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 Turquoise '58 Fireflite CoupeJump to page : 1 2 3 4 5 Now viewing page 5 [50 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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Powerflite |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430     Location: So. Cal | Thanks Ralf, I was pleased with how it came out. Hopefully I can get it welded on without too much trouble. I'm still trying to decide exactly where I want to cut it. I finished the repairs to the inner repair panel today too, using essentially the same process. Except this time I had to replace most of the lower section. I still have a couple of pin holes to fill and I still need to clean up the inside of it - which will be the only part that you will be able to see when it is installed. I'm sure that I won't be able to clean up the inside to a perfect finish, but I should be able to make it look presentable anyway. (58FF RR Quarter Inner Repair Repaired.jpg) Attachments ----------------  58FF RR Quarter Inner Repair Repaired.jpg (173KB - 22 downloads) | ||
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| Powerflite |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430 Location: So. Cal | I've been working on getting my repair panels installed onto the car. As soon as I roughly cut the outer section off, the quarter panel let go and is no longer straight. That's a problem when I am trying to figure out where everything needs to go. So I am planning to purchase a 6 foot long piece of angle iron and mount that behind the quarter panel, using the lower trim holes to screw into it. That should keep it mostly straight while I get the outer repair panel in place. The rusted section in the rocker was bent inward by the guy that applied all the bondo into the hole. You can see how the upper part of the rocker is too far inward in the first picture below. I pried that section outward with a 6" wide body spoon and hit the bend with a hammer to straighten it out. It came out really well and feels pretty straight now. I'm planning to weld that section last, after the dog leg is done, though I'm not certain if that's a good or bad idea yet. The inner panel had been bent a little as well, but I was able to figure out where it needed to be placed by carefully tracing the outline of the part that I cut off to trim the new part to exactly the same pattern. So far, so good. I'm only going to spot weld the inner panel until I can verify that I like the placement and overall position of the outer panel on the car - after I get the outside panel straight again. By the way, that lone magnet at the trim hole location has a flathead screw stuck to it, and is being used to keep the antennae wire from dangling into my work area.  Edited by Powerflite 2023-08-01 11:44 AM (58FF RR Quarter Rust Cutout.jpg) (58FF RR Quarter Inner Panel Tacked.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 58FF RR Quarter Rust Cutout.jpg (141KB - 22 downloads) 58FF RR Quarter Inner Panel Tacked.jpg (143KB - 21 downloads) | ||
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430 Location: So. Cal | I got everything positioned where I planned to weld, with a 6 ft long piece of angle iron screwed behind the quarter to force it straight. You can see the screws & washers for it on the lower trim holes. It was important to screw it in evenly while applying pressure in between the screws to prevent them from causing distortions in the panel. It would have been better to use another piece of angle iron on the outside to clamp it down, but this setup is working fine. Once straightened, I went over it with a straight edge and noticed that the quarter was stretched at the location of the dent that I took out of the panel. So I took some time to shrink that part with a shrinking disc. It worked to make it better, but it isn't completely flat yet, mostly because the edge of the panel is loose, so it doesn't react the same. I will address it further once I get it welded. Everything looked decent, so I welded the inner panel up. Unfortunately, I ran out of welding gas so I con't continue until I get it refilled. Until then, I will clean up the welds I have on there and get everything ready for welding on the outer panel. (58FF Inner RR Quarter Welded.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 58FF Inner RR Quarter Welded.jpg (152KB - 20 downloads) | ||
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| Powerflite |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430 Location: So. Cal | I patched up the small rust section in the inner rocker that the dog leg will cover. There is more rust going forward from there, but I needed to patch it before welding in the dog leg panel and I wanted to keep some of the outer rocker structure to use for placement reference. I also cut a small relief in the worst part of the stretched panel. That makes it stress free when I weld to the dog leg, and hopefully the welding will shrink it a little. After a lot of effort I positioned the panel in place and got it cut to where it needs to be. There is a larger gap at the front edge than I would like to have, but I am thinking that once it is tacked in place, I can cut a larger hole in the rocker area and stick my hand up there with a copper plate to back up the gap for better welding. Once it is tacked in place along the large flat area, I am planning to release all of the clamps and weld the upper front-most section first, hoping that by doing so, a minimal amount of warping will occur, going very slowly, keeping the heat to a minimum, and progressing downward with the panel mostly free-floating. Then I will weld the more rigid, curved sections, and finally, the plug welds at the outer edges. That's the plan, and hopefully this will allow me to get it done with a minimal amount of warping. I am not naive to the fact that welding in this area can be problematic - especially with the effects of the dent that was there. This is the most difficult repair section that I have done to date, so I am thinking it through and taking my time on it. (58FF Right Dog Leg Repair Fitted.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 58FF Right Dog Leg Repair Fitted.jpg (177KB - 20 downloads) | ||
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| 22mafeja |
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Extreme Veteran Posts: 583  Location: Finland | |||
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| ronbo97 |
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Expert Posts: 4000 Location: Connecticut | |||
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| Powerflite |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430 Location: So. Cal | Ralf, I wasn't sure if I should do the rocker area first or last, but I decided that putting the dog leg/wheel lip in first would be better so that it would provide a good reference for the slope of the whole panel first before any other welding is done. The main problem I have here is that the dent I took out has caused a lot of stress in the panel that wants to make it move outward. Without the quarter being mounted to that iron channel, the whole thing would bend outward while trying to weld. Even with the bar, the lower section wants to naturally bow out as well, so controlling it and ensuring that it goes where it is all supposed to go is the challenge with this. To make it even worse, the rust of the inner & outer section made it difficult to know where the lip was supposed to be placed as well. But I have that all figured out and done now. Rusted inner & outer sections, with dented, bowing panels is the hardest to work with because you lose most of your reference points. It just takes a lot of time to make sure you are putting things where they belong, and how to accomplish it well. Ron, I've used that heat fence before and it does work to keep the heat down. But excess heat isn't really what causes warpage in large panels like this, as long as you weld very slowly, doing successive spot welds, rather than trying to weld in a continuous line. It's pretty easy to keep the overall heat low if you go slow, spot welding like this. But large gaps create bigger problems because there is a larger amount of molten metal in the gap that gets hotter than it would if it were smaller, making it expand more. And that large amount cools off and contracts more than it would in a smaller gap - pulling the panel around as you go. That, by itself creates warp problems regardless of the amount of heat around it. So that's why it's important to control the gaps very well on large panels that are subject to warping. To address this problem, I decided to remove my repair panel, and add metal to the edges ahead of time, using a copper backing plate. Then I ground it down to where it needed to be, so that I have much better gaps on it now. That should prevent any of this from causing me problems. I didn't get as much done yesterday as I had hoped. But I was able to reduce all the gaps like I described above, and got it spot welded in the large, more flat areas. I had to push the lower front section in as I welded to get it aligned properly, but it didn't require a lot of force, so it should remain well-controlled. I checked everything out with a straight edge, looking from as many angles and places as I could, and it all looks great where it is. So as long as it all stays where it currently is during the rest of the welding, I'll be very happy. (58FF Right Dog Leg Repair Spotted.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 58FF Right Dog Leg Repair Spotted.jpg (161KB - 19 downloads) | ||
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| Powerflite |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430 Location: So. Cal | I took a break from body work for a bit and replaced the harmonic dampener that was coming apart. There is a paint mark on it from the previous owner and it had moved 1/4" more from that mark, so it was slowly working it's way off. The timing cover may have stopped that from happening, but I didn't want to leave it on there to find out. For some reason, the water pump pulley was completely stuck to the water pump. Prying or hitting wasn't getting anywhere with it. I could have applied heat to the aluminum spacer to separate it, but I decided not to mess with it, and just leave it there, but unfortunately, I couldn't get my new dampener on with the pulley on the pump. The new dampener is quite a bit wider and I couldn't angle it up under the pulley. So I pulled the dampener from the '67 383 I have in my garage for my Barracuda to use on it instead. The new dampener will probably suit the Barracuda better anyway. To my surprise, the '67 dampener also has one odd spaced bolt, so that my old DeSoto pulley mounted onto it without modification. When did they switch to evenly spaced bolts? I also painted all the pulleys & fan to get rid of the red paint color that the previous owner had put on them. Not that I like a lot of black everywhere, but the faded red with the blue engine made it look like a cheap circus show. (58FF Replacement Dampener.jpg) (New Dampener on 1968 383S.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 58FF Replacement Dampener.jpg (230KB - 17 downloads) New Dampener on 1968 383S.jpg (207KB - 17 downloads) | ||
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| ToMopar |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1126  Location: D-70199 Heslach | |||
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| Powerflite |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9430 Location: So. Cal | True, Tom. I used to paint every bolt head 2 different colors when I was 14. Welding on the panel went well. There ended up being 2 high spots afterward, but not too significant. They are marked on the photo. One of them is associated with the relief that I made in the section that I couldn't get to sit flat. I may not have cut far enough on it, but I'll hit both spots with a shrinking disc and slap the lower spot with a spoon to see how it goes. It's much easier to deal with high spots than low spots, so in that sense, I got lucky. I noticed that the lip didn't have the full width like it should from my previous repair in this area, so I added a little bit of metal to it and blended it in to the dog leg section. It likely needs more work there, but I need to get some color on it to really see what it needs. (58FF RR Dog Leg Ground.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 58FF RR Dog Leg Ground.jpg (126KB - 17 downloads) | ||
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