59 Catalina

[enjenjo]

I have done floor supports out of square and rectangular tubing when doing a frame swap. I have also folded hat section floor supports out of 16 ga sheet metal. I have even cut up Cadet tractor shipping crates for floor supports. Outside of seat belts and seat supports the floor never sees much of a load. It's not like you can stand up and jump on it.

The 34 Desoto I did had 17 body mounts on each side from the factory. That is more than I have seen on any car.

[idrivejunk]

That brown and white 65 GTO ragtop had twenty something mounts. So Frank was there any advantage using square tube vs bending from scratch? How did you add flanges when using tube? I agree, as long as the seat and mounts are plenty strong there are few other things to worry about.

[GPster]

Maybe I've missed it but all this hasn't shown any pics of how the wheel will look in the wheel openings. I have heard comments from different people about how certain cars never appear to have the wheels in the openings properly. That might even be compounded by the lowness that you are going. If you are going only by wheelbase and the point at the firewall/body line  you will not be changing any original design flaws. I think maybe you should at least have some of your plywood wheels on it. I personally would stick with rectangular/square tubing mounts as flat to round shapes gets too confusing for me to look at (one eye). Aren't you glad it wasn't a convertible? GPster

[idrivejunk]

GPster, man yeah I'm glad. I decided bent from scratch from 16 ga is my high road choice. It might not be as bad as I thought. Keeping remnants of the originals may be feasible. A buddy on the other forum helped me see the light as far as how to make them.

There was a borrowing of wheels and squinting at-



This first blog post on it has a couple pics of it together. Not the right pic angle really.

http://chevroldsmobuiac.blogspot.com/2017/07/catalina-repairs.html?m=1

[enjenjo]

That brown and white 65 GTO ragtop had twenty something mounts. So Frank was there any advantage using square tube vs bending from scratch? How did you add flanges when using tube? I agree, as long as the seat and mounts are plenty strong there are few other things to worry about.

Not really any advantage to square tubing other than the speed of  setup. If the pieces have to have shape you might consider hammer forming it over a wooden form. You can make serviceable forms out of pallet wood.

[idrivejunk]

That may very well come into play also. I feel well armed with options now and thanks guys for reminding me of that stuff. All the input has been duly absorbed and when the day comes to build the floor, I shall boldly go and fear no evil.

Somewhere during the lift and dolly shuffle, one of the nuts on my flimsy temporary front body mount shelves worked loose so the body was sitting crooked when I walked in today. I had it backwards on the dolly too, so I backed up and rethunk. Nabbed 4 body mount bushings off the old frame (wow, still very rubbery like new) and inserted them at the corners of the body. Then I redid my frame and body leveling to a finer level of accuracy. At this point, it sits as close as I can make it to perfect given that its on a rollaround dolly on the shop floor. So now we have a sufficiently accurate mock up to fit engine and trans plus wheels and tires. None of that is in hand yet (no worries because theres always step ten while we wait for the big ticket items), so the Biscayne may lend wheels again (see last pic) because both cars will run 20s. If you look close, you can see that we now have lug studs all around.









Of course I am going to need some answers about the seats to proceed. But as you can see, I will probably be lifting the trans tunnel up some.

Today I also installed a trunk weatherstrip and the latch, refined lid adjustment, tacked skin to flanges, took the lid off and started doing the plug welds. Almost done now, and the lid fits real nice with the latch and seal. Only area less than lovely is the lead seam where the two halves of upper quarter meet, near the right front corner of the trunk opening, ahead of the antenna hole. A little low there, no big deal. Looks like nothing major will haunt me on this fix.

I'm just going to put up a couple pics from the new part four blog post then link you to the rest. Only gap pics are from the first test fit.





http://chevroldsmobuiac.blogspot.com/2017/09/catalina-repairs-trunk-lid-part-four.html

[GPster]

Look at it and see if it might make sense to raise up the whole floor with the trans tunnel. It might eliminate all those little stepped places and it might make it easier to fit seats. If it's ever a "Cruiser" the drive might be safer if his eyes are not at headlight level when he's sitting. GPster

[idrivejunk]

Look at it and see if it might make sense to raise up the whole floor with the trans tunnel. It might eliminate all those little stepped places and it might make it easier to fit seats. If it's ever a "Cruiser" the drive might be safer if his eyes are not at headlight level when he's sitting. GPster

That makes good sense. There was a discussion or two today about all these things. All along I have intended to use the existing contoured seat and tunnel area, just the top of it. It looks like if I raise the pan height overall up about half an inch, so it is level with the top of the vertical pinchwelded flange at the door sill, rather than at the bottom, things will make more sense and be easier. But the body could also maybe just be mounted a bit higher with thicker bushings. Suggestions about hacking the entire floor away braces and all didn't meet resistance. I made it known that I am open to going all the way from the wiper cowl to the tail light panel with new fabbed pieces. Many questions to sort through, for somebody else before I can make my plan. Seats, exhaust, wheels, the works. I need to know a lot more before I go at that so now my focus will switch to patchwork on skins while all that boils down.

I don't have pics up yet but today we rolled it outside (yes, shes a roller now) and had a gander at it with the estimated ride height on plywood 24"wheels With the fixed trunk lid on it. Looks wicked. Biggest news of the day though is I found out a Butler Pontiac engine is on order. Glory be!      That pretty much just threw me into orbit about this job.

So don't touch that dial!

[idrivejunk]

Here are links to the updated pics from yesterday, scroll down. No time right now for inserting pics in post.

http://chevroldsmobuiac.blogspot.com/2017/09/catalina-repairs-trunk-lid-part-four.html?m=1

http://chevroldsmobuiac.blogspot.com/2017/09/catalina-repairs-body-mounting.html?m=1

[enjenjo]

That car needs Bonneville tail lights.

[idrivejunk]

And tail panel.

[idrivejunk]

Been working on back window rust and letting blog pics slide lately... so pull up a park bench and toss bread crumbs to the hungry pigeons fer a spell. Maybe I can catch up this weekend.  

[jaybee]

I can't get over how much rear overhang it has.

[idrivejunk]

Yeah she has serious backside that's for sure. I dumped some big pics of the lower rear window area repair just now

http://chevroldsmobuiac.blogspot.com/2017/10/catalina-repairs-rear-window-area.html?m=1

Coming soon... pics of the right trunk drop and quarter patch I just fabbed using some of the shop's metal shaping tools that nobody hardly touches. I am severely stoked about that, finally got a chance to make a couple 3 foot parts and it was mighty satisfying.

[chimp koose]

That there is some serious repair ! I have asked this before but here goes again , If I am going to glue in a windshield how deep do I make the recess for the glass and how high do I make the backstop edge ? I hope to be doing this over the winter .