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  #41  
Old 03-16-2018, 12:13 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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I agree, this is REALLY impressive work. A lot if folks get all excited about the skin but the inner structure is where the real skill comes in and you nailed it!

Talk a little about the tools and techniques you are using. That is, how are you shaping the panels and what are you doing the shaping with. There are lots of was to accomplish the end result and it's always interesting to novice and pro alike to see how others do things.

One question that comes to mind is how are you cleaning the old panels down to bare shiny metal? And what will you use to kill any surface and inaccessible rust as you move forward?
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  #42  
Old 03-16-2018, 01:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kerry Pinkerton View Post
I agree, this is REALLY impressive work. A lot of folks get all excited about the skin but the inner structure is where the real skill comes in and you nailed it!

Talk a little about the tools and techniques you are using. That is, how are you shaping the panels and what are you doing the shaping with. There are lots of was to accomplish the end result and it's always interesting to novice and pro alike to see how others do things.

One question that comes to mind is how are you cleaning the old panels down to bare shiny metal? And what will you use to kill any surface and inaccessible rust as you move forward?
Thank you very much for the kind remarks. I’m taking a break for lunch and can do a quick response now kind of...

My metal shaping tools and equipment are fairly basic for the most part. Nothing fancy or big like power hammers, or a pullmax, etc.

I do have a homemade English wheel, deepthroat and regular shrinker stretcher, bead roller, magnetic brake, as far as equipment goes. The rest is all handwork, hammers / dollies, etc.

I PROMISE on my next build starting in a month I will share more of my building as “live” as I can per say as I progress with the build as long as the customer is fine with sharing it. (It’s going to be a FUN project). I’ll try to show more of the steps rather than just highlighting over what I’ve done. However!!! Even though I do this for a living I don’t claim to be a pro, in reality I’m learning and refining my techniques and methods each and every project.

As far as the bare metal. These doors, for instance, were blasted with crushed glass (skins) and sand (structure) typically I have real good luck with them staying clean in our shop. If I do get done surface rust from hand prints, or humidity I take a fiber wheel (I’ll try to take a picture) and buzz over the surface. This doesn’t remove any metal, just scuffs the surface s bit.

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Edited to include stock photos of the purple Clean & Strip wheel (I also use the Norton orange ones) I also use a nylon cup brush to clean and even the bare metal surface. Again this has basically zero impact on the metal surface.

Edit: This Mercury did get some surface rust / moisture damage as it was out of our shop in our storage area for a while (non conditioned area) but it's just cosmetic and will all certainly be cleaned up when necessary.

The seams and hidden areas are either prepped with weld thru primers or sprayed with epoxy if there is no welding nearby that would affect it.
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Last edited by pplace; 03-16-2018 at 09:36 PM.
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  #43  
Old 03-16-2018, 01:26 PM
AWM AWM is offline
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thats a good looking butt
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  #44  
Old 03-16-2018, 03:06 PM
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With the decklid lengthened, that pretty much wrapped up the large tasks of "roughing" in the new body proportions. Before going any further with the fine tuning of the metal work and finish now was the time to focus on the modifications to the chassis.

Here are some pictures of the project set down nice and low to the ground sitting roughly where we'd like it to sit "aired out" with all the air out of the suspension.

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Set a front wheel into the front fender opening just for looks. As mentioned this is the goal for the "air out" or parked height. A little higher at the front of the rocker than the rear!

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Another 3/4 view from the rear at parked height.

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Now was the time to pull the front sheet metal, engine, transmission, etc. in preparation for separating the body from the chassis.

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Here is a picture with my youngest son....shows just how low the car is!! I love it!

Edit: I keep forgetting to mention that flamed hood hanging on the wall. That was my first ever custom painting project. I was probably about 12-13 when I did that for fun / practice.

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Here the body has been pulled off and will be set aside while work starts on the chassis modifications.

Edit: I'm not sure why the pictures turned out a bit fuzzy this time. Sorry about the quality.
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Rush too much trying to get to the end when the end is closer when you take your time.

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Last edited by pplace; 03-16-2018 at 08:36 PM.
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  #45  
Old 03-16-2018, 08:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Superleggera View Post
a 3-window coupe instead of a sedan -- I like it! I've seen two done like this over the years and they looked good amongst the sea of regular chopped Merc's. Are you going to post the artwork for the inspiration and what you are going to do with the front nose and bumper treatments?
I’ll look back to see what I saved and didn’t. A lot of it was photoshop ideas and then trashed, etc. I’m pretty sure I have some of the ones saved and possibly even the first “concept” one as well.
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  #46  
Old 03-18-2018, 03:51 PM
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So with the major "re-proportioning" of the body modifications roughed in, it was time to prep the chassis for the necessary changes and upgrades.

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The first and very important task of setting the original chassis onto the rack is in progress here.

I've started with the rack perfectly level front to back and also side to side. From there I spent the necessary time to completely square and level the chassis on the rack.

Once it was precisely located, I temporary welded the center portion of the chassis down (I knew the center wouldn't be changed, thus a good area to secure to the rack)

If you look close I've made stations that weld to the rack and bolt to the bumper mounting holes. (This will help locate a fixed point in space later when I'm building the new front frame clip)

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I've transferred all the necessary measurements (front wheel center line, locations of firewall, where I want the "Z'd" portions of the clip to be roughly) and have them drawn onto the yellow tape on the rack)

Also note, just like the bumper mount locations, I also made a station that will locate the radiator support in the exact location as well.

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Once all the critical pre measurements were made and laid out, it was time to start cutting off the original front frame clip!

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This is a stock photo of the universal Mustang II front crossmember that I started with.

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With the measurements I had determined early (including ride height most importantly) I've begun on building the start of the front clip. As always, changes were made to the "universal" type part to fit my needs and wants, but overall everything worked out really well.

Even at this early stage I was able to level and square everything properly on the floor here (just as it would be in the vehicle) and do a rough setup of camber / caster to make sure everything worked out properly with plenty of adjustment in either direction.

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Here is the view from the rear of the start of the front clip. As always, everything is just tacked into positon until everything is complete as a chassis, incase something needs to be changed or tweaked slightly later.

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Here's the original clip and the new clip setting together.

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Before I pulled the body off for good, I temporarily set the clip into position on proper height "spacers" to locate it properly. From here I was able to check alignment on the wheel centerline, ride heights (low air out, ride height & max height) as well Z" would start in conjunction with the firewall.
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  #47  
Old 03-21-2018, 12:12 AM
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I just spent a fair amount of time adding this post, only to bump my keyboard when I was nearly done and lost the entire thing! Guess I'll do it all over again.

This post is about the connection of the front frame clip I built previously to the original frame and x-member.

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With the body off, I had nice access to the complete frame to perform the necessary work.

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I'm cleaning up the x-member where the original inner rails attached. Also there were some misc. holes and stampings that I wouldn't need now.

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Both sides of the x-members are filled in and a nice clean start to graft the new frame rails to. Also, for no reason except uniformity, I drilled a couple of the missing "lightening holes" on the driver's side patch to mirror the passenger side.

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These are the kick up portions (both driver and passenger side) I'm adding a filler wedge on the bottom to transition from the 2x4 rail of the front clip I built to the original 6"?? height of the x-member.

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Here are the pair of kick ups. You'll notice I added a filler wedge under each section so the 4" to 6" transition wasn't so abrupt. The angle cut on each end is the angle that it will butt up to the x-member at.

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The kick up sections are temporarily tacked together and set into position to see how the match up to the front frame clip (properly located and actually welded to supports on the rack so it wouldn't move during this process) and the fit at the x-member.

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This angle of the kick up shows how it transitions and butts up to the x-member (basically just like the original design) Though here it's with a rectangular tube section instead of a "C" rail

Then angle iron tack welded to it was just to align the tops and to help clamp it into place.

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With the kick up figured out, it was now time to figure out the connection of the outer frame rail portion. I picked the best place to trim the original off (didn't interfere with the body mount and it was in a flat straight section of the rail)

With it trimmed, I fit a new section of 2x4 in place. The yellow tape shows how I'll have to transition it into the taller original rail also.

As a note: The original "stub" of outer rail was plated / boxed from the x-member and overlapped (fish plate) onto the new 2x4 spliced rail section.

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Different view of the outer rail section. Lots of odd angles to cut and trim for a decent fit to the frame clip section.

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A picture of the original front frame horn section. The taper on the top was to give clearance for the front sheet metal, etc.

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A new section of 2x4 rail was made to duplicate the same basic shape of the original horn. Threaded bosses for the bumper bolts were welded into position as well.

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This picture shows two different things:

1. The front frame horn section is bolted in place on the temporary stanchions I located off the original frame / front bumper mounts.

2. The outer rail section had the bottom wedge added to and the transition / blend into the original outer rail is underway.

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Here the front frame clip modifications are basically complete, minus full welding.

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This view from the front and above shows how I added a "joggle" near the front to transition from the width I wanted in the suspension section of the frame clip vs. the location of the front bumper / frame horn section.

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One more view from a different angle
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Rush too much trying to get to the end when the end is closer when you take your time.

Dane
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  #48  
Old 03-21-2018, 02:53 AM
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wow this build it just brilliant, next you say its your 1st build i think not a true professional at work here , and a pleasure to see,
thanks for taking the time to share this build with us ..

David
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  #49  
Old 03-21-2018, 03:10 AM
Bevelhead Bevelhead is offline
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Nice fab work Dane, coming on real well
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  #50  
Old 03-21-2018, 04:49 AM
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Gojeep Gojeep is offline
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Nice to see long transitions between original and the stock.
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