What are you doing today ? 2019

[idrivejunk]

Sliding the rod through the hinges would be only to check, not to move. Twisting the pillar that I mentioned would be addressed by grabbing the pillar near the hinge location and twisting hinge, mount area and all. I wouldn't think having to hammer the hinges in place is normal but thats where experience fails me. But you know the pin holes must line up, so why not line up the hinges perfect on your workbench, tack them to tubing then modify door or pillar to accept them like that?

Best of luck, and hopefully one of the real rodders has a magic solution if it continues to be a problem with another hinge. Sucks that the hinge broke pressing it. That one may have broken later anyhow.

[moose]

Are you trying to set gaps and alignment with the body bolted down to the frame? On my coupe I have a similar misalignment with the body loose but with proper shims and the body tightened down it brings the body beads into line.

[chimp koose]

Thanks Moose , I do not have the body tightened down but I have checked diagonal measurements on each door and they are the same side to side . I have also checked for level diagonally across the roof and it checks out as very square . The body is sitting on the frame on its mounting blocks  . This car was barn stored and still rolling on wheels when I got it . The sub rails were in good shape and this door was fitting poorly even then . The lower P/S door hinge was once replaced with a hinge from something else as the bolt holes did not line up . I have since welded them up and drilled new holes in the same location as the same hinge from the other side . My biggest mistake was taking all the hinges out and straightening them quite a while ago .  I think I will have to start by making sure the 3 hinge pins line up on the door and then start bending the ones in the pillar to get alignment of the body lines . I have been building exhaust on a buddys chopper to take my mind off it for a while to get a fresh perspective .

[WZ JUNK]

I learned something new today.  I needed to enlarge a 1 inch hole in a stainless steel firewall.  I tried a step drill but the stainless was just to tuff.  Since I was enlarging an existing hole, a normal hole saw would not work.  We made a bushing that fit the pilot drill of the carbide hole saw with an outsides diameter of the hole that we needed to enlarge.  Then the hole saw had something to guide it and hold the saw in place.   It worked great.  I will attached a very poor quality cell phone photo.

John

[moose]

Thanks Moose , I do not have the body tightened down but I have checked diagonal measurements on each door and they are the same side to side . I have also checked for level diagonally across the roof and it checks out as very square . The body is sitting on the frame on its mounting blocks  .

The early bodies are very flexable. shimming even a very small bit will move the doors a lot.
After you get the hinges repaired and before doing anything drastic try the shims.

And remember the tolerances at the factory were very loose!

[chimp koose]

neat trick !

[idrivejunk]

Thanks Moose , I do not have the body tightened down but I have checked diagonal measurements on each door and they are the same side to side . I have also checked for level diagonally across the roof and it checks out as very square . The body is sitting on the frame on its mounting blocks  .

The early bodies are very flexable. shimming even a very small bit will move the doors a lot.
After you get the hinges repaired and before doing anything drastic try the shims.

And remember the tolerances at the factory were very loose!

I bet it just needs to stew for a spell in CK's subconscious, I have tasted the madness of which you speak, yet here I am trying to make a unibody out of an A.

Yesterday I was knocking a dent out of the cowl skin of the A, where the A pillar blocks access. The entire cowl skin from top to bottom popped loose from the pillar.    

After the arousal from thoughts of separating the cowl skins flashing through my head subsided, I thought of CK.

 


the entire row of spot welds, top to bottom, rusted away. Man, I did not even want to do any drilling and welding there, its so rusty. But I will. And now is the time to adjust fit if needed.


Ts might be different.

Today bedded windshield area construction was an interesting conversation. That will be fun.

[chimp koose]

I am interested to see the bedded window process

[kb426]

I'm watching it snow. Not excited.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Been wet, cold, rainy, windy  week here.  Phx set a record low High temp one day.  Beat some record from the late 1800's for a temperature .  It was a high of 48* F if memory serves.

My head cold crud , coughing  crap... is just about gone.  Glad to see it go

[kb426]

It's not that warm here but I had something that I wanted repaired. A week ago my battery charger succumbed to old age on the rotary switch input handle. The stub broke off in the handle. I believe I bought this in 1978. It's a Sears which appeared to be a Century. I go get the parts book from the cabinet and google the part number. Discontinued and replaced by a similar unit. With shipping the replacement was $50. I priced new chargers. I see most are electronic and don't give the control that I'm used to. I find a switch on ebay that has enough poles and capacity for $7. I gamble and loose. It's for some kind of heater. Only 2 of the poles would work and I need 4. Today I decide I have nothing to lose so I disassemble both switches. I couldn't swap parts to make either work. I ended up drilling the left over stem on the original and tapping it for 10-24. I inserted a long fastener and loctited and jamb nutted it. The battery charger is back in service. I've been researching electric parking brakes. Most of the units are to operate cable brakes. I googled electric brakes and didn't find anything that I thought would be better. I went to ebay and searched. I found a Jaguar unit that had many wires meaning the ecu controls it. Then I found a Ford caliper that had the electric motor on the caliper mounted in similar fashion to the cable operated reverse thread units. I bought one from ebay. I hooked the battery charger up and verified that by reversing polarity, it will work. A two way toggle switch will operate this. The reason for me looking into this is I don't have room for a lever in any of my trucks. I'm not sure how this will be mounted or if it will be an additional caliper instead of the primary but I'm excited to find an alternative to the other units.

[kb426]

The new chuck for the lathe arrived today. Nothing fancy. 3 jaw, reversible jaws, 8" diameter. A new chuck every 24 years isn't too often, is it?

[phat46]

I did a study/practice piece today. I want to try a monochromatic painting to get an older feel to it. This is on a 12" X 16" board, the actual painting will be about 20" X 30" and will have three to five cars and some people in it. This one was done relatively quickly, and I like the look that gives, I Usually fret and putter over little things that don't make the painting. Should be a fun piece.

[chimp koose]

Phat 46 , I think practice went well !

[chimp koose]

KB I like that style of 3 jaw . Not only are the jaws reversible , they are replaceable . I worked at a CNC shop over 35 years ago and we would often remove the stock bolt on jaws and replace them with jaws made to hold a specific item . We would bore out a set of soft jaws to match the contour of what we were trying to hold . It just gives you more work holding options .  We had an employee improperly install a set of jaws once and in the morning warm up of the machine(x-axis creep as the machines spindle warmed up) the jaws came off at around 1500rpm . We dug those ones out of the roof ! I also had experience re truing 3 jaws in another shop as the ends of the jaws tend to bell mouth after a while . I would inside chuck a ring with the outer ends of the outside jaws and then use an ID grinding attachment to bore out the jaws until trued .