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The first step is to remove the old lacquer
primer too see what we have to work with. Obviously the lower quarter
panel has had a patch welded in previously, which was brazed, so that
will need to be cut out and properly replaced. |
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| It appears the lower cowl has receved the
same treatment. |
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A few areas of the lower tail section will
need to be replaced with new panels. |
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| Another area needing replaced
on this body is the section of roof just above the doors. The area has been
heavily damaged on both sides of the body. Apparently somethin has fallen
across the roof at some point and the previous repair procedure was to hammer
it out a bit and fill it with lots of lead. The repair actually held up
quite well and was no doubt very acceptable for the time. However, it left
the door openings "pinched" just a bit, causing tight door gaps at both
the A and B pillars. Also, I prefer to get rid of the lead just in case
there would be trapped contaminates to cause early paint failure. I have
already constructed a new piece to repair this area. This panel will be
replaced with the door on the car so the gaps can be adjusted accordingly
prior to welding in the new panel. |
| A quick trial fit of the door shows that
some adjustments need to be made to the door opening to make it
fit properly. |
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The left door has been beat and battered,
so a new skin will be made from the beltline down. The area just behind
the upper hinge will be replaced as well. |
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The right front fender is surprisingly
not too bad. Just some minor work will have it like new. |
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The same cannot be said for the left front
fender. It needs quite a bit of work. I will use the right fender to make
reversible patterns for area that will be replaced. That
patch of bondo is over 1/2" thick. |
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| Fiberglass cloth was used as a backer for
all that bondo. |
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The wired edge is in pretty poor shape
too. Much of this area will be replaced with new metal. |
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| The inner brace has been cut, apparently
to knock out some dents during a previous repair and bolted back together
with a small piece of strap. |
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The darkened areas in this photo indicate
high spots. At some point, this body has been sandblasted. This is something
that should never be done on low crown automotive body panels. This body
was not only sandblasted from the outside, but also from inside.
Some say that the heat from sandblasting
causes this warpage. That is absolutely an incorrect assumption. The
fact is that the high pressure used during this process causes the
metal to stretch. Millions of grains of sand hitting the large, low crown
area of thin sheetmetal at a high velocity has the same effect as hitting
it with a hammer. I've had to repair roof panels that were damaged during
media blasting, so be careful when choosing a blasting method of paint
and rust removal. $20 worth of paint stripper and a Saturday afternoon
is much cheaper than having warped body panels repaired. |
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| This rear fender was in pretty rough shape,
so I knowcked out the big dents and skim coated it with bondo. The tape
you see on the rear half is a combination of two types of tape I use to
create flexible shape patterns. This method works well for capturing the
information needed to reproduce this shape. I will use this pattern along
with contour gages to make a new set of rear fenders. |
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Here is the start of the new lower quarter repair
panel. |
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New left rear fender. |
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New chassis from Rod Craft. |
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New chassis from Rod Craft. |
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Removing more bad metal. |
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To allow for wider rear tires, we removed the
inner fenders, which weren't in very good shape anyway, and new ones are
being built to replace. The new ones will be 4” wider than stock. |
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The left inner fender was the best of the two,
so it was used to make a flexible shape pattern from. |
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The left rear inner fender is rough shaped.
It'll still need wheeled a bit more in the english wheel, but the shape
pattern fits it pretty well now. |
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The right rear inner fender is nearly ready
to install. The flange along the lower edge will be tipped to 90 degrees
and the floor pan will attach to it. |
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A trial fit of the right rear inner fender.
It'll fit nice once the flange is fully tipped and the strip of metal added
to the outer edge. It's about 2” wider than stock as shown, but the
outer edge will get trimmed a little to provide a straight edge and a strip
of flat metal will be butt welded onto the inner fender to finish it out. |
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