Projects Truck into a coupe- My next pet project

It drys well and sands off nice,
The dust is blue

Thank you

 

btt

 

Almost,

 

,,,,this is what I get for talking shit about having 350 hrs into a custom grill.

I was ready to tack the center split in.
Then the closer I get, the more details I see that I see that I didn't see before. I actually thought about a scoop of mud to get the radius corners blended in at the center and to build the bull nose against the glass out of mud. It will still need a tiny bit of body filler- it's body filler not body builder

 

Looks great. You will have lots of practice before tackling those garnish moldings!

 

CAUTION!! You may be channeling the spirits that smeared mud under the red paint. Take a deep breath and carry on, your doing a great job.

 

I've started to ponder those garnish moldings. finding myself distracted amongst the details.
Then I remembered that I need to get the damn Window done and a interior halo structure plan to to even begin the garnish moldings. They will be free of curved pieces traveling around compound curves though.

 

Maybe a tack strip and some really thick fuzzy windless type stuff? Quick, easy and attractive!

 

Maybe on a Caddy Pimpmobile, perhaps....

 

Time to Turn that attic fan on, you're succumbing to the heat

 

So we started over on the split.
Then started over again figuring third time is a charm.
Nope- it was the 4th attempt.
That 4th attemp started last Saturday night around 10:30 after shelving the 3rd.
pulled an all nighter last Saturday and got it to here at around 1:30 or so. I monkeyed around with it for another 2 hours till 3:30 finessing the minutely and detailed imperfections.

The full size templet pinpoints the cause of the 2 problems the eyes picked up.
1 The transitions needed to be much further away from each other into the window on the bottom.
2 the trajectories Of the top curves met and Crossed each other 1/2" to the right of center line. Again beginning the transitions further apart solve that.
Makes for a bigger piece with more shape.








Beginning the cut in process

Filler templates

My buddy grabbed one side and I grabbed the other .

This is the first real test fit. The 238 prior test fits were just practice. Needs the last minor adjustments

After much help and many hours
Finally, finally, finally it's tacked in.


The flange needs a gentle tap and push as we go around tacking.

 

looks good.

 

Thanks !

 

Holy CRAP! Whats up with the Arrow!! PM if you want. Local guy had a street/strip one with a tunnel ram 440 years ago, wicked fast street car.

 

Hats off to you . Perseverance pays off eventually.

 

That looks really nice. And only 250 hours to make the back window

 

Too cool! keep up the good work and vision.

 

I think you got it right.

 

Dude, that depends on where you start counting hours from.
Last week Saturday after figuring it out, Well that's about 30 hrs between 2 of us which includes fitting it into the hole.
If you count from the time of the first templates way back when including the learning curve and making wall art parts and contemplating, head scratching then it's closer to 1000

 

Well for sure nobody but us HAMB members will ever know it was a truck.

 

I saw it there the whole time.
November 2014

January 2016

March 2016

Got a little bit done in the last 2 months
Pet project,

 

And, like everything else you've done here, the rear windows look like they were always that way. Just so right. You really have a great eye. Thanks, too, for sharing the experience.

 

Deck lid skin on the table tonight.

 

The previous deck lid ( a little rusty one) had a tight gap on lower drivers side and not enough crown. It was from 18 ga cold rolled.

This is a brand new skin made from 19ga AkDQ steel. Much easier to get some shape & The deck lid frame is actually the buck so gaps should be better.

A shrinking disc works awesome on the stray wheel marks too. It will chase them from either side of the panel too, Like a magic eraser
Not quite there yet but on its way.



After wheeling in the shape and crown, the skin was clecoed into the frame. The edges were trimmed and scribed for the tipping wheel. Awhile back I raised my shrinker so the deck lid would fit in above the pedal. It just needs edge work tuning and corners.

 

Well, shit the bed!
Here's an interesting development.
And I hadn't noticed this till a few weeks ago when I tried like hell to get this drivers side 1/4 panel flat. No matter what I did the 1/4 wouldn't play nice and lay flat. Sure I could slather it in mud with love. I knew there was an issue, but had no clue what it was.

We sectioned off and marked and measured the depth around the radius



Here's the passenger side and this 1/4 panel sits really nice.


Here's the drivers side
Since the tape on the tires is equal to the tires on both sides, that's a big problem on the drivers side. Funny that There's been 100 pairs of professional eyes on this car and none picked that up, including myself. It shows up in the 1/4 panel though. Most guys wouldn't do this.

-
-
-
Made relief cuts to move the lump in.


That kinda worked but there was no way to get it right.

So the 1/4 came off.
We worked really hard to get the bead back to the right place. It wasn't going well at all. Waisted efforts. So we cut the lower bead off too.

Then we could the bottom 1/2 of the lower bead moved into the right place.

Made a new 1/4 panel with the bead on it.
Here's the first trial fit.

Really happy with this.

oh and remember these?

Tail pan return corners. They were close, and have been in long ago.
But they lacked over 1/4" of height thru the corner.



These fit much nicer without plastic body builder

 

You are one DEDICATED to perfection guy. A man after my own heart. Between this work and all that was done to a "finished" coupe you are the man.

 

That scrap metal pile just keeps growing

 

I knew you'd cheerlead me right on through Larry.
There's lots of parts that are hanging on the wall because they weren't right, a few are on the roof cause they really pissed me off, more than one part got kicked across the parking lot.

This is one step back and 2 steps forward, usually it's one step forward and two back.

You know theres propably 5 times the hours into trying to fix that quarter than to make the new quarter panel. Granted I still need to weld it in and all that yet so the time will grow yet,,,,


Next up is new door skins. I have 3-1/2 sheets of steel so I should be ok

 

It really is quite the experience being so picky, isn't it ?
I can relate
But we are having fun. Aren't we ?

 

I know the door skins were supposed to be next.
But one good quarter deserves another right?





Maybe it's should be "good quarter panels are like potatoe chips, you can't have just one"