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Regular
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Location: Massachusetts | Hi all,
I am about to go look at a '58 Plymouth Plaza four door sedan for sale, and don't know much about them. Doing some research, I found this site. So, I gather that this generation of Mopars are notorious rusters. The car looks clean in the photos, but you know how that can be...
What are the "typical areas" that I should be extra vigilant to check for? So far from poking around here the front fenders around where the headlights are seems to be one of the places. Where else besides the obvious, like rockers, floorboards, and wheel wells etc? Are there some places to check that aren't immediately obvious?
Poking around here, I actually get scared of even buying this. It sounds like these things will rust up if you just leave them out in the rain overnight? If I get it, I don't plan on driving it in the winter salt, but I don't want to be afraid to get caught in a summer thunderstorm or whatever...
Thanks for any and all help!
Paul.
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Expert
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Location: Sept. 1958 | Hi Paul. Typically, about the lower 6 inches of the body shell and the fenders under the headlamps. Your correct, these cars had many areas of rust out to look out for.
Good luck, hopefully the car you look at is a solid example. I'm currently restoring a 58 Plymouth convertible that was an Ohio raised rot bucket to start with. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 594
Location: Melbourne, Australia | Don't forget the trunk floor ! Hope the car checks out ok for you ! Colin |
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Expert
Posts: 1737
Location: Hay Lakes, Alberta, Canada | Paul, where are you located?
Where you live can determine where certain areas will rust, and others won't. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7807
Location: Williams California | Floors and headlight brows are usually the first things to rust.
---John |
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Expert
Posts: 4042
Location: Connecticut | If the car's been repainted, bring a magnet and check for bondo. Also look and feel around inside the rear wheel wells for bondo/fiberglass work. Ron |
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Regular
Posts: 52
Location: Massachusetts | Thanks guys,
I'm going to look at the car tomorrow.
As a follow up, it seems like I see a lot of pictures of rust around the corners of the back window on these cars. Why is that? |
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Expert
Posts: 2996
Location: Sept. 1958 | Yeah, that's other common area. Ok, the window trim covers a trough and water collects there and rust will grow in there. Actually look out in those areas for both front and rear. The trim clips should be sealed where they go through the body, they weren't always sealed properly and water will run down into the interior or trunk. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | Thats not just a "these cars" problem, most cars with sloped rear windows get this rust (at least ones that use a rubber seal (gasket)
This is because of the trough made for the rubber to sit in so the window is slightly recessed having no drainage and as the rubber shrinks, it fills with water that sits for ages and it rusts
The C pillar rust could be attributed to the jute ised to soften the bottom of the roof lining (sound deadening) holding moisture
Rust is a natural part of having an old car, its fun trying to work out how to stop it coming back or getting worse
I think in the effort to get a car styled, practical things such as construction techniques that would discourage rust get thrown by the wayside
If they didnt, all cars would look the same (bit like today really)
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Expert
Posts: 2634
Location: Minor Hill, TN | Were is the car located? if its in Arizona or New Mexico then there will be no rust on the car |
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Regular
Posts: 52
Location: Massachusetts | Well, I pulled the trigger and bought it. I haven't gotten it home yet, maybe next week sometime.
It's a 1958 Plymouth Plaza four door sedan.
V8 with three speed manual.
Heat and radio, no power accessories.
Very little trim, kind of a stripper?
It's supposed to be a good drivable car. I could only drive it in the driveway when I looked at it. I guess I'll find out when I drive it home 100 miles...
A very solid rust free car with only around 55,000 on the odometer. Originally from Colorado, it spent an undetermined amount of time in a NY collection before landing here in Massachusetts. Someone posted this car on FWDLK back in 2013 when it was listed on Craigslist back then...
Here are a few pictures:
 (58 plymouth No. 2.jpg)
 (58 plymouth.jpg)
Attachments
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 58 plymouth No. 2.jpg (44KB - 85 downloads)
58 plymouth.jpg (48KB - 92 downloads)
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Veteran
Posts: 119
| Back in the Day, 55,000 miles was end-of-life. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5006
| fender uppers around the headlight, these cars don't have fender liners so the dirt and water sticks up inside the back of the headlight and rusts it out from the inside.
Reach up in there and clean it out, put some paint up in there or something to protect it. |
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Expert
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Location: Connecticut | Did you run a magnet over the 'typical rusted areas' to check for bondo ? Also, is the car blue or is the color just messed up in the photo ? Where in MA did you find it ? Ron |
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Regular
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Location: Massachusetts | ronbo97 - 2015-03-17 1:24 PM
Did you run a magnet over the 'typical rusted areas' to check for bondo ? Also, is the car blue or is the color just messed up in the photo ? Where in MA did you find it ? Ron
No, I didn't bother with the magnet. The car is very rust free, as far as I could tell. I had it up on ramps and checked underneath. Most of the paint is original on the car. [EDIT to add: Actually, I don't know if it's original. But a lot of the paint looks old, anyways. It hasn't been freshly repainted.] You can kind of see in the photos I posted where the front fenders have been painted, and the paint is kind of blended halfway across both front doors. The driver's side fender has a little cancer up by the headlights, not too bad. I'll post a few more pictures. These are all pictures provided by the seller. Yes, the car is a faded powder blue.
It was listed on Craigslist in Danvers, out north of Boston, but the car was actually garaged over the line a bit in New Hampshire.
Say, does anyone know if these fit on the U-Haul car trailers? I might start another thread and ask that...
Edited by Chumley 2015-03-17 4:53 PM
 (58 plymouth rust spot.jpg)
 (58 plymouth interior.jpg)
 (58 plymouth interior two.jpg)
 (58 plymouth engine bay.jpg)
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58 plymouth rust spot.jpg (26KB - 90 downloads)
58 plymouth interior.jpg (37KB - 86 downloads)
58 plymouth interior two.jpg (45KB - 85 downloads)
58 plymouth engine bay.jpg (53KB - 88 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 3155
Location: NY & VT | Good find! I remember seeing this car for sale a year or 2 ago... even though CO cars tend to be very solid, expect to find top of front fender repair/bondo, they started rusting there within months of being new.
Edited by firedome 2015-03-18 9:14 AM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | A simple metal baffle panel, behind the headlight area, would have saved the 'lives' of many FWDLK'ers.
Instead, the designers gave us oxidation time-bombs, with water/salt/crud being able to fly-up onto the
top of the 'shelf'.... which is the inside of eyebrow areas.... and to percolate there until it's Swiss Cheese Time.
Kinda like the genius-es engineers/designers who produced the lower-body sheet metal's nooks and cavities
which so successfully retained water and other liquified detritus....but which did not have sufficient means
to expel the crap which had entered into and onto the car.
Edited by d500neil 2015-03-18 9:03 PM
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"Typical Rust Areas" defined ?
