Does anybody make the patch panel I need for a '55-'56 4 door?

Lamar Wadsworth

Lamar Wadsworth

Senior Member
This is the only major rust on a '55 Ford that my parents bought new. I fixed my lower front fenders where they meet the cowl with patch panels. Does anybody make a patch panel to fix the driver's side dogleg on a 4 door or is my only option to cut a solid section out of a donor car? Most of the parts cars I can find have more rust than the one I'm working on. I really don't want to do screen wire and bondo. My '55 is mostly very solid, perfect floors and trunk floor. I need the back 6" or so of the rocker panel and the dogleg over the rear wheel opening.
 
Lamar, I Googled 1955 Ford dogleg skin and got some results for panels you weld in the repair area. Is this what you're looking for.

Agree you won't be happy the screen and bondo because it will crack.
 
If it's a 4-dr, they used to make them in the '80's but no one has offered them since the early '90's at least.
For a 2-dr sedan or hardtop, they are still available from a couple of places. EMS is the most accurate production.
On my 4-dr sedan (avatar), the entire contoured area around the wheel-well behind the back door was completely rusted out in 2017. I took a 2-dr patch panel and cut out only the contoured area and built the rest with welded 18 gage sheet metal. Had to use a little fiberglass epoxy resin where my patch met the body inside the door. It was a huge project but it turned out fine.
This is theeee worst place to have a rust-out on a '55/56 without a perfect fit patch panel made for the application.
 
I'm thinking that I'm probably going to have to get a 2 door patch panel and do what Daves55Sedan did, unless I suddenly find a donor car that is solid in that area--and since I'm a long way from the desert southwest, it's unlikely that I'll find a donor car that's not rusted in the same place mine is. I consider myself lucky that I only have this problem on one side. Daves55Sedan describes the same issue on his car that I have on mine.
 
If ya wanna go with panels off a salvage yard car, try Hidden Valley Auto Parts in AZ. You live down in that neighborhood don't you? They have about a half dozen 55/56 4-dr sedan parts cars and there are pictures of most of them. Go to their website.
I got dibs on the trunk lid off the blue '55 Fairlane 4-dr sedan.
 
I'm in GA, a long way from Desert 1valley. Shipping cost for a section cut out of a donor car would probably be as much as the patch panel.
 
try vintage junk yards in Ga. I talked to a couple while looking for a transmission part for our '60 Ford. Google vintage auto parts in your area.
 
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