the drivers side fought me a lot. After I got the quarter patch in and filled the dented trim holes it decided to oil can around the trim holes. I tried shrinking it but just made a large mess. I ended up making a bigger panel with the English wheel and cutting out a bit bigger than the affected area. Still slowly welding it in, but looks like it should be ok. Also on this side the transition between the patch and the original quarter didn’t have the right curve, so this should fix that as well. Priced out full quarters but at 2gs I’ll keep messing with it until I have no other option.
I needed a win after messing with the quarter, so I decided to tackle the roof. I have one corner where there was some rust. I have been a bit intimidated about fixing it, but jumped in and tried anyway. All I did was pick my smallest bead die and roll a bead in some sheet metal and break it 90 degrees by hand. Then I used the shrinker it on one side to give it a slight bend. It surprisingly matched really well.
With the wheelhouses installed I seam sealed them, epoxy primer and shot some raptor liner on there. Looks pretty decent and durable for a driver. Bonus that it hid the seam where I welded the wheel tub to the quarter patch The seam for the outer wheel houses is visible but I think it’s supposed to be
Also I’m not worried about the wheel arch part, it’ll get trimmed out when I drop the body back on the chassis. Not sure how I’m gonna finish it yet, but will cross that bridge later on. Currently trying the finish up the front quarter, rockers and a few minor chassis things and get this mated together for winter. Then maybe work on getting it running and finishing the tail pan/taillight patches and in some primer.
The quarter patch worked out ok, still more hammering and metal work to get a little better, but planning on finishing that when I get the wheel arches figured out.
This is how I get my 4 link adjustments right. Wrap a string around the back of tire, bring it in so it just touches the front sidewall and take measurements to the frame. Adjust so both sides are exact.
With winter coming here in the next few weeks I needed to get these two mated back together to free up garage space. The floor and frame are done mostly, though it would have been nice to leave it on the rotisserie for a while longer and finish up some more paint and body stuff, but it is what it is... This is the sketchy way I use to get the body and frame back together. Support it under bracing with some scrap wood screwed together in triangles lol....lower the front so the bracing takes the weight.. Roll frame under, use engine hoist to lift front frame up and start the front body mounts, jack up rear of frame and start slipping in body mounts, until everything lines up. Only takes about 2-3 hours, but I dread doing it. Tranny mount done, using some cool fasteners from TMR in canada. Added Rivnuts to the frame for fuel lines, a bit over kill. Looking under the skirt lol, Had a hard time picking tires, wanted something 30ish tall by 12-13 wide and a street tire for road trips. Later I will get some cooler looking tires, some pie crust cheaters or something. These are Hoosier pro street radial 31x12.50s on the 15x8s that came with the car. I'd also like to get 10" wide wheels at some point as well. Funny how the tires looked pretty small on the bare frame with no reference, but shove them under the car and they look huge.
Couple of snaps of it back together. I threw everything back on, hood, trunk lid, doors ,etc. Helps give a little push as far as motivation goes. I trimmed the fenders rough and stuck the rear quarters on to get the complete look. The kids practicing their racing skills. lol.
Pulled the spare parts out, figuring what trim I will run and what I have. I really have no idea what all I'm missing or not missing, or how any of it goes together but like everything I work through it one piece at a time.. Also found my grille, so I have been hacking it up and changing it a bit to fit my opening shape.. also to run it without the trim and look finished. I wasn't sure if I wanted a dimple die aluminum grille, or no grille, or factory one. So I will go with this and see how I like it when I'm finished with it. That's is where it is at currently. Hopefully work through the body work this winter to have it ready to prime or paint when it warms up in the spring. Maybe get the drive train finished, try to knock of everything other than interior and wiring, will see how it goes..
Last one, little bit of a annoyance with aftermarket parts. How could they be not even remotely close to each other? One bead is literally 3/4" further out than the other panel.
Nice progress brother! You can come out west and help me when it's time to pull my body off the frame! ha ha When I was building the coupe it was so much easier. My buddy came over and he grabbed one end and I grabbed the other and off the body came!
That'd be fun, I'm always stuck working alone (which is probably for the best lol), so I'm usually improvising all the time... for better or for worst.
Nice work been following along. I know what your saying with after market parts. The price sure don’t match the quality of parts. I put full sedan quarters on with the inter tail light piece fit really sucked. Hours of work to get them right. I like the stock grill one of my favorite things on the 55. Keep up the great work love your brackets and welding skills.
I hear you about working alone. On the other hand, I like you am pretty particular about how I like things done so most times I think it's better when I work alone. Always been methodical about how I build and fab stuff so someone chirping in my ear to do it a different way wouldn't go over too well... ha ha
Started on the rear metal work. Taking a lot of love to get everything fitting. Will be making some panels as well it looks like.
Had a nice day the other weekend so I ground down all the bondo. Things aren't terrible but I had hoped it'd be a little better lol. They frenched an antenna in, picture an inch of bondo to make the peak. I kinda liked the little custom touch, so I may try to make this again but with a little more craftsmanship. Tail light area was built out about 3/4 of an inch to cover the fiberglass. I had hoped to get away with the small short panel but I may need the tall one to fix the inside of the tail light. This is the deck lid, the holes were all pounded in and filled with fiberglass. There was an easy 1/2" of bondo on there. The doors were atrocious. 3/4" of bondo, everything caved and paved. Plus a million holes drilled in there to hold the filler in place. I tried a few different methods of removal but what worked best was those little round cylinder shaped flap discs that go on your die grinder. Cut through like butter and left a nice finish on the metal. like these https://www.tenaquip.com/images/xlarge/u/ug073_lr.jpg
I spent some time on the deck lid, I had been hammering with restricted access but wasn't making a lot of headway. So I had to cut an access panel out of the back side and finish it off with the planishing hammer and a quick roll in the english wheel. It was pretty awkward but came out good enough for me. Still a couple of very minor low spots, but the more I work on it, the more it tends to bite me. So calling it good.
I started with the passenger door, It may have been a little too ambitious for me. The creases were able to get straightened out and the holes welded up. I'm using a hammer off dolly technique and was pretty happy with the results, but the whole panel is loose. Not just the areas I worked on the but whole thing can flex with a slight push. I chased around the area I worked heat shrinking it and smooth that out but I'm just not happy with how soft the metal feels. So admitting defeat I ordered new door skins. I need a break from the car any way, running away with my tail between my legs so waiting a month or two from them to show up will bring back the fire to keep pushing to get the body work done by spring. Door skins are probably the best option any way, despite how rust free these skins are, they have a lot of age on them.
The bottom of the door is pretty good for the most part, a couple of areas that need attention. I have started making new pieces to fix the rust. I think I will just fix the door bottoms and call it done until after new years and come back with renewed vigor to get this heap ready for primer. I also found that the original skin had separated and split most of the way down the fold-over flange on the bottom. I think the whole thing is just done, fatigued, like me lol.
So that catches the thread up to the current point in time. Some wins, some losses. Such is life. Door skins, the driver side inner tail light patch and I can get this metal work finished up. Then some wheel arches and I'm pretty well done the metal work. I guess some firewall hole filling as well needs to be done yet.. I kind of hit a wall with the car and getting frustrated with the doors. It took the wind out of my sails. Funny how with my lack of experience and knowledge in these areas I still expect that somehow I should be an expert and be able to fix everything that gets thrown at me on this thing. lol. So break time, concentrate on other life stuff, then come back with renewed vigor in a bit. Thanks for following along.
Keep up the great work sometimes it painful to uncover somebody’s shabby work. But the car is worth the effort. Don’t know where your getting parts but this place is hard to beat. https://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?Parta~PartSort~A2~cadeflbi~~~~A110~A101
The Jalopy Journal
