Doors are Mounted

Today (12-6-2011) the doors are mounted!

Repositioning the Rear Skin

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.

     

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rumble Seat Floor

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!

More Rear Body Work

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.

Dan has painted the floor panel shown above, 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.

Wood Structure Report

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:

The Rusty Rear

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.

 

A Cowl Remade

And Now to the Cowl...

Today (6-20-2011), I visited the shop to find that the dash has been installed in the cowl framework and Dan has started working on the firewall/cowl sheetmetal  The first job is going to involve welding a lot of holes and smoothing them.  The cowl has been "loved on" for many, many years.  God knows what all those holes were ever used for!

       The Dashboard:                                                                                                             The Cowl:

 

...and Progress on the Cowl:

Fill those holes, straighten those dents, shrink that steel...

  

The Story of a Door

When Dan Shady examined the passenger's door, it was clear that the frame member on which the hinges mount was in bad shape and had experienced some amateur repairs in the past.  He needed to remove that structural member and replace it.  He had previously tried to use the epoxy on it but the damage was too severe.  He started by carefully peeling back the skin of the door where it was crimped along its rear edge.  Then he was able to chisel through some nails that had been used to attach a steel strip to the outer face of the door frame member.  This steel strip, which is the piece that the skin is crimped around, could then be slipped out.  After removing some interlocking screws, he gently broke the glued finger joints at the top and bottom and slipped the damaged piece of wood out of the door.  After crafting a new member, we could see the old and new, side by side:

 

 

He then proceeded to carefully position the holes that will attach the hinges, making sure that the door will align accurately when the hinges are assembled.  Having done this, he was able to reassemble the wood members, using epoxy cement, and carefully recrimp the door edge over its steel retainer without splitting the metal!  It looks fantastic, the door is as rigid as can be, and it aligns perfectly when hung on the car.

 

 

 

A view of Progress

Today (4-13-11) I went to the Shady shop.  Major progress was evident!  The rear part of the body is now back on the wood structure so Dan can align the doors with the body, the sills under the doors, and the cowl ahead of the doors.  This is necessary to get all the door clearances even and the edges and surfaces aligned where the edges come together.  And the cowl structure is now mounted on the front section of the heavy wooden sills that support the entire body.  Here's a picture looking across the chassis in the foreground at the whole assembly:

 

And here's a picture looking in the rumble seat opening.  Here, Dan has fabricated both of the side upholstery panels and made the cardboard (white) pattern that will be used to make the rubber floor mat.

 

As I was looking at the top of the driver's side door, I noticed the file marks made nearly eighty years ago by some Detroit auto worker trying to make it through the depths of the depression...

A New Floorboard for the Rumble Seat

When we first examined the car, we noticed a missing panel that would have gone under the rumble seat cushion and covered the rear of the drive shaft.  The screw holes were still evident and the outline of the panel had left a profile where it had been mounted.  Once again, Dan Shady worked his magic and reproduced what the panel might have looked like.  Here is the entire rear floorboard including the countersunk "Floorboard Washers" (no kidding!) and the cover piece that Dan made:

The rumble seat cushion occupies the area covered by the towels.

Constructing and Aligning

Now, in January, 2011, we're working on the cowl section -- the sheet metal that is located forward of the doors and includes the firewall.  Dan has carefully removed all the wooden substructure and has sent the instrument panel to the sandblaster.

 We discovered that one of the sheet metal vent deflectors was missing, so here Dan has fabricated a new one using the remaining original one as a pattern.  

Here's a closeup:

When Dan was removing the windshield posts, he determined that they were frozen in place, firmly corroded to the forged braces that hold them in place and attach to the cowl and firewall.  Ultimately, the only way to remove them was to saw through the 3/4" steel bolts that were unmovable.  This meant that Dan then had to drill out the old remnants of the threaded rod that was cast in place.  This was quite a delicate operation:

 

And now (January, 2011), Dan has begun making the wooden pieces that comprise the cowl supports.  This is the section of the body that includes the firewall and extends back to the posts in front of the two doors.

 

It's very important to get this entire structure precisely in the right location and at the correct angle if we want the doors to align properly and latch securely.

 

Note the large forged and cast brackets that were designed to securely anchor everything and keep it in alignment. 

 

Dan wisely decided to make the upholstery panels that go on each side of the rumble seat before we put the body metal back over the wood framework.  Here are the pattern and the finished product (before any upholstery is applied).  The hole in the left panel is to access a storage area for the side curtains.  It will be covered by a hinged cover with a rain protection flap on top.  There will be a similar cover on both sides.