Hey everyone, I'm NOT A BODYMAN. There....that's out of the bag, now: I am questioning a bunch of the work that was done to an A coupe body, with around a 4" chop, that I recently aquired, and am butcheri....I mean, err, umm, practicing/learning sheet metal work on. I don't care when this gets done, or, even if it does, only that it is fairly nice, and doesn't fall apart...however, I want to drive the sucker, should it ever actually become finished, so, I certainly do not need TOTAL PERFECTION, either. My apologies to all the metal men and painters I've just offended, but, really, in my case, with a hot rod, the returns don't warrant that degree of obsession. Think: HOT ROD....not show winning, photo-op custom. It was already chopped, by p.o., and it has been painted, too ( though it definately was not ready for that yet...), but, it looks rushed, and suspect, in a number of cases, even to my untrained eye, it would appear to be p.o.'s "learning car" or class project, with a variety of things started, or roughed out, but nothing totally finished, but that is exactly what I wanted, something to hone some skills on, but, not a total basket case. I am currently grinding down problem spots, cleaning them up, smoothing, filling, and re-doing some welds. So, my question of the moment, if anyone could help me out, is........... I want to put all the top wood back, I like the way it looks, but, I'm also really not digging the fact that the tops of the A pillars and the roof sides are only held together by the wood and brackets. So, if a fella was to weld that all up, how would that affect the wood installation??? Any other problems with that? windsheled? I am a mechanic, and this level of work is new to me, but intriguing... Any thoughts on this would be appreciated, by the experienced A builder... Thanks! Mark.
put the wood kit in first and then if you still feel the need weld it up, the wood effects the way the doors fit so if you weld it up first you may make it harder on yourself
Cool...I was wondering about doing that, but, I figured it would be best to be done with the top and any other general area trouble spots around the door and window openings, first, so as to not burn the wood. I also wanted to paint inside, under the roof area, before final installation of the wood. I guess I will get it pretty well straightened all out, install the wood, look over everything, check the doors out, too, ( one still needs to be chopped, the other one is iffy...it really needs to be cut apart and re-done, which I'm going to do...) and feel out the whole thing assembled, and, if I decide to then, I'll pull it all out, weld it up, and then paint and put it back, if not, just pull the wood, paint, and bolt it all back up. Sound about right???
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