You gonna keep the sunroof slider? Have an electric sliding rear window
You gonna keep the sunroof slider? Have an electric sliding rear window
For me this is the most intriguing build going on at the moment. I really am curious to see where this all goes.
NOHOME, it's really flattering to hear that from you. I have been following your build for quite some time and have learned a lot from it.
Pictures from this weekend don't really show how much progress was made, but it was a lot. I tried sandblasting the inside surfaces of the shell, but the compressor won't keep up. I got all the tight spots clean where I plan to weld near though. The body-on-frame design will allow me to go back and professionally sandblast and paint everything if I want to go the nice car route in the future. The body will stay "ratty" in the foreseeable future, but needs to be stiff.
All unusable structure has been cut from the Ford shell and I have started building the body structure, which is mostly 1" tubing around the bottom perimeter, tying the door frame together, an arch under the roof on top of the column on the rear side of the door, and the frame rail attachment points. The body will bolt to the frame rails in 6 places: front and rear edges of doors, and the front edge of the cowl. The channel will be 3", which will lay the bottom edge of the body flush with the bottom side of the frame rail.
The frame rails will be angled relatively to each other under the body. They will be straight in front and behind the body, with a narrower width in front and wider in the rear.
Trying to box in the vertical door seam, the inevitable need for a sheet metal brake arose. So I started making my own because cheap.
This may be the most unholy engine swap I have ever seen.
Please, continue.
If I can give you one piece of advice that I figured out along the way, it would be to "figure how to do it right"
Time, money, abilities and a reluctance to want to re-do some task often want me to say "Good enough for who it is for". However if I had done that all along, I would have a project that would not be worthy of the rest of the budget. I think a lot of projects get abandoned at that point.
I really hope your project has a life beyond the challenge event.
The structure is a bit more structural now. Bottom rails of the body are in. These are part of the bottom perimeter of the body, which the vertical pillars will attach to.
All ground smooth
Roof hoop, which connects the B-pillars while supporting the roof, is fabbed and tacked in. I ran out of material to box in the B-pillar.
Welded up, for strength
Ground down, for prettiness
And here's the idea for body-frame mounts.
The angled piece is made from the same tubing as the frame. A bolt will go through it and the frame. There will be six of these one at the base of A-pillar, B-pillar, and front of the cowl.
My new best friend for this Indiana winter. It's way too small for this huge un-insulated pole barn, but it helps.
Sorry I haven't gotten with you. A combination of my projects and picking back up at work have kept me busy.
Looking good!
Keep up the good work! I'm excited to see this completed.
You seem to have a plan. Took me the first year for the whole picture to gel.
I do NOT envy your lack of heated space. Hard enough to drag my couch loving butt out to the shop even with heat.
I boxed in the B-pillars by slicing a piece of 1-1/4" square tube down the middle and bending it to the curve of the original body, the same way I did the roof hoop. I also made some beams over the top of the doors, tying the tops of the A and B pillars together. Now the doors can open and shut without the roof collapsing!
Here is one of the roof beams, bent using the slit method again.
Had to grind a little out out of the top of the A-pillar to fit the roof beams.
I used a jack to put some clearance in the door jam while welding the roof beams in.
Oops! Beam was a little short
That's okay, just add a patch.
Lots of welding to do!
In reply to maschinenbau:
Great work!
Your mastery of the "slice, shape,weld, grind" for shaping the tube structure is outstanding. I really like how you contour the tube around the belt-line.
Got all the welds finished and ground smooth. Looks like it was never made from wood in the first!
Moving on to the roof...this ones is puzzling me right now, but the plan is coming together. The sides of the roof will weld straight to the beams.
But first I need to stiffen up the beams over the windshield. It's two pieces which used to be bolted together, but rust happened. So I drilled more holes in the top beam and spot welded them together.
Penetrated this 85-year-old body very nicely. Uh, I mean...
Here's where I'm stuck. How to fix this chewed up piece under the windshield visor? Almost looks like a decent enough excuse to buy a bead roller.
Dude.... Im using that trick....
where in indiana are you? i have to go to the polis of indiana this week or next to drop off a buick, and if you are near my buddy i could bring the bead roller and dies.
He's in Columbus. I'm in Greenwood though so we maybe able to coordinate between the 3 of us if it's after Christmas, no way I'll have time to get down there before then.
If the beadroller does not make it, try to find a piece of rod that fits in the remaining channel. Then lay the rod over the gap crated by the repair piece that needs the bead.
From the front, use a piece of hardwood like maple with a grove matching the front of the bead) cut into it. Beat soundly with a hammer on the front where the rod is located on the back. I would not try to do more than 3/4" at a time. If you have a press, you can use it instead of the hammer.
Practice on a scrap first. I believe the tin is 19 gauge.
In reply to minivan_racer:
I'll be home and off work the entire week between Christmas and New Year's. Come on down!
Pat, I really appreciate it but don't go out of your way. I might try my hand at NOHOME's technique.
Rod update: finished gnawing on the Lexus carcass that so graciously donated its precious internals for the greater good of all GRMkind. After 2 hours posted to that newfangled facebook marketplace, someone with a flatbed and winch agreed to pay me $20 to come yank it off my property. Honestly I would have paid $20 to have that done.
Have you ever sold a car with a clean title for less than $20? This is actually the cheapest part I have sold off the Lexus so far. Even the turn signal mechanism sold for more.
I took the opportunity to sweep and organize the shop. No more windshield scraping for me this winter!
I once bought a Cadillac for a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. Does that count?
I bought a Galaxie for a pack of bud light once.
slicing and contouring the square tubing looks extremely time consuming, but wow did that come out nice... I'm impressed! If you need a hand with anything (or just want some supervision 
)let me know, haha
This has so much potential, I legit cannot wait to see where this goes.
Really impressed at the fab work.
Impressively cool.
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