1949 Cadillac Roadster Build

[crystallographic]

Nice body-frame flexure sleuthing, Jack, and your ladder trusses are a sturdy low-vis. solution.

This episode ensures that your beautiful coachwork couples up with great driveability.

[Jack 1957]

I hope you are right, Kent. I'd hate to screw up my sheet metal after all this

[crystallographic]

It was a glad moment for me that you checked this, after the huge efforts you've put in, b'cause...
I remember seeing one nicely restored 250 TR come in off the track from the "Year of Ferrari" big doings, having black tire marks on the silver paint from not checking chassis/suspension/body clearances during build-up.
Fingers crossed.

[Jack 1957]

I need to make a pair of block off plates to close the gap between the cowl/hinge pillar and fenders. I held off on doing this until I had the fendes gapped, so it's time now.







I cut two blanks then used the bead roller to tip flanges along the forward edge







Then used the stretcher along the flange to bring the contour in to fit along the hinge pillar and check the fit.










Both sides done. I need to pull the fenders to weld them in.

[foamcar]

Jack

Nice to see you back at it. A question on the bead roller tipping. The dies you show are not tipping dies. Looks like you are smoothing out the flange prior to shrinking. I just used my tipping wheels to start a flange on a inner rocker I am making. Once the crease is formed I used panel flangers to get the final flange angle. Am I missing something in my procedure.



Thanks
Phil

[Jack 1957]

Phil, the lower die is a tipping die I made for tipping narrow flanges and hems with a sharp bend. The upper is just the female of a beading set. I have a flat die, this one just happened to be in the machine already. The reason for the unusual shape is that when I use one of the standard style dies on a narrow flange, the flange comes out all wavy. This die leaves them flat.





These are a couple standard tipping dies that I have. The one on the left is a large radius for a softer curve on the bend. The one on the right is used with a female V die. Wouldn't work for what I was doing here.

[foamcar]

Thanks Jack. Did not notice the angle of the lower die.

Phil

[Jack 1957]

I welded up the right side then smoothed out the welds and covered them with Duraglass.





I am going for final panel alignment and gapping now. As you see the yellow (Squeeg's) primer appear, that panel is done, aligned, gapped, and ready to be finish sanded and painted. Both door jambs are now in primer.

[Chris_Hamilton]

Jack, you mentioned that you were doing your final panel alignment and gapping. I'm assuming everything will come off again for paint. If you are taking everything off again are you indexing or marking the panels so that you can easily reassemble and not have to re-gap? Interested to know what your technique is.
Thanks.

[Jack 1957]

Chris, yes it will be completely disassembled for paint. What I'm doing now is correcting the shape of the edges if needed, making sure that there is enough room on adjustable mounting points to get proper alignment, etc.. I want the panels to be adjustable when it's done. Paint build up can tighten up gaps, so I need to be able to compensate by adjusting after it's painted.