Danny, here's about the best I can get right now.. The rust repair hasn't been made to the bottom of the door, and the door could use some primer. I hope you can get a pretty good idea from this picture
Excellent profile! My '27 T Roadster build: www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t= 734383
Inquiring minds wanna know did you guys take the day off from working on the wagon to watch the "Puppy Bowl" or the "Supper Bowl" yesterday? HRP
We did work yesterday, and then I watched the Super Bowl.. Turns out that what they told me was exactly wrong. The best OFFENSE is a good DEFENSE... not the other way around that I was taught...Go figgure! Yesterday we worked on door bottoms. The first part was to cut out all the rusty crap. Our inner AND outer door bottoms were a rusty mess, so off they came. We then replicated the weatherstrip mount by passing some 20 gage through the bead roller. A 90 degree bend was then bent, and the inner panel replacement was complete. We decided to place the outer skin FIRST, and then slip the inner panel in place. This way we would have a perfect gap on the door fit in the opening. We re fitted the door onto the car for this to get it just right. Here it is spot welded into position. Then the inner door panel was slipped into position and spotted. That's as far as we got yesterday, but the weather is super cold outside right now (-11 degrees and falling) so I'm just going to stay in the shop and spend my MONDAY working on finishing out this door.
Is that an old lead repair on the front of the driver door? I was DA sanding mine and hit vixen file marks and an old lead repair under original factory paint and primer in the same spot on my Customline. I love your work so far and would love me a 2 door wagon! Stay warm this week
I actually started this project over 10 years ago. the part that looks like lead is a small area I tried sandblasting with my own blaster. I took it to a pro blaster this year and he used a much coarser grit on the rest of the car.. That's what you see everywhere else. I did hit some lead on the rear fenders. Its kinda a surprise when you first hit it. In this day and age we always think "bondo" , not lead.
Naw, the wagon wont be dropped...I've always hated the "laying Frame" look on cars....The chop is real minor. Almost everyone who walks into the shop has no idea the wagon has been chopped at all. Most the body mods even though pretty extensive go un-noticed. The tunneled antenna will probably give it away more than anything else. It'll probably be the only 53 ranchwagon true woodie in existence, but most folks wont know that either. Fine by me!
Chaz, The best chops are the ones that aren't readily/easily noticed- yours is absolutely perfect!!!... Now, you just need to bring it out here some weekend and set it next to Danny's
Cool build so far ... I'm really looking forward to the turning it into a real woody part. Could you hurry it up a little?
Patience Grasshopper.. I have looked forward to seeing Chuck turn this car into a real woods for at least 8 or 9 years now! HRP
This week while it was so cold out I spent some time finishing and priming the door we re-bottomed last week. Today it was fun to put it on the car and see how the damn thing looked... We were pretty happy with it. The rear tailgate window was todays chore. It of course also has to be chopped, but there's no cutting rear glass.. It was pretty easy to chop the frame, but the glass was another matter. There's not much room around the glass, so we had to recess the glass into the top of the frame. No matter how hard we tried, we were 5/8 inch short. Time to start cutting things up. We cut out the window channel, and then removed the 5/8 from the top rail. Its a good thing we didn't need any more, cause that's all there was without drastically altering the interior metal. It took two full length welds and a LOT of grinding to move the window channel up . Here it is all smoothed out. It really worked well, and now the rear end is also chopped, and we're sure to have nice glass all around. If the weather stays crappy this week I may have all this in primer by our next posting.
Man,you guys have been making some great progress this week,but most people wouldn't understand just how much work went into making the original glass in the lift gate fit without cutting it. HRP
With the lousy weather I had some time this week to work on the rear tailgate and window. I got them both smoothed and in primer. I removed the cool license plate holder and light even though they're pretty funky. The reason was to make a clear canvas for the wood that will be on the tailgate. The assembly may re-appear on completion if the wood is not in the way. Today was spent fixing the lower right door. A panel was fabricated and welded into place on the outside of the door I'm pretty sure this is the last of our rust repair. The back side was also eaten away. You can see in this photo the rusted mess we had to replace. It was cut on the black line, .............. and a new panel was fabricated to replace it. I hope to finish out this door this week, and then all this rust crap will be a distant memory.....
<hr style="color:#e5e5e5; background-color:#e5e5e5" size="1"> I remember how great it felt to see the body being rust free again,I know you guys feel the same. Looking forward to the next installment...HRP
OK, we did make some headway... The rear pan and the tailgate had slightly different arcs to them. We had two choices. Make the pan fit the tailgate, or make the tailgate fit the pan. Since the pan was such a bugger, we decided to change the arc of the tailgate. We cut a slice out of the inner panel, shrunk the sheetmetal on the gate with a shrinking disc, and then welded back the seam. It sounds easy when you talk about it, but it took HOURS! Here's a photo of it after it was welded and ground. I finished the lower patch on the door, and we re-installed it on the car. While doing that we broke a tap off in the mounting plate. Removing that took another hour. BUT, the door fit nicely. Here's a pic of that side of the car. We also moved the wagon to another area of the shop where it now sits under the shop hoist. Next week we hope to figure out the mounts for the 289 that is going in and we can move it easily with the hoist. Here's a picture of the hoist and beam. I moved these over from my old shop. I'm in love with this thing, Its on a 20 foot beam and it has saved my old back a hundred times. Dana sanded down the whole roof . It took a considerable amount of time as this thing has a considerable amount of roof. Only found about 3 small dents. I'll try to get to those this week.
We called off work on the wagon today.... Everyone's clearing out from the late season blizzard that hit us.
Today we tried to see how the engine would fit into the car. It didn't fit at all! We're going to need a rear sump pan to clear the crossmember. This is kinda tricky with a 289, because the pan still needs to clear the oil pump which is located in front. The pan available sorta looks like a two hump deal... One to clear the pump, and a bigger one to hold the oil. I ordered it, and next week we'll try to make it work. We took this opportunity to pull the stock pan and inspect the engine. It doesn't look too bad in there! I think we scored a pretty good deal. Since we had some time we also decided to clean out the drip rails of all that 60 year old caulk installed at the factory. That stuff was REALLY bonded on there! It took a lot of work to remove it. but with the vinlyl woodie top this thing will have it was necessary to remove it all. Finally we removed about 4 small dents from the roof and shot it in primer. Now the entire car is in primer and that feels pretty good. Next week we'll try the rear sump pan on for size and get that engine in place!
I forgot your car is a '53 so it still has the pin & link front suspension,the 54 has the updated front suspension,,I had to use a 289 pan on my 302. HRP
Here's a picture of the new pan setup. Its a lot better, but not exactly a total rear sump pan either. I presume that's what others used to overcome the problem with the Fatman clip. It was over a decade ago I got the clip for this thing, but it WAS ordered for a small block Ford. We cant be the only ones with this combination, so I'm guessing it'll work. Notice the two drain plugs?
OK,I guess I already knew that but old age and senility trumps memory now a days. When you guys originally said a woodie wagon I never envisioned a vinyl top,,that will be the cats arse! HRP
We pulled a valve cover today and the top half of the engine didn't look nearly as nice as the bottom end It looks like some moisture found its way in there while the engine was in storage. Dana an I spent a long while cleaning it up, and it looked alright after we were done... We'll see. We attached the new rear sump pan on the engine, and tried to find a way to fit it on the existing clip. We dummied up a pair of mounts out of 3 1/2 square tube to get everything in place ( we can make some fancy ones next week.) The gap in the new pan JUST cleared the crossmember and Rack and pinion steering. What a relief. The tranny looks like it'll fit nicely (famous last words.) Howie, our upholsterer brought by a sample of the vinyl woodie top material. It looks like it can stretch over the rounded top corners without a problem. The top should really set off the woodie trim. Not our best day, but we did solve some problems, and that's what this is all about.
We were back at work mounting the engine and tranny today. We figured out some engine mounts that would work for us. The doorway is to provide clearance for the steering. Here they are welded in place. We cleaned up the engine, added chrome valve covers, an edelbrock manifold, and put on the rear sump pan. Here we are moving the oil pickup. Finally, the 289 in place. This thing is really gonna happen!
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