
as high as the rust goes. Then, the area of the rocker UNDER this section
gets repaired as required. Please view :
http://www.crossrams.com/van300f/thirteen.html to observe this process.

You'll see that first the inner metal and then the outer skin were replaced.
That leaves the corners to deal with .

http://www.crossrams.com/van300f/0124cornerdone.JPG shows the handmade
corner piece welded in to the repaired area. What is does NOT show is the
inner piece, that had to be refabbed the same way.

Working on a 300K, the following picture shows the two handmade panels that
comprise the INNER rusted out section of the wheelwell:
http://www.crossrams.com/laiserin/four/cwdata/MVC-008S.html
and the inner area, repaired, looks like this:
http://www.crossrams.com/laiserin/four/cwdata/MVC-011S.html

Then an outer patch corner is handmade and welded in on top of the previous
areas:
http://www.crossrams.com/laiserin/five/cwdata/MVC-028S.html

1960 Chryslers use the same outer section as '61 and '62 but the inner
sections are different, also different from hardtop to convert. Also
different for 63-64 .

Now, the problem is that every rusted car is different, and every project is
different. Yes, Walt would consider making a few sets of whatever panels are
needed for various years and models, but they would be handmade, would
require some "adjusting" and wouldn't be cheap, considering it takes about 2
to 3 hours to make one lousy corner piece ! Of course, if we were to make
4-5 sets of the same piece, the time factor would be less.

The best and cheapest solution is still to find what you need in a salvage
yard - probably Arizona, etc.

Knowing in advance that EACH patch panel would cost AT LEAST $125.00 each
again, handmade, one at a time) , if anyone has any interest in such
panels, feel free to e-mail me privately. If there's enough demand ( 4-5
sets for a given model-year) we'll look into it further. We could also
hand-make rocker and rear quarter patch panels, but I doubt that the demand
will be there?

Of course, the problem is that the demand is NOT there, as far as getting
either Ma Mopar, or other private sources, to make molds and dies and
refabricate these panels either..

As far as fenders... I would suggest that you locate good rust-free fenders
rather than patch existing ones..

Sincerely,

John
Crossram Motors