Thread: 55 Wagon Progress

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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Wow great work, and I really admire all the specialty tools you build and share with everyone! Thanks.

Ditto! The hand made tools, and knowing how to use them!

Very slick use of the vise grips for the flange tool, I wish I had seen this before I took my roof off my 40. Very Nice !

Here's the build detail on the vise grip de-flangers

Probably one of the biggest challenges in taking things apart for repairs is doing so without inflicting more damage. I had seen a recent post on pliers used to remove door skins, and thought they would come in handy here on the bottom of the tailgate.

This is why you never throw away Vice grips that have the rounded off teeth that have just lost their bite. The lower jaw is modified to receive the edge of the door skin...





Then a suitable "blade" is found....








Some welding and grinding, and we have a new body tool.....











Starting at the corner, a diagonal slice is made in the inner panel so it will remove easier...





....and the tool is used to gently pry up on the flange of the tailgate skin.....











Spot welds were removed with a burr grinder, in an attempt to keep the damage (and hole diameter) to the skin flange at a minimum. Continuing:

Nice work!

Worked tonight on building new mounting brackets for the 55's battery tray..

This bracket supports the battery tray, bolts to the core support..








This bracket spot welds to the bottom of the tray and bolts to the inner fender.














This bracket goes on the wheel side of the inner fender well as a backer to bolt through.








The tabs spot weld to the ends of the tray for the battery hold downs..





Now just need to finish drilling holes and weld the parts to the "new" tray..

As always, Good Work. Are you also replicating / replacing the tray?

No, I have a firewall tray that will be adapted to the front location..

Very nice work!

Very nice work,Robert.. Love it..

Had a bit of time in the shop this evening, so I worked some more on the rear of the wagon... I had left the outer part of the lower repair patch's seam of the lift gate (going through the bead detail) un-welded until the flanges all got folded, so tonight I got one side of that finished up...








Then the welds were cleaned up and some more tweaking of the tailgate gaps....











Much better...

Beautiful work man, simply beautiful.

X2!!! Looks saweet!

Thanks,always fun looking in on your work! I'm amazed every time!

Great looking stuff Time and patience

Yup,,as above..Truly beautiful..