Thread: 55 Wagon Progress

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Originally Posted by Jack F

Robert, beautiful work. Just curious, how did you cut the hole in the hood?

Jack.

I was thinking the same thing! Amazing tight and perfect cut with just these babies!

Well I thought we were done spraying yellow paint when the welding cart was complete, but I guess it's been long overdue. It's been quite a while that we've seen any bus repairs, but one got the side skirt panel mangled up enough that the county's transportation dept took it out of service. It was raining so I didn't get pictures of the bus today, so I'll have to get that in a few days.

Picked up some stainless #12 screws and Kyle media blasted the heads for adhesion for paint...





SPI Epoxy primer mixed as sealer...











Some BASF Urethane applied...











The rub strip at the bottom of the skirt panel was pretty mangled as well, the new comes in a stock 10' length, so it will need to be cut to size and drilled prior to black paint. We also have a brace behind the skirt that was pushed back a ways, it will need to be pulled out and re-welded. More to come...

oops... double post

Got some pictures this evening of the damage...














Now for the rub strip.. It was cut to size and holes drilled per the original. (had to straighten it a bit to transfer the holes) Here's the SPI epoxy:








....and the black urethane..








Should get all the parts put back together tomorrow, all ready for inspection..

Parts all re-assembled, ready for inspection..

excellent repair.

Now that the bus parts are out of the way, tonight we worked on getting the front fenders ready for epoxy primer, just a few more items to cross off the list. An earlier repair to resolve some rust on the top of the fenders.........






.........when checking the gap to the hood recently we noticed it was slightly wide at these spots where the weld had pulled. Shown here with the straight edge....





Time to make a tool that will reach between the inner fender brace for a bit of bumping...








The shortened hammer comes in handy again...





A few good raps along the area brought it out nicely.


Next, we have some early model fender emblems to install on the front fenders, so we needed to fill the old holes...








Three separate quick zaps were used (about a minute in between) to minimize the heat introduced into the panel for filling the slotted holes. Note minimal HAZ..





Holes laid out and drilled for the new emblem...





Other fender...





Note minimal weld bead height using EZ Grind..








Next, we had one more minor adjustment to do to the driver door lower corner. It was tweaked inward slightly and needed some adjustment. I recently noticed one of my hole punches was broken, and it looks like it will work for what we need, in conjunction with the vise grip dent puller...








Kyle started media blasting the inside of the driver's fender.... A bit of a squeeze in a 58" wide blast cabinet..





Rather tight to the door!





Until next time.....

I once blasted a 64 C10 grill in a three foot cabinet.

I just let it hang out the open door, and angled the beads into the cabinet.

The mess was minimal.

Nice work on the bus! Once again, great shaping tools to fix the patched area. I need to get some ez grind to try on sheet metal projects.

While I was doing the family thing today at an FLL robotics competition, Kyle worked some more on prepping the front fenders for priming..

One down......





One to go....





Another issue that plagues most of the trifive Chevrolets is cracking at the leaded joint at the top of the A pillar.





A look at the other side shows a gap that is quite a stretch to expect a good permanent repair regardless of the filler used..





At over 1/4" wide, something we will need to address...








So we'll attempt a repair similar to the radius-ing that was done on the rear tailgate, using STEEL..





Until next time....

While Kyle continued media blasting fenders, I worked on closed up a gaping hole....





A couple weak spots dictated a bigger hole. Here the radius was added from the A pillar to beneath the drip rail..





Test fit





Welded in place.....











Used a torch and wire brush to clean off the other side, looks like this gap was a factory deal, and we have another radius to install..

I guess the old saying "they don't build'em like they used to" doesn't hold water once again! It always makes me smile when you see what was let out the door from the factories and no-one would ever know what was hidden under the body work...

As always thanks for sharing your talents and the pics, it is helpful to learn by viewing!

Goes to show why most of these cars eventually showed cracks in that area..


More progress, although it doesn't appear like much, progress just the same...


Door skins had been left "loose" on the inner door to allow twisting/tweaking for fitment within the door opening. Drilled some 3/16 holes from flange into inner door and plug welded. I've had many people ask how well the epoxy primer holds up to the heat of plug welds, here is a good indicator. It shows discoloration at the surface, but note the nice green primer underneath where the grinding wheel went through the paint..





Parts ready for epoxy primer..





These are the stiffeners for inside the door skin that go behind the door handle. The inside of the door will be sprayed, as well as these parts, and allowed to flash. Then another application on both and they'll get bolted in place, letting the epoxy primer act as an adhesive to hold in place and seal to the door skin. Once door handles are bolted on they will be there for good..





This car has belt line trim that goes around the perimeter at the bottom of the windows, which needed to be added to the new door skins. I had saved a piece from the old door skins to get the locations correct. Here's the layout of the slots for the stainless attaching hardware, we'll get that finished next time..

Nice work as always.

Thanks!




Why is it when you're getting ready to mix primer you find other issues to fix?? More minor tweaks so that hopefully we can spray this afternoon...

A crack that looks to be from some previous body damage.








A post dolly is used to provide an off dolly effect, and the body hammer is struck on the "high" spot.








Used a copper backing since we're so close to the edge and the metal has been fatigued. Filled the crack and dressed the weld...














Then I noticed a low spot on the fender's bodyline crease...





Time to lose another Craftsman chisel to become a body tool...





....the rod was heated and bent around, then finished welding.





Placed the fender on the large shot bag and used the dead blow hammer to apply the persuasive force...








Much better with a more consistent crown across the fender..