Hot Rods The latest project at Jokerr Fabrication

With the back of the roof all in place it was time to finish the front portion. The fact that the roof itself was left at the stock length meant that the windshield needed to be laid back a bunch, exactly the look that Marty wanted. This entailed removing the entire lower section of the opening and also removing all of the inner structure in the header area. The first photo shows how much realignment is needed




The windshield posts were not cut the amount of the chop as they need to be a little longer as they are laid back. You can also see where Joe melted the lead out of the roof to pillar seam in preparation for the re-contouring that will be needed to get the pillars and roof to flow in a smooth curve.

Here you can see the gap that has opened up across the cowl as the pillars are tilted back. The alignment point for the base was the front of the door opening and a horizontal wedge cut was made on each side to get the cowl surface alignment as close as possible, dropping the rear of the pillar a little.


These pieces of heavy plate were used to keep the flange are flat as the upper pillar was re-contoured

The relief cut was then opened up even more to smooth the roof contour

Once the height of the cowl was established braces were bolted in place to locate the header A straight edge across the braces also gave a datum point for the alignment of the pillars, again the required result being a flat surface all around the opening. The next step was to fill in the gap across the cowl, again not a simple matter as seen by the longitudinal cuts in the foreground of the photo. They were necessitated by the fact that the cowl curved up to the base of the windshield opening at the outer edges.

The cowl was then final welded and metal finished


Roo

 

WOW.

 

Sorry to say I missed a chance to see it recently. Sure looks great. Next time, fur sure. Gary

 

Second thread I read tonight, first one was pure machinist p@rn, but this is welding and bodywork p@rn. How can anybody top this! :shock:

 

Her are some more A pillar shots showing how the contour was smoothed.

A template was used to make sure that the contour matched, side to side



Because this area is inaccessible behind the roof side rail a section was cut out and a new piece wheeled up to blend the contour. Above the patch there was enough access to the surface that relief cuts and some hammer and dolly work did the trick






You can see in this shot how far back the drip rail area needed to be cut to get the opening to flow


Roo

 

turning out very nice keep us updated please

 

Awesome work, we all appreciate the step by step detailed pics!

 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
I'm on board.

 

MORE, MORE, MORE. thanks for posting. Gary

 

wow very nice work!
saving another one.

 

Well it is Christmas afternoon and time for another update. This time we will look at what it took to get the doors to fit. In case you did not notice, some of these photos are out of sequence (note that the roof is not done) but I figured that it was best to group them in specific areas of the chop. Here you can see how many cuts were required to get the door upper frame to fit the revised opening contour



This shot makes the discrepancy in the frame contour due to the narrowing of the door upper as it gets higher even more obvious. It is a lot easier to rework the outer contour while lining up the window opening joggle which is constant around the frame.

And here is the fix--just add metal


The end result along with a direct visual on the amount of the chop via the windshield frame


The center pillar tapers to so a relief cut and some hammer work followed by a weld fix that issue.


The same modifications are required at the front of the door frame along with a contour change in line with the base of the windshield post



The garnish molding around the upper opening also needs to be re-contoured with a series of cuts


All welded and ready to be re-installed after grinding


And finally the windshield frame is cut to fit. The lay back style chop is probably the hardest to execute due to the amount of work in getting the front of the roof to flow smoothly but as you can see here it is definitely worth it in terms of visual appeal.



Roo

 

Beautiful craftsmanship. A-1 work......

 

Okay, time for some more photos. Once Joe got the chop in order Marty came down and did some regular bodywork to repair some of the very limited parts of the body that were not dead straight--rear quarter uppers, deck lower panel etc. Note the "real" body tools, bumping hammers, vixen file etc.



In the meantime Joe was cutting the garnish moldings. This stock one shows just how much was chopped from the top.

Just like the doors themselves, a lot of cuts were needed to reowrk the contour.



The wood was also trimmed to fit


And then, as it looked so good, it was clear coated.

A couple more shots that show just how nice the body shell is, inside and out


With the body and frame rolled outside Rowdy stands guard



Next up is some etch primer with Marty doing the honors


And that will do it for this installment.
Roo

 

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

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Grea work.
Al.


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Great job. Wicked coupe.

 

Hey Roo, why not start another thread and show us what you are working on, too? Thanx for the update. Gary

 

its looking good. i might try to run out and see it after i drop the RPU off at the fairgrounds in Feb for the motorama

 

Nice coverage Roo... JoKer sure is a craftsman for sure...

 

The cars owner, Marty Bachand, is a very accomplished body man in his own right. Marty has many years experience in the body shop business as a shop owner and lead body man. So those aren't just poser shots of Marty doing work on the car, he's a hands on guy. BILL RINALDI

 

Nice work.

 

My favorite part is the pictures!


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Kool...Nice work Marty, Thanks Bill, for letting us know... The shot in primer shows just how good he is...

 

outstanding work

 

great to see the attention to detail, both in the workmanship and through the photo's in the thread, appreciate the updates.

Cheers,
Drewfus

 

I love 24 fords, and that one is crazy good.

 

Time for another installment. First up a quick preview of how the car looks with the grille shell in place


And also with the hood in place

If you noticed, the firewall was in place in the first photo but with the engine and gearbox in place it had to go. Here, Joe has the cowl hoop in place prior to fabrication the steering box mounts and this shot also gives you a preview of what is going to be under the hood


This is the bracket for the sector shaft side of the box


And as you can see here it is suitably gusseted in all directions


Next is the inner support for the box and below you can see that the pedals are also being located






Here is the start of the bezel that surrounds the shaft exit


And here it the same part after some more shaping


The roll bar is next, again with gussets and supports


And here is the rear leg of the roll bar


Anyone who has been paying attention would have seen the new firewall in the later steering box photos so here it is from the front side. The rear set firewall was blanked out and trimmed to fit

Joe then replicated the factory reinforcing ribs before welding the new piece in place

If you look closely at the firewall photo above you can see the transmission tunnel and here it is from the inside. The forward portion is tight around the bellhousing and the rest is tucked up close to the box to make as much room for Marty's feet as possible.

The view from below shows that it is just as nice from this side

Positioning and mounting the fuel tank was next on the list



Joe also added one of his vintage look battery trays.


You may have noticed in one of the steering box photos that the distributor did not clear the firewall so in the same manner as Joe's own Model A and Dave's Chemical City Coupe, provision was made for a removable bulge/cover to be added later.

Joe had filled the left side of the dash earlier and it was put in place along with the steering column


The glove box was retained but a new inner had to be made to clear the cowl hoop and here is the template.

And finally for this installment here is a preview of what is under the body--well, almost under as some of it sticks up a bit and required some clearance holes which will be capped once the running gear location is finalized.


Roo

 

Amazing fabrication Thank you for sharing looking forward to the next installment Jim

 

Simply beautiful workmanship exhibited on the whole car.

 

Stunning!


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