Body & Paint 04 -- Metal Repair & Fabrication
Turning Our Attention to the Rear of the Body...
8-18-2011: The cowl is essentially finished except for a few little items that Dan has spotted since he set it aside. Now it's time to get to work on the lower rear section of the body. Drainage must have been an issue and perhaps salt was used on the roads since there's some corrosion all along the lower rear and sides of the body sheet metal. This is in the area where the metal "turns under" and is attached to the underside of the wooden substructure. In a few areas, the metal is gone. There are pinholes rusted through along much of the edge.
Dan is fabricating patch panels to match the existing contours of the body and tack welding them in place. This is a slow, tedious, demanding process.
And Some Very Exciting News!...
8-29-2011: The wooden structure is now completed and painted! Dan has found that rustoleum diluted with mineral spirits works very well at coating and protecting the wood framework. My personal opinion is that the level of gloss is just about perfect. It's a shame that all this beautiful workmanship will eventually get covered up.
Here, Dan is working on the pan that goes between the frame rails under the rumble seat cushion. It was somewhat pock-marked from rust, especially on the underside. Dan wanted to smooth it out as much as possible prior to painting it. You can see here that he has applied body filler in thin layers and sanded each coat to eventually produce a smooth, paintable surface:
11-2-2011 - Dan has just about finished dressing up the rear lower body panels that had suffered substantial rust damage. After a little more sanding, he'll be ready to reprime this area.
11-23-2011 And now, Dan has started stripping both the hood pieces and the rumble seat cover (lid???). The previous owner had started painting the car back in the 1960's and we are removing that paint as I don't care for the color or the type of paint. He used old fashioned nitrocellulose lacquer and was painting the car black and bright yellow. The good news is that this paint protected these pieces and the sheet metal appears to be in very good shape.
And now (11-28-2011), Dan has painted the floor panel shown above on this page, using a two-part polyurethane paint. The side you see here is the side that faces down! It will be visible to anyone willing to crawl under the car. You can click on this image to see it full size. You had to see what condition this panel was in to start with to fully appreciate what Dan has accomplished. I feel very grateful to have both Dan and Deron working on this car. They are both extremely talented craftsmen.
12-1-2011 -- The rear floor panel (under the rumble seat forward to the rear of the passenger seat) is now installed in the wood body framing! Here are some pictures. Black is so-o-o-o hard to photograph. It looks better than new!
12-5-2011 The rear body "skin" is back in position on the wooden framework and Dan is fastening it in position! The body is held in place (believe it or not!) with dozens of tiny brads that go through holes in the sheet metal into the wooden structure.
And today (12-6-2011) the doors are mounted!
