Dammitt, I was on a roll and I just ran out of welding wire. Finished the other moldings and took an inventory of how many pieces there are, there's a lot, this rechroming lark might just have to wait. I just welded in a heavy 1X1 stringer between the B pillars, it's strong as heck now. It's 60.5" across, when I bought the piece it looked like there would be a bunch left over, there's only a piece about 8" long left........this thing is friggin huge!!!!!
Thanks for the updates, Nads! Do they have a (spray in) bedliner to mix with the color scheme you're going with?
I doubt it, just gonna go with good old black to hide the dirt, but the Batman logo will be fuscia, ha ha!
Nice!! Hahaha I would love to make a fiberglass tonneau cover. But that has its own issues, for me. I still want it to look decent when it's not actually on.
The car is looking great Nads, won't be long now & you will be cruising along again. The car looks sinister with that chop, cant wait to see it in paint. Cold? You're in Florida, land of sunshine. You are as bad as Jay grumbling about the weather in Cali, I will trade either of you the foot and a half of snow & the 10º weather I am dealing with lately in a heartbeat for the sunshine & mild temp's you guys have to put up with. If any of your interior trim is needing replaced, I have a bunch of extra's that came with my car. I unfortunately don't have the one piece that I know you need, the little joiner piece for the middle of the rear window inner trim. I had to track down one for my car as it was. I have been told that the flat top 4 doors used the same joiner piece but I don't know how true that statement is. Maybe a little easier to find one out of a 4dr that one from an elky. Just a thought.
trust me i deal with that everyday....i justgot done with a car that was held together with roofing tar and chicken wire....saw a 64 nova convt one time the bondo was literally 4" think in the quarter panel....people screw their cars up so bad
And this is why i take a magnet or two when i look at cars to purchase. But yes i agree at least he was truthful with you. That would be a friend for life in my books. Its hard to find honest car salesman these days !
Thanks for your help, I need the two moldings at the bottom of the B-pillar, if you've got a pair that would be awesome.
The two little ones like these? I am pretty sure I have an extra set. I will try to have a look next week. I have to dig out a trim part for Jay & ship it to him as well. I need a pair of these if you had some extra's & wanted to trade??? The sheetmetal piece from the outside corners of the back of the roof. Mine are both missing. Like these - Drivers side in the pic.
this doesnt always work espicially if they pop rivited panels over rust and bondoed over it....seen plenty of that magnet sitcks but when you get through the bondo and pop rivieted panel and theres no rockers or inner rockers left....magnet doesnt mean a whole lot
Nads, with all you've done you probably could have brought back this Pontiac. The original builders also faced that rear window challenge, and used a little filler.
I bought some .23 stainless mig wire and took a chance at cutting and welding my trim, I'm not 100% enthused, but I can live with them until I buy a TIG welder when I'm more grounded with my living situation, here's some pics. A pillar molding is cut and tacked together. I turned the heat down and slowed the wire feed, just a quick zap does it. I went slowly letting each tack cool. Weld very carefully ground down The back edge of the molding is covered with another molding so it doesn't need to be finished.
Here's the gutter moldings, they had to be lengthened because the roof got longer when it came down. I had to buy extra moldings as donors.
Here's the molding after polishing, it's pretty wavy, but the eye follows it vertically and it's not as noticeable as a horizontal piece. The other side gutter trim came out pretty nice but these waves are gonna be obvious. I'm not sure how much I can work the moldings without the weld breaking. I guess this will be a failed experiment but I gave it a shot. I'm going to try and do continues stainless welding on thicker stock and pipe for shits and giggles, I bet you it won't be too hard.
There was a post on another board that stated you needed to use the same type of stainless to achieve a repair without having the repair being a different color. They said stainless trim repairers used scrap pieces of trim as filler. Good job, keep the pictures coming.
nads you are a brave man to chop a 59 elco, nice work. a 64 galaxie was brought into my buds shop for paint. the old guy had worked on the galaxie for a couple yrs to get it paint ready. this was how much bondo he had on the rockers all the body lines were gone, all the styling was gone. he had to have over 20 gal of filler on the car. door bottoms were over an inch thick (to match this rocker) didn't strip or sand the original paint, this chunk popped of with a screwdriver. the hood needed a 2x4 to hold it up, every panel had filler on it. my bud talked him into stripping the car, under all the filler was a relatively rust free 64 galaxie
Nads, There is a guy in San Antonio that works stainless trim. I bet he could make that look fine. He has a friend that welds when required. I have NO connection with him. PM if you want his contact.
Actually, I just worked them some more and they're looking much better, only the really eagle eyed will notice, but thanks anyway.
Very interested to see the final, assembled product on your welded trim. I need to do some for a couple of cars, basically mating some 4 door trims together to make pieces to fit 2 doors. I don't know why, but I never even considered MIG welding the stainless, I just figured I'd have to TIG it and I don't have access to a TIG machine. Now I want to try it, and my stuff doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be one piece. Keep the updates coming.
It's pretty easy, I didn't even change the shielding gas. It's much easier to burn holes thru stainless but I practiced on scrap before I gave it a shot. I had already ruined the passenger side by accidentally burning thru it with my plasma cutter, I need another one, goshdarnit.
Bondo use FAIL My 74 Gremlins ass is soo boogered I swear I'll gain a second in the q mile drag racing it when I get alll of it off. Anyhoo,keep up the killer work on your Elco Nads!
Myself as well...now I will try and do the vent windows on my 47 with the Mig, thanks for the courage Nads
A customers 34 Ford cabrio. Said " It is the best body I have ever seen. Original Nevada metal. Won't need a thing". Fritz
After hunting high and low for a center trim clip for the back window stainless I decided to make one from scratch from a piece of scrap trim. I used pliers, a hammer and a dolly and the I polished it, not too bad.
Subscribing for the build. Been sitting here for over an hour pouring through this build. doing an excellent job so far!!!
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