Door repair

Since the doors can open it's time to start repairing some rot. Using the patch panels I got a couple weeks ago from Snyders I got to work. All in all it wasn't a bad task, plasma cutter came in very handy here.

The Doors

There has been alot of tedious work with not much to put into pictures lately, but the result is functioning doors. The floor was welded to the body and door structures were put in place, I cut the welds on the doors, turned the handles and they opened up perfectly - both sides.

More floor

Getting back to the floor framing, I made the main floor piece. It is not attached to anything yet so I can take it out to weld on additional pieces and create the driveshaft loop and such. Once I start creating uprights and including the body it will be one complete unit that will not be removable.

Dash piece painting

Just to take a welding break I decided to clean up the old dash piece and give it a shot of the antique white, I didn't make it perfect since this was an original part and I like the character of it.

FINALLY - the floor has begun

This is probably the biggest and most important step to the entire body - at least in my eyes. The floor will control how everything happens from this point out. I started laying out the framework, attached the rear to the back of the frame and the body is now sitting on the frame with no outside assistance for the first time.

Reattaching more body after the chop

I haven't updated the blog in awhile, I took some time to get the garage back in order as well as some outdoor enjoyment with the unexpected nice weather but I recently got back into it again.

I have welded the doors, and front upright pieces back on to prepare the car for the floor

More body work..

I can probably use that title for weeks to come, but there is progress being made. I re-attached one side of the roof chop and setup the other to be done tonight. The window portion is set just need to do some cutting to get the corners to meet properly.





After a bit of measuring and unbending some of the old/rotted steel I was able to get the cowl patch where its supposed to be, no cutting or welding yet but I get a better sense of actual height now.

Patch panels

I ordered patch panels from Snyders on Monday and they showed up Tuesday afternoon - fast shipping and first impression is excellent quality. I will be putting these to use this weekend most likely.

Body welding

Started to re-attach the chopped top here

It turns out the car was red.

After some de-rusting and cleaning the car started to show itself to the world again. The paint was red, and it will be again. I will probably end up with a 2 tone black/red combo and I will try to get as close to this original red as possible.