55 Wagon Progress

[Scott2]

That's just outstanding! When you look back through the thread there's an enormous amount of work that went into this car and every bit of it is top-notch, superb, no shortcuts work. Pretty damn impressive!

[nsb29]

I know sum one that built an in closed trailer because he was afraid of being recked by rubber necks love the paint

[MP&C]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!! Yeah, Brandon and the guys did a bang up job on the paint.. Will be turning some heads when Dana takes it out.


We stopped by the upholstery shop on Friday, they had the console ready...





Video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfvtDpCNpCU


Playing catch-up here on the F7 hood, the inside of the crease was blocked using tape to keep the center line sharp, then brace welded in place and some epoxy touch ups done..










With the touch ups blocked, we're ready for some Epoxy/sealer, some PPG ESSS base, and my first time spraying SPI Universal... WooHoo! love this clear!!





These Ford truck hoods can be a pain to get good paint coverage inside the nose.. So a couple pieces of TIG wire from our rack to the hood brackets hold it up in the air so we can get into the nose with the spray gun..

[Warrens69GMC]

Nice!

[mongocanfly]

looks great Robert....no suprise there...

[MP&C]

Here's a video we did on some basic metalshaping, making a heat/AC vent bracket for under the dash using a hammer and piece of pipe. Excuse the audio quality at the start, what you get for filming with an iPhone 6S. S stands for SUCKS... apparently the phone gets confused as to which of 3 microphones to use.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLanHAqaaY













.

[Warrens69GMC]

Nice progress....

[mongocanfly]

Nice show and tell on that Robert...

[MP&C]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Nice show and tell on that Robert... just curious , why not just weld the face to the 2nd piece without tipping the edge over..then dressing the corners..

Thanks for the comments guys.. Greg, EXCELLENT question!!!!


When you place a weld on a corner, and for an example, lets say we are patching a lower fender right up to the door opening to repair some rust at the bottom of the fender.... you lose the ability to control the two perpendicular sides. Let's say you blow a hole and have to re-weld in a spot or two. More heat and shrinking is bound to pull at the panel, and now you are pulling inward in two directions. The weld seam directly in the corner makes it difficult at best to planish and control where the metal gets stretched to, IF you can even make headway on it. So you'll find that in addition to having low spots, you also have altered the door to fender GAP with little hope of fixing it without filler.. By shaping your panel as you want it, and then tipping a flange that carries the seam into the perpendicular side, the crease helps to hold things from moving. Place the weld seam far enough away from the corner that you can hammer and dolly. With the brackets we made Saturday, this was easy as we just used the pipe once again, this time to planish the TIG weld once completed.

[mongocanfly]

Thanks for the explanation Robert..(now that I've watched it 4 times...I see now...)..you caught me before I edited it..
What you described was the very issue I had on some of the stuff I've done by trying to weld corners together..

[MP&C]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Thanks for the explanation Robert..you caught me before I saved my edit..I thought you had butt welded the pieces together...I went back and realized you had them overlapped.. It's hard to see on my small screen sometimes.

Greg, first off, you've had some good questions that others are likely thinking but not asking, so please stop editing!!


Next, Robert doesn't overlap. These got butt welded and dressed, as shown in the still photo at the end. The last part of the video showing the parts together is actually butted and has a couple magnets inside holding the parts together, so that may be why it looked overlapped.

[mongocanfly]

Haha..I'll quit editing...you caught me again though..
At the start it looked overlapped and at the end it looked butt welded

[MP&C]

Greg, I showed some of the welding pics in here for you!




Well I think we're long overdue for a wagon update. Yes, it is back in the building....





And we should be setting the body back on the chassis this weekend. We've been buttoning up some last minute things on the frame before a body makes accessibility more of a challenge. The cable for the O2 sensor up to the EFI was about two feet too long, so we ordered another connector and shortened it up a bit.





In order to better hold things from bouncing around, a large Adel clamp is "massaged" to better fit the shape of the Bosch connector, and yet remain loose enough to remove the connector if need be for any future troubleshooting needs..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJT8_trcz2Q











….and here's our leftover.





Next, we had transmission cooling lines to run, which means straightening a coil of stainless 5/16 line....





This should be straight enough....





We had to insure clearance around the inspection cover and starter, so those were temporarily installed...





We found these fancy stainless "cable ties" at McMaster, but even using a banding tool to tension it, the "tang" retention allows it to loosen slightly before the tang locks in.











Since I had recently picked up a pair of Pex crimpers at a pawn shop for cheap, we thought we'd give those Oetiker clamps a shot for keeping things snug.. Looks like this may work!





Top side...





Bottom...





The crimpers/pliers we used... $15 at a pawn shop...





Running the radiator ends...








And then some other superfluous stuff, we got the second vent bracket welded up last night











And even though it's off in the near distance, it's about time to repaint the tag so DMV can register it to the car (1955 only had one plate in MD)...

Thought I had some bus paint that was close, but looks a bit too light..





But playing with some mixing ratios online, I may be able to use some of my one shot lettering paint as a tint to get us much closer...





And since the rest of the bits are now being cut and buffed, we better get the body on the frame to make some room in the shop..











….and between all that, we made another set of window dividers, these going to Dallas for the restoration of a 57 wagon...

[Green 1959]

Wow that's amazing!!

[oldman3]

Robert, very cool update, and everything is looking super, nice work...Jim

[mongocanfly]

more good work Robert....and look at those (butt welds)...nicely done ...haha

[MP&C]

Thanks for following along guys!



Last night we got some details crossed off the list, our radiator sits on the front side of the core support but the overflow can't stay on the front side as it would spew all over a painted splash pan. So we marked the core support baffle to align with our overflow AN fitting and as Jared was drilling the hole and installing the grommet, I got to bending some 1/4" stainless tubing. Now it will drain behind the frame rail...



























Since McMaster had made a delivery we got some of the Oetiker clamps installed. Yeah, I think I like this cleaner look...











My buddy Jeff Ford down in Aiken SC was working on installing a floor pan patch and had omitted the flange in the radius corner below the toe panel.







So in addition to busting his chops, we put together this video tutorial so he could do the next panel in one piece. Hope it helps someone else as well..



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-R_kVKKBEI





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[mongocanfly]

Very clean...oetiker clamps are a nice clean touch...

[Hammered 77]

Robert,I like the looks of the Oetiker clamps, but I'm not familiar with them. Are they reusable and how do they unfasten?

Rick

[MP&C]

One time use and they have to be cut off. Harley Davidson uses these on their fuel lines and I believe oil lines.

[MP&C]

Well today was slated as lift-off day. So we got our lifting eyes installed on the body this morning and set up the lifting devices.



We loaded the frame onto the trailer, figured a winch would be easier than pushing..



Getting the body ready to separate from the rotisserie...















With the body bolted down, we moved it outside to take some pictures..





Here is the room we have behind the engine for access to the O2 sensor connector...





Our attempt to install the rear bumper so we could look at it with some chrome on the rear end did not fare well. The bumper brackets did not line up correctly, just my luck, so we added length and welded the original holes closed so they can be moved to the correct location...

[oldman3]

Robert, coming together and looks stunning...Jim

[mongocanfly]

WOW..!!!!...that green is gorgeous ..!!!..but im a sucker for green,,my 1st truck was green...

[Hammered 77]

Thanks Robert, I guess my only concern would be if you had a problem out on the road. With everything being new it shouldn't be an issue anytime soon.

Rick

[MP&C]

Rick, we'll have to include spares for the glove box...