1950 Mercury custom build
- Thread starter K13
- Start date
It’s all these hidden bits that take the time
Haha More time than I was expecting Rusty.
So continuing with the A pillar. I tacked the inner piece in place and then started tackling the outer section of the A pillar. The pillar is essentially 3 pieces, the outer cover, the inner piece I had to fab pieces for and then the door jam section with is a j shaped piece. The short leg of the j was spot welded to the outer skin through the drip rail originally. That is where everything fell apart when I first started this "quick project". I that inner door jam part of the J piece also needed to have a pie shaped piece added to it to meet up with the bottom section. Because I knew I had to widen it anyways I decided to slice it along the outer edge so that I could spot weld that piece to the outer skin sheet metal. Not the best picture but you can see the spot welds. This piece is L shaped right now,
Next I widened the jam section, tacked and then fully welded it in place.
I still have to weld up some of the inner structure but I may need to MIG weld it as it is super awkward to try and TIG and there are parts I can't access the whole panel to clean in order to use the TIG so that might have to wait. There is also still a lot of dry leaves, old hornets nests, upholstery in the car that I don't really want to light a blaze with the sparks. So for now I will probably call this side done until I get a chance to clean it all out..
So continuing with the A pillar. I tacked the inner piece in place and then started tackling the outer section of the A pillar. The pillar is essentially 3 pieces, the outer cover, the inner piece I had to fab pieces for and then the door jam section with is a j shaped piece. The short leg of the j was spot welded to the outer skin through the drip rail originally. That is where everything fell apart when I first started this "quick project". I that inner door jam part of the J piece also needed to have a pie shaped piece added to it to meet up with the bottom section. Because I knew I had to widen it anyways I decided to slice it along the outer edge so that I could spot weld that piece to the outer skin sheet metal. Not the best picture but you can see the spot welds. This piece is L shaped right now,
Next I widened the jam section, tacked and then fully welded it in place.
I still have to weld up some of the inner structure but I may need to MIG weld it as it is super awkward to try and TIG and there are parts I can't access the whole panel to clean in order to use the TIG so that might have to wait. There is also still a lot of dry leaves, old hornets nests, upholstery in the car that I don't really want to light a blaze with the sparks. So for now I will probably call this side done until I get a chance to clean it all out..
Yes let’s not start fires. Lots of bits there
Well shockingly my hopes that the passenger side would be easier were not to be.
The tack strip was still in tack on the top half of the channel on this side and being that it is made of cardboard it obviously held water and the bottom part of the channel on the roof section has rotted out for about 2-3". So wee all know what that means. LOL
This is what I was left with after cutting out the rotted section.
The remnants.
And the repair pieces. I can't get at most of it to clean up enough to TIG and a lot of it will be impossible to get with the TIG anyways so I will need to MIG most of it but I ran out of wire working on a stand for my brake so I will have to pick some more up tomorrow and weld these pieces in. Thanks for checking in.
The tack strip was still in tack on the top half of the channel on this side and being that it is made of cardboard it obviously held water and the bottom part of the channel on the roof section has rotted out for about 2-3". So wee all know what that means. LOLThis is what I was left with after cutting out the rotted section.
The remnants.
And the repair pieces. I can't get at most of it to clean up enough to TIG and a lot of it will be impossible to get with the TIG anyways so I will need to MIG most of it but I ran out of wire working on a stand for my brake so I will have to pick some more up tomorrow and weld these pieces in. Thanks for checking in.
Looking good...best laid plans... now what about that brake stand??
thanks for the pictures.
Greg
thanks for the pictures.
Greg
Bugger. At least you’ve had a trial run
Waiting for some parts for it. I will post a picture when I get it together and figure how to get the brake on it.
Anyways finished up most of the passenger side A pillar and no fires. A bit more clean up to do but it is close. I can't get at the backside to knock the lows up so I will have to wait until I get my stud gun back from a friend to finish it.
Thanks, keep it coming
Well I have been a little slow the last little while. I finished welding up a few spots I hadn't finished on the top and finally got the stand for my brake put together.
Then I started planning my next step on this thing and decided I should probably tackle the rockers. This is going to be a big project. There are essentially 3 pieces making up the rockers. There is an inner rectangular frame, an outer rocker and a top piece. All three are going to need to be replaced. The inner part I think I will do with some thin wall steel tubing so I will have to pick some of that up to do that part. The outer and top pieces I will have to make from sheet metal. Here is what the current looks like:
A mess. I figured the upper section would be the most difficult to make so I started brain storming on how I was going to do it. I ended up making a dimple die and used a press to press in circular shapes for each oblong opening then used the bead roller to do the edges and hammered the centre section flat. It was a lot of work. The straight fold parts were done on the brake and the bead roller. I have only done the passenger side so far as I wanted to see how it was going to work before I proceeded. It's not perfect and I have a little more clean up on it but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. You will probably notice that only one spot has the cut out and that is because I started thinking after I cut it out that it made no sense to have these huge open holes for water and dirt and stuff to get into and sit on the outer rocker so I am going to weld all the holes up and have the indented section solid.
Laying them out:
And then done. I didn't take any progress pictures on this side as I was just trying to figure it all out but I will try and remember on the other side if guys are interested in how I did it.
Then I started planning my next step on this thing and decided I should probably tackle the rockers. This is going to be a big project. There are essentially 3 pieces making up the rockers. There is an inner rectangular frame, an outer rocker and a top piece. All three are going to need to be replaced. The inner part I think I will do with some thin wall steel tubing so I will have to pick some of that up to do that part. The outer and top pieces I will have to make from sheet metal. Here is what the current looks like:
A mess. I figured the upper section would be the most difficult to make so I started brain storming on how I was going to do it. I ended up making a dimple die and used a press to press in circular shapes for each oblong opening then used the bead roller to do the edges and hammered the centre section flat. It was a lot of work. The straight fold parts were done on the brake and the bead roller. I have only done the passenger side so far as I wanted to see how it was going to work before I proceeded. It's not perfect and I have a little more clean up on it but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. You will probably notice that only one spot has the cut out and that is because I started thinking after I cut it out that it made no sense to have these huge open holes for water and dirt and stuff to get into and sit on the outer rocker so I am going to weld all the holes up and have the indented section solid.
Laying them out:
And then done. I didn't take any progress pictures on this side as I was just trying to figure it all out but I will try and remember on the other side if guys are interested in how I did it.
Yes, nice work
Not sure if anyone is interested but here is how I did the dimples.
First I made a crude dimple die out of some scraps I had laying around. A little machining, drill some holes, add some threads and weld together.
Attached to the panel. I originally thought I might try just tightening with the bolt but the force pulled the side wall of the tube up so I decided to use the press. I tried to press more towards the ends to keep the hammer work a little easier but being a one man operation and the crude set up it was kind of all over the place. It left me with the tacoed panel below.
I straightened it out a little and then moved on to the bead roller to do the sides.
Which left me with this mess.
First I made a crude dimple die out of some scraps I had laying around. A little machining, drill some holes, add some threads and weld together.
Attached to the panel. I originally thought I might try just tightening with the bolt but the force pulled the side wall of the tube up so I decided to use the press. I tried to press more towards the ends to keep the hammer work a little easier but being a one man operation and the crude set up it was kind of all over the place. It left me with the tacoed panel below.
I straightened it out a little and then moved on to the bead roller to do the sides.
Which left me with this mess.
Interesting to see how problems are solved.
That was very helpful to see the panel was not instantly looking great after a little push push and a bead roll.
Looking good, thanks!
Greg
Looking good, thanks!
Greg