I have found on 567 Chevys the hatch gap and trunk gap on sedans and hardtops close up over time I know the trunk/hatch didn't grow so the hole has to have closed up. I have used a combination of pushing the opening bigger with a porta power and then lining up my gaps with your method. Nice work. 58 Chevys do the same thing but later ones not so much.
Worked tonight on building new mounting brackets for the 55's battery tray.. This bracket supports the battery tray, bolts to the core support.. This bracket spot welds to the bottom of the tray and bolts to the inner fender. This bracket goes on the wheel side of the inner fender well as a backer to bolt through. The tabs spot weld to the ends of the tray for the battery hold downs.. Now just need to finish drilling holes and weld the parts to the "new" tray..
Thanks for the comments! Had a bit of time in the shop this evening, so I worked some more on the rear of the wagon... I had left the outer part of the lower repair patch's seam of the lift gate (going through the bead detail) un-welded until the flanges all got folded, so tonight I got one side of that finished up... Then the welds were cleaned up and some more tweaking of the tailgate gaps.... Much better...
Got the tail gate and lift gate gaps done this evening. Now on to some quarter panel weld planishing..
Another item to get crossed off the list, there was a questionable spot on the drip rail above the lift gate. After cutting it out, this appears to be the factory seam for joining two sections. Looking at the profile, we'll add the top hem first... Then a radius die and the skateboard wheel in the bead roller was used to add the profile to the replacement... The area where the hem adds another thickness is chamfered to insure good weld penetration... All welded in place and welds dressed... Much better!
I wish you had been doing this thread when I was building our wagon,We could have learned a few tricks. HRP
One of the best how-to threads ever. Thanks for your efforts in both the descriptions and the great pics.
Thanks for all the comments! A few months ago, I had bought a 60" Starrett rule. One of the first things I checked with it was the vertical weld that joined the 4 door NOS quarter on the drivers side of the 55. Previous to this the largest rule I had was a 24", which did not show the deflection as well. When the 60" rule spanned the joint, it showed a pronounced high spot at the vertical weld instead of the gradual crown that the panel should have. I'm not one to overload something with bondo to cover up something like this, so the vertical weld as well as part of the horizontal was sliced open to re-adjust the panel and get the correct contour. After the slicing was complete, despite the panels coming together slightly, the gap was slightly wider than the first time welded. The butt weld clamps did not work all that well in keeping the panels where they needed to be, and after about the third time of the square peg falling out of the hole, I made a slight modification to better keep the peg from falling out. About one third the way down, the peg was punched on all four sides to keep from falling out. Although I didn't get pictures of this part, the modified clamp worked especially well in gapping the horizontal weld joint to better fit the profile template for the crown of the panel. Basically with the peg no longer falling out, the portion of the butt weld clamp shown above was used to pull out on the panel until it filled the profile template, then the panels were tacked at that point. Move another couple inches, repeat. This got the vertical crown back where it should be. This was process was repeated for the vertical weld to correct the horizontal crown along the length of the quarter, checking across the vertical seam with the 60" rule. This picture was taken afterwards with the smaller rule so I could hold all the components and the camera, but gives an idea how the "partial clamp" was used to get the panel's crown correct. I don't typically used gaps in welding panels, was kinda forced into this to get the crown corrected, so I needed to make a copper backing tool. I had some rare earth magnets so I used one along with some flattened copper pipe. Note the magnet is ever so slightly raised to insure the copper is pulled good and snug to the panel.. Each use will tend to leave the copper soot covered, so I used a welding brush to clean the copper between each weld. Welds all complete, just a few left to planish and dress, then some panel bumping and we should have one more thing crossed off the list..
Thanks guys! Back to some finish work on the driver's quarter, we do have a few low spots to address. Where the wheelwell and rearward offers quite spacious accommodation for hammer work within the quarter, the window area forward of the rear wheel does not fall in the same category. So as much as it pains me, one of the Snap On body hammers was given a top chop.. Yeah, this will do the trick... For a dolly on the outside, the small shot bag is used to promote small, controllable stretches. After the hammer work, placing the rule at a slight angle across the seam to use as a profile gauge, the area is much better than before. This should hold this spot until paint. For now, another item checked off the list... Moving to the other side, got about half of the quarter's weld seam ground flush on the outside, more to come.
Doesn't look like much progress but got more grinding done on the quarter panel seams, a little over 6' of weld length done. Here's where the stainless rated cutoff wheels work so well. When I was using the cheap discs (the brown cloud makers) this much weld would have taken well over two discs to grind. One stainless rated disc did this amount, and diameter went from 3" to 2-1/2, so still have quite a bit left in it.. new disc after tonight's grinding So despite how appealing those cheap cutoff wheels may be to those on a tight budget, cheap ain't always cheap. The stainless rated wheels are the only ones I buy anymore, money ahead. Here's the weld grinding process...
Yes, will be documenting complete process. Here's the last major paint job that was done.... While you're waiting. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86935
I'm dreading this car being completed. Thank you for taking the time and effort to photograph and explain your processes as you go along. Many (most!) of us are way down at the other end of the skill / experience / talent scale, and use this as an educational resource. I learn something every time I check into this thread, and it has prompted me to attempt some things I might have backed away from in the past.
Another fine job on the Ford. So this means you are an equal opportunity metal magician both the Chevy and a ford LOL.
My buddy Dan was doing some mechanical work on a 59(?) Vette that needed some under hood help.. Epoxy.... Hot Rod black.... He said the worst thing about me painting this was it made the hood hinges look like crap, so he had to strip them and get out the Krylon silver Got some more done on the wagon last night. I had picked up a few cans of Dykem real cheap at the local Habitat store, so I thought I'd give that a try for guide coating. It seemed to work well, and the translucent properties of the Dykem showed up darker in the low areas after sanding/highlighting (especially after more than one coat) to better show the lows. Used the AFS sander and some 400 grit to highlight the defects... High's and lows Here's the tools used this evening, including the creeper Got a couple hours of metal bumping left to do, will post results next time around...
Thanks for the comments guys! The shop's new apprentice started last night, so hopefully we can post project updates a bit more frequently We did some more metal bumping on the roof repair. We had some high spots to address, so Kyle held the shot bag on the inside while I used the body hammer on the outside. I used the blunted pick end of this hammer to address the narrow high spots. I've found it helps to more precisely locate your "strike area" by laying a guide finger next to it. Tap down the area, move to the next.... We did have a larger high spot that made use of the hammer face, and on the bottom side Kyle held the donut dolly in place. This made short work of bringing down the high spots.. Note the "graduated" markings on the roof are also on the inside to keep inside guy and outside guy on the same page with hammer and dolly alignment.
Yes, that should work well Dave.. Today we worked on tying up some loose ends. We had a slight mis-alignment at the front corner of the passenger door.. The lower hinge had already been adjusted as far as the floating nut would let it... So the door was removed, and since we have no milling machine, we went through about 8 of these 60 grit sanding discs.. For a better comparison, here's the before again... After
The Jalopy Journal
