not going to dive in completely just yet, but i would like to get it straightened out enough to mock it up to apply for a title, then get at it more this winter. so, this is the auction body i got this fall thanks to @Parts dog hippin me to the sale. a tree must have fallen on the drivers shoulder area, and i assume it was sitting on the ground at the time of the hit so it bent the sub rail too right at the intersection of the side/back wall area. i have not pulled a string yet, but due to the strength of all the joining parts at that intersection i believe the sub rail bend is all to the rear of that area. my original plan was to take it all apart and try to straighten each part individually, but thinking along the lines of body basics 101, you should try to "reverse" the crash. not that i am a pro, but its something i know. so, plan B is to put an I beam under it, and as in my goofy drawing, make a leverage thing to try and pull at least some of it up and into shape while its still together. i think i could make a clevis and pull from the top rest bracket where i have a screwdriver stickin out. reason is, i think it best to try and get some of the kink at the bottom out now while its attached, or how the heck to hold on to it once its separated from the unit. i know it will all have to come apart to finish the repairs, but should i start with this pull, or any of you sharp fella's have a better idea? why it doubled all my photos is beyond me, but now you get two times your money for lookin!
I like your thinking. May be able to hold it down to floor and use a come-along from ceiling beam to put tension on it, and tap-hammer the creases etc as it's straightening out. Even clamped to base of engine hoist, and use the hoist's beam to pull up.
I’d go with the take it apart and straighten the subframe up first and then fit everything back from there approach. That’s the best and in the end easiest way. When I bought my 26 body it looked really good and everything seemed right A bunch of work had been done and it was done without a frame just sitting in the guys shop. When I tried to put it on my frame I found that the rear of the tub was tweaked off to one side 2 1/2” off center. So much for buying a good body. I ended up totally rebuilding the back part of the tub after removing it all to get it straightened out. My RPU body is built from the front part of a touring body but it’s still a good example of doing it right or not.
Rule number one when I started my Panelbeating apprenticeship 48 years ago. Get the frame ,or chassis, right first and then work your way up getting the body to fit.
well, i have played around a little more. this is my evening kill time project. my idea to pull it out while its together did not work. i gained some, but really when you look at the photo of the side removed and see how bent that bottom bracket is, and how sturdy the whole assembly is, its apparent why it wouldn't move much. i did gain some. so, take it apart. i thought i could remove the side tin and go after the B pillar and bottom brace after it was naked, but not so, the skin is spot welded in several places to all the structural parts underneath. even to remove the whole side there are rivets for the B pillar that are not accessible unless you cut the bottom out for a patch panel. in my case, the crash had sheared off the two unaccessible ones, and the other was in the door jam to attack with a drill. once apart, note the photo with a straight edge across the rail, the top is dented in about an 1/8" deep, and 6" long. first thought is, that dent has caused the metal to shrink, and the back of the rail to rise. i cut a chunk of 3/4" metal to use for a backer to pound it down, laying on the rail in pic. the cross brace there had to be trimmed off a bit to get access to the dent, note body on its side pic. so i started off with the back of the rail about 4 1/2" high, and just taking out that dent on the top got me to only about 1" high!!!! i was shocked that that could do so much. imagine how they put that similar dent in a lawn mower handle to get a 90 degree bend with no kink. so, the new problem is since it is a 3 sided channel when i push it down to where it is straight, then the side bulges out, as that metal has been stretched. i could make some cuts there and weld them back in, however i think i will try some "blacksmith" tricks and heat the bottom, let it cool, and it should shrink. what do ya think?
i forgot to add this crazy pic. circled in chalk, is a gas weld to fix a crack in the rail. you can still see part of the crack, or maybe it has cracked more since the weld. now, i know this is not the car that grandma only drove to church, but really who would ever see that to fix it in the life of the car? i think it cracked in the stamping process and was fixed at the factory.
tinkering some more to get the rail straight. with the cutting head on i heated up about 10" of rail only on the bottom, and underneath where it folds over. trying to shrink the bottom only, where it must have gotten stretched in the crash. according to the string line, i need a little over an inch. first time heat only, only natural cooling, brought it down 1/4". next, i put a pan of water outside overnight for some ice. how you southern boys get anything done is beyond me. so, next heat it again, dull red, cool it with ice. burn your hand from steam, then measure, and still only a 1/4". thats okay, i only need and inch. so 4 times got it close, then i did one round on the inside of the rail. the inside has more structure to it with more curves, and looked straight, so i did not think the problem was there. and, remember the outside was/is all bulged out from the stretch. so, wow! heating the inside came down 3/8", so slightly past straight. however, when i push in the bulge to get the rail edge vertical it comes up to where it should be. these rails are not very thick and move around quite easily. lucky for me its not rusty to the point of weakness. using a string line on the rail, and also two pieces of conduit laid at the rear and across the door jambs to see if they are parallel so the next issue is that she took a hit on the back side/ corner of the rail too (chunk of wood in photo not vertical) . so i want to fix that next, get it so the whole rail is vertical, then finish the bulge in the side at the crash site. in the photo you can see the top fold of the rear cross member is over the side rail, and it should be along side the rail . not off by much, but it affects the whole side of the rail up to the crash site.
As stated, you need a solid/straight frame structure to build on and the chances of getting that 95 year old subframe perfectly straight are slim and none. I had the same dilemma on my roadster. Wound up building my own frame. $200 in 2"x3" rec tubing and a MIG welder solved the problem..... Once the frame is built you can focus on the body panels. From the looks of your pics, your left bun panel took the brunt of the force. I think you'd be better off just replacing it. The bun panel can be made fairly easily. It just so happens that '80s-'90s Chevy van hoods are the perfect candidate for makin a '26-'27 bun panel. The hoods run about $40 at Pick-N-Pull and one hood is enough for two panels. Also, Howell's carries the lower patch panels for $80 a pair. I posted a step-by-step how-to in my build thread. It starts on page 3. The dent at the top of your turtle deck quarter should be an easy repair. https://www.killbillet.com/forum/20...-27-roadster-with-force-fed-4-build-has-begun
tinkering some more...on sheet metal this time. Henry did not plan on us kids taking this shit apart, spot welds everywhere. to refresh, the tree fell on the drivers side, like you're left shoulder if sitting in the seat. my attempts to straighten this out while intact was foolish. all the internal brackets had to be removed first, straighten them, and then make the tin fit the bracket. the lower rear bracket which took the biggest hit, controls the back panel, and in this case the door jamb too. to get it out, its a sandwich of 3 layers all spot welded together. see the pic, that bracket is kinked bad, and a quick squish in the press fixed most of it. the front of the door jamb was bent back, ( B pillar) which i thought i could fix while intact, but again, had to drill out all those spot welds to remove the part and straighten it. once al the brackets were removed, the whole side panel was hammered to reasonably correct, wont know until my patch panel repair parts arrive from...howels!!!!!. i tried to buy them everywhere, but it seems they make em, and if bought thru ebay, they might show up? next, the back panel, wrecked quite bad, most folks would by a new one. I got it close, but hard to do a big panel that is loose. need 3 or 4 hands to hold it, hold the dolly, and hold the hammer. its close, i will now weld in all the brackets removed, and hammer some more after its all in place
The Jalopy Journal
