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Thread: Wagon Liftgate Rust Repair

  1. #1
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    Wagon Liftgate Rust Repair

    The wagon's lift gate is plagued with the same issue as the tail gate. It has a similar stance when closed, and as such, water lays along the inner window frame at the inside bottom.





    I normally use an ice pick test.... if it holds an ice pick, it will hold paint. If not, it would have rusted through within a year anyhow, so you just saved ruining a paint job one year later..



    Looking at our sample, the lower bend is fairly flat, going to a tipped flange in the form of an arc, the inside has some compound curves going to the window opening flange...









    I'll attempt to form it in one piece, flange to flange, for a easier job of replacing.. Removing the upper gate...



    My tool of choice for removing spot welds is a 3" x 1/16 cutoff wheel. I also use the premium wheels made for stainless steel. It's worth the extra money when you don't have a brown cloud in the shop, like the el cheapo wheels leave, nothing but resin wearing away.
    The upper layer of metal will start to turn blue when it gets thin and hot, letting you know you're getting close to the next layer. When you have a blue circle with shiny metal in the center, you are now in the second layer, grind around the blue a bit more and pry the layers apart..

    Here's a video to show better detail on grinding out spot welds....

    http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmccartney/media/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%203/RemovingSpotWelds.mp4.html




    With all the spot welds removed, here's what we find inside...







    Note the deep pits. The big problem with just welding a hole closed is you don't know where the next pit is lurking, ready to break through your new paint.



    Funny, with all the rust and scale inside, then you find this area of ~60 year old bare steel nice and shiney..



    The inside of the remaining lift gate will then get media blasted to check for more lurking issues.

    Here's a better look at the shape we'll need...



    Robert



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  2. #2
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    To start the layout on the new metal, I needed to find the center of the radius along the window opening. By holding a sanding disc on the flats and scuffing, it showed the edges of the radius, which you can then measure to the center...







    Then laid out a pattern to be able to measure from the bottom crease...



    ....and transposed it to the new sheet, measuring outward from the crease datum....







    The top edge was trimmed to size and the tipping wheel used to fold over the welding flange...





    Comparison....



    The bottom was marked with the tipping wheel and folded in the apron brake. Then trimmed to size, again using the tipping wheel to fold over the welding flange...



    It's real close right now, just needs a bit of tweaking.













    This was made using 18 ga, I think if I had the factory 19 ga metal it would have formed much easier.. My twelve year old assistant also was responsible for the bead roller's rotational force..
    Last edited by MP&C; 01-06-2014 at 08:14 PM.
    Robert



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  3. #3
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    Media blasting showed more pits and holes, so continuing on, time to make up some Ron Naida inspired insert holders for the Lennox...












    Next will be to make some inserts to match the contour of the rear lower edge of the upper tailgate.. We'll try some 1" thick phenolic sheet...



    Here's the profile we're looking for...



    The dies installed in the holders....





    An offset bend was added to the sample 19ga in the brake, then the first of three passes.....



    Final pass.....



    Dies held up well....





    Safety tip of the day, 3" roloc discs do a good job of shaping phenolic, so skin is no match.... (note thumb in above pic)

    Where my "test sample" was made initially with straight bends in the brake, the actual piece on the lift gate is not straight, so the bends on the "good" piece will need to be bent using the tipping wheel.








    With the profile test piece looking close, time for a full length version. Hopefully this one will be a keeper.... Checked the lower profile of the upper gate with radius sweeps to lay out the new piece...






    Laying out the pattern on 19ga steel....





    Tipping wheel in the bead roller...



    ......and a newly modified back stop, much better than the flat one.....



    Offset added with the tipping wheel......



    Then run through the Lennox.....





    More tipping, then the step die used in place of skateboard wheel with the tipping wheel for the lower 1/4" fold...







    Next will be to fold the top in the window opening...
    Last edited by MP&C; 01-06-2014 at 08:30 PM.
    Robert



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  4. #4
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    To make sure we don't make scrap out of the last piece, another small sample is used to test the tipping of the window opening.. beginning with using the bead roller tipping wheel....




    This is about as far as it would go, and with the good piece already having bends at the bottom, would be a bit less once tried on that piece. This will require a custom made "anvil" for some hammer action...
    The donor:



    As modified:









    .....then for some manual tipping...







    Comparison to the original....





    This looks close, now to cut a sample out of the original to see how close we actually are... This spot weld on the inner flange is far enough away so I won't need to grind out a spot weld, and still have enough of that flange for a good measurement. In other words, removed with minimal effort where it still holds it's shape for an accurate template.







    Our profile template:



    Just to compare to our test sample, looks like the inner flange was bent down a bit much in the manual hammering, will have to ease up a bit...



    Outside profile looks good enough to leave alone!



    Following the measurement used on the test sample, the panel is run through the bead roller's tipping wheel nice and slow to give us an initial mark for the bend, then repeated to tip the flange downward...





    This looks about all we'll get without distorting and pulling, so then it's off to the custom anvil...









    Then for some manual tipping...





    ...and comparing to our profile sample......



    Ready to cut off the old next time...



    Robert



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  5. #5
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    Next, to remove the bottom detail of the lift gate and sandblast the remaining structure to check for structural integrity. The lower edge did have a flange folded up, so a slit was cut along the edge and the door skin vise grips were put to use...







    Next, the spot welds inside were ground out.....







    Media blasting..... nice to finally see through the glass!



    The media blasting revealed a few more holes, and numerous pits, many of them close to breaking through.







    With all the other new metal going in the bottom, there's only one thing to do. Using the tipping wheel..........









    Comparing to the pitted version.....













    Next we'll need to do some corking to add the window hole pad details.

    Here's the new "anvil", made from some phenolic sheet.....





    Put an alignment mark on the anvil, fitted it to the originals, and added the mark there as well. Then transposed those marks to the new piece...





    Anvil was located, and clamped in the vise to hold it's location





    Started with the barrel end hammer.....









    For the ends, I used a rounded tip chisel....





    ....and then another "anvil" to clean up the hammer marks a bit...







    Here's all the tools used....



    Touched up a bit with a sanding disc, looks close enough.... One down, 4 to go...



    Robert



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  6. #6
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    Next to finish up the pad details on the inner structure of the lift gate.... The center one was wider, so I used the same phenolic and just added a wider detail to the opposite side. I missed showing this earlier, but a handy-dandy battery saw works well to remove the bulk of the material, sawing parallel cuts and then just working the saw side to side to clear out the remaining....




    Once cut out, the sanding disc is used to cut down the angled sides and touch up the bottom..



    This compares the two, showing the difference in width...





    Alignment marks transposed from the original, and guide marks indicate the area in need of hammering...





    I 've had requests to show hammering procedures, so here's another of my video attempts. The first one is using the phenolic anvil clamped against the work piece in the vise, the second uses 1" square stock as an anvil to clean up the hammer marks a bit...

    http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmccartney/media/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%203/Video232.mp4.html

    http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmccartney/media/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%203/Video233.mp4.html

    ...also sounds like I have a loose hammer handle, something for another day....

    Then the sanding disc was used for final cleanup. Here's the finished piece, just needs a couple holes drilled....



    Last edited by MP&C; 01-07-2014 at 03:42 AM.
    Robert



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  7. #7
    Registered Member carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)'s Avatar
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    beautiful work, thanks for sharing Robert.
    ARMY NAM VET, very proud!

    56 210 4dr

    drive and enjoy them while you work on them, life is to short.

  8. #8
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    Thanks Carl!


    Next, the spot welds in the bottom piece were drilled out. This revealed a couple of isolated pits, which were media blasted, MIG welded closed, can ground flush.







    All cleaned up, the new piece is plug welded on....





    Then the inner panel is fitted up and tacked in place....









    Top flange clamped to check the fit.....






    Finishing up the welding of the inner bottom panel....used a 3/16 hole for the plug welds this time. I normally use a letter A, but the flange here is a bit narrow, so a smaller hole it is. To make up for it the heat on the welder was cranked up a bit to insure a good weld.





    Looking at the back side, these should hold well.



    All the plug welds done, then on to the corner seams.....





    and after cleaning up the welds.....











    Cleaning up the plug welds on the flange.....





    I've had a few inquiries in the past as to my weld grinding process, so I thought I'd use the opportunity for another video.....

    http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmccartney/media/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%203/Grindingplugwelds.mp4.html



    .
    Robert



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  9. #9
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    The next repair was to duplicate one of these mounting blocks for the lift gate's gas strut.

    The good one...



    ...not so good...



    Used a hole saw to provide some radiused ends and the 3" cutoff wheel to cut out all the torn and ragged metal..



    A piece of 19ga is tacked and welded....note the original color....





    Cut out a piece from a steel angle, drilled and tapped the three 10-24 holes. This was bolted in place using anti-seize on the screw threads to prevent galling during the weld process.. then plug weld holes drilled and welded from the outside..





    Plug welds cleaned up, checking the threads for burrs...



    And for next time, we have one more piece to add while the bottom is still open, the floating nut plate for the tailgate latch....









    Moving on to the next task, removing the "cage nut" from the old piece...



    This was a good opportunity to demonstrate using the cutoff wheel for removing spot welds...

    http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmccartney/media/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%203/RemovingSpotWelds.mp4.html

    Here's the cage removed, the spot weld removal method leaves it nice and intact for getting good measurements for the new one...





    A fresh piece of 18ga and some red Dykem, and our new cage is underway....







    Slots....









    All ready for some media blasting and epoxy paint...
    Robert



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  10. #10
    Registered Member MP&C's Avatar
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    Another slight detour.... I need to stop looking for this stuff....or is it looking for me?
    This pinch weld showed swelling between the two sheets, and a closer inspection showed some rather thick scale...





    Out with the old...



    Test fit of the new...



    The exposed metal was media blasted, as was the inside of the newly made patch....and some epoxy primer added...





    We'll let that cure and then get it welded in place.

    And just to show the makeshift clamping system for cutting, grinding, and painting in an awkward spot......






    With the epoxy well cured, holes were drilled for plug welds....



    Then used the modified plug weld bit for cleaning out the adjacent panel...







    Cleaned spots for the plug welds...









    I had some questions about how well the epoxy held up to heat from welding. The epoxy next to the weld above, where it turned brown from the heat, was allowed to cool off, then attempted to scrape the paint with my thumbnail. I thought it may scrape some off, but it held tight, not so much as a scratch.
    Then I got on a roll and forgot pictures, but here's the patch all welded in....



    Next, drilled the holes in the lower window opening....



    .....and got the holes placed for the nut plate and it's plug welds...








    Then, the lower edge of the lift gate gets trimmed to get the final repair part fitted up.





    Once both ends of the lift gate were trimmed, looking at the surface profile you can see we need a bit more crown at the ends of the repair part.





    To add some crown, the lower flanges on the ends were folded flat and used the Erco to shrink the bottom flange.



    The multiple bends toward the top were another story, a 1/4 beading die lightly pushing into a skateboard wheel, and the ends were pushed in and pulled up while exiting. Here's the results...











    Oh yeah.....you can see the top of the welding table again!

    Robert



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