The 52 so far....Pics, Pics and more Pics.

Been a bit crook this week, haven't got much done, cold or flu, either way it makes you feel ****ty.
Went out to the shed today with Kurt and Chris to teach them how to fix a corner patch on the front guard that is rusted. First we put the door and guard on to make sure everything is lined up properly, then outlined what we need to cut out, cut out a patch panel and the boys took turns bending both bottom and side lips on it. The best way to describe bending sheetmetal between angle steel in a vice is to do lots of light to medium taps all along the base of the bend line while holding the top so it doesn't wobble too much when you hit it. Now it just needs shrinking.

Sorry it's not that much to show this time around, but as soon as the shrinker/stretcher shows up in a couple of days, I should start to get some results.

 

nice work!! i was wondering why your dash looks like a 49-50. i have a 52 2 dr and will be doing just about the same things very soon. im jealous!!

 

I've just done a search on google and come up with conflicting results for the 52 series, some with 2 gauges and some with one big one. Please excuse my ignorance.

Maybe a learned HAMBer can clarify this one?

 

Jay,Aussie 52 dash is like yours but I think that is 49/50 US
52 US had two dials and the steering wheel on the wrong side,**** ,they even drive on the wrong side

 

B 'n W...having a car full of rust would make it a candidate for the crusher around Denver (ColoRODo)...I cannot imagine replacing a floor or rockers...waaa-aaay too much work for me...

Have you checked out my " '55 Caddy build" thread...it's a rust free '55 Coop DeVille I'm doing...did a body-off and had to repair a minor amount of rust (yeah-- a four inch section...LOL). Started the thread on April 10th...I'm now up to # 4, do a search and you'll find all of them.

Looking good on the Chevy...you got more guts than I do...

R-

 

Stude, thanks for the comment and yes, I have been checking out your build. Very cool car. I personally like it alot more when people do a build thread instead of 2 photos labeled "before and after", you just can't learn from it.

Keep up the great work, lookin forward to the next installment.

 

fat141, you need to do a build thread about your car, it's a really tidy job on a beautiful car.


I just hit "Post Reply",
then a new window comes up, you type your stuff in the "message" box with the smiley faces next to it,
then scroll down to the next column called "Additional Options",
then hit the "Manage Attachments" ****on.
A window will pop up, you hit the top ****on which says "Browse", that will basically take you to a file on your computer, so you can go to the file with all your pics on it,
highlight the one you want to add(only one at a time) and hit the "Open" ****on and it will add that directory pic to the list.
When you've added enough pics to the list you then hit the ****on that reads "Upload" (next to the row of Browse ****ons).
That will wait a few seconds(depending how new or old your computer is), then the list of pics will disappear from next to the Browse ****ons.
That's when you close the "Manage Attachments" window , go to the bottom of the "Additional Options" column and hit the "Submit Reply" ****on and there you have it......you're reply with pics attached.

 

I love rust.... on other peoples cars when thay are paying me by the hour to repair it.

I was glad to see you made those floor pans yourself.. there is some company that sells what you have there and gets like 75 bucks a pan (4 pans per floor). just a flat pieces with a few beads. I did a 52 convertible a while back. the guy says he has floor and trunk pans so I give an estimate. then he shows up with flat sheets with beads rolled in them for the trunk and rear floors. wouldn't have been so bad but the rust went up beyond the flat part in the trunk and rear floor. he did have some nice stamped original style floors for the front. what a joke.

for anyone reading this... idf you are not doing your own work talk to your metal man before buying any type of patch panel.

as for the dash... yeah NO 51's or 52's were built here with the 49-50 style dash. not even the sedan deliveries and wagons which used the 49-50 body.

you are doing some good work there.. hope some of it rubs off on your kids.

 

51's and '52's built in Australia had the earlier dash. Just like '57's had the '55 - 56 dash. We're lazy over here

Pete

 

Were the Oz built cars for New Zealand as well, or did we ***emble them over here ourselves?

 

It's great that you're sharing the build with your Sons.......

 

It's been a coupla months since I have done any work on the car, been busy dealing with **** tools that don't do what they're s'pose to and other stuff going on.

I finally got a good shrinker/stretcher, the first one was **** and didn't do the job, so I sent it back, at least I was given my money back so I won't bad mouth that company, haha.
I had to take the plunge and get a decent one from Eastwood, it cost an arm and a leg to get it over here as well as the conversion rate, but I'm happy with it.

Shrunk the sheetmetal to the right curve, then cut out the bad stuff and migged in the good stuff, but when I test fit it on the car, I saw that it needed a slight curve down the bottom, so I welded a ridge along the bottom, ground it back with the grinder and now it flows better.

There's something about the back quarter panel that we made, I'm thinking of having another go at it with a slightly different shape opening, but not completely sure what type of design yet, I might have to have a couple of tries to see what I like.

Cheers

 

I thought I had bad rust with my 51! I feel better now! You're are doing a great job in replacing all the pieces! The pics are great too, showing lots of detail. Keep us posted!

 

Had a couple of hours to spare today so I thought I would fill in both of the taillight holes. I didn't have enough time to get them both done, but I managed to finish one side.

I'm gonna do something different for the taillights sometime soon, maybe have them come out of the rear bumper.

 

nice work, its looking good.

 

Must have got a bug up my ***, coz I just went out and finished the other side tonight. It didn't take as long because I already had an idea of what to do.

 

It's been a little while, but I was able to spend some time on the car this weekend, so I decided to de-badge and smooth the bonnet and tackle a bit more rust.

After a bit of hammer and dolly work, it was time to fill the bolt holes in. They were too small for me to cut out some sheet metal and fill in, so I used some nail heads instead, turned out pretty good.

 

Also got a small patch work piece done

 

The front right A pillar looked a bit suspect (apart from the obvious "Flintstones" going on at the bottom), so I put the wire wheel on the grinder and went at it. Yep, more holes. Ah well, 1 piece at a time, right?

I started at almost the top because i've got to replace the steel that connects to the windshield, so I'll wait until the gl*** is out before I do that bit.

Anyways, cut and stretched a small piece up, then discovered that the bracing inside that holds the front guard in place was also perished quite badly because it wasn't fixed properly the first time, just "poo"ed over. Looks like this part will have to be replaced at the same time as the outside sheet metal.

This will get a bit involved for me, so it might take some time to figure out how to tackle it, more to come soon I hope.

 

Started to have a crack at the outside of the pillar. This took me a coupla hours tonight and i'll have another go tomorrow night.

 

Nice work. Looks like it's coming along nicely.

I see you built your own shrinker/stretcher stand. I'm planning on building something very similar for mine.

 

Watching this thread. Great work! Pretty much everything I need to do to my project. Rust ****s!

 

Having the shrinker/stretcher foot operated makes it easier to use and control. I ended up going with the back-to-back design, coz it stops them from getting in each others way when using them.

Yeah rust ****s, but I am enjoying the challenge. Cheers

 

You younguns are doing a fine job, you make me happy.

 

Yeah cheers Nads, glad I made someone happy today, this freakin small piece took me a coupla hours tonight. I know it will look good when I tidy up the welds and all, just wish I had some decent sheet metal knowledge.

 

geeezus i though my pontiac was rusty when i got it . nice work man keep at it

 

Haven't visited your thread for a while. You're doing some good work there.

Regarding your question above, I don't know but I would say they were ***embled over here. Holden did all the ***embly of Chevs in Oz, some Pontiacs too. I don't think you have any Holden plants in NZ do you?

Pete

 

Looking Good. Where abouts in N.Z. are you....?

 

Hi there Alfster, sorry about the long time no reply......I'm in Hawkes Bay, where you at?