wood assembly and gluing - 1925 Buick

[Hubert_25-25]

Beginning assembly of a few of the pieces of the wood body frame for the 1925 Buick Standard Touring.  Water and time dissolved most of the glue that was used in the wood frame construction, and I know where some areas were glued, but not all, so I am hoping that someone can answer some of these questions.

Photo 1 - showing all of the wood in the frame for reference.

Photo 2 - #1 were the rear floorboard supports that are held to the sills with 6 screws each, glued or simply screwed in place?

- #2 & #3 were the front seat cross members glued and screwed, or simply screwed?  There is not a lot of surface area here, only the width of the crossmember x 3/4"

Photo 3 - the area shown with a 4 had glue, but not sure about the other parts of the front seat frame.

Photo 4 - #5 & #6 seat pillar to the sill sides and door thresholds to the sill tops?  

Photo 5 - Any knowledge about the use of glue on the 1/4" wood strips on the bottom sides of the sills 

Thank you,  Hugh

[bradsan]

Hugh

 

Fantastic photos and descriptions.

Make sure you take lots more!

 

You are really making good progress on the car.

 

Brad

[ROD W]

Hugh,  Thank you for posting that photo of all the timber laid out on the floor,  great to see the whole timber frame like that.  I may be wrong,  but I think,  if there were screws holding a piece of wood on, I don,t feel  they would  have used glue as well.  Do you have to replace any pieces of timber or is it a case of repairing, and  re-glueing,  often the timber rots out around the screw holes.  Keep up the good work. 

[Hubert_25-25]

I wish I had taken more photos during disassembly, so I am taking more during assembly as it is rare to get these detail shots.  I was lucky and had relatively little wood repair.  The worst water damage was the sills.  Almost all of the fasteners were still holding things together.  Some screws were thin from rust.  Most had expanded into the wood and held tight.  I had to regrind the slot in the top of a few of the screw heads in order to remove them.  New screwdrivers were a must, as I could not use my old rounded screwdriver tips.  I used wood dowels and epoxied them into place so that I can put all the screws back into the original locations.  It makes it easier to relocate the parts as well.  The sills are made from 3 laminated boards that are dovetailed together and glued.  Some of the glue survived on one sill, and on the other side, I slid the dovetail apart and was able to epoxy it back into place.  The epoxy actually worked as a lubricant and the piece slid back together nicely.  I had a lot of clamps holding it all together.  I only had to remake one end piece.  I do know that they also glued the wood piece that goes over the rear axle to the sill, because one side was still attached.     Hugh

[Oregon Desert model 45]

Hugh

I have a theory about the 1/4" strips under the sills. 
Wait until all the sheetmetal has been tacked in place, and then try sliding the strips in and fasten them after everything else is lined up.
This should make it easier to fit the rear tub sheetmetal over the wood frame since the sheetmetal wraps over the upper rail 1/4" for about 12 inches just behind rear door opening.
The 1/4 strips may have also been intended to allow for minor vertical adjustment and final alignment of cowl, doors, center pillar, and rear tub sheetmetal. After the sheetmetal is reattached, some of those 1/4 strips may even require minor wood planing to fit between the sill bottom and lowersheetmetal flange.

Kevin

 

[Hubert_25-25]

Kevin,

Your theory about the 1/4" strips being added after the sheetmetal was installed could be correct.  I don't see a real need for the 1/4" wood strips otherwise, as they don't appear to have a distinct purpose.  I made new 1/4" strips, and they are light colored being poplar, but I had almost all of the original old wood strips still intact and nailed on the sills, and none of them where shaved thin or shimmed.  The sheetmetal side of the 1/4" strip followed the smooth curve of the outside side of the sill so closely, that they looked like they were tacked on and planed to follow the contour and angle of the sill.  But they could have just as easily been made that way without planning the 1/4" strip while attached to the sill.  (I made the new strips by planning to match the outside angle of the sill.  The inside side of the sill wood is vertical, but the outside side of the sill is angled about 5 to 10 degrees from vertical.  The top is pitched out slightly.  

 

Hugh