The 52 so far....Pics, Pics and more Pics.

Bought this tired old piece some months ago as a dooer upper for my boys, who are coming up to the driving age in a year or 2.

Saw plenty of potential in it - fix her up, roof chop and drop it down - a good average challenge seeing as how it only looked liked it had not too much rust, with the limited time I only get to work on it, it should be vinned and on the road in about a year!

..........Be careful what you wish for.....

Lucky for me, i'm new to this and lovin every minute of it....even when a few carefully chosen words are spoken in frustration!

Here's what we first saw when we picked it up. The last 4 are the boys trying on some flames, it's gonna get stripped right back anyway, so it was good to see if it looked ok.

 

woooh the steering wheel on the other side in a 50s chevy freaked me out

 

We did the Monster Garage teardown (or should I say, place down in the corner) and when it was gutted, we started to Really see what was going on with the body. Alot more rust than I thought.

I am gonna do all my own bending, except for long pieces like the bottom rocker panel, so I got a sheetmetal guy to bend me up some 16 gauge(1.6mm) to my specs, looks like it'll do the trick.

 

Flop, better get yer ass back in that garage, pronto!

I'm relying on you to have all the sheetmetal and fitment answers before I need to ask "what goes where" and "how do I do this"

 

So I do the first cut on it after marking out where the rocker panel is gonna go and get more shit jumpin out at me.

Look at those body mounts! The middle one is rusted and full of sand, the front one is sooooo perished, I don't even have any idea what it is supposed to look like and the back on is just rusted away and perished. Hmmmm, I think this job has just been pushed out a few more weeks (months?).

 

Cut the "B" pillar free from the floor , fabbed up a new mid body mount out of 3mm mild steel(sorry, I don't know what the imperial measurement is), welded and bolted to the chassis for maximum strength. Trial fit the rocker panel, seems good.

I'm gonna make the other body mounts at a later stage.

 

Got the "B" pillar welded back in and covered the body mount with some 18 gauge only to find that the floor is pretty thin in some areas and has also got lots of pin-holes every where, so now that has to come out as well.

Oh well, it's not going to cost alot of money, just alot of time. Lucky for me that I am really getting into this build and enjoying this stuff, learning alot from other HAMBers has helped

 

Cut out some floor pans out of 18gauge and rolled some beads in it with my new roller.

My philosophy is: New job, new tools! I don't see why I should have to pay someone else to do something for me, if I can spend a couple of dollars more, do the job myself and get to keep the tools afterwards, unless it's a one off job. That's my excuse for buying more tools and i'm sticking to it!

 

With the back floor pan done, it's time to take a look at the rear of the rocker panel. I'm going to replace the body mount(s) at a later date when I take the body off the chassis, so for now, it's time to replace the sheetmetal.

I got my son to weld the rear of the rocker to the new inner guard,etc because it gives him practice and also we don't have to clean up the welds there because it is going to be a 2 door by the end of the build.

 

Ok, the rear rocker is solid, now it's onto the bottom of the "A" pillar which has seen better days.

18 gauge, I just keep fitting and adjusting untill it's the right shape, then brace the pillar with some rebar before cutting.

After cutting, I found the door hinge pillar support to be almost completely rusted, so I had to make one up, I thought that I might as well make up a second one for the other side while I was doing it.

 

I realise that the bolt holes are a little "off" on the 18gauge, but don't worry, I will tidy them up and the 3mm bracket behind it will keep it all aligned properly.

 

nice job, looks like exactly what happened to my 51 4 door. and mine was fixed once b4 by somebody.

 

Before the door hinge bracket can be welded in place, I have to replace the front passenger floor pan to put the strength in the structure of the body, otherwise the door might not close flush.

Same as the back floor pan, I made up a cardboard template for the front, then cut out an 18gauge piece and rolled some beads on it. Unfortunately, also same as other body parts on the car, a previous owner had just welded good sheetmetal over rusted stuff.

 

Got the floor pan all welded in, then I was able to hang the door to get the adjustments right for the door hinge bracket...and finally, voila!

 

Looks good from my house dude!

 

hell yeah looks like some quality work. and uh dude yer steering wheel is on the wrong side!..

 

Cheers, I guess i'm gonna hear alot about the steering wheel. haha

 

You mentioned chopping it, as a4 door, or are you planning on couping it also?

 

Yeah, i'm gonna chop it, don't know the exact figures front and back yet, i'll keep looking to find out what works for me, but I do know that the chop will go right to the back of the catwalk so it will be only one angle up to the roof from the boot.

Weld the back doors shut and lengthen the front doors about 6 or 7 inches

 

lookin good so far man, keep the pics comin.

 

Next on the long list is the quarter panel.

First, we have to get a rough shape of the wheel opening from what is there(and what isn't), transfer it to a couple of MDF boards, trace that onto the 18gauge that is sandwiched between the sheets, leave a lip of about 1inch and then cut out the sheetmetal.

After that, we bent the lip over with a rubber mallet after cutting relief cuts in the inner and outer corners, then finishing the hard right angle off with a hard faced hammer.

 

And this is what we ended up with, a funny looking wheel opening with a 1 inch lip on a flat piece of sheetmetal thats gonna need some shaping before I butt weld it to the car.

I have ordered a shrinker/stretcher and as soon as it turns up, I will be able to hopefully give it some shape.

The panel on the floor in the second photo was my first attempt, I forgot to cut enough relief cuts and it wasn't smooth inner corners, so i'll call that one my "test panel".

 

Once we were happy with the panels to a point that they just need a little bit more tweaking around the openings to finish them, my son welded up the relief cuts and I tidied the welds up with a grinder.

Now for those of you in the know, you will see that we made our wheel openings 2 inches lower than normal. I'm not sure if it will work, but i'm hoping for an illusion that the car is going to be sitting lower than it actually is.

We will also be lowering it about 3 inches in the back with blocks, but not airbags

 

Outstanding job. Good to pass on the knowledge to the boy.
Cheers
Jef

 

Looks good so far.

FWIW 3mm is pretty close to 1/8th.

3mm = 0.118"
1/8" = 0.125"
the 1/8 I have been getting lately is 0.120" or pretty close to 3mm, in my book anyway.

 

You guys that can take cars like this with all their rust and make something decent out of 'em impress the heck out of me.

Good work. Thanks for sharing your progress with us...but more importantly, thanks for sharing the time with your boys.

 

are ya sure you didnt bring that car in from the east coast ?
nice work bringing it back man.

 

Great work. I always enjoy seeing someone else fabbing and fixing these early 50's GM's. I'll look forward to the chop and continuation.

 

Hey,

What a great job of tin work, and the photos are great as well!

Ya can save yourself a bit of time, by using a tipping wheel in your
beading machine to through a ninety degree flange on your quarter
vs. cutting the plywood and turning the flange ala hammer form.

Swankey Devils c.C.

"Meanwhile, back onboard The Tainted Pork"

 

Good Tech article, thanks for sharing.
Good luck with the build.
Your boys are lucky.