With the obligatory NG post complete, lets move on to my project I bought this 1930 Roadster body from a HAMBer in Spokane, who I believe bought it from another HAMBer. I hope anyone who recognizes this project can provide more details or history as it clearly was an old hot rod. I would love any info, pics My plan is to build a 50 style car with whatever cool parts I can put together. In the meantime I have some significant (for me) body work to get through. My metalworking skills are weak at best, which is why I bought a car in need of a fair amount of work, so that I can learn. So please pass on any thoughts or comments to aid an amateur along the way. Here is the car the day I got it home from Spokane.
Did a little work on the firewall after stripping the paint, filled some extra holes and fixed some damage. Still needs finishing. Before After
Nice start and welcome to the Hamb. The first thing I'd do is have it sandblasted. Then you'll know exactly what you have and it will give you a big boost, because regardless how rough it looks now, it will look brand new. But more importantly, you won't have to deal with rust while patching it. Order yourself some Mac's catalogs and start ordering patch panels.
At this point I bought a crap ton of panels from Snyders…but the car was a wet noodle even on the “table” so I took it apart to get to the sub rails and make the necessary repairs. So this happened. Once striped I could fix crap like this. I plan to go with 32 rails so this is really just practice and to help provide a better foundation while i work on the rest of the car. So here is where I am now. I put the car back together to try and keep things in order. Then I turned my attention to the P. side cowl (which is closest to the heater as its really cold here). I cut the patch full size as the entire lower portion was ruined by an old repair. The old repair was an aluminum panel brazed in. Used some weld through primer.
I'm not a welding expert either, but I would think you might want to cover that wood table with a piece of sheet steel or something of that nature. I was welding some small patches on my Plymouth last year and came back out after a dinner break to find a 2 x4 smoldering under the car. Good looking project, and it looks like you're doing good work!
For sure. I typically put sheet of old metal under what I am welding. Thanks all for the kind words. Was going to work on the doors today...but it snowed so off to the slopes
Got the P side mostly together, still needs a little work though Now a question. The drivers side has some old repairs that to me look like some old shrinks. They are starting to crack. Not sure of the best approach to repair them. weld them? cut them out? Also I started a thread looking for some help with doors. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=772042 Not sure if the moderators want to move it over it to reduce the clutter.
I have just been working on little dents and such at night so not too much to report. I did try rust removal by electrolysis. I dont have access to, or room for a blast cabinet so I thought what the hell. I had everything to try this science experiment. I think the results speak for themselves. The hinges sat in the tank for about 10 hours at 10 maps. They cleaned up fast, got it done in the kids bathroom without getting caught by the wife. Nothing more than a few seconds with a wire wheel and done. The one on the right didnt have a good "connection" so I will have to redo it, but it made for a good before and after shot. I am now pondering the countless hours I have wasted cleaning small parts. Thanks to the HAMB for showing me this process.
Damn man, that's nice work. What kind of weld-through primer are you using? I've used 2 different brands, and they don't weld-through worth a damn.
Looks like somebody is going to have a real nice fun driver when finished. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
That's the first one I used. No luck. Then bought some Eastwood weld-thru primer. No luck there, either. I must be doing something wrong. The local auto paint store has some specific weld-though stuff but they want $40/can - must be made of gold or something.
So got a little garage time today. Got the d side cowl patch in and ready for finishing. Also got started on the P side door. Took me forever to fix this...sucks being a hack. Before hours later...I still need to clean it up a bit. I have never done anything like this so kinda happy with the result.
Well I think they are ok, they are definately are not perfect and the beading varies a little from panel to panel. For instance I realized yesterday that the lower beading on the door skin in narrower than the cowl and quarter patches...not sure how I will cross that bridge. Makes me think a good informative thread would be to catalog all the dimensions of the various patch panels by vendor/manufacturer. I already bought all the patches so I will just work with what I got. I did buy a bead roller and have been messing around with it. The next project I do I will try to make them myself...(what can I say the HAMB has inspired me).
Thanks, I just get after it. What's the worse case? I mess up, spend more money and try again...great hobby!
Thanks for the subrail crossmember photos, now I know were these original bits go. Great petterns for new ones. Bob
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