The windshield frame I am using was a paint version, so not as badly rusted as a lot of chrome ones. I stripped and de-rusted the frame then chopped it. I also had to do some rust repairs/pit filling on the lower half…which distorted the frame a little so I had to faff around for a while getting that back into shape. Here it is just sitting, not really where it should be. Next jobs will be filling the old wiper holes...and more holes.
So good to see you back on this car Tony, such a cool build and doing a cracking job on all that metalwork Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Very simply. Cut slits (4 3/4"), made a basic female hammer form and tapped the metal in. Appreciate the kind words. I hope you phaeton is progressing too.
Need to make room for 6 knobs instead of 4. Another quick mock up to assess progress. More bling still to come on the dash. The dash trim is RHD specific so I will have to get the radio grille repaired and re chromed (the repros are LHD and won’t work.) I have new chrome strips I think will work.
Nice work on the dash! The toe boards and trans tunnel look great also. Looks like a great design to me.
Well, that's about it on the body for now...because it's getting blasted clean. Yay! And while the car is at the blasters I paid a visit to the paint shop. Many litres of lacquer!
On the way home from the blaster. (that was mid winter) Nice and clean. I also found my next few months worth of 'restoration' work! Part of the reason the body looks okay is because I had already done quite a few rust repairs such as the bottoms of the B pillars and rebuilding the entire tailpan as you have already seen. There are a lot of dings and waves to deal with now and as I say a few patches of Swiss cheese. So nice to see clean and all one colour!
Since the body has been back from blasting I’ve washed everything down with a phosphoric acid solution – after blowing out the least remnants of grit. There’s a lot of surface area with all the parts! Looking from the inside of one of the front fenders gives a very good impression of a starry night sky. All fenders have lots of stress cracks. Lately, I’ve been working in the holy land That is to say, filling a bazzillion holes on the firewall. The trans tunnel and toe board areas are all welded in permanently now. All this shit is tedious, but progress.
Time to back up a little bit. Despite all the holes I have to fill on the firewall, I did add two extra. The reason is this: for the parking brake. I did not want it floor mounted because I just wasn't satisfied with any location. I couldn't use an original under dash one because I have made an extra under dash dash, which would be in the way. (The sub-dash is to cover the a/c, provide a/c vents at each end and to mount the ignition switch.) So, I elected to go with a pullout dash mounted one like this: I will modify the black handle part. But that's not where it ended.
Something else noticeable on the side on freshly blasted shot are the two high side trim holes on the cowl (38) and the lower ones on the quarter panel (39)
Looking good. How will you prep the metal for paint after the phosphoric acid solution, and what paint will you use? Curious because ive been doing a similar thing on mine, but there seems to be some contradiction on prep and primer. Phospho seems to leave a bit of white residue, and turns the panels a dull grey, some times blue colour. Do you have to prep back to shiny metal, if so, what about pitting where you cant get into?
I like your idea of mounting the gauge cluster in front of the passenger seat, it would keep my wife from always leaning across the car to see how fast I am driving.
It is. Generally the body will be sanded with 80 grit then normal pre paint cleaning before any paint goes on. I start with epoxy primer. Finish will be lacquer. In areas like inside doors and other interior places where I use red oxide I simply go over the treated surface. I clean anything with wax/grease remover and lacquer thinner if accessible.
The brake handle protruded more than I liked so I shortened it as much as possible, as well as shortening the bracket at the dash end. It fit okay, but was a bit squeezy to get in and out due to interference with the dash and mounting studs at the firewall end. My solution at this point was to add wiggle room at the firewall end. To achieve this I made some basic tooling. Which gave me 5mm extra. Now I can easily slip the studs into the firewall holes and the rear bracket up inside the dash, without fear of bending or forcing anything. Inside:
Thanks for sharing that trick to recess the mount - so simple and a couple of pictures makes it so clear. Nice!
Firewall is in shape and am working my way around the body tweaking things. Driver’s side has had previous collision damage and repair. Some lead and tool marks but still the 1/4 behind the door and back to the trunk was still pretty wavy. Judicious banging and shrinking has the waves and oilcanning sorted to within filler range. Inside I need to address all the metal I cut out of the way to enable the chop. I kept the pieces, and almost kept my memory, so the jigsaw has been making sense while fumbling through the off cuts. I clamped the garnish in place and as you can see, some work will be required to have everything as it should be again.
I'm not sure but it looks like you need to cut that window opening larger to get that trim to fit right.
Nice to see you still have a sense of humour after all the hard work you've been doing....great build thread
I’m sick of filling holes, but before I start on the window internals and put the inner quarter panels back in I figured I’d better fill all the body mouding holes while I still have good hammer/dolly access. Holes, ugh. So here we go. I’ve filled all the ones down this side and have been getting the inner workings figured out. I have a window mechanism that functions (not original) and have started on making slanted window run channels. Also made a glass pattern. Finally, played around with some lead to tweak the window corners. This is the side with old collision damage, so everything was a bit wavy and ‘off.’ It’s a lot better now and hopefully the other side will be a little faster. Still have to cut the garnish. Something I found weird is that Ford used the same inner panels here as they did for the doors. Saved special pressings I suppose. It took some mucking around and modifying the panel to fit the mechanism so it functioned on an angle, but it works fine. Once the car is finished it will probably never get used.
The Jalopy Journal
