Projects 34 Ford 3 window repair/repaint

Getting ready to paint hood. Have the sides separated from the center stainless trim. There is what looks to be a long pin that makes up the hinge on the half's. Might be a silly question but do the individual hood half's come apart relatively easily to paint.

 

Yes, that's a 1/4" steel rod in there for a hinge. Tap it out a little ways, then chuck it up in your portable drill and it will spin out easily. Most get replaced with a stainless rod.

 

Thx. Looking on Moss website they just look like generic SS rod, are they? What do you do with end?

 

It'll stay there. The hood moves maybe 45 deg max. Some cars lay flat and only move 90. Not a very active part and the rod is just a swivel, won't move.

 

Moss website? Same Moss that sells British car parts?

 

CWMoss classic Ford parts

 

Here are a couple pics of my 33. The caps are nailed in, its hard to see in these pics but you can see the nail holes. I haven't put the nail in yet because it has to come apart once more.

 

Thank you for that. It is hard to tell with your car being black, but the transition on the outside of the caps to quarters looks nice and tight?

 

Here are a couple more pics that shows better the transition to the quarter. Mine will need to be work slightly before final paint and again nailed but you should be able to see the fit is real tight.

 

Thanks for that. Not a very common picture subject.

 

I pretty well have all my repairs spotted in. Cranked up the heat to help make sure everything is cured well before I do a final wet sand and paint. This has been a real challenge for me as I normally would do a complete body off starting in bare metal, not a "repair and repaint". The car was painted for the first time 30 years ago. It was done o.k. but not a lot of time spent on gaps. So for me it was a compromise between what I normally would do and "that's good enough". Example would be the door gaps. I spent much time to get them right. Another would be the drivers quarter. It is not as vertical as the passenger side, but is more rounded when looking from behind. Pictures of the car originally show this is as it came from Henry. The only way I would know how to fix would be replace the quarter. So compromise. It looked o.k. before.
I had longed to buy a 33-34 coupe for a long time. I actually looked for a clean project, but the good ones were going for insane prices. I started to look at finished cars as they were not much more. I found mine around 2005 that had been done in 1990. Not perfect, but had a very nice body with the only body mod being a filled roof and sat on a TCI chassis. I'm sure others have gone through the same dilemma. Looking back, I'm o.k. with the decision. In the time I have had it I have pretty much replace everything, but did it over 15 years or so. Like a ongoing project that I drove the wheels off of. Now I'm painting it. If I had indeed bought a full on project I would have likely invested as much or more money and now it would be a 15 year old build, that I would be painting because of accident? Either or?

 

It appears in this picture the bottom "cap" has been welded to the rocker. Mine is the same. Is this correct?

 

That may be correct. If I zoom in more it looks like it might be sitting on the weld vs welded to it. I honestly don't recall. Still a metal cap.

 

Just received an order from CW Moss. The door pins that they sent have a larger head to the point where I am worried of taking paint off the door when installing. Is there another manufacturer?

 

I’d be most worried about the OD of the shaft. If the shaft fits fine you can adjust the OD of the head. Chuck it in the drill press and hold a file to the edge. Then various grits of sandpaper. Then buffing compound on a rag.

 

Shaft fits fine. Yes they can be worked, but for a 4 dollar part I would rather just buy the right part. Wondered if anyone else has had the experience and if there is another supplier?

 

Hinge rotates in the center section, not the upper/lower parts. Just be careful when you ‘tap’ the pin in.

 

Here's a "...well shit it's all finished." moment in that dept. Step 1 clear off the paint in the bores.

Step 2 a gentle test fit

Step 3 cut the head like alky said (and you get a taller different hinge pin head than plain ol store bought)

Step 4 coat the whole works with candle wax and warm gently to just before wet with a hair dryer or heat gun. Warm...

Step 5 tap in your custom pins and step back smiling.

The ones I had to build even had a finished cover from 1 side.

 

Thx for that. I would never had thought of wax.

 

Thought the door pillar could use a little stiffening. I have seen others do the same, so I did my own take on it. I used 1/8 x 2 x 2 steel angle which ties all the hinges together with a floor brace. Then I used some 1/8 x 1 x1 angle to brace the pillar back to the wheel well.

 

Last painting session done. Now to put it back together. I just hung the doors and they fit the body nicely (it was a bit of work) but as I anticipated the dovetails don't line up. Door dovetail center is higher than the body receiver. They make an adjustable unit for the 32, but don't see anything for 33-34. What can I do?

 

Find a machine shop that can whittle you some. Take them a hunk of stainless, an example of the original with measurements of how much offset you need, and with a few hours on the mill they should be able to give you some offset dovetail strikers.

 

I'm not familiar with 33/34s but from the door pillar pic it's clear the construction is very like a 32 3w. As you've said you've added some strengthening which I'm also certain was necessary but if my assumption that it is similar to the 32 3w is correct there's a wooden shelf construction missing which ties the 2 door pillars together. This takes up quite a lot of space and I'm sure is removed to gain extra space. The pics don't seem to show anything in this regard. Apologies if my observations and assumptions are erroneous.

Chris

 

We cut the dovetails apart and welded them back together offset and then had them re-plated.

 

I had a mismatched SS pin when I was installing my PU doors last month. Same diameter so I chucked it up in my "vertical lathe" (drill press) and turned it down with a file. Re-shaped the head slightly, polished it and installed it.

 

My 34 doesn't have it. I see no evidence that anything like that was there. Maybe just a 32 thing?

 

All six were like that so I reused mine.

 

I really like your idea but I would think a shop could easily spend several hours building them (being optimistic). It would be an expensive way to go. I placed an order today and asked if they had the adjustable 32's in stock, they did. For $36 I will see if I can cut and add a piece to make the hole spacing correct, re-weld and polish.
Just to complain, it amazes me they make one for a 32 but not 33-34. Market has to be there. Kinda like no one makes 33-34 running boards any more. WTF!

 

Trying to decide on which window channels to go with. My unchopped 3 window previously had what looked like generic stainless channel glued in the doors and rear window although it had fuzzies that looked like they were made for the car. Doors have power windows. Would the stock type be a better way to go or ??

 

With power you won’t have the slide back option, just straight up and down. I’d use the generic fuzzy channels, and a strip of single sided across the bottom of the opening.