Reference for a '32 Ford 5 Window.

You've always got some really insightful and thought provoking additions to this thread. Really making me think about all angles. You should post some pics of yours and the areas so that we're all on the same page. I can't tell you how thankful I am for your contributions. I think I would rush this and not think as intensely about squaring it up if it weren't for you.

Speaking of deck lids. What do you think about Brookvilles? The deck lid I was supposed to get this weekend fell through so now the repops are looking better and better. I heard there are fitment issues with them but since my quarters are repops it might be a better fitment then I suspect. Ya think?

 

I don't know anything about repro lids.

Also, all I know about "untrimmed roadster quarters" is what Pete wrote on his thread. Maybe he could help avoid problems where the quarters meet the decklid area.

My car was so out of whack that I could not find good measuring points to center anything.

On yours, getting the back of roof and it's rear window centered should be easy. Get the ch***is dead level from left to right, then run a plumb bob from the center of rear window, down through the ch***is rails. Then measure across from the string to each ch***is rail? But that won't tell you if the window is level.

I have no clue how or where to measure the height of where the back of your roof or back window should be. That would establish the upper deck panel height, which needs to be correct. If the bottom of the car is gone, and repro panels get tacked, how does one know if the deck area is at the right height?..there just isn't a good place to measure to compare with a mint 5w because you have no floor or subrails.


Also, your body is torn off where the quarters meet the roof (where they all crack at the corners). The new quarters will be so flimsy where they curl over next to the lid, that I doubt you can use those as a guide when welding the roof to them.

I think having extra people on site to come up with ideas during tacking, would help.

 

Can someone post pics of the bottom of the B pillar in detail. Just wondering what I am missing.

Also I am leaning towards channeling the car. Any thing I should be not buying besides subrails? I think I am going to make those anyways.

 

Here's a bunch of pics from ContinentalJohn's sale thread that might help....

 

Chanelling the car!! Coming over to the dark side, eh...

 

This pic you put up shows most of the lower B pillar..

I bet you are lost as far as what went where in that pic. Maybe it will help to explain where the stock floor and rails used to be in the pic:

See the back of the rocker panel under the door with the oval holes? Look real close right above the oval holes to see a thin strip of sheetmetal sticking out 90*. That is what is left of the bottom side of the rectangular shaped subrail. Now look right above that strip, about 3/4" or so; that is a mangled part of the top of the rectangular shaped subrail. That is the top of the actual floor.


The idea of channeling your car should make it go much quicker IMO. That's because you can use homemade rails to sit on top of the frame, and easily get them welded to the sides of the A and B pillars. That area of the frame is flat. So with some minor outwards shaping of rectangular tube or angle iron, you can get a good easy start on the rails from the firewall to beyond the back of the door before having to make the rails start to rise/taper as you get nearer to the rear kick.

When welding the homemade subrail to the wood filled B pillar; I would eliminate the wood near there so you can beef up the B where the subrail welds on. When you remove the wood from a 32 pillar, you end up with just two vertical sheetmetal edges to weld to(not good). So, just make 14ga to 1/8" thick brackets to tie to the insides of the B. Or, make a cover to box that open pillar with a shape like this [ . Then the bottom of the B post will look like horizontal rectangular tube. You don't need wood there, just beef the heck out of it, so the subrail is strongly attached.


I would tie the front homemade subrail solid to the firewall because it will easier to build IMO. It just ties it all together stronger, compared to the way Ford did it. With a permanent firewall, now you can build and weld-in the angled part of the front floor like all later automobiles all had. The center trans hump/cover would be the only removable piece, or even that could be permanent..depends on a few things. My 32 has an early rocket with a top shift 37 Buick trans. I can't pull the trans out with the motor unless I take off the top trans cover/shifter, so my trans hump/cover is bolted in.

The rest of my floors from firewall to rear tail, are welded in for max strength. This eliminates all those bolted-in stock floor parts.

CHANNELING: Because you have a pricey/finished perimeter ch***is frame that you don't want to "pinch in", you really need to see if you can fit the cowl down over the frame and still be able to use that repro firewall. I thought you said a flat firewall might be used? That would be better as the cowl needs to be spread out a bit. Mostly on the front by the firewall flange.

sorry for a long post, but I thought you need some ideas to get going.

 

^^^^^^ awesome information ^^^^^^^^

Your post on this thread have been great -very helpful.

Thanks for posting

 

I know how overwhelming it is to find a spot to start on the cars being found now.

JMO... On JJ's car with all the lower edges gone, and quarters ripped off, there is not much to go by.

I would start with buying cowl patches to be able to establish the amount of channeling at the front edge of the cowl. If there is no trace of the lower body bead left, then get a good measurement from a unmolested 32 from the body beltline lower edge down to the top edge of that lower bead at the very front of the cowl. Now you can know for sure how far the cowl will drop over the ch***is. Just tack or cleko the cowl patch on, because the back edge of the cowl patch needs to line up perfectly in plane with the missing rocker panel which can't be installed yet. The cowl patches need t******* at the underside because there is extra metal added compared to original. That extra metal goes horizontal towards the middle of the car.

Next, before tacking the doors on, I would get width measurements (from a good 32) from the outside edges of the body belt line, across the car from both sides. Then tack a thin strip of metal to line up with the lower edges of the beltline across the body. Do this at the A and B posts. Now you have a reference line to measure down to the ch***is, when trying to get both sides of the body "cab" level with each other. Those strips will help a lot if the doors need to stay tacked on during the entire rebuild.

While tacking the doors remains in place, keep the beltlines perfect, and the door gaps at the sides, but also watch the top horizontal gap at the roof. You need to have some sort of temporary way of holding up the A and B posts, and be able to shim them to get it all level and stable.

Then I think it will take some thinking on the rear quarter tacking while trying to figure where the very back of the deck panel should be as far as height. You'd not want to end up with an angled channeling.

When you finally find out how high the rear tail needs to be, then you can start doing the front half of the subrails and hook them to the A and B posts.

 

F&J, your posts in here have been worth tremendous help. I would have been willing to PAY somebody for their guidance on this. Thank you!

 

Anyone have a picture of the trunk handle hook?? I cant find anyone that sells it, I dont even know what it looks like...its the little hook that grabs the bracket in the truck troth.....

Pete-

 

This:



Hooks into this:




http://macsautoparts.com/early-v8-r...-rumble-a41604b/camid/F30/cp/JS0R3CHL1130275/

. . . and

http://macsautoparts.com/early-v8-t...***enger-a41615/camid/F30/cp/JS0R3CHL1140732/

 

Yup....

 

Is that what you were looking for? Or is my brain not working again?

 

Threads like this help all of us. I'm working on a '31 slant w/shield Cabriolet almost as bad. I'm picking up a lot of ideas and inspiration on building the lower body. (I'm using doors off a 4dr.) This is a makeup car for the $600 '32 cabriolet I p***ed up in '63.

 

Does anyone have more pics of their floor after they channeled the car? I am interested to see how you all attacked the floor sections and bracing.

I worked on my '32 last night for a bit. Took some air craft stripper to get past that original Lacquer. Then some wire wheeling and wouldn't you know it, there was some steel under that ****. There were some spots that were way nicer then I imagined, and then there were some spots that were worse. The garnish moldings are definitely not as nice as I anticipated but I guess that just means there's no chrome for those in the future which is fine. I'll have some bondo in those to get them looking good but so will the car as a whole. I'll have to start a build thread on it soon once I have some more progress under my belt.




Cut what we're not using from the door skin yesterday.

 

Gte on it!!!

 

I'm trying buddy. I need to focus on my '35 mostly but Wednesday and fridays here and there are going to be for the '32. I have a bunch of stuff I need to buy for the '32 but at least I have enough to get it square and start working.

 

diggit! LOTSA work there...

 

Yup! The good part about all that work is that it's going to be a team effort and there's more talent surrounding this build then I can convey. Damon who's doing the sheet metal is going to blow peoples minds when it's all said and done. He's a Norwegian Black Metal Master.....actually he's from Texas but you get what I mean!

We're not planning on getting the car metal finished because that would obviously require throwing away 98% of what I have. But it will have a very small amount of filler which will only fill the pits from the 80 years that it's been around. Expect a nice body when it's all said and done but I'm still going to require a ton of research on how to approach this which is where this thread comes in. I'm interested to see the best way to channel this car from you guys.....is Jack Carrol on the HAMB? I need to PM Casny.

 

Nice save on the ol'32...cant wait to see the progress!!

 

Be on the lookout for a thread Called HOT MESS. I should be starting one in the next month or so.

 

HI JJ This all i got uploaded i will upload more if this helps at all may not be what you want to do but this is the idea they had.Actually not a bad job for 55 + years ago.

 

Thanks Dave50!!! That'll help a lot and if you have more by all means upload them!!!

 

Ok i will asap! see how they cut on the outside of floor and just dropped the body down and then rewelded sides on from the floor to body kinda cool for back in the day I dont think it wa barris,windfield or so-cal built lol but its cool for a guy with the know how and tools of back then. I now have to go back and refresh my memory through your thread as i only read a small portion and then posted some pics hope i am on the right track lol

 

Damnit JJ I can't keep track of the 35 and now you're starting on HOT MESS before the 35 is done......I would kick you in the shin if I was on the other coast....you lucky *******!

 

This my way of reinstalling floors in V8's. If it is a deuce like yours you will need the following parts, original firewall and pair of original fenders. As an added bonus a gas tank , a pair of hood tops and sides and a radiator and shell. I have heard to many issues with people who wished to make there hi boy into a fender car and find out the previous owner just built the car and when the fenders where positioned they didn't fit.

The starting point is similar to what you have, install the original firewall to establish the body cowl original height. The next step is to install the rear fenders, they don't have to be mint ones but should bolt in place and are used to locate the rear height of the body in reference by the two fender mount holes drilled into the side of the frame. If you have a set of running boards you can now install them and check the fender bead relation to the running board edge. This will establish the rear body height. Once you have done this you can then start on the sub floor and sub rails. Install the sub rails in position on the frame rail but do not weld anything to the body yet.

Now install the doors and use the thickness of box cardboard as spacer guides to get an even door gap on all edges, Tack weld the doors in place with two 1/2" tack welds on the A pillar and on the B pillar. This establishes the door alignment. You must do this or the door gap will change as you weld on the body substructure.Now install your replacement quarter panels to mate to the rear fenders and set the rear height of the body. To get the reveal line correct take a string and align it with the cowl line , door line and rear quarter reveal line. This should get the rear height of the body in the correct position. After positioning all these pieces you should check the square of the body and then you can begin tying the sub rails to the A and B pillar. You can also cross check the side to side height by placing in the gas tank and lower deck panel, there is about an even finger thickness of distance between the gas tank and the lower deck panel all the way across. After squaring the body line of the quarter panel you can then trim up the quarter panel to mate to the body quarter and begin marrying the cowl a pillar and b pillar to the sub floor by tacking in place and then to the rear wheel well and tack that to the sub rail. Before welding any thing up install your radiator and grille shell, then place the hood on and check the gaps to insure you are not nose up or down with the hood alignment. This is just a start but will get you pointed in a direction I use to refloor a car.

 

Yeah I see that. Looks like a great job and was probably comparable to the to all those big shops in Cali. I was wondering about the cowl braces and how they mount to the floor. My body is currently sitting on the a pillar wood which seems right due to the firewall dictating the shape but I wouldn't mind seeing more.....and maybe more of the firewall as well

Don't worry I am still full steam ahead on the '35 and won't get to far into this until it's done. We have shop night on Wednesdays and that's where my '32 is currently. So instead of me going there and feeding my fat face full of pizza and shooting the **** all night, I've chosen to feed my face full of pizza and work on my '32 a bit. Plus the opportunity has rose that Damon is available to start working on my '32 now so I have to take full advantage of it. Don't you worry, by October that '35 will be done.

 

The advice to get a stock firewall is good for placement of everything> On my highboy coupe, I put a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood to make sure that I had some gap between the rear of the body and the gas tank. Other duece guys were gracious about providing other measurements as I needed them.

 

Thanks for typing that ****. That's an incredible amount of detail and knowledge in that post. Thanks so much!