39 Ford Project

[Custer55]

The next step on the passenger side front fender was to repair the area at the bottom rear where it meets the running board.


Here I have the inner structure repaired. As you can see the rust holes are confined to the very corner so I was able to make the patch for this in one piece instead of the two pieces I did on the drivers side fender.


Here I have the patch all formed up and ready to fit up for welding.


All fitted up and tack welded in place.


View from the inside with the seam fully welded.


And the inside view after grinding out all the welds and planishing out the weld seam.


And the view from the outside. This one turned out pretty well, not perfect but it won't need much filler. I just need to drill out the mount holes to finish this repair.


At this point I finished welding up the seams on the two patches on the bottom front corner so I am ready to tackle making a patch panel for the area with the holes from the past poor repair.


The first step in that process was to make a paper pattern of the area the patch will need to cover. I had a light behind the fender when I took this picture so you can see holes where the light is shining through the paper. Where the paper pattern has the wrinkles indicates where the metal will need shrinking to create the needed shape.


Starting to take shape after doing tuck shrinks around the outside edge. I also did a bit of stretching in the middle of the patch on the planishing hammer at this point.


It has a ways to go yet here but getting closer after smoothing it out on the planishing hammer and a a bit more shrinking on the edges.
So that is where I left off yesterday. Hopefully by my next update this fender will be done!
Brian

[bigblock]

Awesome work!!

[Custer55]

Awesome work!!

Thank You!

[chevynut]

Wow, you're really getting good at this!!! Lots of practice. Curious what welder settings you're using to get that great penetration. What size wire? I have a Miller 211 with Autoset and I have to run it at the high end of the metal thickness setting to get good welds.

You mentioned the warm winter. We've hardly gotten any snow in Colorado and it's been in the 50's and 60's here. The weird thing is that it's been warmer a lot of days in Montana than in Colorado, but only by a degree or two. A week ago it was 49 degrees at our place at 10PM at night. We got about 16-18" of snow a a couple weeks ago and it's pretty much all melted but we got an inch or two last night. February and March is the heavy snow season in both places.

[Custer55]

Wow, you're really getting good at this!!! Lots of practice. Curious what welder settings you're using to get that great penetration. What size wire? I have a Miller 211 with Autoset and I have to run it at the high end of the metal thickness setting to get good welds.

You mentioned the warm winter. We've hardly gotten any snow in Colorado and it's been in the 50's and 60's here. The weird thing is that it's been warmer a lot of days in Montana than in Colorado, but only by a degree or two. A week ago it was 49 degrees at our place at 10PM at night. We got about 16-18" of snow a a couple weeks ago and it's pretty much all melted but we got an inch or two last night. February and March is the heavy snow season in both places.

Thanks, lots of practice helps for sure!
I use .030 wire for everything so I don't have to switch back and forth since I just have the 1 welder. (Lincoln 125, 110 volt) I set my heat a couple of settings above what it states with the info that came with the welder, and the wire speed just a bit higher. My welder has the infinite adjustment knobs so I can fine tune the settings as needed.
Also vary how long I am on and off the the trigger. It's always a moving target as my patches are 18 gauge (.045 to .048) vs the original metal be 19 gauge which can be from .040 to .030 due to thinning from the stamping process and 80 plus years of rusting. I try to get things fitted up with the gaps as tight as possible but they are never perfect either. Once the patches are tacked in place, ground flat and planished out I fully weld the seams by starting at one end and working my way to the other. I do 3 or so tacks at a time with a short pause between each tack. I start each tack just a bit away from the previous tack and move the weld puddle into the previous tack. I don't cool the welds with air of water. After each set of tacks I grind the tacks I just did about 80 to 90% flat on the outside only and then let it cool until I can put my bare hand on it before doing another set of tacks. Once the hole seam is fully done then I grind it all flat outside and inside If I have good access, then planish the weld seam and bodywork the whole area good enough that it will just need a thin coat of filler. It has been working well for me using this method but it is a fine line between getting full penetration and blowing holes. You will know right away when you cross the line which does happen sometimes!!

[Custer55]

Work continued on the passenger fender this past week.


After getting the fit pretty close I welded tabs to the patch panel so I could screw it in place to make the final fitment and tack welding in place easier.


After a bit more tweaking the shape I have it fitted up and ready to tack weld in place.


All tacked welded in place but I had a bit of a setback here. While planishing out the tack welds to prep for fully welding the seam I found an area (circled in blue) where I should have made the patch panel bigger. The original metal was a lot thinner than I thought in this area so a 2 piece patch panel it is.


So I formed up another patch to go up high enough to get rid of the super thin metal.


Here I have most of the area for the new patch cut out. By cutting out just the middle it makes it easier to form the patch as you can hold it up from the backside as well as the front side to check the fit.


Here it is fit up and ready to tack weld in place. Just using magnets on the back side to hold this one in place.


Tack welded in place ready for final welding.


On this one I fully welded and finished out the seam between the 2 patch panels before doing the rest of the seam so it is basically one bigger patch panel at this point.


And finally all welded up and finished out. Finishing it out was a process of planishing the weld seams, hammer and dolly & bulls eye pick on the low spots, knocking down a few high spots and then using a vixen file and shrinking disk to smooth it all out better. So this fender is ready for prep and epoxy primer once we get some weather in the 60 degree plus range. That will be a few months yet around here.
Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out. At least it is way better than what I started with!


As promised here is a shot of the bullseye pick that I made. Don't look at the crappy bends on the tubing as it was some scrap that I had on hand but is very thin wall and kinked more than it bent. I did make the pick end removeable so I can make different tips if I need to. Also I need to add a return spring eventually, or just build a whole new one with a bit heavier tubing. I does work pretty well though as it makes getting those pesky little low spots a lot easier to smooth out, as you can hit the exact spot you need to knock them up a bit.
So my next project will be fixing a rusted corner on the dashboard and getting that ready for primer.
Brian

[Custer55]

So my next project was fixing a rusted corner on the dashboard caused by a leaking windshield would be my guess.


Here is what the dashboard looked like before working on it. About what you would expect for a car that is about 85 years old. The good thing is that it is pretty easy to remove it from the car, just a few sheet metal screws at the top and a couple of 1/4" bolts at the bottom.


The rust damage is all in this corner from the leaking windshield on the passenger side. These cars had crank out windshields which are pretty cool but probably not such a good idea for keeping water out.


To simplify things I made the patch in 2 pieces. Here is the first one formed up which was just bending to match the radius at the top and the flange where the dashboard screws to the body.


All fitted up and tack welded in place.


Here I have the corner piece formed up pretty close. This one was harder to make as this was my 3rd attempt at it. I had originally intended to make the patch down to where the sharpie line is to get rid of all the little rust pits on the back side. I ended up making it smaller to get it to fit better figuring if I needed I could just weld up a few rust pits if needed.


Here I have it all fit up ready to tack weld in place. Putting the weld seam on the inside corner of the body line made the patch easier to make but it was a bit more work to grind out the weld seam that way.


All tack welded in place and the outside edge trimmed and tipped over to match the original dash shape in the upper corner.


All welded up and finished out as well as adding the slotted mount holes and notch for the inside trim screw added.


Here is and overall view after getting rid of all the old paint and light surface rust so It won't be so much work to prep for primer once the weather warms up in a few months.


And finally somewhat re-assembled and installed back in the car to check the fit. I had to tweak the corner a bit where I did the patch panel but it looks good compared to what it was. Now I need to repair the inside windshield trim for the passenger side but I may work on some other things before I tackle that. I have to think about the best way to do it as the corner is completely gone in the same are where the dash needed the repair. I might search ebay for a replacement part but I am not optimistic about finding one at a reasonable price.
I have not had any luck finding one at a swap meet over the past years either, so we will see what I can come up with to repair it if I can't find a replacement.
Brian

[TrifiveRichard]

Looks nice, you're really getting proficient at metal working, Brian. Thanks for sharing!

[bigblock]

Man Brain that's some more beautiful craftsmen's ship.

[WagonCrazy]

Fantastic work and thank you for documenting it here.
BTW. what gauge of sheetmetal are you using for most of these patch panels?

[Custer55]

Looks nice, you're really getting proficient at metal working, Brian. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, I agree that I have been getting better at metal working since I started this project!

Man Brain that's some more beautiful craftsmen's ship.

Thanks

Fantastic work and thank you for documenting it here.
BTW. what gauge of sheetmetal are you using for most of these patch panels?

I have been using 18 gauge which is thicker than the original metal, but that way I can file and sand on it to make it smoother without worrying about making it too thin.

[Custer55]

After looking at the inside windshield trim I decided to work on some other things before taking that on. So I dug out the old windshield frame and and what was left of the glass to work on that.


Here is what is left of the windshield. The glass is in terrible shape and will need to be replaced. Even if it was in decent shape it would be a good idea to replace it as it is not safety glass and turns into glass shards when it breaks.


The frame is made in 2 pieces (held together in the middle where the 4 screws are) with a seal around the outside where it fits into the body. So after breaking out what was left of the glass and disposing of that mess, I got the screws removed (or broken off) and the frame apart with lots of heat and penetrating oil.


After getting all the old outside seal removed I made a tray lined with 4 mil plastic doubled up to soak the frame in milkstone rinse and water to remove the rust since it would not fit in my sandblast cabinet. It took about 3 days but did a good job of getting rid of the rust without hurting the chrome that was still in decent shape.


Here is a view of the inside of the frame after rust removal.


Here is the outside view. I ended up grinding all the chrome off of the outside as it was in very bad shape. Not worth having this one re-chromed either due to it's condition so the plan is to just paint it at this point. The lower left corner needs the chrome ground off yet so you can see what the condition was.


Here is it with all the chrome ground off and re-assembled. I will probably use a paint that gives it a brushed aluminum look similar to how it looks now, which should look better than rusty chrome.


And back in the car and adjusted to the opening or at least close enough for now until I get glass and the outer seal back on it.


And here it is in the fully open position. Easy to see why this had so much rust damage as I can't see how these would not leak after being open and closed a few times. Would probably be better to just seal it closed to keep it from leaking.

(Continued below)

[Custer55]

With the windshield back in place I have been working on some odds and ends. Since I had the tray with the rust remover set up I dug out a bunch of parts to soak to remove the rust.
Not all of them were to big for the blast cabinet, but that way I could work on other things while the parts were soaking. I cleaned up and oiled all the window regulators and put them all back in the car.


One of the parts I de-rusted was the inside rear window trim. For the most part this was in good shape other than some deep rust pits on one of the lower corners. I made up a piece of copper to weld up the pits without making a bigger mess as these are made out of thinner metal than the body in the 1st place.


All the pits welded up ready for some grinding and filing.


All ground and filed out. Using a flat hand file to do the final finishing works well.
100% good enough anyway as nobody will see this edge once the trim is installed.


And a shot of the outside that will show inside the car when installed.


Here is a few part I got some spray bomb paint on late last week on one of our nice days between the cold days. (Rustolleum primer and Satin black)


Today I got paint on these parts which are mostly the bumper brackets. Almost 70 degrees for a high today and the high tomorrow is only supposed to be 23 degrees, and then back up to the 60's this weekend. Very unusual weather this winter for sure!


So this will be my next project. These are the lower windlace retainers that go below the dashboard at the front of the door. Will need some small patches for rust on one end but should be fairly easy to do. At least with the up and down weather I am able to get things ready to paint between the nice days so that has been a plus!
Brian

[Belair-o]

I appreciate your patience and persistence. I fear I would have taken a BFH to some of the parts you are restoring and then rued the day I did so. Nice work!

[Custer55]

I appreciate your patience and persistence. I fear I would have taken a BFH to some of the parts you are restoring and then rued the day I did so. Nice work!

Thanks, I have days like that too. That's why I don't keep the really big hammers in the work shop.