I guess i should have asked how the door will open with the window up and the corner of it behind the lower corner of the a pillar.
The sight line of the door frames welded back in, will become the shape and size of the new stainless frames minus gap for tolerance. I am going to square off the the original frames from this point then build up a new stop along side the new stainless frames to keep the weather out. Hopefully the drawing explains it better then my words.
It is said that most of the work of a fastback chop is in the boot lid. I would agree with this statement. The boot lid is basically a large wedge shape, which has to be reduced in width and length whilst keeping in line with the flow of the roof, not easy. I first removed the outer skin to access the inner frame which I cut into 6 sections. These pieces I moved around and overlapped to fit the new smaller frame size, I kept the top piece hinged and the bottom piece locked in place. This made a good starting point to tack it all back together. Returning to the skin, I welded up the no longer needed number plate window and re-done some old repairs which needed some improvements. After that, the sides were cut and shut to fit the frame, the big worry was distortion, but I took my time and it's not come out bad. I bought myself some Cleco fasteners, first time I've used them, well impressed they work a treat. The skin still needs to be welded back on. If possible, I always aim for a factory look on any repairs or alterations, so I didn't fancy just welding the skin to the inner frame. My way round it was to make up a return lip and plug weld it to the frame with an overlap I could trim to the opening, then weld the skin to that. Very labour intensive, but worked well and when cleaned up looked very original, made me happy!
Dang it mon - y’all’s planning and execution of your skills is just awesome Continue on - enjoying y’all’s work and post - thank you kindly for sharing
I really like the way you separated the inner and then cut into separate pieces, along with keeping the top and bottom secured, then fitting it back together. Nice logical plan.
It's projects like this that I love seeing on the HAMB, what an amazing job @Woodlouse like had been said it takes guys to cut up a nice car, but still not a small job! Will subscribe & follow along for the rest of the journey
WoW! all I can say is that it reminds me of the old saying, "anyone can restore an old car, but it takes a Man to cut one up!" I guess we can now add to that with " But it takes a REAL MAN to cut up one as nice as that!" Looks great,
More or less up to date now, it's been a little over a year since chop day and I finally got the car out in daylight to get them distance shots. Riding a little high at the moment but that will be sorted. Winters coming and it's getting cold in the barn where the build is happening so next up will be to strip the remaining paint on the roof, then filler and prime before it starts rusting up.
Great work! Is the Barn warm enough to keep working over winter? Are you planning on a colour change? Or keeping what you have?
Yeah, I will keep at it though the winter, I have built myself a cosy little garage in the corner. couple of fan heaters keeps it bearable the lecky bill not so much. HaHa. Defiantly a colour change, trouble is it changes daily.
Nothing like a bit of paint to make a project look like it's buzzing along. The metal prep and filler work took forever, but well pleased with the result. Thoughts are turning to the window frames now, I can see the end is in sight.
Tough car to chop and you got a beautiful flow across the top. Nice job. How many times have you walked into the exhaust pipes since they went on?
The Jalopy Journal
