Projects Tim's (aka anothercarguy) 1938 Ford Club Cabriolet Build Thread

fantastic in every way.

 

Got a quick question for ya. Would you mind snapping a shot of the decklid hinge braces and how the hinges mount under the body on your car? You're the only guy I've found that has any pics of the underside of that part of the body. I'm trying to piece my 38 back together after it got "pickuptized" back in the day. I'm gonna have to replicate or reproduce something for my decklid to mount to, and I want to be as close to original as I can.

Thanks!

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I'll get some photos for you tomorrow.

 

Thanks!!! That'd be awesome!

Thanks!

Greg

 

Thanks...that means a lot coming from a guy with your talents!

 

Check your conversations...I sent you some pictures.

 

I think I'm ready for the next update as I'm almost done with the driver side door. It was ugly...if decent cabriolet doors grew on trees, I'd have fetched a ladder! Given they don't, my option was to dive in on the repair. Here's a bunch of before pictures of what I was up against when most of the primer was removed. The bottom 6-8 inches had previously been patched and repaired a couple times. The original repair consisted of about 1/2" thick lead. On top of that, there was a steel patch that had been rivetted on and on top of that was another 1/4" plus of body filler.

There was plenty of rust through.

The lower hinge mount was really bad!!

And the top front corner, was toasty!

First order of business was again to weld up all the hidden and not so hidden cracks (no pictures, but if you need to see what it was like, you can hold the pictures of the passenger side door up to a mirror). I then decided to tackle the upper front corner as it seemed simple enough. I cut and hammered on some steel until it closely resembled what I thought it should look like. The masking tape with numbers are reference measurements from the leading edge of the patch panel.

 

This is when I thought things might get interesting. Specifically, if I cut away all the rough parts of the door, I would need to somehow hang the hinge in the correct area of space, and then build a door around it. So, before I cut anything further apart or away, I made a jig so I could consistently and correctly locate the hinge. I used some scrap 18 gauge folded on the brake and then strategically stretched on the shrinker/stretcher to follow the roundness of the door and a piece of round rod turned down to the hinge pin diameter with a step/stop for the lower hinge, and then finally a couple small pieces of plate steel that I could screw into to the door handle nuts, and clamp at the edge of the door. Confused yet? Here's a couple pictures to help clarify.

I could then begin cutting away all the stuff I wasn't going to use.

Once most of the rot, was gone, it was time to hang that lower hinge in space, and build a door up to it.
So, with the hinge in place, I just need to build one of these... or something similar.

 

I now removed the passenger door from the car, so I had a mirror image of my target along with the fantastic original I had as a pattern...and the steel cutting and folding began.

You can kind of see where I'm going here right? The problem is the next raised piece that I'm about to build has a curved flange on one side (where it picks up the door skin), so I couldn't use the brake. I've often made little hammer forms to beat the steel into shape, but for this one, I pulled another trick out of the magic toolbox drawer. It's a pretty simple tool and very easy to make. This one, is made from 1/2" aluminum plate (but could be made of steel). The depth of the cut is what controls the size of the flange (5/8" in this case). Enough typing, here's a couple pictures.

And the way it works...you just slowly work your way along the the fold bending a little at a time. I go back and forth maybe 5-6 times to get a 90 degree bend. I finish the fold with a hammer and dolly to tighten up the corner once I'm done with the bending tool.

And here is the curved flange in place (right side edge). I then built the flanged section of the lower door frame to help firm up the door frame.

For the interim, and during test fittings, I drilled the door frame and used 1/4" screw and nuts to bolt the hinge and door together. But, upon final fitting I welded it solid the same as the passenger side. Interesting, I just noticed in the picture below of the passenger door hinge that there is another small crack starting that needs to be welded (note to self...).

Then it was time for a test fit or two.

And, while not an exact copy of my starting point...structurally, I think it has all the components. And from the outside, seems to be a pretty good facsimile.

 

Next up was the outer door skin. Again, I rolled it with the English wheel, however I made the mistake of trying to use the original door bottom as the target shape (like I had on the passenger door). The shape of the original botch repaired door was so far off that I pretty much made a piece of scrap metal. So, I threw that one away and made a second panel using the curvature of the remaining portion of the door skin on top, and the curvature of the lower door frame on the bottom. For the mid section, I matched it up with some cardboard templates that I made using the passenger door as the model. Instead of using the clamps to hold it in place before welding (like I had the passenger door), I used a bunch of speaker and rare earth magnets which allowed me to but the two panels with zero gap. This made it much easier to tig weld.

Again, for anyone trying this at home, after I was done with the tig welding the shrinkage caused the door skin to suck the panel down quite deeply along the weld. As I said before, remain calm and planish out the welded area and the heat affected zone (hammer on dolly).

After a few minutes hammering on dolly back and forth along the weld, it brought it right back to where it needed to be.

I spent some time lightly hammering (off dolly) out the highs and low spots, flipped the door over to add the 1x2" impact crash bar, primed the inside of the door with Rustoleum (actually the Canadian version, Tremclad), installed the Dynamat and then turned my attention to repairing the inner panel. The shape on this inner panel was replicated using the bead roller with the dies set up to create a stepped configuration.
I then re-hung the door, stood back and felt pretty good about saving this piece. I still need to finish gapping the drivers door...but that'll have to wait until Wednesday. Once the doors are finished, next up will be rear fenders, and again, the car has one good side and one pretty rough side.

 

Like your method of metal repair , you are a skilled metal worker !

 

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.

 

You make it seem so easy,nice work.

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Nice work. I try to learn whatever I can from threads like this.

 

Thanks

Thank you...I too have been enjoying watching the progress on your chopped sloper.

 

Nicely done and a very well written/documented tutorial to boot! Thank you!

 

Thank you. It's good to hear that people are appreciating the effort.

 

Welding to something that isn't even there - magic.

 

That is awesome talent!
Makes me realize that I wasted a lot.
Keep the magic coming.

 

Thanks.

Thank you. Wouldn't it be great to be able to go back and save some of the stuff that was deemed unrepairable back in the day! I suspect we all were guilty of either taking a pass on or disposing of cars or parts that would be considered desirable starting points today.

 

I wasted a lot of time not improving my talents, too.

 

Ok nice work, great frame repair, how are you cutting the frame, Plasma? Cutting disk?

 

Thanks, I typically use a cutting disc and sawzall. On the access holes for the boxing plates, I used the plasma cutter (but could have used a hole saw).

 

Great work saving one old Ford

 

Fantastic metalworking skills. Thank you for taking us along for the ride.

 

Thanks guys. I appreciate the kind words.

I thought it might be a good time to give the next update. I decided to work on the passenger rear fender first as it seems to be in the worst condition. Here's a few photos showing what it looked like when I began. Based on the three layers, it appears that it was "fixed" at least twice.

After cutting off the bottom 2" as well as the back 12" of the rear wheel arch, the first thing I did was made a cardboard pattern using the driver's side fender. With the pattern made, I was able to take a 2" wide band of steel, fold a 90 degree bend into it and then work with the shrinker/stretchers to duplicate the shape.

Next came the wheel arch. I bent a piece of 1/2" steel round stock into the desired shape and welded a tab on it so I could clamp it in the vise. I then took another strip of steel about 1 1/2" wide and with the brake, I folded multiple bends into it over the 1/2" in the middle until I had about 120 degrees of a soft cornered bend. I then used the stretcher along the 2 sides to help start the metal to take the shape of the wheel arch. It was then hammered into the finished shape on the wheel arch round stock tool.

 

Once I had the wheel arch and new fender bottom constructed, it was time to put them into place on the fender.
I decided to try and make the rest of the damaged fender area in two pieces. The first was the rear of the fender below the tail light. After cutting the steel to the shape of the cardboard pattern I had made, I hammered it into shape by hand and with the little HF planishing hammer and once satisfied with the shape it was welded into place.. I must have been pretty focused on the task as I didn't remember to take any pictures for you guys. Here's one of the piece welded into place.
So next up was the side of the fender (I've been calling it the cheek). I didn't bother using the old cheek as a pattern as it was too far out of shape. Instead, I made a paper pattern. After cutting the sheet metal to shape (oversized by about 1/2" so that the finished panel could be trimmed to fit after shaping), it went through the first lap of shaping over my knee and leg to begin rounding.

I then began introducing some stretch into the center of the panel with the shot bag and teardrop hammer. The hammer blows were placed closer together in the areas that required the most stretch.

The panel then spent some time on the HF planishing hammer followed by the English wheel to planish out the hammer blows. Once the panel was mostly smoothed out, I spent some time back and forth between the fender and the English wheel trial fitting until I was happy with the shape. I have a friend who describes making a panel on the English wheel as watching a slow motion train wreck...it's going to go off track, in slow motion, and you just watch it happen because there doesn't seem to be anything you can do to stop it. Lol.

By taking my time and slowly sneaking up on the shape I was fortunate as the panel worked out on the first try. Here I'm trial fitting the panel and marking areas that require further shape. The other thing that I'll add here is that I also use the shrinkers (standard and the deep throat) along the top and rear edge to help the panel come around the corner.
Once I was happy with the fit and shape, I tacked it into place with the mig.

And after tig welding, planishing, hammering out the high and low spots, and a lap with the shrinking disc on the grinder to take out a couple bulges this is how it turned out.
I'm satisfied with the results. There remains a few small dings that I need to work out before I start on the driver side.

 

Wow! I originally thought you were an amateur, but now I think you are a ringer. Just a pro stringing us along, pretending that you are feeling your way through this.

 

That's funny. Thanks....lol. Trust me, your original thoughts were/are correct.

 

Dang, you make it look SO easy!
Keep the magic happening!