Report #1 We fell into a '50 Club Coupe in Salt Lake and imported it into Montana for major surgery. This car has near perfect floors because of massive amounts of undercoating (topside and bottomside), pretty straight...Is a runner (350/350 SBC)...and will get 4" sectioning surgery in the next couple of weeks. Current challenge is to blow it apart in an organized manner and prep it for cutting and rewelding. Pics show bringing it home and sitting, waiting for admittance into the shop, and another section job that we did about 8 years ago. All comments, questions, suggestions are always totally welcome.
I love the proportions of a sectioned unchopped Shoebox coupe. I guess it's the X-51 influence. Take plenty of construction pics.
Report #2 First, teardown. Seems odd to blow apart a running car...but that's how its gotta be. The car came into the shop and was emptied of lots of extra goodies that came with the car. Seats and front sheet metal removed, engine/trans removed, and finally the doors and 62 year-old upholstery was removed. This process takes a lot longer to do than to tell, but I took the time to tag wires, separate nuts&bolts by category, and try to make reassembly easier. If our weather holds, the car will go to the sandblast pad to clean up the front suspension, underside, and interior of quarter panels that will need to be clean for rewelding. This is a really well preserved car...(to a fault)....it has at least an eigth to a quarter of an inch of ugly undercoating everywhere. Sandblasting will not remove this crap...propane torch and scraper is the weapon of choice. BUT...the gennie tin under this coating is in great condition. Tradeoffs!! Also, I was forced to try a new method for removing door hinge screws....I welded 1/2" nuts to the head of some of the screws and out they came..... Attached pics tell the story.
Report #3 Propane torch, heat gun, scrapers of all size and shape were put to work to clean the inside of the quarter panels, etc. And then, we had a nice break in the weather and were able to get a couple of quick hours on the sandblast pad. Car is now ready for my son, Mark, to perform his surgery. We are all excited.
Pretty sure I passed you on the Interstate out of Billings. I was hoping this car was heading to a good future. Looks like it is. My friend's 50 Merc is the same way. Tons of undercoating.
Report #4 (take a little out of the middle!!) After several hours of itching and scratching, measuring, running tape lines, it was time. Initial cut was made at the front of the firewall. Next came the quarter panels, which we made a 4" guide to ensure parallel cuts. The tail light area was next and then the cowl supports forward of the doors. Cutting was put on hold as the inner fenderwells (over the rear wheels) needed repair before being closed up by the sectioning process. There is access to this area now because of the sectioning cut. (Picture shows brown cardboard pattern used to fab the repair patch.) We are now ready to lower the body and made up a couple of sliding supports from square tubing and angle iron. These supports will be welded vertically under the package tray to support the aft portion of the body during lowering. Also, door hinges were bolted together using a hunk of angle iron to ensure everything comes down squarely. Ah yes, today the car will have a different look!!
sweet. I need to redo the sectioned front fenders on my 49 so please detail your fender surgery when you get to that.
Here is a pretty descriptive picture of my son doing a front fender a few years ago. Lots of welding and sheet metal work! We will be hacking up the front sheet metal in a couple of days.
Awesome build. I can't wait to see some progress!! I want to section a car really bad. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Report #5 Well the deed is done....body was carefully lowered to meet the mating surfaces. Lots of pulling, pushing, nursing the edges as close as possible. We did run into interfearance with the seams over the rear wheel wells, but after a bit of cussing and cutting, the problem went away. The A pillars and firewall was tacked into position, tail sections tacked, and then the B pillars. Son Mark bit into the driver door, sectioned it and fit it into the opening, and only then committed to tacking up the B pillars. Next on the plan: lots of quarter panel welding, passenger door altered, and fitting the deck lid ...
Report #6 Closing it up The driver door is fit, passenger door cut and fit and hung on what turned out to be totally worn out hinge pins....so those hinges were removed, drilled out and 1/4" bolts installed and then reinstalled. Now the passenger door is waiting to go back on the car again. Deck lid is cut, waiting for addition of lower inner panel to the sectioned sheet metal outer skin. The deck lid is a different challenge because there are subtle angles and curve changes to the dimensions...so it takes time to get it right. It is looking pretty sweet!! We will soon be working on the front sheet metal.
Thats looking sweet Russ ! Everytime a section job gets posted on the HAMB it makes me want to do one !
Great to see the work that goes into a section job like this. Looking forward to seeing more. I just posted this thread in the Shoebox Group Build Threads.
Report #7 Moving to setting and altering front sheet metal We took the front clip and removed some of the obvious interfearance sheet metal...then set the clip on the car. The mounting bracket for the front clip was removed from the front frame x-member to allow a 4" lowering at the front mounting point. Son Mark dived into the driver front fender and after measuring the tried and true 4" cut from the rear portion, 2" over the wheel well, and 2" forward of the wheel well. The valence panel will but up against the forward portion in a day or so. Meanwhile, the quarters were tacked together and now that the deck lid is fitted, we mostly have a sectioned shoebox. Son Mark took timeoff of his real job to make this happen. Daddy is proud (and appreciative).
4 inches is perfect for a shoebox in my opinion. i sectioned mine 2 inches (because it was my first try at sectioning, and i was a pussy,,haha), had it almost welded back together and decided it really needed the 4 taken out,,,so i cut it apart and took out the other two inches. i did my doors the same way you did....the work you guys are doing looks right on the money....
Report #8 Front valence panel, final firewall welding, etc Today, we worked all around the car, mostly closed it up with doors and decklid fit, and now the front valence pan under the grille opening: This panel has a 3" step in it that gets cut out and reformed so that the panel can fit a bit higher into the grille opening. Pictures tell the story. More heavy tack welding all around the car and we are now definately on the home stretch!! In fact we even got a bit frisky and took a "studio picture". Next operation is to fit the hood, change to neat wide whitewall tires, and go outside for a portrait. And then into storage, waiting for re-assembly next spring. I am soon off to Yuma, Arizona for 6 months of R&R.
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