Damn, Dude, that car is off the charts cool ! The engineering and execution of the frame & rear suspension are most impressive... the proportions, lines and workmanship on the body are pure genius! Probably one of the best looking sedans I've ever seen!!
Now that the left side was working with the 40 door, it was time to move to the other side. This was not so easy because the other 40 door was complete toast. Rusted through top to bottom, bent, crumpled etc. Here is the skin: Sloper doors are not easy to find, so the solution was to lengthen a Fordor door. Luckily I had some 38 Fordor doors on hand! This is how much I needed to stretch one (old pic from years ago): To make it work, I took a filler strip from a rear door and used the inner from the 40 door which needed only minor rust repair. In doing this a few things become apparent, the main thing being the taper differences both vertically and front to back. The longer sloper doors continue to taper thinner towards the rear. The Fordor versions being shorter are still quite a bit thicker at the rear. You notice this particularly in the area above the beltline to the glass opening as well as the B pillar. To get around this I basically cut out material, pie cut etc. This is the really rough result when I restarted this project (I had to reacquaint myself with what I had done): I thought it was so bad I’d need a new skin, but as you’ll see, once I picked up where I left off and finished it properly, it wasn’t so bad. Here we start with the cut and paste with the inner from the shit sloper door: As you can see, I also used the upper jamb section attached to the sloper door inner. The lower jamb of the Fordor door needed a vertical pie cut to thin it enough to blend to the sloper upper. So far so good. But before any more permanent work, lots of cleaning! With some metal finishing the multi piece skin is starting to look okay and fits the door hole. 40 inner panel in place. The lower end of the diagonal brace was no good so I made a fresh one. Painted inside for some protection. Never fear, the bottoms of both doors will ne replaced.
I agree Awesome work! DId you find this sloper sitting in a creek laying on it's drivers side? You certainly have vision. As in the ability to see what you want something to be despite what you are actually looking at.
Who knows what the history of the doors were! As I say, With the Frankenstein body I got two '40 doors. All someone else's cast offs. Actually two doors is a bit of a stretch. More like one and an idea of a door. You know what they say when you get lemons.
Door hanging in there, still working on the slanting b pillar and door top. Next will be reconstructing the bottoms of both doors. The bare area on the quarter panel is old collision damage and lead filler. I was to find out down the track that the affects of this hit were wider spread.
You'll see in the last pic that I had repaired some rust holes in the usual cowl location under the hinges. Was likes this: Then button time again:
Then it was time to address the bottom of the door. Mmm, all bad so serious attention needed. First up I made these bits (one for each door): Then cut the rubbish away. I'm just about losing count of how many pieces are in this door. But first I blasted the rust... and thought about the outside skin. The solution was to take patterns off the 'good door' and make a simple buck: Then, take it over to Cadmad's place where we wheeled up a couple of skin pieces for the door bottoms. And when I say 'we' I mean he held one end of the sheet metal in the wheel and drove while I held the other end and did what I was told. This was the result:
I just discovered this thread. It's really good to see you making a focused effort on the car again. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished car, and of course you are too.
Thanks Tony, I appreciate the support and encouragement. Now, with the bottoms of both doors re-done, I figured I may as well chop the window garnish. If for no other reason than it's actual custom work rather than repairs! But it's still progress and sometimes you need to do these things to keep motivated. Even the shitty hundred piece door is looking promising Also you can see the cleaned up installation of the door latches from @38Chevy454
All the 37-48 cars around here were used up at Fair Park Race Track on Friday nights and the earlier 30-36 were used up at Devils Bowl on Saturday night. Are slopes unique to the land down under? I have done that kind of repair on several 39&40 Mercury convertibles and nade similar panels like you and your friend did and those things will bight your thumbs if not careful. I really can appreciate the time and talent it took you to save it.
The door repairs and window garnish look great! But how did you go about chopping that garnish? You didn't take any pictures while you did it?
Thanks for looking for the pictures. Sometimes I get so involved in a project that I forget to take pictures for my threads.
With the doors sorted out for the time being, I got back onto the jambs. Both were bad at the bottom so I made some new pieces. On this side you can see an old bag of walnuts repair from the past. It was gas welded and rather than cut the whole lot out I decided to work with it. In fact it had not even been fully welded. It's not rusty inside. It will be okay I think.
Just found your thread...nice work! I really like your vision/lines you're aiming for on the project. I'm subscribed and will eagerly look forward to seeing your progress.
The Jalopy Journal
