Not quite ready for that yet. Have a few things to get out of the way first. But that will be happening really soon! Gotta get a lot of this done before getting the eye fixed or it will drive me crazy sitting here looking at it.
Yes I am using the doors from a 2 door sedan. They are about 7" longer. I am a big guy, and the bigger doors will help with getting in and out easier, and also at some point, I am going to put some sort of removable seats, maybe some low back buckets, behind the drivers seat for passengers. That will help with the entry and egress as well.
Getting closer and closer. I am trying to get the body situated to set it down on the chassis. I should have it done before the end of the weekend!
The Sedan Delivery. I am going to cut the windshield out of the Sedan Delivery and overlap it onto the portion of the roof I left on the 4 door. Several reasons for this. Drip rail, and the upper windshield frame of the Sedan Delivery is in really poor and rusted out condition.
You gonna cut the door jamb out of the delivery and scoot back....fab the door and window surround onto the longer two door sedan door?
Are you planning on using the sedan door for some of the fit? Personally I think the doors should be totally out of the way.
I do think your on the right track with above the drip rail and roof panel but I'd go to body mounts and rear Axle center line for floor and roof joint to the 2d Sedan pieces.
The door will come off for the time being. I'm going to leave everything loose and the roof overlapped until I get the splice at floor the rear axle made. I'll get all the body mounts in place, get all the rubber pads in place. And then start working on the rockers and quarters, making sure the measurements on the door openings are copacetic. Then I'll get the roofline welded up and work back towards the door jambs. The final fit will be lengthening the door openings and rebuilding the door frames and jambs. At least that is how I'm seeing things at this point. I'll see how things look once the body is sitting on the chassis.
I think your Spot on with process. Personally I would not even worry about the B post till I'm working on that part. I'd get the floor done move up to the Roof joint and get it done, then drop down to the Rockers and final fit and mount the B post to fit to the door. Last thing overall would be to join the Quarter to the new B post position.
Agree with what you are saying. There is a lot of new sheet metal going in, so I think its going to take putting the doors on and off several times (many!) to get everything looking good and straight. As soon as I get the body sitting on the chassis, I am going to make some 2 x 4 cribbing to get the car raised up off the floor at a decent working height, and get the frame level from side to side, and front to back. And get it off the tires and sitting solid on the frame so everything is squared up like it should be.
Windshield frame cut out of the Sedan Delivery. I used a nibbler and cut the roof skin within a 1/2" of the windshield frame, leaving plenty of spare sheet metal to play with. In reality, I will need to cut the roof skin back behind, or right on top of the brace that the sun visors screw into that goes across the top of the windshield. That will give me plenty of access to get in there with a dolly to bodywork the weld seam. Need to do a bit of bracing before cutting out the door jambs tomorrow. And then it will be time to finally set the body on the chassis. That's about it for tonight.
I have forgotten what you decided. Are you staying with the S.D. rounded top rear corner on the door and drip rail down the B post to the belt line?
Yes, the doors will look like Sedan Delivery doors, only 7" longer. I know we had talked about having some new drip rails made up. but the plan I have, it will only require 1 splice on the drip rail, and I am a good enough welder to make it unnoticeable I think! (Disclaimer) Not my weld!!
Good. Were I doing this job I'd find the spot behind the B post easiest to access top to bottom for my vertical weld seam and at that point remove the B post from the S.D. body along with the riser in tact from side to side. I would pan to reinstall all that in lou of using the Sedan B post. You will get a better fit in the quarters going back together. Then I'd snip off the top rear corner of the Sedan door and test fit it to the S.D. B post. Some time back we also talked about how things Grow as they Go so for me I'd have my complete front clip bolted up to the Firewall section prior to fitting the 2 roof panels together. You can only shim the Core Support so much until the Bumpers are past fitting right. I'd try to avoid that issue.
I have the front clip from the 2 door Sedan that has been sitting on the chassis. As far as I can tell, it has never been apart since it left the factory. It is actually in pretty good condition and everything is pretty tight fitting. I will be having it in place to help fit the rockers and the doors. I am going to make a jig to fit in the floor jack to hold the doors as I have the feeling I am going to be putting them on and off several times in this process. I think by tomorrow evening I will have the body fitting on the chassis pretty well. Things are moving right along. Too bad the momentum is going to be interrupted for about a month, but I've had worse setbacks in the projects.
Hay, I know that song "things were going fine until". Seems to come up about every other week around here.
Photos from yesterday and today. Things are looking real good. Everything is lining up as well as can be expected. I need to figure out exactly where the doors are going to end up, and splice some inner structure at the top. The seam over the rear axle is close, I may have to put a small filler piece but I may be able to get the transition from the flat floorboard bent up some. The roof overlay is just what I expected. It's going to be easy enough to get that welded and metal finished. The roof over the doors is good, and I have lots of metal on both pieces to make a nice cut. I got the body set down and had to stop and clean up a bit. Couldn't find tools and was tripping over air hoses and powertool chords. Too much strung out. I cleaned up the shop and vacuumed out the car. Time to make up some cribbing and see how that goes.
Had to do it.......it's not quite the money shot, but it is what all the work is about.....long doors. All I lack now is finishing up!
Keeps ya motivated brother! Gotta get that visual every now and then it's looking great! And I'm starting to think you're somewhat of a mad genius
Big day! Looking real good. I sense a sore elbow in your future... lots of planishing coming right up. It's all good though. Just one bite at a time.
It's like I told my buddy after he helped me set the body down on the chassis.... "Im ready to drive the damn thing now!"
The Jalopy Journal
