Back to the grind. And cut. And weld

  Wow, was September a busy month for us! September is the car amd model contest marathon. First, we had Goodguys weekend, which also coincided with the Marion County swap meet. We snuck to the swap meet on Thursday, since I'm director of the model and pedal car contest at Goodguys, and am locked into the whole weekend there. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything for the car at the swap.

  Goodguys was great. It's now being held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway instead of Indanapolis Raceway Park. I miss the nostalgia drags that we had at IRP, but everything else about the new venue is better.

 After awards on Sunday, we got out a bit, and we met up with someone I was dearly hoping to see. Denise Sheldon is someone I know from the HAMB. She's a great person, and I really wanted Leigha to meet her because Denise is a true lady rodder. She does as much work as she can on her car, and she drives it. In fact, she came all the way from the Detroit area, and she drove her '47 Oldsmobile convertible all the way. No trailer queen, here.

  Leigha and Denise hit it off immediately, and Denise actually took Leigha for a ride in "Big Olds." Before the ride, Leigha had been on television, and had met Indy Car driver Ed Carpenter. A lot of really cool things happened to her that morning, but the ride in Big Olds was what she went on and on about all day.

  The next weekend was the double car show weekend. The Ducktail Run in Gas City and the James Dean Run in Fairmount. They're about a half hour apart, and both are excellent. We had to dodge a bit oif rain, but we still saw a ton of great traditional rods and customs

  A sea of cool iron at the Ducktail

  Then on to the the "Million Merc March" at the Dean.

  As if that weren't enough, the following weekend was the South Central Indiana Modelers Assn model contest. As a proud member of SCIMA, I handle the contest side of the show. It's always a great time, but it was starting to feel like I wouldn't ever get back to working on my Chevy!

  But that changed as we got into October!

  The second weekend of October, I made a huge step for the Chevy. I sold my 1968 Fairlane project that I'd owned for nearly 20 years.

  In addition to adding some funds to the kitty, this also frees up some room in the driveway. That driveway room will play HUGE for the Chevy in the semi-near future.

  But, believe it or not- I actually got back to the CAR!

    When we left off, we'd tacked in the rear body braces,m which was unpleasant and a bit gruelling. If I have not said it before, I'm not fond of welding overhead, and I absolutely DESPISE doing it in a tight spot. It's just never going to be enjoyable for someone who dislikes the scent of my own flesh burning as much as I do.

  But, I did add a few more tacks, and they're in securely enough for the time being. I promise we WILL finish weld them later. I also filled all of the holes left from cutting out the old ones without the benefit of the spot weld cutter, and ground the welds down a bit on the inside of the car. Next, we move forward, and that starts with removing the drivers side rear footwell.

  The most forward section of the footwell, where it meets the front seat riser. Remember when I promised to demonstrate how slick the spot weld cutter operates?

  With a small drill, you drill a hole for the pilot of the cutter

  Then, you cut through the top layer with the spot weld cutter. A little prying pressure between the pieces lets you know when you've successfully cut the weld. You can see with the weld on the left that the two pieces have separated.

  With the top piece removed, you can see that instead of leaving 3/8" holes in the lower piece, you only leave the small holes from the pilot drill. In this particular case, it won't matter as much, since we'll be replacing most of the brace, too. But, it does show how the cutter reduces work.

  Before I cut out the brace, I have to think a bit ahead. While I highly doubt that the brace is carrying a lot of weight, I have to be careful. If I cut something that's supporting a lot of weight, the entire body could sag, which would mean a TON of work to correct.

  This brace is tack welded to the frame at the bottom, and to the roof at the top. This should keep things from sagging.

  And when I removed the bolts through the brace, and cut the end of the brace off, the slot didn't close up at all while I was cutting. That tells us that nothing moved on us.

  The old brace sitting next to where it came from. Thge outboard end of this brace is totally gone, as is the one on the other side. Again, if I were trying to make it look exactly as it did originally, I'm pretty screwed, here. But, since I don't care about original appearance, I'm only concerned with work that is strong and cleanly done.

  I learned from the mistake with the rear braces. I'm doing this center brace with access to it from top and bottom, and will build the brace before the new footwell goes in.

  Since this brace is more complex that the rear braces, I'm going to actually build it in place. It has compound angles, and the easiest route is going to be to build it in three pieces, and build it where it's going to live.

  Here, I'm starting to form the bottom of the trough. I need to be able to remove it at various points of the construction, so it's only attached with Tek screws and clamps for now. If you look closely, you can see where I've made two small marks just past the frame. The brace dips but about 1.5" here, and the marks show where to bend it to make the dip. 

  While I'm building this, I have to make a few decisions about the exact order to attack things, but at this point, I'm pretty sure that I will be finishing the driver's side all the way to the firewall before returning to the passengers side.