Time for some brackets for the rear seat bottom retainers. Cut out some 19 gauge... Drilled some holes for an inside radius, and trimmed the corners for the floor pan flange.. Now to fold some flanges on the sides for strength, using the Diacro press brake and a 1/2" thick lower die. By adding some rare earth magnets to the back side to serve as a back stop, we get a perfect 1/4" flange... Then some back and forth between the Erco kick shrinker and the press brake with a narrow die inside the folds.... and we have 45* bends on either end of our brackets... Test fit.... and trimming the retainer hole...
Thanks! Had our new apprentice started today, while I cut out the hole in the second seat bracket, Mike got started on punching and drilling holes for plug welding the passenger bucket seat bracket... After I got the bracket hole cut out, E media blasted the brackets and added some SPI epoxy using a brush. We mainly wanted to get the bottom side well covered as it will be inaccessible once welded in place.. First coat... Two coats, that should hold us for under a seat... Meanwhile I got out the John Deere rod bender to see if we could make up some anchors for the shoulder belt.. Bent with relief for a 1/2-13 lock nut.. Welded with short bursts and plenty of cooling between to keep the nylon lock intact.. test fit... plug weld holes drilled and welded in place.... Mike finished up plug welding the seat bracket in place...
Had a late start in the shop tonight as I had to go look at a school bus. Yeah, week and a half to go until the end of school. Looks like something gave the spot mirror a nice push.. The mirror mount looks like it's no longer straight.... OK, so we found it hard to fathom something hitting the mirror that high in the air as the bus was driving into it, so the other possibility was something backed into this one.. A quick search of the buses parked close by revealed this one with some nice shiny metal showing... A quick test drive showed that the mirror didn't vibrate/move around that much so we're going to address this after school is out so this one can still be used for the next couple weeks.. Back at the shop, time to weld in the seat retainer brackets... ....and then started the next shoulder harness anchor bracket....
Dave, I get confused myself, and it's right in front of me! Our seats, front and back both, are out of a 2002 Monte Carlo. The seat back was a split fold down, which was not desired. Since the width needed to accommodate the mini tubs, this allowed us to section those two separate seat backs and make one fold down arrangement. The center arm rest will disappear with reupholstery. The sub and amp will hide behind the seat, so the fold down is used for access for those. Still have some "filler strips" that sit to the left and right of the fold down seat to make it the correct width to the seat cushion. The OEM versions of these will have some severe notching at the bottom as they need to become very intimate with the wheel tubs. The seat bottom is also sectioned in the center and notched on the back corners to accommodate the mini tubs. We still have yet to add arm rest stanchions to fill out from the inner quarter to the seat cushion and conceal the shoulder belt retractor. Hence all the seat belt drama thrown in the mix here. For the shoulder belt anchor point, we "sized up" the location on the B pillar with a test subject in the driver's seat, and it fell about dead center between two trim screws. The hole for the nut did not exist prior, and the 3/8 rod was trimmed so it wouldn't interfere with the trim screw holes. We still have yet to add a doubler plate at the bottom inner quarter by the B pillar to attach both the lap belt and shoulder retractor... That's all I know at this point....
Pilot hole drilled for the passenger B-Pillar..... The center point is spring loaded, but they seem to locate better using a pilot hole vs. just a punch... The plug weld holes drilled for the anchor and paint cleaned off in prep for welding.. Apprentice E worked on smoothing off the plug welds from last week.. Welding in the anchor ..... For the lower anchor point, which will hold both the retractor and the lap belt, we used some 14 ga that will be plug welded to the back side of the inner quarter panel just behind the B Pillar.. A 1/2" lock nut is welded to the back side, and a spacer added to the front side to keep the lap belt off the side wall. Or the motion picture version....
Tonight we have both seat belt retractor anchor plates welded and waiting for apprentice E to media blast and epoxy prime.. Next, we have the side filler panels to either side of the fold down rear seat that don't fit with those pesky wheel tubs in the way... So we plan to make new ones, with a relief to fit snugly to the wheel tubs at the bottom end.. We used the Baileigh MH19 hammer and the shrinking dies to shape a piece of 14 gauge cold rolled to fit the wheel tub. Glad I didn't have to do all that shrinking by hand. A flat piece from the top section will be welded to this piece, and then foam will be glued to the assembly and upholstered to match the seat..
To catch up on the wagon, the seat belt retractor anchor bracket will be located inside the quarter panel, here we are laying out for the plug weld holes that hold it in place... Holes piloted, then use the burnishing brush to remove the paint from the weld area... Then the holes are enlarged for plug weld size, I use a letter A and plenty of heat. Back to our rear seat back modification, some 14 gauge steel is shrunk in the Baileigh MH19 to fit the driver's wheel well.. After some cleanup on the Tommasini cast wheeling machine... Meanwhile, Mike has media blasted the anchor brackets and is here spraying them with SPI epoxy primer... The 14 gauge is then held to the wheel wells and marked a line parallel to the seat frame. We'll use this line to start the transition to flat, using a linear stretch die in the MH19. Linear stretch die also used to add this detail to blend into the bottom part... Tacked together and fitted.... Tig welded.... This should JUST hide the wheel well, but doesn't look like the foam will be all that thick at the bottom... Weld dressed and another fit, I was going to trim the sides but we'll be adding some stiffener beads to the flat area, so we'll wait until after that process to trim the sides.
Saturday Mike worked on the 55, with the seat belt retractor anchor plates now epoxied and cured for a week, they're ready to weld inside the quarters. He clamped them in place, scribed all the holes, removed them and cleaned paint off the hole locations.... clamped in, ready to plug weld..... then he dressed the plug welds on the anchor plates as well as a few remaining ones on the drivers bucket seat pan. next on the list is to fabricate some arm rests for the rear seat area that will also serve to enclose the seat belt retractors.
Whew don't see a handy fire extinguisher inside the cabin be a shame if all the many house of hard work went up in smoke.
FE was about 10' away, just outside paint booth door. Mike had removed all the seats and even vacuumed the floor before he started, so we didn't have too much kindling inside..
With the Biederman fenders out of the building, its time to work on the 55's rear seat bolsters. Time to assemble the parts for the passenger side.. TIG welded together... ....and cleaned up.... Back to the drivers side, all the edges will be tipped forward to eliminate the possibility of sharp edges cutting through the upholstery.. This is the edge adjacent to the center fold down seat, so we wanted it nice and straight.. To better check that we were straight across the uneven surfaces, we used the laser again... Seats mocked up again..... .....and laser used to get a straight edge on the outside.. for more edge tipping.... Hopefully we can finish this up in the morning and start cutting out the foam pad..
Here's the panel with all the edges tipped forward, clamped in place.. Some poster board templates were traced from the steel part, then trimmed out and transferred to the foam. Used the electric bread knife from the kitchen (if anyone asks you haven't seen it...) to trim out the foam, makes short work of it... roughed out... Test fit for marking the profile... trimmed /sculpted to size with the bread knife and 3" roloc. Use a worn disc on the sander, the fresh ones tend to grab.. This fills out the seat pretty nicely and hides that wheel tub that protrudes into the back side of the seat.
Well it looks like we've been slacking, but I left Mike a list of things to do and he says they're all crossed off. Just pulled back in the driveway tonight so I don't know for sure.. Have to check it out tomorrow. Me and the family have been driving down the east coast for the past couple weeks for a much needed break, and I found time enough for a detour in SC.. When you see yard art like this, you know you're in the right place! Visited with Danny for a bit, he was showing off some of his handiwork on his wife's wagon... Quite impressive for a guy that didn't have anywhere near the tooling to work with that I have in the shop. Until you walk in those shoes, you don't realize the amount of work that goes into the details.. Awesome job Danny! Of course, then there are the 32's... ho hum, right.... Color me jealous. Then we went to visit one of Danny's local neighbors who I've also met online (on another forum) to check out one of his recent builds. Then out for a good lunch at a local burger place. Danny, great to finally meet, thanks for putting up with me and showing off your old Fords, well worth the trip!!
Back on the wagon, we needed to close off the back side of the rear seat.. We have some square tubing to use but needed a radius bender. The upper part of the buffer stand looks like it may work. As I've told Mike, everything is a tool.. Add a welder and a piece of round stock for an anchor... First test... Four pieces needed... All TIG welded together...
Robert,it was indeed a pleasure to meet you and put a face with the name,I appreciate you sharing your metal working knowledge with a hack like me. I'm sure John enjoyed the visit also,at 30 years of age his metal working skills revel that of many of his peers,His dad & I have been friends since the early 6o's and I have watch John master many of the skills that have him in demand of many local people needing a car or truck restored. Lunch at Arnold's was fun and the time flew by,hopefully next time we can visit with a few more people you might find interesting.Take care my friend. BTW,thank you for the Yeller T-shirt. HRP
Yesterdays progress.... We needed some tooling for the next phase of the 55 wagon's interior fabrications, the radius we installed on the rear seat back framework will need to be duplicated onto the sheet metal covering. A trip to Hill Top welding had produced a suitable piece of 4" pipe. The Pexto shear has a t-slot along the front for it's support arms and we'll use this to bolt on a couple angle brackets to support this pipe along the front. A slight gap behind the pipe will allow us to use it as a fulcrum in adding a radius to our panel... Mike worked on adding some end caps to our radius die.... Need a ground clamp for a standing piece of pipe? set it on a flanged piece of sheet metal, instant clamp location.... More to come on that.... Meanwhile, our sheet metal panel will also serve to cover the rear bass speaker. Not wanting a grille showing, we plan on using upholstery cloth to conceal the speaker. Rather than a big gaping hole that would more readily show the location regardless, some slots will better support the upholstery cloth. So lets make some nibbling tooling.. This punch will be approx. 3/8 diameter and is made of 4140 oil hardening stock so we can heat treat when complete for better tool life.. End is formed slightly concave to give a better cutting edge.. Bottom die gets a clearance hole for the 3/8 punch, then it gets bored from the bottom end using 1/2" bit to within about 1/8" of the top surface. This will allow better gravity flow of any chips passing through our bottom die.. Then we'll need an exit chute, so a 1/2" angled hole is drilled through the side and a 1/2" plug made to fill the remainder... The plug bottom gets chamfered and welded into the bottom die, then a ball end die grinder is used to fine tune the exit chute... A "shoe" is formed to hold down the workpiece, as otherwise the punch tends to lock onto the panel after the first punch and raise it in the air, thus preventing any material feed... An action video.... Our test slot.... this may work yet!
Today I got the pipe and brackets that Mike made up added to the front of the Pexto Shear. The top of the pipe is set up the same height as the surface of the shear, so no interference in using the shear. The pipe is 49" long so it can be used for a full sheet if we have enough oomph to bend it. Here the finished product: Sometimes you get lucky, here's the radius from our 4" pipe as matched to our seat back... Also made up some patch panels for my brother in law's El Camino. He brought some parts over that he had cut out, so we fabbed up some new parts, here's a sample...
More back seat work on the 55. Mike is trimming up our brackets to give us a bit more clearance around the wheel wells so the upholstery can wrap around our panel... ....and I worked on taking some patterns of the rear corners... Transferred the pattern to some 18 gauge cold rolled steel and started some shrinking on the Baileigh power hammer.. Test fit.... Bottom edge gets hemmed so the upholstery cloth has less chance of cuts... A bit more cleanup work, but I'm real pleased with how this is turning out.. .
More work on the seat back, a test bend to see how well it matches our corner.... Then to bend the radius on a piece of 19 gauge for the full width... Then to bend down a flange to "hook" the frame.... The metal is thinned at the bend line using a tipping die to give us a more crisp bend... Bent at 90* in the magnetic brake.. Next we slotted the panel for our 10" bass speaker. This should let out the sound but still support our upholstery material for a more subtle look.. Then the bottom flange is also thinned at the bend and bent on the magnetic brake.. .....and our test fit into the car...
Nice fab work on the sub enclosure, but unfortunately it's a disaster acoustically. One, it's not sealed (the seat back won't 'seal' it). As you go lower in frequency, the importance of a sealed enclosure goes up. If you want any kind of decent sub performance (particularly with a relatively small 10"), it's critical. And generally speaking, the larger the enclosure, the better. You can vent them, but there's a set of calculations needed that will describe the enclosure size and size and location of any vents. Two, if the speaker is attached to that sheetmetal, it's very likely to resonate.... badly. Even if it's not directly attached, that's still a large possibility. Large, dead-flat pieces of sheetmetal are about the last thing you want as an acoustic 'surface' with any speaker. You could roll stiffening beads into it to increase it's rigidity, but that will only help to a point (as well as complicating the upholstery). I'll make two recommendations; one, spray the inside of the sheetmetal with at least two heavy coats of rubberized sound deadener. You want this as acoustically 'dead' as possible. Sound mat won't do the job here. Two, use a stand-alone sub enclosure built from 3/4" medium-density particle board (there's a reason this is almost always used for sub enclosures). Have the speaker opening line up with your 'grill', just don't attach the enclosure to the sheetmetal. Fastening to the floor (with a chunk of carpet between to insulate it) would be better. If that was the plan, I'll shut up now....
Thanks for the comments guys! Steve, appreciate the input. The subwoofer the owner purchased is for surface mount only, I guess they want that free advertising. As with most of the other details and modifications we have made thus far, less is more, hidden is better. We have strived to keep all the changes subtle enough that we leave people scratching their head trying to figure out what is different. Where this enclosure deviates from that thinking, the wagon in it's bare form leaves little for space to accommodate these modern creature comforts without the risk of tire spray, so the seat enclosure it is. We do plan on upholstery cloth directly over the slots to help conceal the speaker but still allow some sound to permeate. In order to "hide" the speaker behind the panel, we are using an offset panel that screws to the backside of the center two uprights of the framework, aligned to the hole as you suggested. I could use rubber grommets on the screw holes for additional isolation, if needed. For an MDF enclosure, this could well be attached to the outer sides of those same uprights. Personally I tried to talk the owner into no stereo at all. A stroker motor with 40 series flowmasters is music enough. If you don't like the station, roll down the window.
The Jalopy Journal
