The Willomet Charger

[1970RT]

Detail pretty much only y’all will see. It only needed an hour of bumping and filing and some layout fluid to guide me.

David

 

[1970RT]

Rear deck filler details.

Seat hooks deleted and blended.

Laid out.

The mittler bros punch and dimple all in one dies are pretty slick.

Now to wrap my brain around flanging these inner wheel houses to the frame.

David

 

[1970RT]

Quick and simple rocker cap. The wheelhouses just need a flush mounting surface.

Unfortunately, I injured my dominant eye last week, and I didn’t get nearly as much time in the shop over Thanksgiving as I would have liked. Yesterday was the first day I could see clearly enough to scribe and cut a line

Back at it.

David

 

[Brandy]

Quick and simple rocker cap. The wheelhouses just need a flush mounting surface.
View attachment 1379507

Unfortunately, I injured my dominant eye last week, and I didn’t get nearly as much time in the shop over Thanksgiving as I would have liked. Yesterday was the first day I could see clearly enough to scribe and cut a line

Back at it.

David

I'm sorry to hear that you were injured. Glad to hear that you're back at it. Your work gives the rest of us slobs hope...lol.

 

[1970RT]

I'm sorry to hear that you were injured. Glad to hear that you're back at it. Your work gives the rest of us slobs hope...lol.

Not going to lie, it’s somewhat terrifying losing partial vision. I’m thankful it’s on the path to healing.

David

 

[5.7 hemi]

You can get along just fine with 1 eye.

 

[1970RT]

Stretching the front part of the wheelhouse to match up to the frame. It's just a little nip/tuck, but important to close a small gap. The AMD wheelhouses are every-so-slightly different from the originals I referenced while drawing up the frame. These are very slight adjustments.

It took two slices, some massaging with some soft faced mallets, a little reforming of this edge radius, and that's about it.

The MIG still works. That outer seam left a small gap, which is best filled by the glue gun. The other seam is tight to the unibody, and got the OCD treatment.

All these are all ground and basically blended. Just a bit of bump work left to make it pretty.

David

 

[1970RT]

Finished this up last night.

Blended and ready for a small massage to get it all back smooth.

Inside corners blended

Now the front edge of the wheelhouse is as tight as possible to the unibody and meets the rear frame torque box.

The inner wheelhouse will take more work, but it was sliced to match.

I'll duplicate on the other side before coming back to this inner, and getting it to match up to the frame.

David

 

[1970RT]

Tried something different for the other side.

The mounting flange was sliced and sectioned, while the rest was beaten into position with some bossing mallets to close the gap to the rocker. There was way less welding and finishing required.

This is all to give the wheel openings about a 3/4” wider opening at the bottom of the arch, and better fit a 345/30 through the range of travel.

Continuing on with the inner wheelhouses.

David

 

[ckessel]

Finally had a day with some time to check this out. WOW!

 

[1970RT]

Finally had a day with some time to check this out. WOW!

It’s a little much, but it’s all mine.

Reshaping the AMD wheelhouses to suit the frame.

David

 

[ckessel]

And truly built, not bought[ other than materials, equipment etc].

 

[5.7 hemi]

Looks like someone is playing chess while working! Lol!!

 

[1970RT]

Looks like someone is playing chess while working! Lol!!

You're so right. I should get some white ones.

So, here's the play by play for the wheelhouse reshaping. It's a lot of work, but I wanted the lower edge to match the profile of the torque box section of the frame. The process is basically this:
- round out the flat area with bossing mallets
- weld and blend a patch
- english wheel everything smooth, blending the weld seams as I go
- continue using body hammers and the english wheel to stretch the wheelhouse smooth
- layout fluid reveals high and low spots needing more work
- continue working until the panel is smooth to the desire radius
- file and blend smooth the last very minor imperfections

David

 

[1970RT]

The rest of the process.

This is roughly done. There's still some reforming for the frame flange and tiny pin holes to fill, but I'll leave that for later.

David

 

[Greg Ducato]

Even more incredible than your talent is your patience

 

[1970RT]

Even more incredible than your talent is your patience

Patience is the key for sure. There’s no fast way (I don’t think) to do any of this very well. It’s lots of incremental steps, none of which are too hard, but do require prolonged focus for an amateur like me to get the kind of results I want.

I listen to books or Jazz while I work. That keeps me in a zone.

David

 

[1970RT]

Steady, daily progress.

Transferring the rail profile to the wheelhouse and marking the whole thing for a trim. I'm going to see if I can use the bead roller to get the flange I want, but if that doesn't work, I have flange already stretched and ready to weld in place.

David

 

[1970RT]

Flanging was a success, even with a makeshift “tipping” die.

David

 

[1970RT]

Pretty happy with the fit. It’s tight getting this all loaded into the car.

David