Glad your using the original grill. Good call. All this work takes a lot of time and effort. You’re doing great. The car is gonna be killer.
Have enjoyed your journey and your fab skills thus far… bet you get those doors figured out in no time.
So I am getting back to working on this thing, waited for some parts for awhile and it was pretty darn cold all winter. I went out one day over the winter and rebuilt one set of door hinges, the extra cost of heating the garage I could have easily bought all new hinges lol. But now that it is getting warmer out, I started getting the itch to work on this thing again. The new door skins showed up, I couldn't save the passenger door, drivers probably but at this point I figured I'd bite the bullet and do both. The driver side inner needed a lot of saving, I did my best.. I painted the inside of the skin and ran some sound deadening mat inside. Passenger side done.. The driver side inner was much more solid, save for a few small areas and a sizeable dent.
Here she is showing off her new body parts.. I had to split the rocker on the passenger side and lengthen it to match the door. I didn't have room to fit the door when installing it before winter needed to get the floor painted. Rookie mistake, either way I would have needed to modify the pinch weld to the outside.. So currently planning on getting the other door hinges rebuilt, finish fitting the doors, maybe get the door gaps squared away. I really didn't want to fuss too much and just have a beater, but I think this would bug me too much. The top frames are a little wonky gap wise. It'd be nice to finish up the doors and rockers and move on. I have to make a buck for my quarter radius's, I have a friend who made up a die for his pull max to match the front beads, hopefully will look pretty cool. The goal this year is to get it in one color, primer or if time allows paint. Either way will be big motivation. I really like the look of this thing.
Bet you're glad you popped for both doors! Make it nice like you deep down want to... you'll be glad you did when it's done... lookin' good!
haha yeah, kinda. Hopefully I can make this thing nice. That’s something I haven’t worked much on… trying to finish off something so it’s really nice. I usually err on the side of function over form, or at least use that as an excuse… I’m always learning as I go, so I temper my expectations and will keep trying to push myself to learn something new and get out of the comfort zone.
@Fry Nice, amazing what sunny days will do to a guy working in a garage. Did you use a rust converting paint inside the doors? Working on my Nomad, and I'll be needing to do some of the same.
Yeah I threw some Eastwood rust encapsulator on the inside of the doors, the skin was just some rattle can on the inside. The flanges were all weld through primer. Also planning on sealing the hem flange after epoxying the doors. I’m an amateur at best, so probably doing it all wrong either way. Lol. I snuck out last night and rebuilt the last door hinges. This side the pin had half fell out. This reinforced that I’m not entirely dumb to be spotting welding the pins in. I welded up the wear spots and smoothed everything out, new bushings and good as new… almost. I used common Chevy bushings and drilled out the holes slightly to allow them to press fit nicely.
The drivers door was pretty bad, so I got the alignment in the best of the worst areas and had to gap the doors.
I cut and added some 1/8" rod to the bad areas, then slit the quarter and fixed the back edge. The bottom rear corner was a little pointy from pounding on the skin, and the gap didn't match, so I added a little piece on there to match. Also finished up some of the rocker welding and transitioning. I started grinding the hood sides down to match the door, after adding a little piece to the door bottom. This door pretty much took up the entire day, with a lot of that getting that alignment right. I ended up having to slot the holes in the hinge even. But in the end it's looking alright.
Sunday I was able to get the tailpan on, and the trunk latching again. Still a day or two of work back here to get it somewhat acceptable. I'm trying to get rid of all the overlapped leaded seams and butt weld it all. But its progress nonetheless, and glad it doesn't have the gaping hole in the back anymore. Once I get the back quarter patches roughed in and the wheel wells made, it'll resemble a real 55 again. I'm not sure how I'm going to make that outer, left hand, tail light area, hopefully my metal shaping skills improve and it ends up easier than I think lol..
The start of my wheel radius. I bought a router and some 5/8 mdf, made a little circle jig and cut two slightly different diameter circles. The bottom piece I used a 1/4” radius die for a rounded edge. i used it as a guide and free hand cut with the die grinder my 18 gauge sheet metal. With a couple hours of hammering back and forth I had one finished. I’m pretty happy how it came out, still one more to make then power hammer to try and finish the bead profile.
Great job brother. Check out @japhands on youtube and IG. He's out here in BC and does some nice stuff. He made a great video about modifying an air hammer bit and then using it along with a wood buck to do the exact same kinda work but a lot quicker and making the lines more crisp than what we can usually do with a hammer. https://www.youtube.com/c/MakeItKustom
I've watched a couple of his videos, but hadn't saw that one. Will take a look. I thought about using my planishing hammer bit but wanted to creep up on it as to not screw anything up. It really isn't all the bad, but definitely slow and a little tough especially had already did a workout earlier yesterday before hammering haha.
I finished the other side and started fitting them last night. I just used the shrinker to get the body curve. Starting to have a nice look. I think they are ready to hit the pullmax. I did try to use the air hammer on the second one, but honestly its probably more work than hand hammering, and much slower. I thought it'd knock the panel over in no time, but after 10 mins you could barely see any progress.. Its a little harder on the mdf and the arms than hand hammer. I found when I do it manual, I can slide the hammer off the piece for a glancing hit as well, where the air hammer is straight on. I’m going to make some bottom transition pieces separate and see if we can taper the bead off at the bottom, probably go straight down at the front of the tire and sweep back slightly at the rear. hopefully I can keep the panel this size as it gets rid of some trouble some spots on the quarter that I haven't addressed yet haha.
I made a couple of transition piece for the rear, behind the tire, to taper off nicely. Had to use the shinker to get that tight corner. Also used the inside cutout from the hammer form to create a wheel centering jig. Just used the center line and drill some holes for the studs. Worked pretty slick and took the guess work out of placing the wheel wells.
Had a friend make up this die to match the factory bead profile and hammer the wheel wells out to match.
Test fitting with my jig double checking with the tire and "swooping" behind the tire. I also cut the front and shaped it straight down so it wouldn't wrap around the tire like above.
With them all welded in, looks ok. Dips in at the top probably more than I wanted but this is good enough for this beater...
Started some body work and got it in some epoxy primer. Will keep picking away at the body over the next few months and hopefully have it ready to paint. Lots left to do, but looks better than it did.
Looks really good! Just know it is probably going to suck in the snow and ice. I spite of your self doubt you have done a hell of a job with the sheet metal.
The goal is to push myself outside my comfort zone with each car, hopefully get a little better here and there.. Or atleast know when I should stop haha. Thanks for the compliments guys.
The Jalopy Journal
