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I need some advise...

Started by kimmc, September 20, 2012, 01:03:50 AM

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kimmc

Hi Chet.  Here you go.

"wood measuring in the center of the windshield":  1 3/4 inches top to bottom x 1 3/4 inches front to back

"dimentionally from windshield to top of roof: 4 7/8 inches from top of windshield opening to top of wood (but most of this is the steel that supports the sun visor.  (see pic)

"thickness of the wood at the center of driver side door:  2 1/4 inches top to bottom x 3 1/4 inches outside edge to inside edge.  (see pic; outside edge follows curve of door and body.

You will probably need some more info, so just let me know.  Glad to help.  There are 3 pics so there will have to be 2 posts. 
You can see that I am working on these top wood pieces right now.  I've almost emptied a box of 250 toothpics (each cut in half so that's almost 500 tack and nail holes I've filled so far...and more to go!).  Kim

kimmc

Chet:  here's a long view of the wood above the driver's door.  Let me know if you want more pics or measurements.  Kim

chetbrz


This is great Kim,  Many Thanks  Chet...
http://www.1948Plymouth.info           Web Master - Forum Administrator - AACA member

SDGlenn

Can you imagine the expertise of these workmen, wood and metal, that built these auto bodies. All these years ago, without all the modern machines, tools,  and PC's helping. It is amazing.  Kim, you are doing a marvelous job also, you maybe would have fit in with these past workmen.  Good job. I like your workshop. nice.
SD Glenn
SDGlenn

kimmc

Hey SDGlenn.  Good to hear from you.  You are right about the guys that built these early Plymouths...I can't imagine that job.  Basically, they built the skeleton of a car out of wood, then nailed the sheet metal to it!  It's got to be a big job to re-do the wood; mine is in pretty good shape but it will still take a lot of time to get it the way I want it.  Little by little.  Your comment about the toothpics looking like some ashtrays you had seen made me laugh out loud!  It's got even more toothpics now all the way around the top....the car kind of looks like a kid with one of those spikey hair do-s!  My garage/shop was a long time coming...for many years we didn't have a garage at all.  Then my wife decided to remodel the place.  I went along with that as long as I got my own garage/shop.  She wanted a dining room (among other things) but decided that the designer's plans put it in the wrong place (it was to share a wall with my garage).  She decided we should gut the utility/mud room to make a dining room.  The planned dining room would become part of my garage!  I didn't argue at all!! I appreciate you replies.  Take care.  Kim

kimmc

OK, I need some help from you all.  While working on the top wood, I have noticed that the doors are not aligned properly.  The R door especially is hanging down on the handle side.  If I could put it up where it needs to be in order for the beauty lines to line up, the top of the door will rub on the top metal of the door frame (the part beneath the top R wood piece.  The door frame is up as far as it is going to go.  I don't see any way to adjust anything, even the door.  So, how do I get the doors to fit the opening properly and still have clearance at the top.  The 1st pic shows the misalignment at the door handle side.  The 2nd pic shows the minimal clearance at the top now; there is less clearance above the middle of the door and more clearance above either end (by at least 1/4+ inch).  Some one out there must have faced this same problem.  Thanks for the help.  Kim

SDGlenn

#96
Kim, Referencing your door not aligning right.  I hope it is just the hinges that are sprung, not the body twisted. You may be able to spring the hinges with blocks, to make it fit. You don't have to move the door much so be careful. I would try that first.  My doors fit perfectly so I did not have that to contend with. Good luck with that.
SD Glenn
SDGlenn

Old Man

#97
These wooden bodies can be twisted out of shape. You need to trammel the body with the frame or some outside data point to see if it needs to be realigned. This isn't as difficult as it sounds. You can use a point on the center of the frame as a data point. With the floor boards off identify a point on the transmission in it's center. Usually on the cover. Loosen a bolt and place some kind of connector ,that will hold the end of a tape measure, under it and retighten. You may need two people to do this. With someone holding the start of a tape measure at the connector, run the tape measure up to the door openings, one side at a time, and mark down the distances. The points can be the corners of the door openings or any point you choose. Just use the exact same point on each side of the body. It will become obvious as you do this if the car is still true or not. If the door openings are square,which I believe they are, you can also use a carpenter's square to check. But be aware that the car body may be leaning to the left or right. It's most likely not leaning forward or backward because of the metal cowl. If you find any discrepencies, the fix is to use small shims of wood under the chines. These are the main large pieces that run down either side of the body on the frame. Of course it may also be obvious to you to push only one door post one way or the other to get want you want. If I remember correctly there were small steel brackets holding the door posts in place? You may have remove their screws and replace them with larger ones to get them to tighten. Also make sure the main body to frame bolts are tight. The problem is dry wood shrinks with time it does not swell. The doors on a '28/'29 are held by hinges in wooden door posts. I assume you have already made sure of the hinges and their screws?  
 The other way to trammel a body,or an airplane, is to find or make a point in the room in front or to the side and measure from there to the car. A common point on a wall is one of the best points. I used that. One last point. You should be doing this with the car off it's wheels and on axle stands which are under the frame at the 4 corners. The frame should be be level and it needs to the same height on each side and at the 4 corners. You don't want to introduce you own twist. The frames on these old cars are not very stiff.                      

kimmc

Hi OM.  OK...wow....this should be a challenge.  I have a friend who is a retired body and frame guy and also an old car buff.  I hope to recruit him...I've already spoken to him about the door fit issue I posted here.  He can probably help me "trammel" the body.  I understand the importance of getting the frame level (and square too I presume) then using a fixed point on the center of the frame as the reference point for measurements to different places on the body.  The motor and transmission are out of the car now but I expect I can use a centerline point on a frame crossmember.  But I am not sure I understand all the details about the "point on the wall".  I presume one would have measure from the wall point to a couple of points on the frame to make certain the frame was "square" with the wall first, then once that is good, start making measurements from the wall point to points on the body.  Is this correct?  I have done nothing with any adjustments or shimming yet.  I wanted to make sure I knew how to go about it so that I didn't make things worse by doing the wrong thing.  But I suspect that since these cars were made of a combination of wood and steel that these bodies were pretty "loosey-goosey" and that the fit "lines" were never very good or consistent.  This is hard for a perfectionist who tends to want everything exactly right!  Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and explain to me how to trammel the body.  I'm not going to tackle this right now but I will let you know what I find when I do this.  Kim

kimmc

Did a little more PolyAll work on the top front wood piece today.  Sequence: sanded work site to clean wood of paint & dirt, air blasted, 1st coat PolyAll only; 2nd coat with sawdust filler in PolyAll on un-sanded 1st coat, then sanded, air blasted; 3rd coat PolyAll only, then sanded, air blasted.  Tonight or tomorrow will put another coat of fine wood filler on, sand it, then follow it with a final (hopefully) 5th coat of PolyAll.  Then I will move on to the other half of the front top wood piece (visible is some of the pics).  Will have to put the pictures in a couple of posts; I can only fit 2 pics on each post.  Hope I'm not boring you all!

kimmc

...the other 2 pics that go with above...

Old Man

It's funny you used the term loosey goosey. I considered using it in my post. The wall point is quite handy because if you find the body is leaning you put an eye bolt in the wall  and a C clamp on the body. Then connect the two together using wire rope and you can pull the body straight and start to pin it there. Loosen any bracket and retighten it in the 'straight' position. Also applying your own brackets in places out of the way where they will not interfere with the upholstery etc. You can buy an assortment of small right angle brakects and 'T' brackets at any hardware store. Make sure you buy the ones with an additional small re-enforcement in the bend of the right angle brackets.
    Then you let the wire go and see if the body stays put. I've done this and it does work. I forgot to mention that you need a small gizmo called a turnbuckle in the wire so you can fine adjust the length of the wire. You would be pulling the body towards the wall so the car would have to be in a positon where it is leaning AWAY from the wall. Or if it's a small room,use the other wall of course. I did. You put the anchor point on the car up high for 2 reasons. Purchase on the lever from the fulcrum which is what the body is at this point and you want to keep the wire high away from you. (I'm 6' tall and still got hit.) As I say I have done this and it does work. I also hung a plumb bob down from the ceiling to the front of the windshield and marked the car when the car was vertical. Then every time I let the turnbuckle loose I would watch the plumb bob to see if it moved away from the mark. If it did,back went the turnbuckle until the car was back at the mark. You may want to loosen some of the metal panels and reseat their nails as well. I found it was better if you use wood screws in the panels,again out of the way of the upholstery, as the screws hold much better. If you can't use a screw then buy the same nails like they used originally but longer. If they used 1/2" you use 1" etc. Strike hard and straight with a good hammer. This is hard wood and although some of it may be soft at the surface it will still be hard underneath. And yes the correct word for straightening a body in a body shop is trammeling. They use lasers now to do it. You see vehicles incorrectly trammeled when you are behind them and you see they are 'dog legging' it down the road. It's because some part of the front or rear axle system is not square with the body. Instead of the 2 axles and the frame forming a square box they form a parallelgram. Drives me crazy. I want to pull them over and tell him or her to take the damn thing back to the shop and get it fixed! It's actually dangerous on wet or icey roads. The manufacturer and companies like Bear Alignment give out trammeling measurements to the shops to make sure the car or truck is straight and true after the accident repair. But many backyard shops dont' do it.         

kimmc

Hi OM.  Thanks for the detailed instructions.  It all makes sense; all I lack is the confidence that I know exactly what i'm doing!  I think I will save this job for when I move my car back to the big shop.  It has I-beam columns and I am pretty certain those are not going to move (there's 5 yards of concrete in the footing under each one!!).  I am afraid if I put an I-bolt in the garage wall (which is a common wall with the living room) and manage to put a crack in the new dry wall, I might as well pack up, move into the garage, and learn to cook ramen on a hot plate!  I will talk to my body and frame friend tomorrow about trammeling my car.  Also, I have a neighbor just down the road that builds street rods for a living.  He has a "table" for truing up frames and chassis's.  I will talk to him too.  Maybe I can hire him and use his expertise (that is if he is willing to work on a restoration project).  Seems to me that getting the body and frame square with the rest of the world is a fundamental step to complete before doing a lot of the remainder of the restoration.  I've thought about it some.  With engine and trans out of the car, it seems to me that once the frame is supported, leveled, and squared up, that I could use a center point on a frame cross-member from which to take the other measurements to points on the body.  Lots to think about.  Anyhow, you have given me great info and it is something that I will do.  Thanks for your help.  I'll let you know how this turns out.  Kim

kimmc

Hello all.  Well, I've been absent a few days while I proceeded to take the OM's advice and check my car for "squareness".  We had some discussion here about it after I posted a picture of the passenger door not lining up where it should.  I thought about how to go about "trammeling" the car as OM suggested but decided to modify the procedure somewhat.  I figured that before I trussed up the car to the wall like a Christmas goose, I would check it out in a more simple way that I thought would show me if the car body and/or frame was out of whack and needed more serious work.  I started by just checking that the car was level where it sat in the garage.  I decided to use an old fashion carpenter's wooden folding measure; I figured it would be easier to use and keep straight unlike a metal tape measure.  I picked 3 different sites on the frame that had good points where I could take pairs of diagonal measurements.  I also picked 3 different sites on the body where I could measure from points at the bottom of the body to a point diagonally across the cab near the top.  Finally, I measured diagonally across the windshield opening.  I recorded everything, with sketches and pictures, in my log book.  The bottom line was that the frame is square...dead on.  I guess the steel stock gate that I totaled when I crashed through with no brakes didn't hurt the car at all!  (I was 13 and my dad saw it all).  The body is also sitting squarely on the frame; the cab is not leaning to one side at all.  Finally, the windshield opening is square as well.  So, I am satisfied that the car is good as it sits and that I can proceed with wood repair and other jobs without worrying about whether the car and frame are square and in their proper positions.  The doors will have to be tweeked and worked to get them into their correct positions.  I am much relieved that I don't have frame &/or body alignment issues.  But I am glad that I checked things out like I did; it just took me a few days to figure out the best way for me to proceed.  Now back to working on the top wood.   

kimmc

Well, today was a learning day and a step backwards.  I wasn't satisfied with the "even-ness" of the space between the top of the driver's door and the top of the door jamb.  It was wide on the ends and narrow above the middle of the door.  I thought there might be some obstruction that would not let me push the trim up against the main wood top piece above it.  I pulled the nails from the outside of the metal trim on the top of the door jamb and bent the tabs down thinking I might be able to clean out the space between the metal and the wood but that did not work well.  So, I decided to pull the nails from the inside of the metal piece and remove it completely.  Much better.  There were toothpics I had driven into the holes sticking out the bottom of the oak frame.  Because of those I could not get the metal trim pushed up tight against the wood.  With the metal trim removed I will be able to a much better repair of the wood piece and get the bottom of it flat so the trim will fit well.  Also, I can clean the rust from the trim and get it ready for paint.  Finally, this trim has well preserved original paint that I can probably take to the auto paint store and get a good match.  I'll finish this project eventually....little by little.