Model A job

[chris spokes]

nice fill work there Matt  

[idrivejunk]

Thanks.     It was just baaarely within the realm of what I thought I could pull off, and just welding the big gap kept it simple.

Heres where the latch landed-

[idrivejunk]

I need to close up the door gaps a little now, to get rid of the washer under the striker-

[idrivejunk]

[idrivejunk]

That will do. This won't-



Since this is a rumble lid, I'll have to do some whackery along the bottom to make it close fully-



I'll need to cut some tacks and shuffle skins and reinforcements around. Already cut the trunk floor loose at the kickup and moved it up an inch to get things this far along. With so many refinements needed, theres no completing one area and moving on. Its more like bring it up to a level all around, fix an area, go all around it again and repeat. But having the pillars and doors close is gigantic, the rest of this does not worry me near as much but I do need this long weekend to regroup my thoughts and do some logical planning of the next steps.



Other side not rotted as badly-

[idrivejunk]

Must be getting serious, he has the upper body measuring fixture up.

Today I started building permanent inner structure below the back window, with a double divider in mind for the gas tank compartment. The C-clamped scrap under the quarter window is just to illustrate a connection there. Shouldn't need much more tubular pieces after that.









The blurry "bolt" in the background is the H. A. Trunk Hinge peg. Just below the bolt ahead of it is the angled tab I'll use to connect a remnant of the old T strip flange for now. The rest, we can both watch grow.

[idrivejunk]

After another flurry of measuring and minimal resetting of things, below the belt body dimensions have finally entered the quarter inch range of variation realm. Beats half. Length is best, height is good, and centering is OK although body could be skewed on frame at this moment. No matter. Currently referencing body center line only. Continuing upward, but had to chop up the last long stick of tubing thats part of my apparatus. Hmmm....

[idrivejunk]

Heres the bottom of the rumble lid, where I'll need to change from hangy downy flange to flat bottom °90 so it can close fully-



I centered the rear window panel and trimmed it to overlap the back edge patch (pic) and bolted tabs on quarters (after pic, so it is crooked) to brackets on the shelf to hold it, tried the trunk lid again, cut and bent the right upper C pillar tube (not shown)...





Front gutter needs adjustment, both quarters are bashed in next to the trunk... quite a ways to go back there-







Also got some welding started on the left quarter-

[idrivejunk]

Behind left quarter patch... it does touch that tubing but won't-



Heres the face. No need to fuss over it now, while access is poor.



Roof corner-



While I was there, I also welded up the stubborn crack at the convergence of body lines. Plus more straightening since the metal is secured and approximately positioned now.



That was the AM. Now, for the PM:

A big lead gob, probably Ford, was in this corner of the quarter. Probably because the top corner stuck out too far. I sliced their weld a little to correct that-



Cut 16 ga strips for screwing to, and got one behind this side. Working my way to the right.

[chimp koose]

Wow is that car ever labor intensive . You sure got a rough one to start out with on this job !

[idrivejunk]

Wow is that car ever labor intensive . You sure got a rough one to start out with on this job !

If a car or truck is not that bad, you are not likely to see me working on it. That is a definite pattern that has emerged over the last several years.

The same could and has been said of the 59 Pontiac, 60 Chevy, two first gen Camaros, a Mach1, a 40 Ford truck, a 280Z... and the list goes on.

I figured out early in life that if you want to stay busy and fed, you'll need to embrace some thing that most would refuse... then do it best.

[chris spokes]

you do awesome work Matt  

[chimp koose]

I bet you could straighten out a crushed beer can ! Seriously , the stuff you fix is very interesting and I know I have learned some from watching . Kind of gets me worrying less about slicing and dicing something in the future . Not like I am going to try resurrecting something like the train wrecks they drop in your stall but still , you show how one goes through the steps to getting it done . Thanks for the insight and play by play on your projects .

[idrivejunk]

You guys say the most awesomest things!   Its a joy to share

I'm glad you guys get it. Its more of a ride-along than a class here  Just me doing the jobs as I see fit, and it sells somehow.

This round of pics represents maybe three hours on the car, but we cleaned up good and I can see my bench again. Would you believe I restocked all the mockup hardware I had out? Whew, feels better like a haircut do. Anyhow, um... not much 'splaination needed for these, just a continuation-

[idrivejunk]

Got a window panel hugging top rear cross tube roughly tacked into place with sloppy probably temporary corner pieces and decided to raise the the overhead cross tube with bends near the ends and move it (not shown) forward for best headroom-



Worked on some chop welds more-











Then I started on some new quarter sections for above the door, below the drip rail-