55 Wagon Progress

[mongocanfly]

(Robert, hope you don't get tired of me saying the same thing over and over "Great work as always"...Jim )

cant agree enough!!!!!

[dug224]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

(Robert, hope you don't get tired of me saying the same thing over and over "Great work as always"...Jim )

cant agree enough!!!!!

I totally agree as well. One day this project will be finished and fabrication school will be over for us until you hopefully start and document a new project. Like I said many many posts of yours ago......just because we are not commenting doesn't mean we are not watching. Keep it coming!!

[MP&C]

Thanks for following along fellas!


Today Mike sent time blocking out the epoxy on the sign parts and addressing any low areas. I continued working on sound deadening, have one inner quarter panel left to go..








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ByQZLYwRU

[CG]

I'm curious on an amazing build like this what are the expectations of the owner on the time line from start to finish? I've noticed on the high end car builders TV shows the time to build can run in to several years.

[MP&C]

She brought it to a part time shop (day job pays for family health insurance) so that comes with the distractions that go with it (and travel for the day job..) we're getting close to light at the end of the tunnel now..



Sign progress, Fine tuning of some of the parts....








…..and for mounting it on the steel pole, this "shoe" is made of 14 gauge cold rolled and formed using the Go Kart slick.. The "sleeve" will slide over the pole and a set screw will hold it in place..























All ready for a splash of paint...


The sound mat is installed inside the wagon...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0X0t0nT4t4






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[MP&C]

A couple coats of Epoxy last night to seal things up....








….and then a white face added to the lighted surfaces...








Then they were masked off for painting the silver....





and a bit of color for the "drum"











video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPbuYB1HTTo



Now to see if Mike can get this assembled this week...

[mongocanfly]

Looking good ....as always

[MP&C]

Thanks Greg!


The sign was partially assembled today, and a test of the lights...








Lighting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSX80znqiAo






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[MP&C]

Well the Logo has just been added, and the sign has left the building. Mike did the majority of the work on this project, I'm real pleased with how it turned out. More importantly, so is the customer!!


video:


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

[mongocanfly]

Looks great Robert!!....does it play the music also?....or is that the shop radio?

[MP&C]

That was music we played in the shop for the occasion.. You never know what's playing over here..

[Warrens69GMC]

Nice work!!

[oldman3]

Very cool...Jim

[CG]

I don't think there is anything you cant make out of metal. The sign is amazing!

[MP&C]

Thanks guys!!


Time for a long overdue update. I've had too much travel for the day job since the first of the year. Case in point, we've had more than one Taco Tuesday at the Sand Bar in Cocoa Beach...





Since completing the Drum Sign, Mike has been removing dings from the wagon's stainless trim. Here Vince and I test fit the side spears..








We've done some stainless repair before using small hammers and handmade punches to match the rear side of the profile, but during the last metalshaping workshop I attended at Will Cronkrite's shop in SC, I picked up a stainless dent/ding removal fixture that he had made up.. The blue sleeve at the top works on the premise of a slide hammer, with the force applied controlled by the operator. The die at the bottom (punch) is removable to allow a wide variety of specialized punches to fit the application.








This tool allows more controlled manipulation, especially to those of us that don't do this type of repair every day... and it's been Duallyjams tested and approved!


Here's one of the purpose built punches made for the trim...





Here's some of our efforts in polishing out the trim after ding removal, filing, and about 6 steps of progressively finer grits of w/d and trizact….





Reflection....





We also were test fitting the dash trim that the owner had picked up. I know, billet is a bit played out, but let's see what works here...





In fitting the corner pieces, the rear point of the trim does not match the unequal radius of the recess in the dash. Then when the middle (concave) radius is pushed into the recess, the rear "point" drops down out of the recess. So the underlying message here it the fit of these parts is piss poor at best.





So we are not going to use these, but opting for something in a stainless trim.. final design TBD...


Lastly, all the travel I've had for the day job really interferes with long term efforts, paintwork in particular. So in the interest of keeping progress moving forward, we have farmed out the paintwork to Brandon and Richard Glymph at Absolute Rod and Custom Paint. So last weekend the body and various parts were delivered to their shop in Annapolis..





So we should be doing assembly here in the near future!!

[mongocanfly]

cant wait..!!!

[oldman3]

Robert, work done to the trim is amazing. Look forward to the next update...Jim

[MP&C]

Thanks guys!

I had a request to show more detail on the trim tool we've been using, so thought I'd share it here as well. The gentleman that made it for me advised the other day (as I had requests to see if he had more available) that he is long since retired, and anyone is more than welcome to use the details shown to make their own.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njw3X8dDRko



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[mongocanfly]

That's a nice setup Robert...I see there is a punch side..is there also a cavity side to fit what your working on..?

[MP&C]

It's just the flat plate on the bottom. If you need a special shape or cradle to support the stainless trim it would have to be made per requirement. Although if you look in the video I have a piece of rubber that normally sits on the bottom, it's the reddish looking circle laying behind the tool on the table..

[MP&C]

Not many pictures to show on our wagon progress, the body has been blocked out and Brandon is getting some touch ups done to get ready for one final epoxy sprayout..








Vince has been given the thankless task of media blasting some of the remaining bare steel components so we can get some painting done of piece parts on this end. The condenser mount was media blasted, epoxy used to seal the wired edge, and some Evercoat 416 added and sanded smooth to form a slight radius fillet to finish it off.. We should be priming this coming week..

[MP&C]

Vince has been getting all the core support parts prepped this past week, so last night was paint night, time for some epoxy primer..














After epoxy:











Even got some epoxy on the low-rider wagon's rear axles.

[MP&C]

Today Vince was doing more media blasting of additional interior pieces as well as some hand painting on the parking brake for the wagon. It had some bare steel still so he got most of that covered. The ratchet/gear was left alone as we thought the epoxy would anchor it permanently..








Mike blocked out the pieces we primed last week, drilled some holes we'll need for the fan shroud, and got pieces hung up for the next round of epoxy primer.








….and please don't tell anyone you've seen her patio table in the paint booth!


On another note, our resident shop ghost who likes to hide things has done something with the stainless trim door points. So I had put in a call to Mikey at The Stainless Shoppe. He had some original take offs in stock, and even polished them up for us. Now we have our work cut out for us in matching these!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0xRFAlW2dQ




.

[MP&C]

We got some more epoxy sprayed on the core support parts and hood latch...

















And Brandon sent some pictures of the wagon in final primer..

















A little bit closer....

[mongocanfly]

Yall making good progress...cant wait to see it complete