55 Wagon Progress

[regan wilson]

Awesome work. That green paint is killer too.

[MP&C]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Details details..!!...those are gonna look great when they get shiny..

Thanks Greg, should be dropping them off this week.

Originally Posted by regan wilson

Awesome work. That green paint is killer too.

Thanks Regan!!




So we've started on our wiring, what can go wrong? First item on the list is the interior lights, we had run the wires before the headliner went in. We had installed a second light just behind the rear seat and the plans were to gang it to the front light by putting two wires into a 12 gauge pin in the weatherpack connector. This should be a 5 minute job.

Only the weatherpack connector would not fit inside the void in the ceiling. Since we don't intend on using butt splices, we had tried installing two wires previously into the w-crimp lamp base contacts as shown:










This sample we did using the red Teflon insulation fit inside the brass "tubes" of the lamp base perfectly. But the insulation on AAW wiring is much thicker. Ahhh, the dominoes they do fall. So let's see what we can do to modify the brass tubes to better accept the wiring going in. Our local Ace hardware has a good selection of "model" tubing in aluminum and brass, so with fingers crossed, we picked up the 3/16 size.






The ID measured out to .154, about .010 larger than what the lamp base came with. The outside diameter of the tube was turned down on the lathe to a size that would play nice inside the plastic housing and not bind on the spring.






Some aluminum bar stock was drilled with a tight clearance hole for our new tube, and served as a fixture to swage one end for spring retention. Sorry, missed pictures of some of the details (fire the photographer). The opposite end was swaged after insertion into the housing..








With the tubes now sized for two wires, we got the front light installed. The rear light and its single wires should now be a breeze.

[MP&C]

Progress from yesterday, while Jared was blocking out some of the window garnish moldings, I worked on the door panel stainless trim to ready them for stud welding. Mike had used the trim repair tool to remove the dings, which were then filed smooth.





The last 65 years had left their mark; we had numerous scratches needing removal as well. We started with 320 grit on the fine pattern palm sander, and progressed our way up to 8000 grit trizact..

















This is the final using the 8000 grit, and we'll start the buffing process once the stud welding had been completed..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5YYWcQgIRg


With the stainless prepped, we turned attention to the window garnishes. They were sprayed with three coats of SPI epoxy.








Today we went to A&A Metalworks in Ridge MD to get the studs welded in place. This sample shows the studs, where three have been folded over to a 90. This is how the factory held them onto the door panels as well. Note the back side shows no heat pattern with the Capacitive Discharge welder.








Welding the studs onto the stainless trim...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WZ25tqOXos


Our results...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXQCJe1hma8


A test to check the heat the welder introduces into the panel..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkDRJXstvH4


This shows these welders make a good choice to use where cases of heat sensitivity may be an issue.

[MP&C]

Happy Easter everyone!


Our wagon progress from this weekend, we finished up the interior lights. Here wiring up the rear light. The included pigtails were discarded to eliminate a butt splice, and our newly installed wiring made use of new lamp base contacts (W crimp) from Repair Connector.











The lens used in light fixtures like these are typically plagued over the years by overheating and then cracking, so we opted for a 1004 LED replacement. Should keep things cooler for longer lens life, and brighter!!











Onto more electrical issues, the "hidden fuel door" we had purchased was so intermittent in operation that when we had dropped it off at Absolute Rod & Custom Paint to test fit to the car when they were fine tuning the bodywork, we were second guessing whether we should use it at all.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848V2PbuQJw



All the harnesses came into a terminal board with wires going to the relays on the opposite side. Some of the terminals had as many as three wires in them, and Mike Flores found about 6 loose wires. Splices didn’t carry the same wire color through, making trouble shooting a bit of a challenge. The toggle switch (which should have been momentary contact but was not) had some home-made fork terminals. This thing was looking more sketchy with everything we looked at next. For a store-bought product intended for an automotive environment, they should find someone more competent in wiring.











To get rid of the terminal board, we opted for weather pack connectors, one to each of the end terminations (switch, fuel door, power source). We eliminated the triple wires to single terminal by jumpering, making use of two wires in a single pin, and jumpered as required.















Our new wires going into the relay connectors made use of new Packard 56 style female spade terminals from www.repairconnector.com (more W-crimp) These were also jumpered two wires to a pin where needed.











The toggle switch was replaced by an automotive grade MOMENTARY rocker switch from McMaster. Works flawlessly.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGo6JU19kY



Not pretty, but much improved. The relays will be located behind the rear seat on the sub box, conveniently between all our end points. Just like our speaker grilles, black plastic really doesn't belong in plain view in a 55 Chevy. So our more highly functional rocker switch will be hidden inside the glove box..

[MP&C]

So now that I'm back from the short hiatus in Albuquerque, hanging TV's for the day job... We did get to see some sights, here's cars and coffee attendees on April 17th..



















































Later that same day we rolled past the car wash from Breaking Bad fame...

[MP&C]

The following weekend we ventured to Moriarity NM to the Lewis Antique Auto and Toy Museum. Heaven on earth...

The inside stuff....







a 427-8V powered 57 T-bird















Some of the treasures outside....



































Give me the old stuff over the new...







Alas, all of these goodies were part of the museum and not for sale. We did spend about 4 hours there taking in the sights, even still...

[mongocanfly]

Nice old stuff..!

[oldman3]

Super cool...Jim

[MP&C]

This past Saturday I went to the Jalopyrama show, held at the Talbot County Community Center in Easton, MD. I made a stop off at the parking lot of the Double T Diner in Parole, MD first though, had to finalize an online purchase of these two gems...











Should be some good overflow storage for the Lennox dies.. Here are some of the pictures from the show.. The Willys Woodie is a one of 6 made.































































Cody Walls had two cars there in bare steel, badass to say the least. The Buick has been sectioned and roof pancaked, the 32 is heavily channeled.


















This show is always a must see, and this year did not disappoint..

[MP&C]

Well after about two months of travel for the day job, hangin TV's....


https://youtu.be/Kw1LEhtzkP8


…..we finally got back to work on the wagon and some long overdue progress. The lift gate has been outfitted with some stainless prop rods...





Jared has been working on blocking some of the window garnish moldings, and found some low spots. The long sections on many of these when made at the factory were fabricated in multiple pieces and butt welded together in much the same fashion as band saw blades. The front, exposed side would be sanded smooth and the rear side shows a line of weld slag. (see red outlined circle)





So we had a couple that showed low areas, but could not readily metal bump with the slag on the back side.. So another tool was made with a notch to accommodate the weld line....





This allowed us to bump up the low areas...





….and.....more.....blocking...….








And we also got started on the fabrication of the fan shroud. Just as with patch panels, you will in most cases find it easier and quicker to make challenging parts in multiple pieces and weld the parts together. Then in other cases you want to try something to see if you can.... I give you one piece fan shroud.








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJm_xZ8dEnw



Getting real close...





Needs a bit more work with the linear stretch dies to add some more circumference. Then we will add some bead details and a wired edge for strength. To show how much stretching we've done, the metal has gone from .044 thick to .030 at the flange edge...








And Mike was busy with buttoning up loose ends that we can do a test fire, hopefully this coming weekend, if we can get a parts delivery before then.

[mongocanfly]

Fan shroud work is amazing to see Robert..I'd have to make that in 20 pcs..

[MP&C]

The next couple of posts will seem more of a lessons learned than progress of any sort.. Back in my youth many decades ago I was witness to what occurs when one of your siblings was too big for her britches and back talked my father. A quick back hand and she didn't do that again. From that day on, I have been a firm believer in learning from other's mistakes, so hold on and enjoy the ride. It isn't too painful..


With the fan shroud formed it was time for a bead from the bead roller, and we planned on a wired edge to add strength, concentricity, and improve the looks. From dimensions taken from the rear flange of the core support (our fan shroud mounting location) to the center of the fan worked out to about 1-3/4". So given that height, these are the dimensions we came up with for our beadwork.. Typical wrap for the wire edge is 2.5X the diameter of the wire, so given 3/16 wire our flange for wrapping should be .468 or thereabouts..





The bead roller die that matches our wire edge size was not correctly dimensioned to be able to use as a backstop, so some "filler" in the form of rare earth magnets gave us the dimension we were looking for..








So using the bead roller and the joggle dies from the Biederman hood sides, the bead/wire edge was added to our test sample.














That looked about spot on, so the bead roller was used to add the center bead on the fan shroud, and the edge was cut to size and tipped to a 90* angle..











Now to use our joggle dies to add the outer bead detail.... which looks like the shroud mounting flange is in the way.. Did I say one piece fabrication was harder?





So a new die is in order, for the bottom we have a sliding lower toolholder so that will accommodate most of the offset there. for the top, we need to stack some dies to get the offset needed.








The upper die also needed a 45* relief on the bottom for installing the lower die.








Looks much better...








Our speed run...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyylI6tybew


.....and this happens on the last pass..

[MP&C]

So now for some hindsight. When we had done a flat test sample we noticed the edge of the lower die had made a crease (finger point). To alleviate this, I will normally taper the dies so the edges aren't tight together, in hopes of curing exactly that.








Looking back, this slight defect would have been at the edge of the center bead and likely not noticeable at all. Next, between this taper and the ~1/2" flange not wanting to stretch, the resulting shape matches the bottom die, and pulls the shroud circumference inward.. which was not desired either. So moving forward, rather than a folded flange here we should opt for an offset first for more flexibility in stretching outward for the bead detail, and then fold the flange last.





So given our misshapen and slit open fan shroud is no longer viable, what's a person to do? I'm not one to so easily throw in the towel. More accurately, I've been called hard headed. So here we go with the second take of Fan Shroud fabrication. And since we missed this step last time, take a look at this video having just cut out the center hole..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hakmD7Wn4f8


There were absolutely ZERO burrs as can be seen. If your tin snip game is not at this level, please watch this instructional video by my friend and fellow metalshaper Bill Gibson. He will explain exactly what you need to do for the same results...


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


I had been using tin snips for DECADES and watched this video, quickly learning what I had been doing wrong for so long...


....and then back on the NEW fan shroud, stretch with a blocking hammer on the stump, tip the edge, stretch again, until we are able to get the shroud into the power hammer...











and using the power hammer....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqGRLIFKQ1o


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyCR6sI8TUU


Getting close, we're down to about 10% more to go...





In between all that fiasco, Mike was working on getting the car test fired. All the temporary wiring connected, and for some reason we had no fuel pump action. OK, third time we've dropped the tank in a week, and removing the pump we find NO connectivity from the outside ground to the inside ground. WTF?





Lo and behold, there is no pass through on the grounds but each (inside and outside) has their own bottom tapped hole. It would appear the tapping occurred PRIOR to the anodize finish, and you know how well that conducts.. The burnishing brushes wouldn't touch the stuff, so we used some sharp implements of destruction to allow a ground path...








That fixed the issue, one that should not have been there from the start. Next, in the interest of safety, lets move the rear "lift kit" from the tires to just inboard using jack stands..








So now with a bit of fuel pressure to work with, we give you a rumble... We still need to adjust the air/fuel ratio but it was good to hear this after everything else the past couple weeks..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoIjmmmXtO0

[mongocanfly]

great news on the test fire...and as always Robert, yall are doing amazing work..maybe round 2 will work out for ya

[MP&C]

Thanks Greg!


More progress on the (second) fan shroud, but I had a request to show the process in greater detail.. So we'll start with the beginning.

First was the layout of the bend line, and then the cut line was located about 3" inside of that. (I'm using some of the pictures from our first attempt as our shop photographer missed some the second time around)





The initial stretch was done using a blocking hammer on the top (flat area) of the stump, primarily at the inside edge as that needed the most stretch.





On our first attempt we had a hammer form that was used to "set" the bend line with a crowned body hammer as we added the first bit of stretch.





This seemed a bit cumbersome, and the second version I used a bent portion of round stock that was in the scrap pile, added a piece of pipe for a handle, and the band saw added a slice for a new tipping tool. The bend in the tipping tool gave it a built in fulcrum. Normally a tipping operation tries to pull the adjacent material along as the bend forms. In this case we set the panel on a table and used the bend (fulcrum) of the tipping tool against the table to pull the stretched area downward. This allows us to push down on the handle to elevate the panel off the table, and to push downward on the flat panel outside the bend line with the palm of your hand. This does a good job of placing the bend where needed without pulling adjacent metal along for the ride. Even though the pictures show the stretched area upward, the panel was placed with this area downward when using the tipping tool..











This worked much better at setting the bend line than the hammer form, and it was surprisingly accurate.


Much of the stretch was done using linear stretch dies on the power hammer, but we also reverted back to the blocking hammer and stump to better focus the stretch locations.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyCR6sI8TUU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKBy-TmkrMM





The other issue to overcome with both hammer operations was that they didn't play nice with keeping the shroud in a flat vertical. So the next tool used was a 90 durometer pad of polyurethane and the Model A leaf spring hammer. The hammer face was too short to match the shroud height (approx 3") so three passes were done to cover the entire height and with each pass the hammer hits were about 1/8" or so apart.














The bulk of the stretch was done on the power hammer, and the front of the lower die holder is missing quite a bit of paint from this job...





The completed bend, we started with .044 thickness (18 gauge) and it was thinned to .029 thick, or lost about 1/3 thickness to turn the 90...














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

[MP&C]

More progress... using our rare earth magnets on the end of the bead roller die to correct the "back spacing", the fan shroud has the center bead added...





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRXF3sInnTU


Next, adding the outer joggle for the wire. Our last mis-step at this stage was expecting a folded flange to perform as it did on a flat piece of metal.. But as a full circle with 1/2" of flange, it tends to resist any change in diameter, so our efforts to add the joggle (stretch outward) were met with catastrophic failure in the way of a split. This next attempt will leave that edge straight out instead of flanged, such that it will be more apt to move/stretch as we need it to.. Additionally, our dies will have a backstop built in and include two bead forming details. One will follow the center bead already installed, and with the back stop as part of the die, should correct any wiggle our bead roller may have added. Having both bead details added to the dies will also help to maintain correct spacing throughout. As these beading dies tend to pull material from either side, having multiple beads makes it more of a challenge to pull sufficient material for both and have enough for the bead height.. Adding one prior using the bead roller means we will only be "pulling" material for the one, for better results.





Our test sample shows the wrap for the wire straighter to the side, for less resistance to adding the offset.





Shroud is then trimmed to size and run through the dies on the Lennox..














This did give us a slight potato chip shape of the panel, so the offset was stretched in the Erco..








Our tubing straightener is used to make our 3/16 wire more concentric for an easier install..





Then the wire was test fit...








Mike got our interior assembly and wiring started, the rear tail light / fuel door actuator was installed, the sub box and amp installed, and our relays for the fuel door mounted adjacent to the amp, all tucked away behind the rear seat.

[MP&C]

More progress on the fan shroud... Wire edging!! In order to stave off any rust issue as long as we can, I normally treat the wire channel to epoxy primer from the inside-out. So we used a scotchbrite pad and some Ivory liquid in warm water to remove any last remnants of the WD40 used for the last shaping effort on the Lennox.








Our wire had been test fitted, sized, and tig welded together to form a continuous ring. This adds tremendous strength to the edge and helps to maintain a concentric circle. The wire was then cleaned as well. SPI epoxy was hand applied (acid brush) to the channel, the wire ring pressed in place (it was that tight) and then any bare spots on the ring epoxied as well..














The vise grips hold the wire snug to the bottom of the channel until the edge of the flange can be staked in place. Wire edging process, done using our cone anvil, various hammers, and a 90 durometer polyurethane pad for the final closure of the wrap..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHOjgRexM30


At the point we were hammering, the epoxy had set up approx 10-15 minutes, so it was not dry yet, but not running either. We'll let the epoxy set a couple days and get additional coats in the slight gap at the edge of the wrap in order to seal things well for rust prevention.











And our inside dimension worked out to what we were looking for, 18-1/8 diameter for our 17-1/4 fan blade.





We also got another delivery, some 4" louver dies from Mittler Bros Machine and Tool for another job coming up. Will have to sneak it in here on some wagon parts as well.

[Dieselwrencher]

More awesome work! That is a lot of quality work put into that shroud! Your die storage box is getting bigger each part.

[MP&C]

Thanks Ryan!


Looking at the fan shroud, the top and bottom will be stepped where it bolts behind the rear edge of the core support.





The sides will get a radius bend to bolt to the inside vertical of the core support. This still leave quite a bit of flat metal that just doesn't have much style to it. So let's try some embossing on the side panels.. To better keep things a consistent pattern from left to right, we made a pattern using MDF board..








An offset die set is made in the Southbend lathe, the rounded sides will allow it to better travel along the pattern cutout.








We did a test run on our split original shroud, I had intended for the pattern to be inset when looking at the back.. Someone had the pattern clamped on the wrong side, and it was pressed outward instead.. Hindsight, when looking in the engine compartment from the side, the inset version would be more difficult to see the embossing, and this next "mistake" would be easier to see.








Sometimes things happen for a reason. So guess what we're going with.... The pattern did not have enough real estate to make a wide sweeping turn in the corners, so when using the dies we'll stop short of the corners and will coin them afterward by hand. Time lapse:


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


We did have one slip-up, should be an easy fix...





Looks a bit less blah now....

[mongocanfly]

specdangtacular.!!!

[oldman3]

Great work as always...Jim

[MP&C]

Thanks guys!!


Sorry for the hiatus, more travel for the day job.. hanging more TV's...


Back on the wagon, sometimes I get ahead of myself. The core support has rounded corners at the bottom....





Our embossing did not....





So the lower embossing was flattened, and marked for the new..








Next on the list, our upper radiator hose is a bit long and needed some support to keep it out of the fan. It's actually a lower hose for a Ford Explorer, but is a perfect fit for our cross flow radiator. So some 16 gauge cold rolled steel is used to fabricate a support bracket..




















Next, we had moved the battery from the OEM location on the firewall to the dealer installed Air Conditioning location behind the core support. This has the battery in close proximity to the passenger side header, so we punched some louvers on the core supports side baffle to allow for air flow.














https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qFVXdLLeOc

[oldman3]

Really great work...Jim

[MP&C]

Thanks Jim!!


Wagon progress! So Jared has been tackling the fun task of prepping interior trim pieces, getting them ready for another round of epoxy..









Another modification we're undertaking, the air cleaner, when mocked up on the engine, showed a tight proximity to the back of the AC compressor. Looking at the clearance we had to the firewall, moving backward 1" will give us much needed breathing room for the AC lines. So out with the old ....





And to move rearward, the mounting hole is moved forward one inch..














Next in store is a new bottom for the air cleaner..








A hammerform is used to give us a folded lip out the bottom











https://youtu.be/QPLDGIxJAYk


https://youtu.be/Zm6TIkxDDUA

[MP&C]

At this point we need to hem the flange so the bottom isn't quite so sharp..





A 1/2 x 1/2 aluminum angle is used as a height gauge so we can use the roloc sander to get our flange to a consistent height. This will allow us to use a tipping die in the bead roller to fold the hem..

















Then the part is re-installed in the hammer form to hammer the hem flat..





https://youtu.be/eScyS2lkfOU