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You are of course, right! However, the horizon has gotten nearer, and 'a man's got to know his limitations'! -
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Hi Brian,
Nice work, as always! Your ability to do the metal work is great - wish I had tried to pick up the skills, but never did. Thanks for your posts and pics!
Thanks, DougLeave a comment:
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Continuing to do what I can as I feel a bit better each day. I am at a point that I wanted to start up the engine to check out a few things but being the middle of winter not wanting to have the garage door open very long and let all the cold air inside I had to come up with a plan to be able to run the car for more than just a few seconds at a time. Also filled up the cooling system with a 50/50 mix.
I made up these tail pipe extensions out of some left over pipes from previous projects. They just slip over the tail pipes so with the car backed up close enough to the garage door I only need the door open a crack to get all the exhaust going outside. So I was able to run the engine long enough to get it up to temp to make sure several things work properly. This worked well as the heat from running the engine more than made up for the heat lost with the door open a few inches. Everything worked like it should other than the high pressure power steering hose which had a small leak at one of the fittings. Not surprised by that as I had bought a cheap hose kit from Amazon, so I ordered some Earl's fittings that I have used before that I know will not leak.
The good news it that my used power steering pump and alternator worked good and the water pump belt wasn't sipping at all which was a concern because there is not a lot of wrap by the belt on the water pump pulley.
So on to the next issue. I had found this rust hole last year and just marked it as a thing to fix. Figured now was as good a time as any to get that done.
After cutting out all the thin metal I ended up with a bit bigger hole to fill than what I thought it would be but not to bad. Not a place you would expect to have a rust hole but I think it was caused by mice packing a bunch of stuff in there which then held moisture in that spot.
Patch made from 18 gauge fitted up ready to weld in place. The original metal is closer to 20 gauge but I don't have any of that on hand. I have 22 gauge and 18 gauge so the 18 gauge is the better choice. That way grinding or filing the patch won't make it to thin.
The patch tack welded in place. Camera man didn't do a very good job with this picture!!
All welded up and finished out. Should just need a bit of filler to get it ready for paint.
And with a bit of spray bomb primer to protect the bare metal for now.
So while I still had the steering wheel and seats protected from the welding and grinding I decided to fix the door gap on the passenger side. The gap looks good from the top of the door down to just below the beltline but gets pretty fight at the bottom.
The options to fix the gap are to cut and move the quarter panel, or the grind down the edge of the door. I went with grinding down the edge of the door. Here I have it ground back to adjust the gap ready to weld the edge back up and then grind and file the edge again to get a good gap.
Here it is all welded back up and finished out. I just need to get a bit of spray can primer on the bare metal to protect it for now. I think my next project is going to be installing a wiring harness purchased on Amazon. The one I got is a 21 circuit that is color coded and all the wires labeled. It also has the plugs I need for the steering column I am using. It was way less money than the name brand harnesses so worth taking a chance on as it was only $70. You couldn't buy the materials to build a harness from scratch for that price.
Brian
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The complex bends on the tailpipes and the clean simplicity of the hangers are fantastic! Making the fender forming dolly to prep for the taillights was something I would never have thought of - hopefully I will remember the technique! Glad you are on the mend!Leave a comment:
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More amazing work, thanks for sharing the updates, feel better and take care we're not spring chickens any more.
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Got through the holiday season and a case of the flu season (still dealing with that but getting a bit better) so I will update where I am at on the 39.
This is the rear exhaust hanger bracket with a spacer added to the top needed to clear the rear leaf spring hanger brackets. Yes this is the same as the one that tried to take out my thumb.
In this shot you can see why I needed the spacer to gain a bit of clearance. Had the gas tank not already been in place I could have ground back the spring hanger bracket but figured that was not a good plan with a brand new $300. gas tank just a few inches away.
This shot shows a better view of the filler piece tack welded in place to make the nut for the exhaust hanger nice and solidly welded to the exhaust pipe.
And here is both of the tailpipes all welded up and ready to install. The whole exhaust system will come back out in the spring to give it a coating with high temp paint but it is all done at this point other than making up some kind of exhaust tips. Still undecided on what those will look like.
Next I decided to get the tail lights mounted in the rear fenders. Originally these old Fords only had a left side tail light. I could have left it that way as I have the original that is in ok condition but a while back I purchased a pair of re-pros from Speedway Motors. So the 1st step was to mount one of them in the left rear fender to get a location to match up for the right rear fender.
After lots of measurements and making a couple of patterns I got the right side tail light taped in position where it needs to be. Also sent pictures to a few friends to get second opinions on how the position of the righthand tail light looked.
Then traced around the tail light bezel to get the locations to drill holes for the tail light housing. No going back now, at least not without welding up holes anyway.
With the hole in the right rear fender it needed to be flattened out similar to left side fender so the tail light will sit properly. To do this I made a dolly out of 3/8" steel to match the shape of the reproduction tail light bezel on the far left. The bezel in the middle is the original from the car and the shape is slightly different than the repro as it is slightly wider at the bottom and has a bit of a peak at the top. Not a big deal to me as I will have the same repros on both fenders but I had to make the dolly match the bezels I will be using.
After bolting the dolly in place I have it flattened out pretty well to mount the tail light. When I made the dolly I drilled and tapped holes in it that are positioned the same as the tail light housing mount studs so the dolly would be bolted in the correct position when using it which worked out well. I also ended up using the dolly to reshape the left hand fender a bit so it would match the reproduction bezel a bit better.
Here they are mounted in place. They just need to be wired up to be good to go. Should just need a thin coat of body filler before paint so I am happy with the way it turned out.
Forgot to mention that I welded a handle on the dolly to make it easier to hold in place along with the bolt holes. As you can see here I have it hanging on the rear bumper.
Now I have to decide what I want to work on next after I start to feel a little better.
Brian
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Hey Brian,
For sure, so we motor on, as they say, run what you brung!
🙂Leave a comment:
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Wow, you been busy! Looking very, very good!
Sorry about your thumb. I feel your pain (while turning some oak bed posts for my daughter's bed, I managed to catch a finger between the lathe tool rest and the post, thereby stopping the lathe from turning, and seriously messing up my finger - oofda!).
Thanks for the continued posts and pics! DougLeave a comment:
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