Projects The 56 Chevy Continued Adventure Build

yes sir

 

Know I'm late to the party, but what do you do for rear side windows? Not a Chevy guy, but looking super cool.

 

Since @Fitnessguy is doing a 150, he can cheat easily and do stationary 1/4 glass as 150's were known for (but not all). My 56 in the avatar has stationary 1/4's yet still looks 210 with cat wiskers rather the 150 1/4 glass gaskets.

 

Was thinking that, when a teenager my first car was a 55 Buick,after the service had another... later switched to Ford. I remember when 4 doors suddenly became more prevalent than 2 doors and thinking who wants a 4 door then started thinking about just such a conversion as a possibility. A d thought you'd have to probably have a stationary window, go figure. Once again looking pretty good!

 

Is your car in the avatar a 4 door conversion? I haven't seen any pics or videos on how guys have done the channel for the glass. I'm planning on extending the channel from the old little corner window for the glass to sit in as that seems to be the easiest solution.

 

No it's a factory 210 2 door car. I just didn't want roll down 1/4 glass because I dislike when tag a longs roll down the rear windows (a pet peeve of mine). Was going to do 150 glass and gaskets but I changed my mind.

 

That's funny, my converted '57 has fully functional rear quarter windows with regulators and tracks but I left the rear window cranks off of it for just that reason!

The tracks from my donor car were rusty and you have to kind of help the glass up and down and I'd rather just leave them rolled up all the time. I could buy new tracks but I don't think I'd use the windows more if I did.

 

I left the regulators out. The glass is held up by L stock secured to inner structure. The bottom of the 1/4 glass 210 and Bel Air sedan type with flat edge has a rubber u channel placed over it so not to make direct contact with L stock.

 

The progress is looking great! Now you have me wondering if I should convert my ‘56 Meteor Victoria to a four-door!

 

If the gold chain came with a finished free boyd street rod...I'd drive the wheels off it.
Shit... maybe even wear a track suit.

 

Thanks brother. It's lots of work but so far i've been up to the challenge.

 

Friday parts delivery! Same dizzy I'm running in the 409 and it's been great. Like the vintage look vs the MSD stuff. Another big weekend of work coming up as I tackle the passenger side. Quite sure I'll be able to pound out the passenger side a whole lot quicker.

 

Going through some old pics and found these. The first one is Dad looking under the hood. Picture dated 1975. Then me looking under the hood probably 13-14 years old and then me heading off to high school one morning. Lots of history!

 

Those pistons look like they can handle a pretty serious dose of nitrous

 

Solid day in the shop. Got the doors removed, rocker 95% out and I had to cut out a good chunk of the dog leg by the rear door as there was lots of rot and an old brazed repair that was pretty ugly. Tomorrow I'll get the rest of the front floor panel cut out and then get the new rocker set in place. From there I can start making the new rear patches and front portion of the quarter panel where it meets the rocker. Glad I did the drivers side first as it had a lot less rust so I have a good feel for how I will build the new dog leg. A lot easier work now that I have one side under my belt.

 

Got the door hung, rocker mocked up and cut out some more ugly. The passenger side front floor pan is much cleaner so I'm only going to need to use a small patch from the new pan. Will save me some time which will get eaten up by the new dog leg portion I'm going to have to fab. The boy was a big help today doing more cleaning and then I had him pull off the driver side fender, splash apron and hood. Feels like we're making good progress now. Gonna try to sneak out a couple evenings this week to do the fab on the dog leg so next weekend I can concentrate on getting the rocker burned in and getting the B pillar located. Think with the colors we have going on with the body and doors we're gonna have to call her the "Ketchup, mustard & relish sedan"

 

So you're leaving the 4 door rear jamb in place as the inner fender and welding the back door skin to it directly? Are you worried about a shadow line with the quarter panel attached directly to the inner fender like that?

I'm not saying it won't work, but I haven't seen anyone do it that way before.

 

There's been many done this way. There's even those that have stretched front 4 door door's as to not use any donor car sheet metal at all.

 

I've seen plenty using the old door post and rear door skin to fill in the hole, just never saw anyone leave the old door jamb in place and butt the skin up to it. The factory 2 door rear wheel house butts up against the back side of the quarter with a rubber gasket, I figured if someone was going to leave the old rear door jamb in place to take the place of the rest of the wheelhouse, it would get cut free of the quarter and a gasket would get added. Otherwise it's a flex area that might show up later in bodywork. That's my only concern.

 

I don't see it.

 

This line. The old rear door skin is going to butt up to this, meaning there is a (mostly) vertical seam in the quarter panel that's welded directly into the inner panels.



Here's one of the in-progress shots of one of the cars I've done. (admittedly a poor pic but you get the idea). This one has a factory style 2 door sedan gasketed inner fender added. That lip has a rubber gasket on it that butts up against the side of the quarter panel, that inner fender is not welded directly to the quarter panel. That's on purpose, so if the car flexes any it doesn't create a stress point.

Granted, even the factory's solution isn't very elegant, as that gasket can trap dirt, that's why nearly every manufacturer welds the inner wheelhouse to the quarter panel at the wheel opening. But no one welds the quarter to the wheelhouse in the center of the panel, and that's for good reason.

No reason you couldn't leave the old jamb in there to act as the new inner fender, it looks different and it prevents a roll down quarter window but you'll never see it and if you're doing fixed quarter glass it doesn't matter anyway. I'm just concerned about welding that skin directly to that jamb and not having it be free-floating like the factory design was.

 

OK I see what your saying. I seen that portion stay. It's all on how advanced one is at there approach and or how correct to a real two door one want's to make it.

 

Interesting stuff gents. All the videos I watched the rear door jamb was left as is. @Squablow you might be right about flex, my thinking was leave as much original sheet metal as possible for strength. I am going to weld in the inner structure of the rear door as well for more rigidity which is why I left it in place with the door skin and then just cut it down to fit in place. Like anything i suppose, there's always more than one way to skin a cat!

 

I want the car to be clean and know that everything is solid. I would never sell the car with all the family history and I'm not going to try and push it as a real 2 door as I don't care what the purists think. that's not the goal. Wanted a 2 door so we're making one. Just like guys that chop hot rods, the purist can say it's been butchered but then the general hot rodder thinks it's ten times better. Building the car to the best of my abilities.

 

Headers arrived today. Nice thick flange and the ceramicoat finish is nice as well. They are from Patriot Here's hoping they fit as nice as they look! the dreaded long tube header fitment challenge

 

Who's got the best daughter ever?! A little Bday gift for her Dad!

 

She's officially a two door! Got the rocker all welded in and then got the B pillar fully welded in as well. I'll remove the B pillar trim piece that meets the door and re weld it back to the proper gap for the door which is the same thing I did on the driver side. One little patch to make by the front floor panel and finish welding it all in. Then on to welding in the rear door skin and then a bunch of finish welding and grinding.

 

The yellow door really ''makes'' the car! Lol
Great work.

 

got most of the colors of the rainbow covered!

 

Just a few more turns.