Thanks! Tonight I made a small sample to test the fold of the window opening. Well actually, a few samples, as I started off by producing a small pile of scraps.....about three tries unsuccessfully, then this one, beginning with using the bead roller tipping wheel.... This is about as far as it would go, and with the good piece already having bends at the bottom, would be a bit less once tried on that piece. This will require a custom made "anvil" for some hammer action... The donor: As modified: .....then for some manual tipping... Comparison to the original.... This looks close, next task will be to cut a sample out of the original and see how close we actually are...
Cool beans on the metal work, I can see this as one fine DBL.NKL. You should be very happy with the results !!
OK, enough of the practice pieces, time to finish the rest of the bends. Just to make sure we don't need any "tweaking", I'll cut a profile sample out of the center. This spot weld one the inner flange is far enough away so I won't need to grind out a spot weld, and still have enough of that flange for a good measurement. In other words, removed with minimal effort where it still holds it's shape accurately. Our profile template: Just to compare to our test sample, looks like the inner flange was bent down a bit much in the manual hammering, will have to ease up a bit... Outside profile looks good enough to leave alone! Following the measurement used on the test sample, the panel is run through the bead roller's tipping wheel nice and slow to give us an initial mark for the bend, then repeated to tip the flange downward... This looks about all we'll get without distorting and pulling, so then it's off to the custom anvil... Then for some manual tipping... ...and comparing to our profile sample...... Ready to cut off the old next time...
Thanks! Well tonight's task was to remove the bottom detail of the lift gate and sandblast the remaining structure in prep for epoxy primer. The lower edge did have a flange folded up, so a slit was cut along the edge and the door skin vise grips were put to use... Next, the spot welds inside were ground out..... Media blasting..... nice to finally see through the glass! The media blasting revealed a few more holes, and numerous pits, many of them close to breaking through. With all the other new metal going in the bottom, there's only one thing to do. Using the tipping wheel.......... Comparing to the pitted version..... Next we'll need to do some corking to add the trim hole pad details.
Now to address the mounting pads for the window molding.... Here's the new "anvil", made from some phenolic sheet..... Put an alignment mark on the anvil, fitted it to the originals, and added the mark there as well. Then transposed those marks to the new piece... Anvil was located, and clamped in the vise to hold it's location Started with the barrel end hammer..... For the ends, I used a rounded tip chisel.... ....and then another "anvil" to clean up the hammer marks a bit... Here's all the tools used.... Touched up a bit with a sanding disc, looks close enough.... One down, 4 to go...
Last night I worked to finish up the pad details on the inner structure of the lift gate.... The center one was wider, so I used the same phenolic and just added a wider detail to the opposite side. I missed showing this earlier, but a handy-dandy battery saw works well to remove the bulk of the material, sawing parallel cuts and then just working the saw side to side to clear out the remaining.... Once cut out, the sanding disc is used to cut down the angled sides and touch up the bottom.. This compares the two, showing the difference in width... Alignment marks transposed from the original, and guide marks indicate the area in need of hammering... I had a request to show the hammering procedure, so here's another video attempt. The first one is using the phenolic anvil clamped against the work piece in the vise, the second uses 1" square stock as an anvil to clean up the hammer marks a bit... http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmcc...y Wagon Restoration Album 3/Video232.mp4.html ...also sounds like I have a loose hammer handle, something for another day.... Then the sanding disc was used for final cleanup. Here's the finished piece, just needs a couple holes drilled....
Wow, that's how its done huh? Unreal, you make it look easy... Can I ask how many hours you think you will have in the gate alone?
Damned awesome work! I just found your thread right now and am seriously impressed with what I see. I think what gets me most is your choice of doing this all with a mig welder. I too run a shop that puts out damn nice quality stuff, but I do get bugged all the time because I too prefer to work with a mig. "Can't work the welds", "too much splatter", "burn through" "all those little chunks of wire sticking through the inside"... It's all in knowing how to do it, and approaching this skill in a craftsmanly way as you have proved so nicely in pictures in this thread! You sir ROCK!!!
Thanks for all the kind words fellas.. In the lower tailgate (this thread), enough to have bought a brand new one. Of course, they didn't offer any tailgates until about 45 minutes after I was done. The upper gate, I think I have about 10 hours so far, including the gapping...Shouldn't be much more than about 4 hours to go.... :fingers crossed:
Back to the lift gate, the spot welds in the bottom piece were drilled out. This revealed a couple more pits, which were media blasted and MIG welded. All cleaned up, the new piece is plug welded on.... Then the inner panel is fitted up and tacked in place.... Top flange clamped to check the fit..... That's about it until next time...
Finishing up the welding of the inner bottom panel....used a 3/16 hole for the plug welds this time. I normally use a letter A, but the flange here is a bit narrow, so a smaller hole it is. To make up for it the heat on the welder was cranked up a bit to insure a good weld. Looking at the back side, these should hold well. All the plug welds done, then on to the corner seams..... and after cleaning up the welds..... Then we'll clean up the plug welds on the flange, media blast the inside for good paint adhesion and some epoxy primer before closing it up..
Didn't get much accomplished tonight but grinding on some plug welds. I've had a few inquiries in the past as to my weld grinding process, so I thought I'd use the opportunity for another video..... .
Tonights repair was to duplicate one of these mounting blocks for the lift gate's gas strut. The good one... ...not so good... Used a hole saw to provide some radiused ends and the 3" cutoff wheel to cut out all the torn and ragged metal.. A piece of 19ga is tacked and welded....note the original color.... Cut out a piece from a steel angle, drilled and tapped the three 10-24 holes. This was bolted in place using anti-seize on the screw threads to prevent galling during the weld process.. then plug weld holes drilled and welded from the outside.. Plug welds cleaned up, checking the threads for burrs... And for next time, we have one more piece to add while the bottom is still open, the floating nut plate for the tailgate latch....
Thanks! Moving on to the next task, removing the "cage nut" from the old piece... This was a good opportunity to demonstrate using the cutoff wheel for removing spot welds... http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmcc...estoration Album 3/RemovingSpotWelds.mp4.html Here's the cage removed, the spot weld removal method leaves it nice and intact for getting good measurements for the new one... A fresh piece of 18ga and some red Dykem, and our new cage is underway.... Slots.... All ready for some media blasting and epoxy paint...
Thanks! Tonight I trimmed the lower edge of the lift gate to get the final repair part fitted up. Once both ends of the lift gate were trimmed, looking at the surface profile you can see we need a bit more crown at the ends of the repair part. To add some crown, the lower flanges on the ends were folded flat and used the Erco to shrink the bottom flange. The multiple bends toward the top were another story, a 1/4 beading die lightly pushing into a skateboard wheel, and the ends were pushed in and pulled up while exiting. Here's the results... Oh yeah.....you can see the top of the welding table again! Next task on the list will be to form/fold the ends..
Another slight detour.... I need to stop looking for this stuff....or is it looking for me? This pinch weld showed swelling between the two sheets, and a closer inspection showed some rather thick scale... Out with the old... Test fit of the new... The exposed metal was media blasted, as was the inside of the newly made patch....and some epoxy primer added... We'll let that dry and then get it welded in place. And just to show the makeshift clamping system for cutting, grinding, and painting in an awkward spot......
I really enjoy metal fabrication and these old wagons seem to require a ton of it. BTW,I have never seen tie raps used in metal fabrication and I realize there have been a few times in my life they would have been the ticket for holding pieces together,,,thinking outside the box at it's finest! HRP
Thanks guys! With the epoxy well cured, holes were drilled for plug welds.... Then used the modified plug weld bit for cleaning out the adjacent panel... Cleaned spots for the plug welds... I had some questions about how well the epoxy held up to heat from welding. The epoxy next to the weld above, where it turned brown from the heat, was allowed to cool off, then attempted to scrape the paint with my thumbnail. I thought it may scrape some off, but it held tight, not so much as a scratch. Then I got on a roll and forgot pictures, but here's the patch all welded in.... Next, drilled the holes in the lower window opening.... .....and got the holes placed for the nut plate and it's plug welds... Hopefully tomorrow we can get some profile blocks cut out to fold over the ends of the outer piece...
Just out of curiosity, Is their some kind of special meaning to you in this car or do you just like doing the metal work? or did someone tell you that you couldnt build this car? It seems like Ive watched you build on this car here and other forums for years, Did you just get in too deep to turn back? If you had a chance to do it over,would you have started with a better car? Im glad to see another 55 saved and your work is exceptional but man that sure seems like a lot of work for a fairly common car. What drives you? Is it just the challenge?
I have been working on this car for years, but it has not been without distraction. I had two other cars, not quite as extensive in repairs, that this owner did agree to pushing this one back to accomodate. Hindsight, I should have continued on. I changed day jobs a few years back to a different employer, and it has involved extensive travel, where the previous did not. So spending 7 months out of 2 years in UK, and 5 months this year travelling to northern MD has really put a damper on shop time. The owner bought this car online from a classic car dealership, going by pictures, and I will say she did ask all the right questions. Once the car arrived, it was easy to tell she had been lied to. Phone calls made it worse, they indicated that even though they lied, the car was also sold as is, and invited her to take them to court. So the repairs that should have been minor, based on an ad description, have ended up quite extensive to get the car where it should be. Another job on a pickup for her used reproduction doors, which did not fit well at all. So for this vehicle, she has leaned toward repairing something where feasible over reproductions. Where considerable time goes into a part like this, in the case of the lower tailgate that was rebuilt, at the time the only thing offered was the outer skin. Now you can buy the complete tailgate. (I think they came out about five minutes after I was done.) On this lift gate, what initially looked like it would be a somewhat straightforward repair in replacing one piece has quickly escalated. I will say it has made me think through some shaping issues and made me more confident in making such parts. Of course, where good used or donor pieces are an option, you never know how truly rust free a donor piece is until you get it. I did receive a real nice A pillar from a junkyard in CO that I installed on this car, but during the installation found that there was pitting and rust holes on the inner layer that needed repair prior to installation. So even using donor pieces, the rust bugs have plagued me! To my knowledge the lift gate is not reproduced, but look for it in another month or so.. I do enjoy metalwork, and look for the challenge when backed into a corner.
Every one of the long involved wagon builds on the Hamb,which there are several, all have different reasons behind them and if you will spend some time reading them it will be apparent that the challenge,the love and sometimes the pigheadedness are just a few reasons to bring these wagons back to life. Bottom line,if it was easy everyone would do it. HRP
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