Earl Schiebs been hard at work again. Anyone who's seen Big Olds in person knows how terrible the fenders and hood fit. The gaps were uneven everywhere. You could stick your thumb in the gap between the left fender and hood, well at least about three feet of it. The gap toward the front and at the rear were good. Make sense?? To the untrained eye, like mine, a person might think that just adjusting the fenders and hood via shiming and stuff would work BUT because at some points on the same fender and hood the gaps were actually ok, drastic measures needed to be taken. Mike had two choices, bondo it all OR slice and fill. He chose the later. To those that have worked on fat fender cars in the past this might seem like an elementary process BUT after talking to a few HAMB and RRT guys this weekend that had never tried this they encouraged me to share the steps and photos. See how nice the gap is toward the headlite but how wide it is in the middle. Alittle slice Spread out a bit to get the gap even then tacked. Filled in Ground down to perfection Check out that gap now!
Denise, you should really think about rounding those front hood corners. Just my 2 cents. It really would look good. B B
Since Mr Scheib is working his magic on the big guy... I was just wondering... How many louvers do you think he can punch into Big Olds?? (At the HRR, I tried counting all of them on his truck and lost count... at 4)
[ QUOTE ] Since Mr Scheib is working his magic on the big guy... I was just wondering... How many louvers do you think he can punch into Big Olds?? (At the HRR, I tried counting all of them on his truck and lost count... at 4) [/ QUOTE ] Mike's truck has over 1,000..... Big Olds will have 0.
looks great. I dont know about rounding the hood corners it will ad another line to the clean look. if you where going with a diffrent grill surond then round them. just my .02
Thirdyfive---- just for trivia sake.....there are 1114 louvers in my truck...... OOPS, it's not my truck anymore...I sold it last Monday Makin room for a 57 Caddy mid-tenn mike
[ QUOTE ] Thirdyfive---- just for trivia sake.....there are 1114 louvers in my truck...... mid-tenn mike [/ QUOTE ] Mike I'm surprised you never got someone to double stripe each one of them The most I've ever done on one car was just over 800 and that was spread out over a period of time.
Cool post, I remember Bo Huff saying to do that exact same thing, because all those cars had bad fitting panels. Sounded like a lot of work, and I'm sure it was, but you make it look easy Mike, Nice work.
denise what's funny is that at carisle this fall I saw a stock 47 or 48 olds sedan that had like 600 original miles and it fit just as bad as your car or mine.. whats worse is that my p***anger side fender will prohably need this kind of repair... to make it fit correctly.. I am ***uming that mr earl used his mig to weld that back together? if so not how did he do this? as for rounding the hood, i'm with dejango.. it just wouldnt do it for me.. later jeff
That's a pretty good gap to fill. He's a better welder than I am. Did he back it with br*** or something while filling that gap?
[ QUOTE ] Huh, so simple it's brilliant. I learn something new everyday here. I love this place. [/ QUOTE ] That's EXACTLY what I was thinking!
You guys give me way too much credit---especially Beatnik....puttin me in the same sentence with Bo Huff It ain't rocket science, just an excuse to use a plasma cutter and practice mig welding I have a couple 'o chunks of copper for back-up bridges, but didn't use them here, just s***ched along and got it done. The pics don't show how truly ****py the welding was Interesting to hear opinions on rounding the hood corners......that's been the plan since day one, but I'm having some second thoughts about it also....HRLC, ya wanna talk some more about this? Your people can call my people mid-tenn mike Poor Boys CC TN
[ QUOTE ] You guys give me way too much credit---especially Beatnik....puttin me in the same sentence with Bo Huff <font color="red">I forgot to mention that to you. When I was out at Bo's place visiting last summer he took an interest in Big Olds and was guiding me on what needed to be done and how exactly to do it and he specificly talked about the fenders. I'd forgotten about that conversation till just now. It's going to be fun to cruz Big Olds back out to Bo's and show him the finished product. He's going to be really impressed with your work</font> It ain't rocket science, just an excuse to use a plasma cutter and practice mig welding I have a couple 'o chunks of copper for back-up bridges, but didn't use them here, just s***ched along and got it done. The pics don't show how truly ****py the welding was <font color="red">You are way too modest my friend </font> Interesting to hear opinions on rounding the hood corners......that's been the plan since day one, but I'm having some second thoughts about it also....HRLC, ya wanna talk some more about this? Your people can call my people <font color="red">How about I play big shot and come down there to talk about this in person I'll see you in a week </font> mid-tenn mike Poor Boys CC TN [/ QUOTE ]
denise, you didn't ask for opinions here, but i'd like to give mine: some cars look better with rounded hood corners and some don't. i believe that big olds, with the stock grill, (more or less) stock hood, and (more or less) stock fenders will look better as is. if you're gonna change the grill and fill in part of the opening with sheet metal then rounded would prolly look better. my unsolicited $0.02. thanx for listening.
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