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Thread: 39 Ford Project

  1. #31
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Progress Update

    Thanks, Sid & Doug,
    Not a lot of time to work on it lately but here is an update.



    So after not getting anywhere with the gaps I decided to remove the brace from the inside of the trunk to get the trunk lid to fit better.


    This would be the offending brace.


    With the brace removed things are looking better.


    I used this end (slightly modified) of my small trim hammer to get the bottom corner to fit like it should to the trunk.


    Kinda went crazy on it with the hammer which caused some cracks that will need to be welded up but the fit is much better to the trunk lid.


    Gap is not too bad now. Looks about the same as the passenger side which doesn't look like it was ever damaged.


    With all the cracks welded up the fit is pretty good now in the lower corner.
    Next project will be to get the rear bumper off to repair the slot in the body where the bumper brace goes through and get the body to fit the fender better at the bottom. I will need to make a template of the passenger side fender shape so I know if it is the body or the fender that needs to be re-shaped or a combination of both. Eventually the tail pan will need to be replaced as well to fix the rust but for now I want to get everything to fit pretty close before that gets cut out.
    Brian

  2. #32
    Registered Member BamaNomad's Avatar
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    Brian,

    I'm enjoying reading about/seeing your continued metal work progress on your '39 Ford~ Keep up the good work~

    Gary

  3. #33
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BamaNomad View Post
    Brian,

    I'm enjoying reading about/seeing your continued metal work progress on your '39 Ford~ Keep up the good work~

    Gary
    Thanks Gary, there is plenty of work left to do so there will be more updates to come.
    Brian

  4. #34
    Registered Member WagonCrazy's Avatar
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    very encouraging Brian. Stay at it. We all appreciate seeing your pics and progress!
    1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
    1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

  5. #35
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Progress Update

    Thanks Paul.
    Here is my latest update.


    So this week I made more time to work on the 39. The first thing I did was get the rear bumper and brackets off so I could get a better look at the lower quarter panel in that area. It took my long breaker bar to get the bolts loose but surprisingly the bolts all came loose without twisting off.


    The opening for the bumper bracket was pretty messed up and you can see how the fender doesn't line up very well to the quarter panel at the bottom.


    After some straitening it out and welding in a new piece at the top it looks much better. Found some rust at the bottom outer corner where the fender and quarter panel meet so a patch is in order. At this point the fender is fitting better to the quarter panel as well. After checking this fender to the passenger side fender it looked like the fender had lost some of it's curvature during the repair process. I got it better by doing some shrinking with the torch on the fender flange and made a few small relief cuts on the flange to put a bit more curve in it at the back. Also at the front of the fender I used a hammer and dolly to stretch the patches I did earlier to add some curve there so the fender fits the body much better from front to back now. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of any of that work on the fender.


    Fitting up a patch for the rust and damage farther up on the quarter panel. By patching this I should be able to adjust the fit to the fender at the same time.


    Marked out the area to be cut out and replaced.


    The old damaged metal cut out.


    After a bit of fine tuneing the patch to the opening it should be ready to tack in. The extra tab on the patch was to fold over and fix a few rust pin holes on the inner fender. It ended up being a pain to get it to fold over and still get the patch to fit right so I ended up just cutting it off and just welded up the holes with a copper back up piece. After I media blast every thing to get epoxy primer on everything I may come back and patch that area better.


    Tacked in place with the fender bolted back on to adjust the fit to the fender before tacking it in to the inner fender.


    Fender back off and tacked in to the inner fender. Really a pain in the butt taking the fender on and off but almost done!!


    All welded up and the welds ground out. Looks pretty good except for the lower part. It's almost impossible to get a hammer or anything else in behind there to hammer out the weld joint.


    With the fender bolted back on "again" everything lines up pretty well. Time to call it done and move on.


    This is where I left off today working on stripping the paint off the passenger side quarter panel and fender. Looks like a bit more rust to repair on the quarter panel and fender on the lower edges but not near as much bondo on this fender so that's good news.

    Brian
    Last edited by Custer55; 06-20-2020 at 08:42 PM.

  6. #36
    Registered Member Belair-o's Avatar
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    Hey Brian,
    Your progress is inspiring! When I saw the first pic for the bumper bracket area, I thought, oh no, by the last pic, looking good!
    Thanks for your continued posting! Doug

  7. #37
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Belair-o View Post
    Hey Brian,
    Your progress is inspiring! When I saw the first pic for the bumper bracket area, I thought, oh no, by the last pic, looking good!
    Thanks for your continued posting! Doug
    Thanks Doug. This project will keep me out of trouble for quite a while yet!!

  8. #38
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Progress Update

    So not a lot to show lately other than continuing to strip the old paint.
    20200629_223642.jpg

    So here is what the rest of the passenger side quarter panel looked like after getting all the paint off. Not too bad, just a few small dents in this one.
    Brian.
    Not having any luck downloading photos this was the only one that would load. I will keep trying

  9. #39
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    So I moved on to the passenger side front fender and found another mess of thick bondo and bad body work. Some one welded some steel rod to the wheel opening to support the thick layer of bondo.


    View from the bottom side along with the cracks on the edge of the wheel opening that were just filled with bondo.


    After grind away some of the rod that had been welded in.


    Most of the rest ground away.




    Quite a mess. This will be a challenge to repair. About my only option at this point though since there will not be any big swap meets this year. At least it's a bolt on part that can be easily replaced in the future.




    Front view of the stripped fender. The front corner is pretty messed up too as it looks like someone roughly hammered out some damage and then tried to grind off the high spots creating some small holes in the process.




    Another view of the carnage.
    Brian.

  10. #40
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Progress Update

    So next I started stripping the hood.


    Bottom side of the hood. looks to be in good shape other than the surface rust.


    In the middle of the process of scraping off the old paint and sanding it down to bare metal.


    All sanded down and it looks pretty good compared to the rest of the car. No body filler or dents in it anywhere and just surface rust from what I can see. If there are any rust holes they will be very minor ones.


    Here is the drivers side front fender stripped and sanded down. A few small dents and some rust holes to repair where it bolts to the running board but much better shape than the passenger side fender.


    View from the front side.




    So today I loosely bolted on the front fenders grille and hood sides in place to see how everything fit. Overall not too bad except for the hood sides don't fit very well to the fenders but nothing is tightened up very well at this point and the hood is just set in place, not bolted on to the hinges. Just nice to get an idea what it will look like for now and a good place to store them for now too.
    Next project will be to get the doors off and strip those down.
    Brian

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