55 210 Wagon Progress

I imagine you keep a running total of hours spent on the 55 for billing purposes can you give us an idea how many hours has gone into this fantastic build?

 

Of course you and Cody know each other . Some sort of master metal league, like super hero metal men with Gene the over lord . Love the work ! Blue

 

This is amazing watching the skills demonstrated. I'm in total awe.

 

Professionalism and craftsmanship. You rarely see both at the same time or in the same person. That's why I love this build.

 

After finishing some louvers this morning, we turned our attention back to the wagon. We started installing the brake lines and found the "kit" the owner had purchased was far from a direct fit. here's the booster and master cylinder we're using...







As the kit had no lines to fit a 9" rear, we used a stick of stainless tubing that was left over from the Fairlane job and bent our own.

 

Adding the rear axle vent hose, we needed a spot to anchor the second vent fitting to keep the hose from flopping around...





Which is threaded with a 7/16-20 thread








With Loctite added to the threads...








More SS brake lines...

















With the rear brake lines complete, the rear wheels were bolted back up..





And for our lessons learned, this is what happens when you cut 12 gauge steel with a square on the other end of the shear. Dan, the blades are still sharp!

 

Thanks again for sharing Robert. Just curious, will you use MIG or TIG to put the square back together, and what filler wire works best for that??..(-;

 

TIG, no filler. Fusion welding to repair, should be good to go..

 

Ha! Please show us the final result of the square repair. That would be a great lesson for your apprentice. It'll teach him to keep his tools orderly.

 

Will be glad to show the repair, but this one can't be blamed on the apprentice...

 

The brake line hose brackets are a work of art.HRP

 

Hey Robert. Have not talked in a while, excellent workmanship as always! But you know I think it has been like 10 years or so, Get some paint on the wagon, the suspence is killing me !!!!! LOL I am still keeping tabs on you! Larry of L&L Custom Performance fame. Or was that disaster I forget.

 

Hey Larry, good to hear from you again!.. Unfortunately the day job for the past MANY years has included extensive travel, so when one does return from that, there are those HoneyDoLists to address first and foremost. If I weren't working for peanuts in the shop I would likely already be full time there and completed this project long ago. Thanks for the kick in the pants though!

 

Robert, amazing attention to detail and amazing workmanship. Question. The drive shaft angle looks extreme. Is that a optical deal with camera lense?

 

I believe it's the lack of weight on the frame. We had set that up when the body was on the frame.

 

We started on an ashtray delete mod for the wagon, starting with this...








a bit wider opening...





Now to remove the glove compartment door "skin"......











Then used these to flatten out the flanges...











Looks like someone may have kneed the glove box at some point...








The inside looks real nice for 61 year old metal, still shining!





Now time for the post anvil...











Here's our widening method for the inner door and the outside will get a new skin made up..

 

That's going to be hard to notice, very cool!

 

Well Robert as any happily married car guy will tell you "a happy wife, a happy life" so always keep the honey do list on top of "the to do list"! As far as the shop deal .; Well you and I had this conversation years ago when you asked me if you should expand the shop and go "main street". And you know I went from a one man 4000 sq. shop in the country behind the house, to a six man plus a receptionist 10,000 sq. shop on the inner state. And now I am back in the old shop by myself and so much happier. But even with just lights , heat and insurance being my overhead and charging $45.00 per hour, { The big shop was $75.00 , and my accountant said it should have been a $100.00!!!} it is still tuff to get customers to understand that a 100 hours of time is still $4,500 and if two guys are working on it is 200 hours! And you know how fast a 100 hours burns up doing top shelf work. So even if your day job sucks ! You have a great hobby shop to come home to! Unfortunitly for me I only know how to be self employed! Keep up the great work and above all keep Honey happy!!! Larry

 

Kyle continued on reshaping the opening for the glove box, and I got started in trimming the filler panel for the inner glove box door....























To try and keep our shape around the lock cylinder symmetrical, we cut out a profile template...

















Adding the bends....

















Looking for a proper sized circle pattern, Mickey Thompson comes through...























Some bead roller action...























Some TIG welding, we'll finish this up next time..

 

Damn, man. That is some detailed work!

 

Super job on the ashtray delete and coming up with the plan to do it.

 

Thanks guys!

Spent some time in the shop tonight finishing the other weld but I was on a roll and forgot the in process pics.. Have to get a new photographer, this one just isn't working out..





























Or the motion picture...











The new Tommasini Wheeling machine is on it's way north from Rock Hill SC, we'll be picking it up this weekend. Once it's set up we can whip out the new glove box door skin..

 

The front brake line distribution block showed up, so let's get the front lines finished up.. My tubing bender was not getting the nice small radius I was looking for, so time for a new tool. Here's a pulley out of the furniture and hardware parts bins at the local Ace store..











Here's the comparison to the tubing bender..











Bending the tubing...

 

Cool idea Robert. You were able to bend stainless tube like that without any follower on the back of the tube and not have any kinks? Must have maintained pretty significant tension on the tubing as you pulled it around the die.

 

Nice Idea with the pulley. Another one of those teach an old dog new tricks moments of yours!!! Larry

 

x2 on both of these comments. Thanks again for posting such detailed photos and explanations. You do great work. Kyle is a lucky guy.

 

Great idea on the pulley as a tubing bender. The glove compartment box stretch is a metaphor for this entire build.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. Yes, had a good bit of tension pulling on the tubing as we wrapped it around the pulley.


Tonight Kyle did some more media blasting as I was installing the idler arm bushings. Finally the drag link is off the floor, Thurs night we should get the front tires back on so we again have a roller..



Then we worked on some stainless just to show Kyle another aspect of restoration. There were some minor scratches that the buffing wheels wouldn't begin to take out, so we opted for some 600 then 1200 w/d cross hatching, then moved to the 1500 then 3000 Trizact on the DA using the foam interface pad. With scratches gone, back to the buffing wheels...

 

Well I'm back from UK, Kyle is still plugging away on stainless polishing and repairs..


Here's just a few of the implements used. And I must stress, this is not an 18 ga panel, with stainless trim we use light taps for everything.


Here's a piece of Delrin that was cut out and filed to match the bottom side of the door trim to act as a soft "anvil".











Then a spoon is used to bump.... LIGHTLY








Many ways of bringing up low spots, here are just a couple of the tools used...

This is a roller tool used for installing the "beading" to hold in screen material. The roller has been flattened from the original version, which had a hollow in the middle. A 3" roloc sander held just right will get the wheel spinning while sanding it flat..








In many cases you'll bump the highs down, roll the lows out, and check your progress using the fluorescent light tube reflections, and repeat. It is not likely this is a one and done process.



Another tool that can sneak in behind flanges.












Also used some dry sanding with the durablock, here using 500 then 1200 paper.








Then followed with the Trizact 1500, then 3000. Then it should be ready for the buffer..

 

Nice work as usual. It shows a good build takes much skill and patience. Thanks. TEB

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