Projects I destroyed a nice old car, help me fix it

here we go! thanks for the guidance fellas! Buying new sheet metal was a really good plan.

 

This thread is starting to remind me of another one started by a college student that turned out quite well and sure surprised a lot of people, myself included. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1951-kaiser-dragn-build.272171/

 

OMG stevens. This was actually part of my inspiration! I think he took like years to complete his though!

 

Yeah. Only the ass monkeys and other "reality" tv show shops have the magic to complete a total frame off build in a week.
Took me a month to do a motor swap.
Pulled the motor out then decided to paint and flake the new motor... Then the engine bay needed some touch up paint... Then a heavy dose of flake. Then better repolish all of the bright work... etc...

Take your time.

 

I think i can engineer the windows now that i have the skin off of the doors. I ordered a set of body hammers, and bought 60 feet of 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch angle irons. I think the best move is to remake the main simple shape of the door skin with new sheet to minimize weld seams. Then i will patch in the complex curves. at the top and bottom. I plan to re skin the diver door like in the picture above. I figured the passenger side would be faster, but I guess I decided to do this side correctly. BTW, does anyone have an anvil for sale? lol

 

Pieced in part of the door skin last night on the drivers side. Im actually very satisfied with it. Kinda reminds me of a one off car build technique.

 

Glad to hear you're making progress!

 

oh, by the way! The passenger window slides up and down now!

 

One thing to keep in mind is that its a car and not McDonald's, so it won't be instant and probably won't give you change back for your dollar.

 

well, its been a long haul! I need to find another cheap sheet of lexan though. My last good piece kicked in the table saw last night. But it is keeping rain out for now. I got a 4x8 for 40 bucks. Sad i wasted it all.

I looked into weld through primer... Out of the budget!

Also my future in laws got me a 50 dollar sears gift card for fixing my Gal's car! So, new tool time!!

More updates to come.

 

I just found some pictures of my old projects. As you can see. This is my first real body work project.

• Pink 65 rambler- 304 v8 Hurst promatic2 torqueflight trans.(Sold at 16. was my only car and I had no idea how to work on it. My dad never had time/the skill to help.)(mistake)
• Blue 67 rambler rogue 232 inline 6 (bought and drove for about 6 months. Sold it and bought the rebel the very next day.(opportunity)
• White 68 rebel 232 inline 6. Bought for 1000 bucks with transmission in the trunk. Installed it in saturday body shop and drove it home. Replaced a few odds and ends. Came short of money, and was burning oil like mad. So i sold it. A week later bought the 56 Studebaker.(opportunity)
• 56 studebaker 259 V8. Bought it for 1500 bucks and drove it 100 miles home after it sat for 10 years in a drive way. I painted it and had the seats done in it, but I was pretty unhappy with the way it turned out. So i sold it.(mistake)
• 72 comet 250 inline 6. Bought for 1000 bucks. Blew a brake line on 100 mile drive home. Shot black smoke all over. burned my eyes to stand behind it. I threw a carb at it, and rebuilt the ignition parts. Ran perfect. Bucked and darted all over the highway. Took it to get aligned with my fingers crossed, and my trusted mechanic refused to put it on a lift and said it was so rusty, the best bet was to unload ASAP. Sold it in 8 hours and made money.

So as you can see, i like to play. I still have a ton to learn about patience and craftsmanship though.

 

So last two nights, re fabricated the passenger door. Learned some stuff. It has taken so much patience to hold off and do this right. My body hammers and dolly blocks came in last night. And I tried out my new inline sander as well. So, I'm really dreading having to chop the drivers door apart again, but the filler I put over my garbage work is cracking, and I'm so happy with how the passenger door is going.

I would like to take a second to plug a book that has helped me tremendously. It's called "Eddie and Paul's custom bodywork handbook". It is super disorganized and the first section seems like they had a deal with some tool companies, but it made me remember a ton of stuff that I had learned at some point but forgot. Super cheap book, worth the money 10x.

So new problem I hit, need a bit of advice. The inside door handles are not going to work now, because the glass pane inside the door is much larger than stock, so I will have to fab up a cable linkage as the latch mechanism is on the outside of the glass. Would a solenoid system be a good option for this? I really dislike shaved outside handles, but a button on the inside would be cool opposed to a handle. I'm not sure, sounds like a good way to get trapped inside as well?

Thanks for the continual support,

RamblinPat

 

I can't really help on the handle issue, but I'm sure there's an out-of the box as well as DIY solution for this.

Do you not have a bending brake? It looks like you're cutting and folding sheet metal with pliers in that second pic. You can get a cheapo 30" from HF for $60 right now. I've got one, it does its thing and is cheaper than the time involved in making one at that price.

 

Well, I have considered buying a break. For the panel you are referring to, I did what i could with what I had. I ran the numbers, and I want to spend less than another $500 this summer to meet my budgetary goals for the summer. I have been pretty good about buying tools when i need them, and honestly, I didn't think id be doing this much sheet metal fabrication! Also i'm on limited space right now. Did you notice that the car is outside in most pictures, and that there are always a ton of raw materials inside it? We have a small garage and its bursting at the seams... The plan is to build a new one before winter!!

 

I think you already answered your question about a popper from inside.

Get in a crash, electrical is shorted out, car is on fire..... and you cant open the door.... yeah.
Or even sitting listening to the radio, battery dies down to where the poppers wont go and the car wont start.

manual way to escape always sounds better

 

Poppers aren't a bad thing as long as they're done right. Install a manual release on the inside (under the dash) and one tucked away under the hood. So you will always be able to get in or out.

 

still use cable back up....ask me how I know,
lol

 

Anvil won't be cheap unless someone is tripping over it. You can always use a rail road rail in place of an anvil. Warning it is a federal offense to steal rails off a right of way even if it looks abandoned. Safer to get it from a scrap yard.
Good luck on your build!

 

I've got one of these. It's cast but it works just fine for sheetmetal and doesn't crush the budget.
http://www.harborfreight.com/55-lb-rugged-cast-iron-anvil-69161.html

 

my old man works at a antique steam show, and he got me 2 foot of railroad track for free! Right now, i'm making good friends with the line sander.

 

A buddy of mine made a track anvil. He's a machinist but I think he was pleased with it for what little he used it for. He did a lot of cutting and grinding on his.

 

Probably cant tell too much difference, but i spent a ton of time skim coating and sanding the quarter, probably needs another pass or two. The door is next, then i'll tackle the driver door. A neat trick I learned was to take fiberglass resin and mix it in with the filler. Its listed as a tip on bondo's website, and it really does work. Especially if you want to mix up a big batch and skim coat a large area, it takes a couple of hours to get it fully hardened. The only short term draw back I see is clogging up sanding discs if you try to sand too soon.

More to come.

 

So I got the drivers side looking pretty good. I was ashamed at how bad my driver side looked, so i cut out my old patch panels and found the the not so much younger, dumber me, had like 1/2 inch of filler on the door. I'm cutting it all out. I used a piece of rail road track to hammer in the complex shapes. For whatever reason, I cant upload files from my work computer today. Ill try and up load them later.

 

Here are those pesky pictures

 

Moving right along, keep up the good work.

 

Pretty soon you're gonna have to change your screenname to Leepu.

 

Try a wood mallet over the piece of track to ahrink and smooth the piece.

 

I need to spend some more quality time with that fender, but it seems like the car might end up falling together soon. I gave some Rusolium acrylic enamel a try for the show coat, and I have to say, I was very impressed with it. Seems like it will cut and buff now that it has cured a bit too. Due to the scope of this project. I may use that stuff for my "final" paint job.

 

Well, I drained about 7 quarts of grey fluid out of my crank case... Hope my bearings are okay...

 

Hope it is okay!