Thanks for the comments guys. OK, it's been a while since I've TIG welded, and got a little too much heat near the edge. Blew a nice hole, so used one of the practice pieces to cut out a patch.. .....and I got a little heavy footed on the other end as well... Trimming for the patch's patch. The final pieces to weld... Weld dressed and factory relief added... A few more welds to dress and this will be done...
Thanks for the comments guys... Cowl repair all complete... One more thin spot from the media blasting where we had removed the leaded seam... Test fitting the patch for proper contour.. TIG welded in place... Started off with some SPI epoxy on the underside... ....and then the firewall .....as well as the new glove box door skin... The entire interior was primed by standing through the window openings... Then the outside was tackled...
Are you sold on the tig welding now and will that going to be the " go to " welding for the future? The cowl piece sure came out nice! All in primer has got to feel great, been a while coming. Looks awesome in the pics!
It was a good tight fit for welding and I figured it would be much less time in cleanup with the TIG... Well the epoxy has cured for about three days, time to put the glove box back together... The adjacent areas are scuffed for some official door skin adhesive.. ....in the form of some leftover primer from this weekend.. Good thing this gets covered up... Using the door skin hammer on the leather shot bag, the ends are folded first... and then the bottom flange... All together...
I just read this whole thread.... You guys do amazing amazing work. Made me think I'm running my current project. I'm just going to have to try harder! Thank you for your inspiration.
Thanks for the comments guys. Sorry I've been lax on wagon pics. When you get to the bodywork stage it doesn't show progress well. We did get another dose of SPI epoxy sprayed on the quarters today so we can better see how we're coming along..
Well after block sanding the latest coat of epoxy.... We had a local car show we could attend, but didn't know whether to take the body or the frame... I didn't think the rotisserie would fit in my 16' trailer for some reason, but another measurement proved otherwise. Since it showed more of our metal fabrication, we opted for the body.. All loaded up, height limitations on the ceiling do require inverted travel... At the show with the "trailer queen"
On one of your videos " I don't remember where I seen it" you posted a couple of pics about tucking with modified vise grips. Do you have a video or some posts somewhere in more detail ., Thanks Love your work.
Haha, isn't that the truth OJ! Don't recall doing a video on it, but this thread(s) here shows a pretty good use of the tucking tool. If making a set, don't forget the middle "finger" ?? is set about 30 degrees from the others so the tuck is tapered.. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4100339&postcount=728 http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4161992&postcount=747
Show off! Haha! I love to see cars shown in progress at events, Sometimes much more interesting than the finished ones.
Had as much of a crowd as any other car there. Even surprised to see some taking pictures and selfies in front of it! haha
Today was more blocking on the 55, and moving forward to get it ready for the Linex that will go on the bottom side. We need to get seat brackets complete and welded into the floor, finish epoxy prime on cavities (rocker and inner quarter), install wheel houses, etc. Yesterday was a road trip to get a paint sample and other paint supplies. here's the proposed color for above the quarter... With the H/K Organic Green Kandy basecoat on the quarters down. To better get a feel for the test sprayout of the Kandy, a panel was made to simulate the top of the quarter, so we can better see the effects in the sunlight... Next, epoxy in the cavities. I had looked at cavity spraying wands and the like, and did not care for what was available. So lets get basic, after all it is unseen when complete.. This area doesn't have to be pretty, so picked up this goodie at the local hardware store.. .....which should get enough on the inner quarter to seal things up.. For the rocker, needed a bit more reach, both to scuff things up and roll on some paint. Here's the new multi-tool, with a 4' lift kit. Scuffing attachment Target area.. These dividers sit above the wheelwells inside the top of the quarter, and a bottom flange serves as a welding anchor for the top of the wheelwell. If they both had a bottom flange.. On top of those was a nice foam seal, which also served to trap water and cause one of our pits in the original quarter that we removed. So the thought is to replace these with new ones made of 16 gauge, using a bulb seal at the top for less water absorption/retention... With these now removed, you can see the still bare 1955 sheet metal that we'll also get covered with epoxy prior to installing the new brackets.. After all this fun, we loaded up one of the Biederman fenders and took it over to Saufley Sandblasting to get a quote on those. We'll get all the parts blasted individually, then sealed in epoxy primer, then assembled. After assembly, one more dose of Epoxy and they're off to the painter..
Working today on fitting up the wheel wells. The front half is re-popped and uses the same part as the sedans, the rear part is not available. Fitting the front, notice the right lower corner (as shown) tapers up with less overlap for plug/spot welding. The rear section is NOT available in reproduction, and the notch you see there is for routing the fuel fill on a wagon tank. We've switched to a sedan tank to make room for dual exhaust, and given the widened wheel tubs and tires being used, no need in leaving such a gaping hole. So new parts it is.. The lower flap I'm holding is a separate piece that is spot welded on. In an effort to minimize moisture traps/rust generators in the future, we'll make this in one piece. To fix our front repop, a piece of 18 gauge is TIG welded to give us a square corner... To make the new piece for the rear, we'll need a method to add beads that cross each other. This will entail a small table to use on the Lennox, an upper punch, and two pieces of matched MDF. Slots will be cut into the MDF, the top used as a guide for the punch, the bottom acts as our bottom die as it "rests" on the table.. The table will be supported in the lower tool holder using a 3/4 shank. The end is turned down to 1/2" to mate into a 1/2" hole in the 4 x 12 table, which is then plug welded. For an upper punch, we'll use some 3/4 oil hardening 4140, making it less pointed than the original just in case we want to use it for something besides the 55. For a bead guide we first need to get a good template of the inside of the quarter. The adjustable spline comes in handy... MDF is screwed together and then the edge profile cut.. Cutting our bead pattern.. The offset of the original for the quarter seal is added using a tipping die in the Lennox, slight modification on the backstop for the correct width.. New matches the repop.... This seal will be used against the inside of the quarter.. Running a test pattern... The table height is adjusted to set the punch depth... All clamped up, ready to go. Kyle has already left for the day so we'll finish up next time..
A bead roller as it pushes through the panel will pull or gather metal from the adjacent areas to form the detail. Depending on size of the profile, using a Pullmax/Lennox or other reciprocating machine does a better job of stretching vs. gathering, but it is also dependent on die shape/details. I have a beading die for the Lennox that uses a football shape for the upper punch. This is more of a gradual in, then shape the pattern, but leaves virtually ZERO errant marking of the detail. If the upper punch goes to more of a peg shape, as shown above, it provides more stretch than the football shape, but also is prone to "chatter" marking of the detail if pushed through too fast. So one has to find a happy medium in your feed speed for those purpose built dies... The MDF is basically giving us a hammer form sort of process, and yes, the better the clamping the less of a "gathering" that will occur. (more stretch) The detail isn't all that crisp in the sample run, but should improve slightly with additional screws that will be used on the final piece, also giving us some holes to fill.
Thanks for explaining the difference. I have not been around machines like those other than seeing videos.
Made our table slightly larger to better hold the panel level for punch depth consistency.. More holes for screws added to keep things snug A few holes to fill, we'll get the other side done and weld them all in one sitting. Motion picture version: .
The Jalopy Journal
