59 body progress

[John Mcgraw]

Here are some pics of the body on my 59 project. The firewall has been all slicked up with all holes for throttle, heater, insulation plugs, wiper motor, and most other penetrations, glassed up. The trunk area has been modified to clear the rear end and bump-ups have been added to the trunk floor to clear the chassis tubes. The floor pan has been completely cleaned up and sanded smooth and new seat mounts have been added to accept the new WiseGuys seats.
The body was in pretty rough shape and a good percentage of the bonding strips had come loose and a lot of rebonding was necessary. The entire firewall had come unbonded from the cowl, and had to be repaired. The drivers side rear quarter had ben hit pretty hard right below the taillight and had been repaired very poorly. I cut out all the damaged area and formed all new glass in that area.
The rear wheelwells were about 1/4" shy of clearing the the tires and I did not want to grind away all the lip and lose the stiffness of the quarter, so I put 3 pie cuts on each quarter and bowed each one out 1/4 " on each side and then glassed back up the cuts. You really have to know that it has been done to see the bow as it is real subtle.
I still have some crack repair and bonding strip replacement around grille area to do this week and then there will be countless hours of blocking befroe the body is ready for paint.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=780503

Regards, John McGraw

 

[67HEAVEN]

John,

You're coming along nicely. Your photos remind me that if I ever do another one, a rotisserie is in my future.

 

[IH2LOSE]

WOW

You have been busy.

Your doing all of your own glass work? That was something I for sure was going to farm out (I have a freind in the business.)

Do any of the neighbors complain of paint fumes? Mine have

The fire wall looks increadable What a fantastic idea.I am still not understanding of what modifications are needed in the truck area but I am sure I will figure it out soon enough.

Did you design the body rotiserery? Will a 61/62 be the same size as what your using? How diffucult is it to turn it.It looks like that would make easey work of working on a car body.

I hate to be greedy but show some close up photos of the modifications you did on the wheel lips.

I sincerly thank you for sharing the photos.

 

[61 Silver]

Hi! John

Great looking project and rotisserie; did you make it your self? How did you remove the paint from the body?

Ray

 

[John Mcgraw]

Hi Larry,

Yes, I designed the rotisserie myself and built it in one one weekend. I only have $300 in the entire thing casters included, and It has paid for itself several times over! The frame is adjustable where it attaches to the pivot, so you can adjust it up or down to get the center of gravity right. once you get it set right, you can spin the thing with one hand. I also used it to paint the chassis,and all I had to do was adjust the center of gravity to make the chassis balance. I was going to put a couple of winches on it to raise the sliders up and down, but soon discovered that once set for a particular application, you never change it! I am glad that I did not invest the time and effort. The casters are some Harbor Freight $9 specials and have a 10" pneumatic tire on them, so the thing pushes around easily.
I am lucky that I live in an area of large lots and most houses have at least 1.5 acres. The only close house belongs to another car nut and he never says anything, after all he uses my lift all the time! I have two shops which have overhead doors that face each other and have a large concrete pad between them so it keeps my activities pretty well shielded from all the neighborhood busybodies! I love to do this stuff and will only send something out to be done if I have no other choice! This is going to be the first car that I have paid someone to upholster, but I want a real first class leather interior.
If you look at the trunk, you will see that the front of the spare tire compartment has been cut off and a new section has been fabricated to match. It was my intent to have something that blended in so good that it took you a while to realize what was done! Now all I have to do is find a spare tire that will fit in it!!!! This modification was necessary to allow clearance for the rear cover on the C4 rear end. If you look closely, you will also see the little "bubbles" in the trunk floor that I fabricated to clear the rear frame tubes where they interfeered with the trunk floor.
I have looked through my folders, ans can't find any good pics the quarters, but I just took a cutoff wheel and sliced up the quarters about 3" at 3 places around the radius of the wheelwell. This allowed me to bow the quarter out ever so slightly and then when I glassed up the slits, the bow stayed. I finished it out with a air file , and the bow is almost imperceptable.
A couple of weeks of boring block-sanding, and the car ought to be ready for some color!
Regards, John McGraw

 

[studiog]

Looks great John! Keep us posted. I am just getting ready to strip the body on my 61 and now I want a rotisserie!! But for me that would be another major project. :L

 

[John Mcgraw]

IH2LOSE,

Here is a pic of the original body mock-up to give you an idea of the clearance issues that made this necessary. I probably made the cut a little deeper than necessary, but I wanted to have no problems if I ever needed to remove the rear cover on the rearend.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[61 Silver]

Hi! John



I would like to take time to thank you for the loan of the riveting tool for the rebound straps. I hope it made it back to you in good condition.

Thanks Ray

 

[JohnZ]

Looks terrific, John - it's gonna be a real stunner!

 

[John Mcgraw]

Hi Ray,
Anytime I can help just let me know. It made it's way back OK.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[IH2LOSE]

IH2LOSE,

Here is a pic of the original body mock-up to give you an idea of the clearance issues that made this necessary. I probably made the cut a little deeper than necessary, but I wanted to have no problems if I ever needed to remove the rear cover on the rearend.
Regards, John McGraw

Thanks again !

I printed your pictures and put them in folder for future refrence.The rotisarey you built looks like the Rock of Gilbralter.

After using it,And thinking you were going to build one again would you use the same size bar stock for the frame? Or would you use a little bit lighter Steel.The reason I ask because I think I should be building one of those rotisary now.

 

[John Mcgraw]

Like an idiot, I forgot to put the link to the pic of the trunk area with a vie of the rear end. Here It is:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/339303/P0000757.JPG

Yes, if I had it to do over again, I think that I hit the tubing size pretty well.
The main frame is 3"X3" tube, but it is only 14 gauge stock. The vertical "T" posts are 4"X4" and are 1/8" wall thickness. The end T's have a tendency to lean in a little toward the center when loaded up and the cable is not installed across the bottom. This is not a real problem except when trying to steer the unit. If the T frames are perfectly straight up and down the casters steer with almost no effort, but when they lean just a couple of degrees, the casters do not want to swivel around without a little effort. I have a cable with a turnbuckle on it to pull the bottom of the frames together whan I am not spinning tha body around a lot. I could raise the body up 6" to clear the cable, but then the car would be a little to high too work on in some positions. Let me know when you get ready to build one and I will send you some measurements
Regards, John McGraw

 

[58Mike]

Really looking great John! :cool

That firewall looks great with all the shaving and filling. In hind sight, that's how I wish I had done mine. All that detail you're doing is going to make for a spectacular car!

- Mike Greene

 

[Stan's Customs]

Fine work indeed John..

Really going to be something to be proud of. I can see that many of us are "nearly" as interested in your rotessorie as the fine job you are doing on your car. Or maybe I should say "envious"....of the fine work ...and that we don't have a rotessorie ourselves....so we can makes ours projects look that good!!

Looks like you have designed a simple, economical rotessorie that anybody with a chop saw and a crackerbox welder can jig up in short order! No question the time spent bulding it would be saved several times over on the car itself...

I saw that you offered to send out the dimensions to one of the other posters...I bet several of us would put that information to good use if you were to post it on the forum...Not a problem though if time doesn't permit. I 'm sure we've all got a tape measure and a creeper (or lift). In fact my project just got put on hold untill it's on a spit.....thanks for the simple design idea, I'm going to have one very soon.

Stan M.

 

[Mac]

Looks fantastic, John! Thanks for posting!!

 

[John Mcgraw]

Hi Stan,

I will take some measurements this weekend and send them to you.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Thanks Mac!

 

[Stan's Customs]

Outstanding John...
I guarantee they will be used..thanks for your trouble.

Thanks ..Stan