A lot more patches in the bed sides, including these stake holder pockets. Tailgate hinges built. Bought a Lotus. Tons of grinding and smoothing. And finally, it's prime time!
Look at all these not-rusty parts!
A lot more patches in the bed sides, including these stake holder pockets. Tailgate hinges built. Bought a Lotus. Tons of grinding and smoothing. And finally, it's prime time!
Look at all these not-rusty parts!
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
I feel like I don't even know you anymore
You bought a what now?
Not just any Lotus!
In reply to Mr_Asa :
I love how he tried to just casually slip that little fact in. It's not like we're a bunch of car nuts or something...
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Thank you so, so much for taking the Europa so I don't have to.
Gonna be very interested to see what that build is going to be like.
Now hurry up and finish this one so you can start that one.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
You never know! I might give up on it next year and drop it off
I am disappointed that I was not able to get the extra car part of the deal worked out in time, but I truly feel the car will be happier in its new home. Your talent is WAY beyond mine. I could have made a fun toy to bring to the Challenge, but I think you will bring it to the glory it deserves, considering its storied past. Looking fwd. to its build info. I had the start of a team. I had the space (although my wife would disagree), and could get there to move them... but, alas, never could find the money for the 2nd car! If life gets so busy the cool one gets lonesome, I would do my best to give it a loving home.
Congratulations on joining a line of GRM enablers!
And, BTW, I had to wipe away a little drool offer how clean and simple the hinges are.
It's official, we're in bodywork mode. Hoping all that sheetmetal work pays off.
First hit with the 2ft block. Not terrible. A little more hammering helped after this.
It's been a while. I kind of enjoy this in a weird way.
I'm not sorry to see someone else go through this.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
Honestly I'm just happy to put the twin grinders away for a while. This is downright pleasant.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
Aint it the truth!
Maybe I should mention shrinking disc to get rid of those high spots and watch him suffer a bit more?
In reply to NOHOME :
I didn't know those exist...is it too late to use one of I've already laid some filler down? Any other clever tools and tips before I sand my arms away?
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Not too late. Do it. And listen to NOHOME
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Willing to bet that it is not "best practice" to use them with filler nearby, but I have on several occasions. The Molvo was so badly warped by sandblasting that a skim of filler over the whole car was inevitable, but it is MUCH thinner due to shrinking the high spots that would show up as I was sanding down a layer of filler.
In reply to NOHOME :
Agree, in my un skilled opinion.....but I used a ball peen. Much less elegant and efficient
Free seats! The silly #vanlife craze has a been boon to us freeloaders with weird projects. I picked up enough for the hot rod and my next Challenge car. Originally I was trying to make a school bus seat work (from another RV conversion) but the trans tunnel is too tall.
I think I can make these work. On to the good stuff...more bodywork. The roof, cowl, and firewall are done. I paid special attention to the roof to ensure it is both flat and smooth. Flat is much more difficult than smooth, and the roof has a lot of awkward weld seams and distortion. Or rather, it used to.
The rear of the cab will mostly just be smooth. The lower half, which is far worse, will be hard to see anyway since it's blocked by the frame.
I picked up a "shrinking disc" and find it to be very helpful. The technique I adopted is to get the bump as hot as possible, then spray it with water/car wash mix. If it steams, it's working. When doing bodywork, you are limited to how far down you can sand by metal bumps. The lower those bumps are, the less filler you have to build up to hide them. Every minute spent shrinking the bumps saves probably double that in sanding.
Looking awesome!
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Good to see that you caught on to the benefits and technique of the disc. I usually have two people to do the job so as to keep going, One to heat with the disc and the other to dab with the rag, Bit of steam is all you need.
I should have gotten a disk... looking good!
Don't worry everyone, I'm back on this project again. The cab (except doors..) is done. I'm just working on the tailgate and bed panels now before I spray another layer of primer, then finally tackle those doors. Originally I had the goal of driving this car this year. That probably won't happen, but I am hoping to paint and reassembly it into one piece by Christmas.
Yay! This is still one of my favorite builds ever. Your fabrication skills are an inspiration
I finally got some good time in this week. I think I'm done with body filler on the body panels, so I hit everything with a couple good coats of epoxy primer to seal it in. The paint plan has changed a little bit. I was just going to use epoxy primer under acrylic enamel top coat. But the epoxy doesn't fill well and sands like crap. But it seals and adheres extremely well. So next weekend will be high-build 2K primer, and the following weekend will be paint for real. I have the entire week off for Christmas and intend to use it. I have a ton of parts on order too. All I want for Christmas is a hot rod.
I think most of the imperfections will be fixed by the 2K high build primer. There are only a handful that will get more body filler, probably while I'm doing the doors. Speaking of which...
I am having the darndest time removing the doors. The hinge pins are STUCK. No amount of hammering and pressing will get them out. I don't want to drill rivets, so I'm drilling the hinge pins. A few are missing anyway, and I have a whole new set on order. Removing the door will allow me to re-skin the lower section (probably right below the bead roll feature), bust the rust, bodywork, etc. Here's some rust gore.
I drilled the original window regulators out, along with what was left of the tracks. All hardware is seized on this rust bucket, exactly what I was dreading.
But after parting out a Toyota Avalon last month, my inner hoarder thought the window regulators would come in handy. The rear window ones look almost perfect to replace them, except that they are motorized. I originally wanted crank windows, but this is almost too easy, so might as well. Of course I threw away the electrical plug that controls them, so I'll need to snag a couple more at the junkyard.
The new Model A glass is way thicker than the Avalon's glass, but I think it will still work.
Have I mentioned that I love this build?
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