Thanks, A lot of finesse is a good way to put it. The time consuming part is getting all the little bumps smoothed out. The less body filler it needs though the better.
Printable View
With the roof looking pretty good time to keep going on the rest of the many areas that need work. In the process of sanding down the area below the rear window I found some damage that had been repaired previously by just filling it with lead.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78406
There was 3 creases below the window that needed repair.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78404
I hammered out the lower part of the creases but couldn't do anything with the upper part due to the rear package tray and bracing. So time for a new tool. I bought a stud gun from HF for $100.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78402
Not the best in the world but it worked well enough to most of the creases out.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78396
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78394
Not perfect, but a lot better than what it was.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78392
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78390
Found another spot that had just been filled with lead on the rear quarter by the lower corner of the trunk. The lead was pretty thick in this spot.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78388
So apparently whoever did the previous repairs didn't have any body hammers.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78498
Looking a bit better after some hammering and welding up the crack that had just been covered up with lead.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78500
The rest of the quarter panel also had some previous damage. The area where the last trim hole is took quite a bit of shrinking to get rid of a big oil canning spot but I have it pretty close now. I may come back to it later but for now I will move on.
As you can see in the pictures there is quite a few areas of surface rust that need to be removed. I have just been sanding them with 80 grit and using a wire wheel in some areas and will eventually sand blast the areas in the high crown areas like near the rain gutters and near the door / trunk jams but I don't want to sand blast in big low crown areas like in the middle of the roof if I don't have to. If anyone has a better way to remove these rust areas let me know what has worked for you.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78420
Had a couple of dents similar to this one on the edges of the roof to repair. A bit of block sanding highlights the repair area.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78418
After popping it out and some more block sanding reveals some old plastic filler.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78416
More plastic filler beyond what the dent you could see when I started.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78414
No more filler and looking much better after some hammer and dolly work and shrinking with a propane torch and shrinking disc.
I use the propane torch to heat up the spots that are just slightly low and then hit the high spot with the shrinking disc.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78412
Pretty close at this point. Time to move on to another part of the car.
Next time I will continue on the drivers side rear quarter panel, stripping paint and more damage repair.
Brian
Thanks Brian for saving an old 39 Ford.. :) Not so surprising to find a variety of old repairs on an 80 yr old car! :)
Hi Brian,
You have a bit of an archeological project there - un-earthing the evolution of body filler technology - from lead to plastic! How did you handle removing the lead?
Regards, Doug
I continued to work on stripping the paint off the drivers side quarter panel. I had used a stripping disk on the roof which worked good for getting the paint off but turned the shop into a black dust bowl. So I have been using a propane torch to heat the paint just enough to be able to scrap it off with a razor blade gasket scraper. This has been working pretty good as it just leaves some primer behind that sands off easily with 80 grit paper. Just need to be careful not to get the metal to hot or start the stripped off paint on fire with the torch.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78538
Area over the window is in great shape once sanded down.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78540
No surprise to find more damage under the paint here too.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78542
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78544
And more lead below the door handle. This can't be good!!
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78546
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78548
With all the lead melted out the damage is revealed.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78550
The way the inner bracing is it would have been pretty tough to straighten the quarter so I cut out what was in the way. Should be easy enough to weld it back in later.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78562
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78558
So after lots of hammering and straightening the door jam area looked better but i had a bulge in the quarter that just didn't want to go away. So I had to use the gas torch to shrink it enough to get the bulge out. The panel actually oiled canned inward at one point but went away once I did a bit of hammer and dolly work on it. Not sure why the top picture flipped sideways on me?
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78564
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78566
Still needs some fine tuning with the shrinking disk but looking much better.
Next time will be welding the inner structure back in place and moving on to more paint stripping and body repairs.
_
It's looking very good Brian! You should feel good about what you are doing... :)
When all this 'crap' is over and you have a nice shiny straight metal 39 Ford in your shop... you're going to feel even better.. :)
Running low on welding gas so I decided to hold off on welding the inner structure back in place on the quarter panel and move on to more paint stripping.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78658
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78660
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78662
So Moe, Larry, & Curly's Body shop started using Bondo and lots of it!!
Interesting thing using the propane torch to strip the paint anywhere there was bondo the paint would bubble immediately when the torch was applied.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78664
Damage revealed with most of the bondo removed.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78672
Some pretty bad damage on the edge of the wheel opening. I will have to stop taking pictures up and down as they flip sideways on me for some reason.
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78668
One last spot of bondo in this spot was almost a 1/4" thick. Yikes!!
https://www.trifive.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=78670
All stripped and ready to start the repair process with the filler neck and tire out of the way. I will most likely have to remove the fender at some point to straighten this thing out also. It will need to come off at some point anyway.
Brian