Projects Truck into a coupe- My next pet project

Thanks guys!

I picked up a 47-53 Chevy truck hood last night. Ill get to play around with it on Monday. Ill make some packing tape patterns, maybe a FG one and cut that up first. It looks promising and I'm really excited to try it on for size.

 

The split oval VW widows ?

 

So here's the hood


Waxed it up really well and laid some fiber glass


Tried it on for size. The front of the steel roof needs trimmed






Pretty damn close.
I couple dozen shrinks and a little E wheeling it will be good.
Now I'll take the patterns back to the hood and cut it up.
Let's all have a moment of silence for the chevy truck hood as it gives up its essence for new glory on a hot rod roof.

 

damn good eye! and a good idea making a fiberglass pattern.
i have used the top of the fenders, from those trucks, to make the panel below the deck lid of late 30's chevy coupes.

 

X2. Keep up the good work.

 

You have mind blowing tenacity and skills!

 

Excellent!

 

mate keep the momentum going looks like a complete head fuck to me,im glad you know what your doing

 

I started these 1/4 windows a while back & Finally got them finished today.
They are going to need a little mud but that really was the best I could do since I wasn't the first to cut them up.
I Needed these to be in before the roof.
They kicked my ass but they are identical and with perfect door gaps. Actually walking around the car 7000 times checking measurements and heading to the sander a couple hundred times to get the fit just so is what kicked my ass. Not much to look at but there is a lot of fucking around to them.

Tomorrow I'll work on the little rain lip reveals. I figure having those on first will give me a better line to sight for the roof and easier attachment.

 

Thanks, it's going to work pretty darn good.

Nothing but brother ! Thanks

Now that's a compliment but I just think too much sometimes.
Thank you

Thank you

Your observation is spot on!
I know a little & fake the rest I suppose.


I always say making it look easy is the hard part. Although I'm happy with the end results here so far there's a lot of scrap, trial and error, and some bitching. if you watch the day unfold it doesn't look easy, it's a struggle. Plus I'm picky and drive myself to achieve a level that I feel is acceptable to me.

 

Easy or not, you sure are making it look damn good, excellent work!

 

Was on a pretty good roll this morning with the rain lips




Then on the passenger side I was running out of real estate in the curve to the front.
Some head scratching ensued and found that the drivers side A pillar structure is actually 1/4 narrower. It looks like it came that way from Henry but after 80 years it's hard to say.
Anyway, I needed to fix that before I could continue with drivers side.

Yeeowza look at that gap heading around towards the windshield



Three sided cap to fix the gaps and give me what I need on the outside to wrap that rain lip into it.



Of course I needed to make one of these for the passenger side too.

Then this showed up -
Ate up the rest of my day

 

Man, you are fast. Nice. Looking great. What's up with the parking lot tin? Another "proof I can do it" build ? Gawd damn.....we know, already ! I love this stuff, seriously. Not the same, to buy it done, for sure. Thoroughly enjoy watching this unroll. Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to bend tin too. Always the thing I farmed out. Can't wait for your roof to arrive......poof.....from the plan in your head. Very cool.

 

Thankyou very much !

Thanks man !
Just something to break the day up

 

I’m Sorry. I wish you had not shared this with us. It’s too hard. First I couldn’t sleep when you pulled the firewall out WHY DID HE BUY A FINISHED BODY JUST TO PULL THE FIREWALL OUT, WHAT WAS HE THINKING! Then you moved along being careful and I am thinking “ he is going to be able to pull this off. THEN, YOU GROUND INTO THE PAINT! My found me weeping at the keyboard, she asked me “ what’s wrong?” HE GROUND INTO THE PAINT AND THEN CUT THE BODY APART! NOW HE WANTS TO MAKE A ROOF OUT OF A HOOD! NOOOOOOOOO! I CAN’T WATCH ANYMORE! Just kidding, I have enjoyed watching things come together. Thanks for a good time.

 

I looked at this project and in my head I heard John Kennedy saying, "We don't do these things because they are easy. We do them because they are hard."

I've only had time to read a few pages yet, but so far it's been well worth the time.
Thanks for taking the time to post it all up, 31Vicky.

 

That was pretty funny.
A great chuckle and a smile to start the day with. Thanks

There a lot there Ulu, certainly has a twist to it. Hopefully you enjoy the rest as it unfolds. The great thing is I still don't know the ending either.
Thanks.

 

Yeah! That's the thing about design that's kept me on the hook for over 4 decades.

It's the great mystery surrounding the final product (your own or anyone else's, for that matter) because nothing ever comes out exactly the way it's first imagined.

Even the advent of advanced 3D computer modeling has not changed that fact.

 

I sometimes can not believe some to skills I see on this site. Your build just added another to the list.
I'm surprised you could see a roof in that hood! Easy to see now! Best wishes

 

Ok, that latest hoop has been cleared.
I had to deal with a situation that resembled a 1/2 hour glass in the A pillars.


After the chop, the taper wasn't so gradual any more,
The red line is where it was, the black line is where I put it.

It needs to be pretty and there for everyone to see every time the door is open.
I really like sanitary door jambs so I took my time here & I still broke the edge the plug weld.
I also ran out of argon, so this still needs finished welded.


With jambs fixed- Now I could finish tacking on the rain edge.
I figured since I was there I'd just finish off cleaning up this crookedness.


Nice door gaps, nice return, nice jamb all metal. before this was all carved out of mud.


I still need to go into the windshield but I need a better frame first. Yes that gap was all mud before.




All finished up except for argon required activities but that will go quick. Other side same same & X 2.

 

A friend stopped by and asked what I was planning on doing with the green hood. I said I'm going to cut it up!!! He says no it's too nice and he needs it. He wants to trade me 2 halves blasted and primed so I help him out. His had few dings I needed to wheel out before I cut them.

Now after all that fucking around with those door jambs and A pillars I couldn't wait to get to these. I really couldn't wait & put it on for size. I didn't even clean the plasma boogers off. Didn't touch a thing from the table to the car. You'll notice there's no clamps or any thing just resting free.


Pretty damn close I'm thinking



So I went and cut the other one and threw it on.
Then I took them both and bent around my knee a little bit. Put a couple clamps on and I'm really close here. I could make 3 pie cuts on each side and weld it, it would be close enough and about 2 gallons less mud than there was before but I'm going to shape them a little bit and see where I go.

 

That's an awesome list to be a part of, thank you.
Seeing A roof hiding in a hood isn't as hard as that guy who sees a 32 ford roadster hiding in a VW beetle! Have you seen that one yet?

 

Wow, a friend told me to read this thread. I think because it hits close to home. I am in a similar situation except I don't have the skills that you have. Time to learn I guess.

My one asset is that I won't give up or quit. It took me 18 years to restore a 53 ford pick up. But when I was done, it was beautiful in my opinion.

Now I have to press on like you have. Thanks for the inspiration. Your skills are incredible. Go man go!

 

Thinking out loud !



Thanks brady

 

Wow!!!

 

These little gizmos are pretty easy to make if you ever need one.

I was taught how to figure this out right out of high school. I was working with Tony, he was from Holland and was one smart cookie & an excellent fitter layout man. I asked him what we were going to do that day, he said "we are going to make some 12" pipe look like its happy to go around corners, but first you are going to roll me a cigarette. Then I'm going to show you some cool shit!"

So this little thing is basically a section of curved pipe, you just need to figure what section it is I decided it was mostly a 16" diameter pipe turning on a 4" radius, mostly because it's not perfectly round radius. They would make elliptical ovals actually but since it's sheet metal you can fudge it a little with a guess in the right direction.

From there it's just some math and a quick draw up.
5" radius plus 16" diameter pipe makes a top view circle 21" radius or 42" diameter. Circumference formula (pie) x diameter. Inside and outside is needed. 3.14 is pie and x10 is 31.4 and times 42 is 133.4. The circles have 360 degrees so divide those totals by 360 and that gives you the distance per Degree. When you cut, The degrees should match so that's very important important.

Now quickly draw your radii and your determine your tolerable " flat spots". Now that gives you an idea of how many pie shapes you need to turn what you deem smooth. Figure the distance from center you want to travel and mark that.

Final step it draw up the big radius side view. Draw center line and Figure your Bend radius center next to it. From that bend radius center measure the distance you want to travel and mark it also. Now, measure along the curve to see how long the piece will be in the flat.

Trust me, it takes longer to type than to do it. Theses wound up being 3/4" by 3" over 10" with the longer one just extended. Doing it that way will give you a muddable piece if you leave them flat.

With a shrinker stretcher you stretch the center piece on both edges. The next piece you shrink the edge butting to the stretch and stretch the edge heading up the curve. It's sorta by feel but it comes out damn smooth that way. A little planishing hammer on the welds after and it will not need mud.

 

Compound curves are always fun stuff! I learned to lay this kind of stuff out from an old ship-building book.

 

Jams are sweet pun intended
I really like the rain edges there one thing that really brings the roof line to life


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