Laying out the ends for trimming..... Here's the piece we'll use to cut out the profile blocks, 3/4 thick steel As I am fresh out of good band saw blades, these were used.... The lower piece was tapered at the bottom as the bottom of the lift gate tapers in below the bead detail.. .....like so..... Not perfect, but should work just the same... Clamped in the vise..... Then some heat is applied, and hammered the high spots.. Fitted..... and the other end...... Hope to test fit everything tomorrow before all the parts get media blasted..
Ive been around for a while,worked on a car or two myself but I dont consider myself to be anywhere near in the same category of builder (or even a real builder for that matter)as MP&C. Ive seen and read about a lot of builds and I dont remember seeing many if any as involved as this one has been, I applaud you as well HRP on your wagon build as it was pretty intense judging from your pics but not as much so as this one, as I remember sections of the roof,etc...etc...etc....etc... being replaced on this 55. I was just curious as to what his drive was to build "this" car, I guess it makes a diffrence if you have the know how and your getting paid along the way to do it as well. I personally wouldnt build a car as rough as this one was "to this level of perfection" but then again I probably wouldnt build a nice solid car to the level of perfection that this one will be either.
There's some truth to the pigheadedness! Let someone say you can't do something, and it's even more reason! Things don't always work the way you planned. Before the ends were folded, the bottom piece could never be test fit into the opening. Now with the ends folded, it was slipped over the bottom of the lift gate and it bolted into the opening. With the upper bead detail aligned, the lower was considerably off kilter. Slightly off on the contour, I guess. The patch piece was marked off on both ends to bring the lower bead detail up into the car for better alignment... Here's the driver's side after cutting and welding, shows a much better alignment. Good weld penetration on the inside, the seam at the end will be finished after folding onto the lift gate.. We may be able to save this yet.
Caution, a couple of OT pictures ahead, proceed with caution Sorry for my short hiatus from the shop, after 226K miles my trusty 16 year old daily driver truck has been giving me fits with transmission issues. After spending about 3 weeks on and off looking for good used trucks, the year end deals and rebates made a brand new one only slightly higher in price than a three year old model. So..... Out with the old... In with the new.... And with the truck shopping headaches behind us, we can get back in the shop ... Worked on the other end of the lower patch today, to fix the mis-alignment of the beltline trim... Made a relief cut.... Rear view shows full weld penetration.... Welds were planished, then ground to just above panel surface, and next weld overlapped, and repeat. The overlapping helps to eliminate any missed welds/pin holes. All done and cleaned up.... ......for a much better fit.. Then media blasted the inside in preparation for some epoxy primer... .....and did some adjustment of the tailgate fitment.
Thanks for the comments fellas.. Sometimes you just need to back up and punt. Even though I have been working on this car far too long, with travel for the day job and two other resto's having been quite an interruption..... you get to where you finally see light at the end of the tunnel, and just come to grips with something that needs to come back out.... When I originally did this roof repair, I did not have the Lennox nibbler or English wheel or many of the tools I now have, and the patch panel you see below..... ....was fabricated using incremental bends in an apron brake. Given the creases you see due to the fabrication method, I likely made this shorter than I should have in an attempt to limit the creases, and the result was the horizontal weld was not up high enough to be readily accessible for planishing. After making these patch panels for a second roof repair...... .....it was more apparent that the first attempt was not the best, and if I wasn't happy with it before, this new panel really made the old one grab my attention...each time I've walked by. Well a person with spare patches lying around can only take so much, so tonight I checked the fit of one of the spare patch panels.... Looking at the front, the panel needed just a bit more crown.... And the rear needed just a bit less.... So with the Go Kart slick mounted up and ready to go, a 6" then 3.75" radius lower anvil added the crown needed for the front and a 24" radius flattened out the rear for a much better fit. These panels are about 4" high and put the weld up above the roof boxing structure, so planishing will be more accessible to give us a better job. I'll get the patch all primed on the inside and let it cure. Then cut out the old patch and get this new one welded in.. More to come..
I have a trailer it will fit in.... The Go Kart slick should eliminate the need for a slip roll.. Bead roller for the peak and body line. I do have a lathe here to make up the dies....
Hey Mac, both the gate & the roof patch panels look beyound wonderful.........as usual! I hope the fitting of the stainless goes better than the '56 I did a whyle back Congrats on the new truck purchase, and good luck in '14!
Thanks, need to get all the body details done so I can start fitting stainless. I'm sure they will have some dimensional changes as well Was in the middle of media blasting the innards of the lift gate and noticed the threads for these nut plates didn't look too "full" A test with a 10-24 screw showed that some of the holes were so bad that they had a "slip" fit. These hold the rubber bumpers on the bottom inside edge of the lift gate. The spot welds are drilled to release the nut plate.. The new ones are cut out of some 10ga steel, holes drilled and tapped. yeah, these threads look much better.... Where I normally use a couple screws to hold nut plates in place for welding, with the close proximity of the plug weld hole the screw heads would obscure some of the hole, and we would undoubtedly be welding in the screw heads for difficult removal. For this case, we'll use some brass tubing as a spacer. Since the tubing I picked up passes though the screw holes, a sacrificial lock washer is used for it's minimal diameter. A dab of anti sieze is placed on the screw threads to insure they don't get welded in place from arcing across the threads.. Plug welded, and screws removed. Lock washers removed and plug welds ground flush.... And now we can finish up the media blasting....
Love what you are doing. Too bad we did not meet several years ago. I sold some real nice solid body parts that I removed during my custom 56 Elcamino build just like the ones you are remaking. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=399170 Currently building a newer 66 longroof that I have turned into a 2dr Nomad. Lots more fabrication still ahead for me. Your built helps keep my motivation up.
Thanks for the comments guys! Had a couple hours to spend in the shop this evening, so I decided to mark out the roof for re-repairing. Then another line was dropped down about 1/4" to be used for the "rough cut". A cutoff wheel was used and then trimmed with the snips. The lower section was trimmed about 1/2" above the drip rail.. To start, a section was marked off just wider than my sheet metal pliers. Then the spot welds, which were visible from the top, were drilled. A cutoff wheel was used to grind through the end(s) of the section being removed. Then the sheet metal pliers used to rock the panel back and forth to break the spot welds loose. Got about half of it removed, we'll save the rest for later so I can get some primer on the inside of some of the lift gate parts and the roof skin patch.
Continuing with the dissecting of the roof..... When I got into the section with the old roof, it was difficult to see the spot welds (for drilling) down inside the drip rail. The underside was more accommodating, so the face of the drip rail was marked with the sharpie to use as a reference while drilling... The lower corners of the opening were trimmed to size so that the roof patch could be clamped down into the drip rail. This will help to get more accurate markings on the roof skin for trimming the rest of the opening. C-Clamp vise grips added to secure the overlapped panels for marking, then a straightedge used to read the crown of the roof to insure there were no dips or puckers along the top of the joint.... My favorite scribe, a local auction purchase... Scribing the roof panel Not much to spare! Trimmed the opening with some offset snips... Corners touched up with a 1-1/2" drum sander Clamped in place to hold the shape while we wait for the .023 ER70S-7 to come in. Note the butt weld clamps will be removed at welding for a tight fit-up.
Thanks for the comments! Well today I had a phone call from 3 Mules to tell me the .023 welding wire was in. I had ordered .023 ER70S-7, but what actually showed up was EZ Grind. I guess I was destined to try this stuff out... After about 45 minutes of changing wire, rollers, and trying different settings on the machine, we found dialing it in for 3/16 thick steel and using 1/2 second weld "application" showed about the best results.. Seems odd as the metal was 19 ga, or about .038 thick.. front: rear: Comparative size of the weld proud. The special made tongs had returned from Houston, so we did the spot welds first to insure the panel was pulled down into the drip rail tightly.. Then the panels were aligned and tacked, starting at the rear and working toward the front... Full penetration welds.... The patch should be well high enough for planishing this time... Here's where we left off.....
Well after a week in FL, time to get back in the shop.. I wasn't totally pleased with the .023 EZ grind, but in all fairness I think some of the issue is my welder. It never has been too keen on .023 wire, so looks like my BIL is going to get a new roll of wire for his Hobart. Put the .035 ER70S-7 back in, dialed in the settings for 3/16 thick steel, and ran some test welds... Front side.... Rear side.... Comparing the EZ grind to the -7 shows less splatter... The roof cross member made part of the weld seam inaccessible, so it was removed on one end for planishing access... Welds ground down to just above panel surface... Our planishing implements this evening.... Low crown hammer and used the Pexto blocking hammer as a dolly... This shows the weld dots planished.... Full penetration welds..... Weld, planish, grind, repeat. We're about halfway done, hope to finish it up tomorrow...
Robert, thanks for showing the differance in the ez and -7. I have had good luck with the ez grind in the little miller 135, There is more spatter but not too bad. I was going to try and find -7 but I don't think I will now. My patching has improved a lot slowing down and following your advice so for that, Thank You! It is actually faster in the long run without having to work the metal so much.I'm still in a learning curve about the no gap since I started out using the panel clamps, but I had ground down the center piece as small as I dared for as thin a gap as posible.
I think it's hard to get an accurate comparison based on me using two different sized wire, but either should give good results. My mig is an L-Tec Migmaster 250, which is the predecessor to the ESAB of the same model name. It does have a .035 liner, and never has done well with .023 wire. I think the oversized liner allows the .023 to accordion inside the torch. They were supposed to order me a liner sized for the new wire, but it didn't happen. So here I go back to using my "old faithful", .035 for sheetmetal.. I always have had better luck using the .035......
I am using the .023 and some day I'll load pics of some of my patches, after I learn some more . I did try my sons miller 250 with .030 wire, but thats a little hot for my skill level right now...
Hot is a relative term. In using the .023 EZ and the .035 -7, both were set up with the machine settings dialed in for 3/16 thick steel, and my repair panel is only 19 ga steel, measured out to .039 thick. The length of duration is what you use to control the heat and weld size. In both cases the weld duration was 1/2 second or less..
I ment hot as in with the bigger machine I seemed to not let off fast enough. With the smaller wire in the smaller machine I run it at about the same at 3/16 steel and seem to be able to control it better and get full penatration. It was harder to learn to be patient and stop after only one dot....
Gotcha! Well this evening was a short night, back to the day job tomorrow, so we'll have to call it early. Did get the bulk of the welding done. planished, and started to dress the welds. This will still need some final metal bumping, but I like this much better already! Sorry I didn't have as many in-process pictures, got in a rush this evening....until next time..
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