A lot has happened in the meantime.
I'd been struggling with my oxy-acetylene welding of sheetmetal. Despite a lot of practice and experimentation, I could not get a weld I liked. It seemed that I either had colod welds with poor penetration, or I would just blow through. I knew I was close, but there was something I was doing wrong.
I asked for advice on the HAMB, and got an invite from a member to come out to his shop for a little show and tell. I'm not going to brag about who it was who invited me into his shop... Oh hell- I WILL brag about it: It was Keith Burgan, a.k.a. Rooman. Very noted drag race chassis builder. Used to build the frames for John Force. Anyway- On Memorial Day, Roo got me on the right track within five minutes. It turns out that during my experimentation, the one flame I just knew was wrong was the exact flame I needed. We spent another hour and a half talking about fabrication, drag racing, and ideas for building cars.
So, back at home, working on the fender- the welds are coming along MUCH nicer now. But- while working on the fender, I realized that the surface rust was worse than I thought, and had thinned the metal considerably.
Metal tearing after hammer and dolly work- too thin.
So, I'm going to have to find another front fender for the driver's side.
I decided to go ahead with working on the main body shell. I knew before I bought the car that it has serious floorboard issues, as well as plenty of rust in the rockers and body braces. All will need to be replaced, and my worst fear is that with the bottom of the car being so weak, the only strength left in the main shell is the roof. If that's the case, it could mean that the body might be swaybacked a bit, which would require some serious finesse to straighten before I can even begin rebuilding the bottom.
Anyway, time to tear in. Out comes the grille and what's left of the front splash pan.
Next, I removed the driver's side fender. I wanted to see how badly the inner fender is damaged, and to see if the cowl was bent when it lost the front wheel that tore up the fender and door so badly.
\Man, was this thing ever toasted!
Examining the cowl, it does not appear bent. However, I have not been able to get the new door aligned since I got it. I'll need to address this before I go much further.
Next was to remove the door for easier access to the inside.
Next step is to remove the seats and carpeting. I started to get an idea of how truly bad the floorboard is when removing the seat. The seat is held in with 8 bolts. I removed 3, and was then able to "Hightower" the seat out due to the weak floor. If you don't know what "Hightowering" a seat is- go watch Police Academy.
Starting to see a lot of rust, and roof flashing with pop rivets. Not good. Seriously- if your idea of rust repair involves pop rivets and roof flashing- consider taking up golf.
With the carpet and padding removed, we see that it's pretty grim. Up front, we have a huge patch on the driver's side footwell, the passenger side footwell is very weak, and it's weak and patched along both sides.
Okay, let's get the previous "repairs" out of the way.
51 Chick getting in on the power tool action!
It's THIS bad!
Now, many of you would doubt at this point whether or not the car is worth saving. Good point. Even a lot of car guys would consider this a parts car at this point. And even I would say that if I were attempting to do a perfect 100 point concours restoration, I would start with a better car. Restoring just what you've seen here in the lower part of the shell would easily cost 2-3 thousand dollars (doing the work myself) if I were restoring it to exactly like original.
But- a stock, completely original '51 Chevy doesn't do a whole lot for me :) What some see as a beautifully restored piece of history is "a nice starting point" to me. My floors, body braces and rockers do not have to look exactly like the ones Chevrolet put in the car. For my purpose- if they are strong, cleanly installed, and blend with the rest of the car- then they are perfect. I'm not restoring. I'm building my idealized version of a '51 Chevrolet Styleline Special. Instead of 1700 (or more) in patch panels, I'll have a few hundred in raw sheetmetal that I will form to what I want it to be.
This part will be scary, but this is the very worst the car has to offer. Once this is done, the rest will be straightforward. Once this is done, even the wimpiest of car guys would take on finishing it. It will take some crazy skills, but I have some skills, and I'm crazy- so I should be fine!
Wow your getting right down into her. I thought you where going to get the Brakes and the Suspension working good and Drive it around for a little bit of Fun and inspiration. Great to see you making Big steps In the Body work direction. I know Me I would Have going why to Ahead of my self and would Have been lost.
ReplyDeleteWell, thye brakes and suspension ARE working good at this point. However, she'd need tires and rewired before I could drive her, and due to circumstances mostly out of my control, getting tires for it this year doesn't look promnising.
ReplyDeleteI'd have rather done it that way, but since I can't, I'm going to dive into the very worst that the car has to offer. I figure once that's done, the rest should be downhill.
How Much Is the tires you want and what do you want for those wheels that are on the Chevy.$100-$150? what do the tires look like on them.
ReplyDeleteAfter initial shopping (probably should do some more) it looks like 5 radial WWW's for the Chevy will set me back about a grand. Bias ply are cheaper, but not sure if I want to go that route.
ReplyDeleteAs for price on the wheels and tires that are on the car now- it depends on who's buying them. Not everyone gets "favorite nephew" price. In fact, only YOU get that. Tires are not so hot. One loses air slowly, and they're worn.