Thread: 55 Wagon Progress

Tweet

Worked on some louvers tonight, wanted to get some practice pieces done to see how well our "theory" might fare.


Kyle cutting an inside lip off the clamp before cutting it in half..








Meanwhile I got the holes (and some spares for height adjustment) drilled in the wheel hub flange...








Clamps added...








We used a "squaring plate" to align the panel for louver angle..





The punch needed some relieving to insure the corners didn't hit the inside radius of the panel...











Cleaned up the grinder marks with a Scotchbrite pad..








Looking at the louvers...


Action shots:


https://youtu.be/EEyI10qb4BI












We have some more relieving to do on the tooling to eliminate some marking, then we'll do one more practice piece before breaking into the good stuff..

Send me your practice pieces. I'll find something to do with them.

You should see the scrap pile...

Does relieving the tooling effect the dies for use on flat surfaces?
Rich

Rich, I don't think I'm that close to affect it, but then I haven't tried it yet either. :fingerscrossed:

Here's the next practice panel as compared to Cody's inner fender panel..











Punching the louvers in the practice panel..





https://youtu.be/n3NVTILslbE




https://youtu.be/sHr2P60cqt8





Here's the moment of truth, the inner fender ready for punching...











Looks like our crown still exists!























another view....




https://youtu.be/7tcYNZ29WTg





One down, one to go..

Awesome work. I had a '72 Chevy pickup with louvers everywhere, and always wondered how the builder did it.

Jack, if all your louvers were of the same size, that would have been a single punch per louver rather than a reciprocating machine like we used..


Finished the driver's side inner fender this morning..













Now to get them back to Cody so he can do some more re-assembly..

After finishing the louvers this morning, we turned our attention back to the wagon. We started installing the brake lines and found the "kit" the owner had purchased was far from a direct fit. here's the booster and master cylinder we're using...







As the kit had no lines to fit a 9" rear, we used a stick of stainless tubing that was left over from the Fairlane job and bent our own.

Wow, those louvers came out perfect, your problem solving on that project was amazing!
Rich

Thanks Rich! Well most small jobs I do like this you never see the part installed (like the Studebaker dash parts) so I was happy to see Cody post up some pictures this morning. Here's a shot of the passenger side installed.. It was nice to take on a challenge like this and see it actually work..



























I think Kyle enjoyed the break from blocking epoxy primer.. Now back to the old grind..

never seen a front drum like that or is it in front of a disc? to cool?

TMK it's a disc cover

Adding the rear axle vent hose, we needed a spot to anchor the second vent fitting to keep the hose from flopping around...





Which is threaded with a 7/16-20 thread








With Loctite added to the threads...








More SS brake lines...

















With the rear brake lines complete, the rear wheels were bolted back up..





And for our lessons learned, this is what happens when you cut 12 gauge steel with a square on the other end of the shear. Dan, the blades are still sharp!

Weld it back together.
It'll be alright.