Thread: 55 Wagon Progress

Tweet

While Kyle was working on dressing some welds this evening, I took some time to planish the weld on the driver's fender eyebrow. Here's the previous.....






It had a noticeable dip throughout the weld seam. Here's the tool used.....












The eyebrow on the passenger side was planished all by hand, and probably has a couple hours of work. The Watervliet planishing hammer made short work of the driver's side, it took all of five minutes time to have it in a comparable state as the passenger side... with the dip all but disappeared







Continuing on with more inner fender work, starting on the driver's side....












Back side, full penetration welds.....







Staple holes for seal filled...












Should get both these finished up Saturday morning and mocked up with the battery tray..

That planishing tool is very nice! It really looks great.

Think all the members will have to pick a time when the car is finished and drink a toast. I am about as antsy to see this project completed as I am my own.

I think I'll have to join in with the toast!



Here's the passenger side with the welds dressed and mocked up to the grille....














While Kyle media blasted the passenger side, I did some finish work on the driver's side. We still had this up at the top to fix...





A replacement was made and marked out on the inner fender..





Took a reference measurement to insure any shrinking effects were properly planished out...





Ice pick works well in marking the cutout pattern...








Trimmed and fitted





Tacked in place...





Rear side








After planishing and dressing the welds, re-checking the reference measurement....








Passenger side complete....








Driver's side complete.....








Next task will be to assemble the battery tray and send off the goodies for powder coating.

I will toastyou too!

Looking very nice!

Matching the lower anvils of the Wheeling machine to the radius on the quarter, this one fits the best. Also notice how it doesn't fit as well in the rocker panel..
At this point I thought I'd try a "portable" version of the Wheeling machine to add a bit more radius to the rocker panel.
After some "wheeling", and some bumping of the leading edge with a door skin hammer:

Lost me.... You mean you was bumping your die ? Or the rocker just in front of your die ? Thanks.

This was basically a glorified "rolling" operation, as there is no access to the back side like you would have with using an actual English wheel. So for applying pressure, I started on a creeper and found the casters counter-productive.


Once I put the piece of diamond plate on the floor I could get a bit more pressure applied. Rolled it back and forth a few times with pressure applied. Even though it has a guide, by adjusting height location of handle end, you could move anvil's path up and down on the rocker about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. So I worked it front to back and then moved position slightly and repeated. About ten minutes time overall, took longer to make the handles than to use them.

It didn't appear to pull the gap open any farther. In watching the movement as I was rolling, what appeared to happen is the reproduction panel has rather bulbous radius on outside corners where factory is sharper. So looking at this crude depiction, I think it is just relocating metal and forming sharper creases in the process.





Where the front end of the rocker has an end plate spot welded in, the roller didn't have as much effect there, so it needed more persuasion right on the end. Hence, the door skin hammer..

O.K. got it now, appreciate that. Really look forward to your posts.
I belong to Metalmeet, good site, but some times it gets hard to follow. You seem to take the time to explain and illustrate things so that it's easy to understand. Thanks again.

Glad to help! I used to write work instructions at my previous job, so I think my posts have some of that influence...


Tonight we worked on fitting the new Gene Smith grille components. It started with the mandatory instructions...





To insure the studs didn't move once hand tightened, some thread lock stuff was used... We did find the qty of hardware was short by two each, and after a quick call to Gene Smith, Fred has some on the way for us..








The new grille fits just like the old one, it is VERY tight in the top corners..








To eliminate the paint rub syndrome and other possible front end squeaks from metal on metal, some templates were made so we can do some hammering on the new grille... and keep a consistent distance between.





Initial fitment:











Where the passenger side fit fairly well initially, the drivers side showed some rocking and gap issue.











I initially thought the driver's side piece was mis-shapen, but in placing them side by side they were pretty much a mirror image. Checking the front edge of the opening with a straight edge, the passenger side showed to be good and straight, the driver's side had a depressed area. This likely occurred when some fender shaving and rust repairs were performed, without the luxury of the chrome pieces for fitment. So some relief cuts were made to bring out the low area of the opening...









....for a drastic improvement in the fitment.











The surround trim studs did have some alignment issues with the grille. One of these "tweaking" devices is highly recommended to fine tune the fitment..

Very nice work. It's looking really sweet!

That tweaking device get a work out around here, with bigger deburr cutters. hahaha

Today we worked on filling some holes in the battery trays. Hard to drill out a slot, so we clamped on a plate with a pilot hole to use with the Blue Point sheet metal hole cutter:














Plugs.....








We tried this same repair in the corners, but the pitting was too far along and did a good job of blowing holes. So, time to back up an punt, let's make some new corners..

















Shrinking the tuck....











New corners welded in....








Some of the lines from forming were left to duplicate those from the factory...





Gusset bracket added to core support....





Holes located on inner fender....





Stiffener brace and angle bracket bolted in....








Tray bolted to the gusset, and plug welded to the angle bracket....





Battery hold down brackets added....








Got a couple plug welds to grind, media blasting, and these parts are ready for powder coating!

As Kyle media blasted and otherwise prepped parts for powder coating, I turned my attention to the new grille. This looked to be a very accurate reproduction as it fit tightly in the corners exactly as the original did..





In order to do some metal bumping on the grille corners and provide some clearance, which should help eliminate future front end squeaks and paint rubs, we'll need to make an anvil. This piece of pipe looks close to our templates..





Unfortunately our grille shows some interference, so unless we plan on disassembly of a new grille, the anvil will need a specialized shape..





After some drilling, band saw and sanding action, here are the results:





This may just work...





Working the corners.... Luckily any markings that may occur here will be covered by the surround chrome..





Test fitment shows a nice consistent gap:

You make it look so easy.. and your creativity to make special "tools" is really enlightening! As always, Thanks.