Projects 53 COOP (Studebaker) gets a major makeover

This should be interesting.

 

Removed top, cleaned up bottom side, cut each post to the lines, and set 'er in place...

 

Dan-
Your wife's reverse replacement doesn't show up on this thread. I can only see it on the email.

 

On post 14732654, I stepped through my plan for the chop. However, sometimes there are problems with a plan that ultimately make things harder and risky. Sometimes, it is through sharing the plan with friends who are assisting on the implementation, that a second or third look along with putting our heads together can improve things immensely. Such is the case:

Here's the REVISED plan:

1. I am using a laser level to mark all cut lines on the A, B, and C pillars. All cuts will be level, so that I can move the top forward to align at the A-pillar. DONE
2. Will be ciutting the back just in front of the window and leave that work for later. DONE
3. Then cutting the A pillar near the top, the B pillar near its top, and the C pillar to remove the leaded seam. DONE
4. Once cut, will remove the top and clean up the inside for good welds. DONE
5. Next grind all posts to the horizontal lines and put the top back on. DONE
6. Then move the top off center to align the A pillaron the passenger side and weld at that pillar. This will offcet the top about 1". DONE BUT ON THE DRIVER'S SIDE AND ONLY ABOUT 7/16"
7. Here's where the change occurs and it is working out very well. Instead of cutting across the whole top, just behind the windshield, I am skipping to what was Item 11, which is to cut along the side line from just ahead of the B pillar, and cut from the side to that lengthwise cut on the same side that I welded the A pillar in place. This allows me to align and shorten/lengthen the top of the door frames and rear quarter window frames on that side. ALMOST DONE IN ABOUT 3 HOURS
8. Now, to widen the windshield, I cut along the rest of the length line, all thru the top of the windshield frame and clamp the whole passenger side by putting temporary patch pieces with Clecos and widen the assembly such that the passenger side A pillar lines up, and weld it in place.
9. Then repeat Item 7 for the passenger side.
10. Cut the passenger side length line and center the top. This will result in a 7/16" gap in the front and a 5/8" gap at the back, on each side, which will be filled with 18 GA strips and a lot of hammer welding (By the way, I'm old fashion and am gas welding the seams.)
11. Rework the rear window frame and filler panels between the rear top and the re-sloped rear window frame.

Sound like a better plan? I think so. My fears of taking on this chop are lessening...

Here are some pics. Forget the mess. I just wanted to get something posted.











Later......

 

Coming out great! Looking forward to the next post!

 

Could you not sink the entire rear window and frame to line up with the chop? It's more cutting, but less hassle with the glass.

 

Yes, I could. However, when I did as you suggest on the computer, leaning the glass and frame just didn't look right.

My my original intent was to bury the window glass in the trunk. However, the pinch weld would have to go away and thus the sheet metal work would be much more severe. and that makes the seal and window trim mounting really funky.

So, my first try will be to cut the upper rear window frame to fit the chop of the forward portion of the top (which I probably am going to flatten the back slope.). By temporarily clamping the cut piece so that I can see what the profile looks like, I may then change my mind somewhat and raise or lower the cut piece until it pleases me.

Long story short, I think that the end game includes making it look like Lowey/Bourke did it, but chopped. That includes getting the trim and rubber seal right, so a new window is, in my opinion, the right way to go for me.

I really appreciate your input.

 

Very rough, but it should look something like this with a chopped rear window. Never noticed how far the roof on these cars slopes backwards, but it's really pronounced.

 

The chop is coming along. After cutting and welding the driver side quarter window, I cut the rest of the way forward above the door on that side. Then I moved the loose assembly toward the passenger side to align the A pillar on that side. Then I did the rear quarter on the passenger side.

Unfortunately, I was a little careless on that side and the rain gutter did not line up right, so today I cut that out and redid it:



So next I cut the center portion from the passenger side and centered it between the A pillars. I am now in the process of welding in place at the front. Next I will work both sides toward the back. Getting close to cutting the back window frame......



So I have written about the rear window replacement and have made my decision to have a lexan window made.

And the story continues. After the people at Vanishing Point, a drag car fabricator in Queen Anne, Maryland, recommended Pro Glass, in Illinois, to make a lexan window, and that was confirmed by The Chicago Glass Guy, who will be cutting a windshield for me, I contacted Bob at Pro Glass.

It was originally my understanding that I would need to make a mold (or buck) for him to make the window. Last week I contacted him to make sure the window would be flexible, such that I could make the buck by using the stock glass as a mold for fiberglass. Instead, he checked his invintory and it turns out he has a mold for a '53 Stude rear window. He will be making a window for me his week!!!

THIS IS TURNING OUT BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD..........

Later

 

And if anyone's wondering, the rear glass in a Studebaker C/K coupe is the same from '53 to '61.

 

Yep. fits all C & K including Hawks. And I will have a leftover like-new stock, tempered-glass rear window. Anybody want it?

 

My brother married Barb Ruddick in 1965 anyway her dad was Ben Ruddick and he was an instructor at GMI in Flint. I was 12 years old and he took me on a tour of GMI was trying hard to get me to prep to get in there, never did but what a great guy! Do you remember him?
Really enjoying your posts.

 

I'm going to be 79 next Tuesday. Sometimes I cannot remember what I had for dinner last night.

Sorry, the name doesn't ring a bell. I just remember my favorite class was Manufacturing Processes. We made patterns, cast aluminum gear blanks, and machined them. We learned some welding processes. It was neat! Now my grandson is in college learning to be a mechanical engineer. Ain't that neat!

 

Progress report:

The rear window arrived from Pro Glass last Wednesday. The UPS guy was carrying a 4" deep box. I am thinking, "Oh crap! He made the windshield, not the back window!

No, after opening the box with some difficulty, I was wrong. The window sprung back to a curve that matches the original glass. Bob says to cut it to size using a medium TPI wood-cutting blade in a saber saw, and fininshing it with a DA sander along the edge. It will also be flexible enough to fit the new shape. I am stoked!



Cutting and welding continues with some change in practices:

First, I had finished the passenger side rear quarter window fit-up, I needed to have the top curvature be the same on both sides. The driver side was what I was shooting for, so I cut a 2x4 template from that side and clamped it on the other side. It registers on the rear window frame and allows me to pull the sheet metal above the drip rail up to that curvature:



Then I made a similar template from the top of the rear window frame and clamped it in place at the rear end of the top:



Next, I added drip rail and filler metal at the two sides of the windshield and remove the cross brace:



So now it is on to filling the gaps the rest of the way along the sides. After fighting clamping in place with limited success, I made a couple of adjustable posts at the center to boost up the curve and cut a bunch of curved 1" x1/8" x 4" bars to hold the sheet metal for filling in the gaps. I Cleco'ed them in place about every 6" along the length. I am only going to fill the gap about 2/3 back for now, to allow getting the curvature to the rear window frame how I want it.





After I cut a filler strip and held it in place with rear earth magnets, I found that gas welding JUST DOESN'T WORK! The thin strip dances out of place when heated, so I switched to MIG.





So far, I have tacked the strip in place and will continue today. 'Tis coming along well. I'm pleased and I'm the only one i have to please!

Will keep the updates coming.....

 

Time for an update.....

Now I am at the stage for modifying the rear window and aligning the rear part of the slope to fit the profile:

First I bent a flat bar to fit the curvature of the rear glass/lexan. Then established where to cut the sides of the frame, cut it at the top of the cut, and cut it about 1/4" less down for a total of 1-3/4". Thus, I could make sure the final placement was right. Ultimately, I ended up with a 2" cut that looked right to me.





As you can see, the overall slope curve looks smooth, but the frame top curve sticks up a little.



Next, I screwed the cutout from my 2x4 pattern underneath the top, just forward of the back end. This will hold the forward part curvature stable and matching with the window frame side-to-side curve:



So now it was time to decide how to fix that window frame curve: 1) cut it away and piece in a new panel, or 2) slit it along the width of the window, tap it down in sections, and fill in the gap with the top.

Not being a perfectionist metal worker, I chose the latter:



So that's as far as I got yesterday. I'm writing this as my garage heats up a little (Baby, it's cold outside...)

Later.....

 

Another update....

Progress has continued as I fill in the empty spots with strips of 18 Ga.:









So now I have all the filler strips tacked in place and it's time to chop the door frames:



Then I gotta get busy finish welding all those seams....

See ya.....

 

You're nailing this build, I love that the chop isn't severe, my preference on customs is when the modifications are done like putting makeup on a woman, it looks best when you don't really notice the makeup, just that she is beautiful made up!

 

Thanks, Dick.
When I did the chop on my computer (in PowerPoint), I just liked the way it looked, which turned out to be about 2". Besides, with the slight extension of the rear fenders with the cut-down Packard taillights, a severe chop would look too long.

Here's where I laid the Packards in place:

 

I had to break door hinge bolts loose to correctly adjust the doors. Driver side is already adjusted, but today I finally got 5 of the 6 bolts loose. Had to drill the last bolt out to the tap drill side (I) of a 5/16-24 NF thread...a pain in the butt. Finaly got it lined up and made the first step in chopping the frame:



The rest is easy, by comparison. This sure isn't like chopping a Model T!

later.....

 

knowing absolutely nothing about this--why did you not try and start w/ the front of the door w/ angle(s)?easier to fake in the square anytime later maybe?

 

I wanted to put the approximately 2-1/2" horizontal filler piece near the front portion, so I wanted the longest continuos top part to eyeball the alignment with the driprail. The vertical post is the easiest to do, so I guess that is where I did it. But, no good reason, actually.

 

'Been cutting, welding, and grinding

Pert' near done

So, thinking down the line, I have been trying to find the best way to make a pattern for the rear window. From what I've seen on the YouTube videos, people frequently use "chipboard". So what is chipboard? Well, for one thing it really is cardboard, although "cardboard" is really known as corrugated board in the industry (I once did a project for a corrugated board manufacturer, and was warned not to call it cardboard).

Well, I really couldn't find a local source for chipboard in large sheets, so I turned to Harbor Sales in Sudlersville, MD, for Komatex sheets. Komatex and Sintra are closed-cell PVC panels used in the sign business. I have used it in 3mm sheets for door panels. It doesn't curl up, is really stable, materials can be glued to it, and it can be stapled (if warm enough and not too long of staples used. I checked at a local sign company and they looked it up for thinner material. It was available in 2mm thickness!

The up side is they don't charge for delivery. The down side is they deliver at night....last night at 1:30 AM!!

So today, being a bit bored by welding and grinding about 522 inches of weld, I decided to try making a pattern:









I found the a flat small cheese grater body shaper really works well for shaping the edges:



I carefully used a heat gun to try to give the curve some "memory". It kinda works:



It's about 1/4" oversize all around, so later I will cut the lexan per the pattern and trim it to suit, but using the rubber in place. Don't want it to end up short!

For now I will be cleaning it all up to put on DTM Epoxy primer and start using magic mud (I like 3M products) and sanding. I'm going to pull off the doors and do them on stands.

I also sent the pot metal window trim to the plater. Some just to get the plating removed so I can modify it, and some to get restored and chromed because it doesn't get modified along the sills.

Bye for now.....

 

For some reason i had missed a lot of your progress lateley.
But the chop come out great.

 

WOW, this is like chopping an ice cream cone!

 

UPDATE!
So this weekend I ran an experiment. I needed to make a template for the windshield cut to send to Glass Guy Chicago. Using the old windshield and my measurements before cutting, I used the 3mm Komatex PVC panel material and traced the windshield and shortened it just under 3" along the top, widening the cut by moving the corners to the windshield edge. So far so good.

Then I decided to copy what I read on a thread by a fellow whose handle was RAGGERBILL (or somethin like that). He cut a windshield for his sectioned and chopped early 50s Chevy. He used a Cubitron cutoff disc in a die grinder and WD40 as a lubricant. So I thought I would try is on the old glass, which is fogged at the bottom and has wiper scratches.

Anybody know what happened to the Raggerbill thread?



It worked pretty well, although I did learn a few things about cutting it as I went. Ultimately, I wanted to check the fit in the frame with the rubber in place.

1. I shotrened the rubber seal 5-1/8" and superglued the joint. So far so good.
2. I had a helluva time getting the rubber onto the glass. I didn't want to add lubricant at this time. So I worked it on and used pieces of Gorilla Tape to hold it in place. So far so good.
3. I installed weedwacker string around the perimeter. So far so good
4. I put it in place on the frame and used a tie-down strap to help pull it into position. So far so good.
5. So then it was not so good.....
6. I bought the rubber seals about 10 years ago from a Studebaker restoration parts place. No problem there, yet.....
7. However, I never could get the assembly seated in the frame. The #*@$! rubber seals are too thick and NEVER would have worked, even with a stock windshield and repro glass!

I SURE AM GLAD IT TRIED IT FOR PROPER FIT!

So then I made an $80 seal into a windshield template fitting set (I ordered a replacement seal today):



It turned out I had to take off 1/8" all around and increase the corner radii to have it fit right!

My confidence level is rising..... I will have Chicago Glass Guy cut the windshield and ship it to a local auto glass guy who has a good reputation regarding mounting street rod and old car glass.

So later today, I cut down the first of the stainless trim for the windshield posts. The top trim is long enough that I will not have to splice it due to the widening of the top, and the bottom will be stock. each of those slide into the post pieces which have an edge bead that looks very similar to my dash panel that I engine turned and rolled the edge bead. So I cut it down and rolled an edge bead for one half and shaped the other half into a tongue that slides into the beaded edge:







I've done enough blathering for now....

See ya

 

If it is the same i thinking of it got locked becouse to many pics on the homebuilt m2 frontend.

 

Top Chop Continues......

So it is now time to start fininshing the top. I am not going to be doing all of the body work at one time, so I have finished the welding on the top (pretty much ) so now to hit the magic mud:

First I cleaned up the whole surface to clean metal, acid etched it, and then rolled on 2 coats of black Eastwood DTM Epoxy primer. I used a really short knap roller with a paint that was made to be sprayed.





I really didn't care about the smoothness of the finish, as it really is for the best bond to the metal before body working.

However, here's a closeup of the surface, which I thought looked like it had a lot of air bubbles:



It turned out they were more like pimples (no air), so I was good to go for application of the magic mud, bondo, polyester body filler, or whatever you want to call it. I use 3M Platinum Select Filler and have seen absolutely no pinholes.

So now it is ready to start block sanding. Note the 5.5-inch high platform I threw together. I sure helps, especially with my new shoulder!



We'll see how the sanding goes tomorrow. See ya after the dust settles....

 

Very cool project to follow along with, thanks for posting it