1956 Dodge Royal Lancer 2 Door Hardtop

Notice the installed door.  It is tacked welded into place to provide rigidity and proper fit of the body as the floorboard comes out.

Click on the image above for a short video dropping the body onto the restored floor.

inner structure of the body begins repair to be ready for the restored floorboard.

The floorboard and rockers are removed from the toeboard to the rear seat riser.  We will continue back to the original weld seam of the leading edge of the trunk floor.

floor pan installed, rear section of seat platform fabricated and fit

trimming and fabricating repairs to the floorboard sections.

hand fabricated floor pan

The template details transfered to our metal blank.

Rusted out floorbrace removed and cleaned up for repair.

More trimming!

Practically down to only the metal we need.

The decision was made to continue with the restoration of the original body, and not to abandon all the hard work that was already made.

After rough cutting the floorboard out of the body, we started to trim down to the original seams that we will use to transplant the floorboard.

More trimming.

parts car disassembly.  This car is going to provide numerous parts such as chrome pieces that are much better than what was on the car we are restoring

Initially, we gave consideration to using the whole body, so we cleaned the undercoating off the bottom of the floor after mounting the body to the rotisserie.

the trunk lid after it's 1st block sanding.

the trunk lid in primer.

After some time, we were able to find a parts car not too far away;  Pueblo, CO

the new lower trunk skin tacked into place.

clean up and fitting of the trunk lid to the body after the welding of the skin..

We scored a solid floor for the Dodge on Ebay.  Here it is ready to be cleaned up and trimmed back to the original weld seams

Perfect fit;  no fighting with poor fitting reproduction panels.

The left lower quarter with the rusty skin removed revealing the trailing end of the rocker panel also rusted.

Rusted and creased door skin

Rusted door frame

Rust in the roofline.

Metal underneath cleaned and patch installed.

The lower quarter in front of the wheel on the left side rear.

New metal fabricated and installed.

Rolling the turned edge on the decklid skin repair.

Getting sandblasting touch up.

Rust in the bottom of the decklid skin.

Rusted panel removed. .

Another view of the rust through on the decklid.

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Rust in the framework of the decklid

Rust in the bottom of the fender.

Metal patch hand fabricated

Patch tacked into place.

Cracked exhaust manifold

Nickel Welded and Ground

Fender rust

Welds ground

Primer applied

Patch fabricated and installed into the rear stone guard.

Rust in the bottom of the door.

Metal repaired.

Patch installed.

Packed up and ready to go to the Media Blaster.

All cleaned up and ready for restoration

                                                     The car's becoming smaller, and the parts pile is getting larger!

Front end parts.

Found some pretty original paint under the trim and black paint that was on top!

Bottoms of the doors look pretty good so far!

Some rust in the fenders.

engine/trans removal

gutted interior

front seat

wiring exposed under the dash

a nice detail for us is that the sill plates are in nice condition.  These will clean up well and are not overly corroded, torn, and dented.

dash panel out of the car

door disassembly

evidence of an old filler repair

rust under the carpet and sill plate on the passenger side front floorboard

front view

engine

splotchy paint

Front seat

Trunk

Rear seat

Here's how the Dodge arrived to Windom. 

1300 Miles down from Hale, MI

Gonna need a windshield