Any reason I can't ?

I thought I could do this in sections but it's even worse than it looks. I want to rip out the floor, braces and rockers at one time. The front and rear mounts are solid,I don't see anything moving even without the floor. What say you?

 

Put cross bracing everywhere u can.......IT WILL MOVE.

 

X2 on the bracing , --after you fit the doors, tops to posts and roof and cowl/1/4s . Most guys are using the one piece floorpans with the braces and inner rockers already attached,(spot welded) in place. Setting the pan on the ch***is , lowering the body onto the pan afterwards. Lots of info over on trifive if'n you get stuck.

 

After the bracing is in, take a center punch and *****-punch the A and B pillers somewhere down near the floorboards where you can get a very accurate dimension across the width of the car. Measure the distance to the nearest 1/16 inch or better and record the dimension. When installing the new metal the marks will give you a reference dimension to maintain.

 

Would conduit work for braces? Is high to low, side to side enough? In a couple places?

 

Conduit is better than nothing, you should be able to get square, round, angle somewhere around you, black pipe would be better than conduit if you're forced to buy at home depot or something. I bought a bunch of unistrut that was trn out of a building that's perfect to reuse for this stuff, if you do use conduit run it diagonal and have the pieces cross/touch to add another weld

 

Before you weld anything back up, install the doors to get a good fit and gaps.

 

Hung the doors and discovered this a few days ago, fixed it.

 

X3 on bracing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When you have enough, double check it again !!

 

Ps; 1/2' square steel tubing is an excellent brace material, as well as conduit. Try to get non galvanized conduit,...The fumes are nasty, from the zinc coating.

4TTRUK

 

Maybe some bed frames, cheap at Goodwill, would give me an angle?

 

Skip, I know Greenville is sorta isolated, and proper materials may be hard to find. Get something you can weld that has some rigidity and strength. Put in a cross brace @ front of door on A post, top and bottom, same @ B post and rear in area of rear of p*** compartment, and then in rear of wheelhousing. Then a few longways, and finally top to bottom diagonal at these spots. Position bars so that whenever possible, they are welded together.
Every extra hour you spend now on bracing will be rewarded in days when it come to lining it all up to weld in the new floor pan.

 

I like to leave the doors hung. You can close them occasionally and check your gaps, making sure the welds are not pulling the body. One other thing I like to do is install the pans, rockers etc and weld them all in before I make the final weld in the front. That way the welding does not compound the shrinkage and only the final weld tries to pull the car.

John L

 

Going to be a little crowded in there but I'll listen to you guys. Thanks

 

Conduit is fine, so is angle iron, nearly anything will do as long as you don't knock it off the jack stands or tow it up the road at 100 MPH. You only need to hold everything in position. It doesn't need to be mega strong, just stabilized.

Hang the doors and make sure the body is not sagged or twisted. You may need to jack it up with many jacks, or pull it together with come alongs to get it true. Then brace it with lengthways, crossways and diagonal braces as necessary. Use your own judgement here. Take lots of measurements, diagonal as well as long ways and cross ways.

Then cut out the bad parts one at a time and weld in new steel. Do not cut everything apart at once, you want to keep as much strength as you can. When you get done replacing all the rot, the body should be totally rigid and you can remove the braces.

 

Exactly what he said...

 

Brace and brace the braces?

 

We all basically have said pretty much the same thing here. The bottom line is the welding will build in stress. In the old days when all we had to use was Oxy/acetylene we would actually build in a little material to allow for shrinkage on occasion. The bracing has to be stronger than the stress caused by the welding and placed in such a way to counter those stresses. Not a big deal but it is a step you don't want to ignore.

John L

 

I use 1/2" electrical conduit for bracing all the time. Works like a champ.

As for the car in question while I have done major biody mods on some real heaps over the years I have found it to be way easier if I do the basic body repairs prior to doing the body mods. IE if it needs rockers weld them in or if it needs quarter panels, and etc. it just gives you better land marks and less options for things to shift around.

 

you may not think its moving..trust me,its moving..

brace it and cross brace it any way you can with what ever you have..brace it so it dont move out or in, up or down

 

...not to mention the added motivation!

If you already have a $1000.00 welded in and ruined for return, you're less likely to run away screaming when you pull out the carpets and actually SEE what a flimsy piece of **** you bought for yourself!

Yup...MOTIVATION. LoL

(Works for me all the time anyway! Hahaha)

 

Bed rails from older beds is good quality and very strong. Useful wherever you'd use angle.

 

All good advice, thanks.

 

it is very important to brace the car to keep it from racking. before doing any thing make sure the car is sqaure and if not get it squared. then check body lines and gaps. this will save lots of headaches later. then brace the car to hold every thing where you want it. then cut out the floor. good luck

 

I used bed frames in the '56 Chevy I just did a 2 door conversion on. Never touched the floor pans, rockers, or rear window frame, but still built a little roll cage of braces inside to keep it all in place. It does get in the way sometimes, but it's very necessary.

I did find that the old bed frames are some kind of different alloy, hardened and you could tell when cutting and grinding it that it wasn't the same as typical car steel, but still worked just fine for what I was doing. I've seen conduit used as well and it'd be just as good.

 

IF you brace it well you can take them pretty far down. I like to make the braces in sections, and bolt in. Bolt in is easier than it sounds. Just weld in tabs, and use existing bolt holes. I usually make separate door opening braces that bolt to the hinge and latch attaching points. On a big job don't box yourself in with bracing that is in your way. Really think about it before you start. With some like the T bird I make up a frame section to support the center while on the rotisserie. Right now the bird is on that section, on a steel table, with both ends on the rotisserie. all the braceing is out of the way now. You do what you have to do!

 

Thats gonna be a hell of a lot of work to bend that body back in shape...What if you build a jig, bend the body back, and you still can't get gl*** in it? Maybe just bend the doors to fit the body and get em to close good and make a drag car out of it. Lexan front and rear.