Family Tradition

[Propwash]

Glad you are feeling better Propwash. It's got to be tough resting when "your obsession" is calling out to you from the garage!

Ah yes..........Gee, you know me pretty well lilbitty. Wonder why? LOL

Hey guys.........Say hello to my mom! Or the "Mopar Mother". She has spent countless hours over the years being involved in my cars (sometimes not by choice). She has also spent time behind the wheel of Dart's, Coronet's, and Roadrunners (including my dad's old 69') Don't think you got to enjoy driving the Charger when I took that over. Spent time spearheading the Coronet while I was over pounding sand in the middle east and is the reason the car is the yellow it is.........

Stop by a bit more often! Lotta great folks here! Try to lay off the embarrassing stories like getting chewed out for having a greasy/oily 383 block sitting on my stepdad's antique table from his mom, or when I melted the brand new tires off my first Dart because I was stuck in a pot hole...LOL :sFun_doh2: Yup...What can I say, I was 16. How about making a carburetor gasket out of a Mountain Dew box to get Kris's Charger out from in front of your place where it was sitting for a week.

Guess I probably go on and on.....Glad to see ya! And yes, the Coronet is getting ample attention along with the Roadrunner project. I'll take ya for a cruise when the leg heals up!

 

[MarPar]

(moved from another thread...)

Sorry to hear you're laid up, Will...hope you get better soon, man!!

i'm such a :jerk: for not seeing it in this thread...

I guess i already started my (mental) vacation...and i'm not leavin till friday morn!!

 

[Propwash]

Thanks Mario...so do I.

Where you headed on VayKay? Got room for me in your luggage..LOL?

Spending 8 hours a day here on the FBBO sucks up a bunch of time but is starting to wear me down a bit....To hell with this sitting around crap!!! Gonna try to hit up the bird a bit tomorrow...

If I bust at the seams and croak, you can have my Randy Travis Coloring book collection man....:eusa_dance:

 

[northerndave]

Glad you are on the mend Prop, be careful.

 

[Propwash]

Thanks Dave....Starting to get frosty around here at night....Must mean the Hippie bird is getting close to it's time in the spotlight?

Well guys, instead of playing gimp and sitting around feeling sorry for myself, work resumed on the bird today. Needless to say, my pace was a bit hampered, but a creeper and rolling stool do wonders for a guy....


Here is the large front section a new rocker that's on its way to be installed...

This is that stiffner I removed from the old rocker that was located right below the A-Pillar/hinge-Jam. The factory had it held in by the means of 5 spot welds.

These little blast cabinets are worth their weight in gold...I would definitly recommend anyone undertaking a project car to get one....They will save you a load of time and can obviously be used for all sorts of other things besides automotive applications... I bought this one at Fleet Farm for $130 bucks...Works Fantastic!!

Pic of the blasted stiffner in place.

I scuffed up the typical settling area of the rocker with a 3M scotch pad to promote better adhesion for the 3M undercoating I sprayed in...Also laid in a quick coat of black Eastwood spray on rust protectant beforhand..

Ready to go in after punching 5/16" holes for the spot/plug welds...If you have a compressor, I recommend the Chicago Pneumatic flange/ 5/16" punch gun. You'll save yourself a boat load of time vs. drilling them all out..

You'll have to bear with me on my slower pace.....On a good day I would have had this thing welded up ready to go, but for now I got her fit in place and will be feeling the hot arc my trusty Miller tomorrow.

Feels great to back in the game!!!!

 

[Bens69PlymouthSatellite]

Wow Will even after what U have been through U are still moving like a maniac,now your just making me look bad! Can I borrow some of those meds the Doc gave U!? Maybe those will get me going! Or at least calm the old nerves down a little! Great Work!

 

[detmatt1]

Looking good brother!!, I'm now thinking this whole surgery thing was just an intricate scheme for some time off work. Well played. Make good use of the time but listen to your body, don't work through the pain, if your having any, that would be your body NOT healing properly.

 

[Propwash]

Thanks Ben and Matt! You can have these retched pain pills Ben. Turns me into a flippin space cadet!:icon_eyes: Could be wire wheeling my leg and wouldn't even notice.

You nailed it on the head Matt....Now if I could just think of less painful ways to get off work :confused1:

Kinda a rough day....All I got done was pulling off the windshield trim off. I'll spare you guys the bordome of that whole process. Hopefully firing up the welder tomorrow..

Have a good one guys!

 

[Propwash]

Little work done today....

Wanted to point out the holes you'll have to drill out (bottom side of rocker) so you can secure the outer rocker to the internal/support down by the rear jam area...Mark the location of the support on the floor, fit rocker, mark from floor back to rocker, remove..then drill your holes and reinstall...

Got the rocker section welded up front/rear/top/bottom today. Not cut/clean ready to go yet, but the meat and potato's of it are done...I had to use oak dowels to help motivate the bottom outer rocker lip to line up with the inner rocker lip...

 

[Propwash]

Few pic's from todays progress........



Use of sheetmetal screws is essential in project areas like this to hold the panels flush. Celeco's would work just fine as well...Just going to have a bit bigger hole to fill from them

Little trick i've been doing on this project to remove as little of the e-coat off the new panels as possible, is a cobbled up wire wheel with a pointed tip used to get in the 3/8" holes left over by the spot weld weld cutter bit. Just a shot of weld-thru primer after removing the e-coat, then weld away.

Rough finished area............

Took down the welds via die grinder cut wheel, then 35 grit pad, 60 grit, then 80... Touched it off with some weld through primer (high zinc). I'm not done with this area yet, just wanted to protect it while i move back to start the quarters...Needed to get theses rockers done first obviously.

Hopefully this weekend i'll wrap up the rear jam area and rear patch on this rocker. After that, rebuild the hinges, remount the doors for the needed fit up when I go to install the new quarter panels.

Have a good weekend guys.

 

[detmatt1]

Looks great and I think we will be hangin quarters simultaniously!.

 

[Redhorse719]

Lookin' good Will. :happy1:

 

[Propwash]

Thanks fella's........Just a few more odds and ends, quarters will be on the menu Matt!

Ended up cutting out that really rotten part of the lower jam and fabing up my own piece to fit...

Door pillar jam ready for weld up with new patch installed......

One thing I always do that I didn't mention in the past is before I apply any kind of primer or filler is to properly clean the metal with a decent wax/grease remover and metal cleaner if bare metal...

Rough finished product after wire wheeling work area, welding, and taking down with 80 grit....Like I said before, just like to get a shot of primer on it, so I don't have to worry about rust setting in before I come back and do the finishing work..

Gonna try to rap up the rear section patch tomorrow and off to the hinge rebuid...

 

[rrTor-Red]

Something off subject here in a way:

How do you guys do multiple pictures on one post?:confused:

 

[Propwash]

Tor-Red,

I put my pic's on photobucket.com, from there I highlight and copy the direct link address for the pic I want to post..Back here on FBBO I hit the little Icon that looks like a little postcard with a mountain on it in the message box in the quick reply section.. hit that button, clear out the little Http: in the box and then paste that direct link copied from photobucket. From there it will be added to your post, and you can post multiple pic's that way.

Hope that makes some sense......Otherwise check out this link for more instuction:

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/faq.php?faq=vb3_reading_posting#faq_vb3_attachments

Good Luck..

 

[rrTor-Red]

I think I got it now..Thanks Propwash!

 

[Propwash]

No sweat Tor-red...Glad I could help.


Some more work done today!

installed and finished off the rear patch on the driver side rocker. Coated it in Eastwood rust protectant and later on another coat of rust bullet in the critical areas....

And that pretty much raps up the rockers for now!! Time for hinges.....

Got this repair kit from mega parts for 40-50 bucks and is pretty typical what everyone is selling out there...

After a couple smacks of a hammer, it became evident real quick that just a hammer was not going to do the trick...Skipped all the magical rusted bolt juice, and went right for the map gas torch..2-3 minutes heating up the hinge...waaalllllaaa!

Did the same for the bushings.....Add a little heat, then tap out.

 

[detmatt1]

It looks like those hinges were already rebuilt. I have rebuilt several this past year and only one hinge already had a bushing in it. How are you doing? healing up good?, how about quitting your day job and starting a restoration shop with me?, we could call it Rustbelt Restorations.

 

[Propwash]

Doing good Matt, thanks for asking buddy! The top hinges may have been rebuilt in the past, but i'm pretty sure the the bottoms were untouched. There was about 1/16"-1/8" slop in between the pin and hinge...Pretty beat up.

Man what I wouldn't give......It's actually a dream of mine to be able to bring back these cars for a living. If all the proper pieces were in place to have a dream job like that and have it support a living, you are definitly the first person that comes to mind I would want to share that kind of business venture with.... Great slogon by the way!

Speaking of day job....LOL, I got the go from the doc to head back to work next monday..arty: I did get a chance to some more work done today.

Took care of the notorious "caa-clunk" and "why doesn't the door stay open?", these old doors like to make over time.
Check out the nice ridge worn into the s-spring, tell-tale flaw that creates that symptom..

Also after a quick inspection of the hinges, found the drivers side had a nice crack where the lower part of the hinge spring seats in....Quit slamming the damn door!!!

I'm going to remove the inside hinges after i'm done with the doors being set for quarter panel gap set, but decided to wire wheel and coat the jam area as well as v-grooved that crack and welded it up..Was driving me nuts! oh yeah, wire wheeled a tad of the side of the dash frame as well LOL......No worries, she's coming out soon to be redone anyways!
How you guys dig the cars highly customized roofing tin front floor pans???? Up for grabs if anyone wants them...LOL

New bushings pressed in.......After drilling out, I also reamed the top lips of the hinge pin holes (bottom hinges only-have no bushings), about a 1/32" just so the tapered pin slid into a place a bit easier as well as not getting caught up on a 90* angle of the hole, seeing it is such a tight fit.

After blasting the outer parts of the hinge and priming, installing the new hinge springs and installing the new pins, hinges are a done deal! The rebuilt hinges are really nice n' snug...can't wait to see how the work in action.

 

[Redpolara]

Nice work Propwash, your quality of work would put some shops to shame.