Hood Work

Friday, 26 October, 2012 -- I went out to Dan and Deron's today to check on status.  Dan has been working on the hood top panels to detect and repair any irregularities.  Here is the driver's side as it is being worked on:

The channel around the opening for the vent has some minor corrosion, but is remarkably intact considering its age.  Dan plans to clean it real well and prime it with epoxy primer.  There's no need to replace any metal as it's not rusted through anywhere and it gets covered over with a rubber gasket that the vent cover compresses to seal out weather when the vent is closed.

Dan has also started to evaluate the situation with the hood side panels.  I originally elected to go with a 241 Hemi in the hopes that it might fit within the confines of the stock hood on a Model PB Plymouth.  This is not the case.  Even the "baby" hemi is too wide and extends past the plane of the hood sides when closed.  So Dan has covered the valve covers with protective tape as he assesses how big a "blister" we need in the panels and exactly where they need to go:

 

 

More Reassembly

9-22-2012  Both front fenders are now mounted on the car, along with the mud shield that fits below the radiator shell.  Dan says this piece, which I acquired from Andrew Edler, might need a little massaging to fit perfectly, but I expected that.  It's very close to being perfect.  Here's what it looks like -- with plywood (a pattern for the glass) in the windshield frame:

Clearing the Exhaust Headers

9-13-2012  I went out to visit the shop.  Dan is working hard to get the left front fender finished.  It's basically a good sound fender, but it has a lot of surface irregularities -- high and low spots.  He also showed me an article he had seen and copied that describes how an Australian chap built the blisters on the sides of his hood to clear the valve covers of a V-8 engine.  We'll be facing that in the near future.  We also discussed how far back to cut the right fender where it barely misses the exhaust header.  Interestingly, this situation only exists on the passenger side of the engine.  When you look at the clearance on each side, it's obvious that the engine is offset to that side, even though the centerline of the crankshaft is along the centerline of the car.

Front Fender Adventures

9-1-2012  As Dan cleaned up the front fenders, it became evident that they required a fair amount of work.  The right front fender appeared to have been damaged at the factory, crudely repaired, and leaded over to cover up the damage.  It was in the area of complex curvature on the innermost side of the edge where the fender bolts to the running board.  The design of that end of the fender is very poor.  Looking at the underside of the fender, you can see an ell-shaped flange that was welded to the sheet metal.  The problem is that it is fabricated in such a way that it creates a pocket within which dirt and moisture will naturally accumulate.  It was an invitation to rust.  I had noticed that as I found front fenders over the years, they were always rusty in this area (usually rusted through).  And if you look at this picture, it's clear why that happens:

And the whole area near the flange that bolts to the running board had been malformed and required "major surgery."  Here, you can see that Dan has cut the fender in a couple of areas and welded a proper patch.  He is shrinking the area marked by X's and will subsequently weld the cuts back together.  The objective is to have the fender fit the frame accurately where it fastens, fit the running board and align with it, and be free of crude patches and gobs of lead.

You can click on the image to see it in more detail.

And here the fender is finished and remounted on the car.  The vertical joint now lines up perfectly with the splash apron and the horizontal flange on the rear of the fender fits exactly to the running board.

In the meantime, Dan has started working on the left front fender to smooth out a few wrinkles.  He covers the entire surface with felt tipped magic marker dye.  Then, very patiently, he goes over every millimeter of the surface with a flat file or a sanding sheet fastened to a hard flat surface.  This reveals any low spots, even those that you wouldn't see until you got a glossy finish on the metal, and then it's too late to fix.  Here you can see the left front fender in progress:

Windshield Alignment

This week (7-17-2012), Dan got the windshield assembly aligned and assembled and was able to set the top in place.  This is all part of the "pre-assembly" process to make sure everything fits and that no parts are missing.  Next, we'll tear it all back down to resume work on the chassis.

Shrinking the Rear Fenders

7-5-2012:  A few weeks ago when Dan attached the rear fenders to the body, he pointed out to me that previous work had stretched the metal enough to cause a bulge in the beaded edge on both rear fenders.  You can see the problem in the image on the right.  Dan asked me to be patient while he researched the best way to shrink the steel to bring the edge back into a straight line.  At first he thought the best technique might be heating the affected area of the fender to red hot and quenching it with a wet rag.  That works but tends to embrittle the metal and can lead to cracking.  The technique he finally used was to heat the metal to just shy of red hot and quench it with a blast of compressed air.  He repeated this process, occasionally dressing up the surface with a hammer and dolly, until it was straight.  It worked!  I never cease to be amazed at what these metal artisans can do with a torch and a few simple tools.  It's all about knowing how to use them.  Here are the results:

Gas Tanks

One day, Dan Shady asks me if I have "the gas tank" for this car.  I tell him, "I think I may have a couple, or maybe even three.  I stored them upstairs in the garden shed years ago.  I'll check."

Well, today (6-23-2012) I checked.  Here's what I found:

So now, I guess I'll take them down to Shady's this week.  We can determine which one is in the best shape.  I'll take the sending units out of the ones I don't use, clean up the tanks, and sell all of them on eBay over the next few weeks.  I promise you'll never see 5 Model PB Plymouth gas tanks in one location ever again!  And I have no clue where I got all 5 of these fairly rare items.