theastronaut Posted January 20, 2022 Author Share Posted January 20, 2022 Getting back to panel alignment. I started by measuring the frame height at the ends and body mounting points to make sure it was level and not twisted. It was off a bit so I checked tire pressure and found that the right front was down to 12 psi which was causing that corner to sag. With all tires set to the same pressure the front and rear were within 1/16" side to side. Zero spacers under the rad support, just the bushings. The front of the hood was too low and the fender to door gap was way off- too big at the top and too tight at the bottom. Raising the rad support up corrected the rear fender gap and got the hood's surface in line with the door top and cowl. I didn't take pics of it but I use a 8' stick of 1/2 x 1/2" aluminum C channel to lay across the panels to check the overall shape to see which way the panels need to be adjusted to have a consistent shape from front to back. The fender wouldn't adjust up enough so I had to slot the cowl holes upward. The bottom flange also needs trimming to allow the fender to come up a bit more. The hood to fender gap is still too large so I'll have to lengthen one of the two to close the gap. The original bumper filler was crunched too badly to reuse so I ordered a new one, and it was made too badly to use- nothing lined up and it pushed the fenders apart too far. I found a used filler panel locally and test fit it. The radiator support holes didn't line up well with the original holes in the middle, and I had to trim the rear outer edges of the filler so the filler could move back enough to line up with the fender edges. The fit between the fender bottoms and filler panel edges were off pretty far as well. The last '66 F100 we built with factory fenders also fit badly so I don't think this is a problem with the new fenders. With everything roughed in the front of the driver side fender stuck out from under the hood on the driver side by over 1/2". The frame notches in the bumper filler panel were way off compared to the frame horns, so I moved the radiator support over to the passenger side to get the fender corners more lined up with the hood edges. They're still not 100% centered. Its pretty apparent that the frame is bent since the notches in the filler panel don't line up with the frame horns (especially the passenger side), plus the original filler panel and inner fenders were crunched. The upper bumper holes measure 31 5/8" center to center compared to 32 1/4" C2C for the splash panel notches. The frame already has to come back apart later, Fatman Fab welded the crossmember in ~2" too far forward which didn't show up until we hung the fenders. I'll pull the passenger side rad support bolt so the rad support can move over enough and use a C clamp to hold that side in place while I rough out the panel alignment and bodywork, and the frame can be fixed once it all comes apart for paint after blocking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted January 20, 2022 Author Share Posted January 20, 2022 The door was way off before I took the truck apart, and stripping the paint didn't magically make them fit better. The door was sunk inward so far at the front that slotting the bolt holes inthe hinge wasn't enough to get the door out far enough. The outside edge of the top hinge was hitting the hinge pocket in the A-pillar, so I ground off a bit of the hinge and used an air hammer to push the pocket out wider. This pic shows where the hinge was contacting the pocket. With the door out enough to match the windshield post and fender height, the bottom half of the cowl no longer lined up. I left the rust repair in the bottom of the cowl sides unfinished in case this didn't line up, at this stage I can easily reset the cowl width to match the door and hood width/shape. The corner profile between the door and pillar were mismatched so I cut the cowl and jamb to reshape that corner to match the door. Window frame starting point. The top is already way better than the before pic, disassembling the roof and drip rails let me straighten a lot of the inconsistencies out of the rails. Huge A pillar gap. Tapered B pillar gap. Typical taper of the B pillar- flush at the top but sticks out at the bottom. Would love to know Ford's reasoning for their terrible fitment here. 1/8" welding rod welded to the door edge and pillar edge. Ground flush, blacked out, marked to set the new gap. Rod edges ground straight and sanded smooth. The gaps are set to roughly .156". 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted January 21, 2022 Author Share Posted January 21, 2022 The drip rail had a high spot up front so I tapped that down with a hammer and delrin block. Gap along the middle was pretty good. This angle doesn't show it well, but there was a slight high spot in the curve at the rear of the drip rail, also removed with hammer/delrin, and a curved dolly supporting the bottom so that only the center of the curve would drop down. After straightening the drip rail and welding 1/8" rod to the front ~6" of the door edge. The rear corner and back edge was tight in a couple of areas. It wasn't tight enough to cut the outer panel and tap the edge back, so I tapped the edge back but that made a high spot around the edge. I used the shrinking disc to bring the high spots down, and drilled out the spot welds along the B pillar side of the inner panel so I could bend it out of the way for access to hammer and dolly the area to the correct shape. A problem with tapping back an edge to increase the gap- The side of the flange becomes more visible since the base of the flange in the jamb is still spot welded in the same place. Notice that the lower half that I hadn't tapped back still has a 90* flange, so the flange isn't visible in a straight on shot. The upper half shows, which looks bad when the door is closed and the side of the flange is more visible. To counter that, I used a rounded over chisel tip to walk the base of the flange over to match the 90* flange of the untouched area. With the door closed the flange isn't tilted so it looks natural. I lightly went over the shrunk area with a 3" 100 grit pad and then the DA sander to prep for epoxy. The shrinking disc leaves the surface too smooth for epoxy to grip- notice the reflection of the ruler a few pics up. No pic, but I pie cut the flange of the B pillar top to bottom to move the outer panel inward, flush with the window frame on the door. I'll get pics of this when I gap the other door. At the bottom I cut out a section and made a new wider piece to weld in since the gap was so wide. Checking the fit of the new piece, then using the shrinker/stretcher to match it to the door edge. Tweaking the gap with a small flathead screwdriver. Old dead calipers set to .156" to check the gap as I went along. Welded in and welds smoothed. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike "Hubbie" Stearns Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 Great work. Is the other side just as bad? I was wondering what is a shrinking disc you are using? I’ve never heard or seen one before. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidC9057 Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 You know all this is almost a lost art. I don’t know who taught you but they had to be good at it. Like you. Didn’t know anyone in SC could do this. I live in upstate SC also. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura S Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Have to say you do awesome work . I love looking at your thread . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 On 1/21/2022 at 5:29 AM, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said: Great work. Is the other side just as bad? I was wondering what is a shrinking disc you are using? I’ve never heard or seen one before. Mike Yes, both sides had really bad gaps and alignment from the factory. A shrinking disc is a metal disc on a grinder that makes friction against the high spots to heat them up enough to shrink the high area down. They're very effective at targeting stretched metal from dents/damage without overheating the panel like a torch could easily do. On 1/27/2022 at 1:00 AM, DavidC9057 said: You know all this is almost a lost art. I don’t know who taught you but they had to be good at it. Like you. Didn’t know anyone in SC could do this. I live in upstate SC also. There are a few shops around that do metalwork but most just pile on filler to correct body shapes and mismatched panels. I went to Greenville Tech for collision repair which covered basic body/paint work and welding but most of the metalshaping has been self taught out of necessity when reproduction panels weren't available. On 2/9/2022 at 8:54 PM, Laura S said: Have to say you do awesome work . I love looking at your thread . Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Continuing on the passenger door, the gap against the rear jamb was too big. The mismatch in body lines is intentional- the overall panel shape fit best with the door aligned here. I can use a hammer and dolly to move the short cab corner body line upward to match the door's crease more easily than having to stretch and raise the upper part of the door above the body line to match the flow of the cowl and hood height. I stop grinding at this point, reweld any missed areas or pinholes, and use a hammer and dolly to correct about 95% of the weld shrinking along the door edge before grinding the weld seam completely flat. This helps to stretch only the raised weld bead which is the most shrunken part. The last bit of stretching is done when shaping the door edge to match the cab corner. Edge curled from weld shrinkage. After hammer on dolly stretching. Edge ground to establish new gap size. Moving up to the cowl. The flow from the door to hood is good both down at the body line and up at the top of the door, but the bottom half of the cowl was low in comparison. I already had the bottom cut away for rust repair so I decided to cut higher up and make a new cowl side to both repair the rust and fix the low area all at once since it would be the same amount of welding either way, and a higher cut would have better inside access for weld seam planishing. This is using aluminum c-channel to check for panel flow and high/low spots. This is exactly how a long sanding block would contact the body when blocking so its a great way to visualize what the overall panel flow is and what needs to be adjusted before blocking to minimize overall high/low spots. It's springy so it flexes in a natural arc- perfect to check panel to panel flow. Template to lay out the panel edges/gap size. Rolled in the english wheel with an inner tube over the top wheel so it only bends in one direction. I did make a few light passes with a low crown wheel to add a slight crown to match the overall shape down the side of the truck. Tipping the edges, then shrinking to fit the contour of the hood and door. I'll wait to finish the bottom edge once the fender height is finalized so I can set the fender to cowl gap correctly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Driver side door progress. The rear edge of the door from the window frame down didn't fit too badly after the initial adjustment but the window frame was sticking way out. Cowl top had the same mismatch as the other side. Drip rail was flat across the middle compared to the window frame. I used some blocks to wedge the door open at the bottom and shoved the upper rear inward by pushing on the window frame to twist the door into a shape that fit the cab opening better. That made the back edge of the door match the cab corner's shape much more closely and the window frame was no longer poking out at the top. After readjusting the door to make the overall panel shape match up better with the cowl and hood the gaps were actually pretty decent, close enough that I think high build will close the gap up enough to hit my target .156" gap size. Cowl sliced and reshaped to match the door's profile. Touching up an uneven spot on the door gap. This area is difficult to make look right since the body lines and gaps are at weird angles. Making the b-pillar flush with the window frame and closing up the gap. I also reshaped the drip rail to follow the curve of the door top for an even top gap. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novice.at.best Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 I can't stop looking at the extremely precise and detailed work you've been doing. It's making me question the meaning of my own existence 🤯. JK. You have opened my eyes to alot of new ideas and different processes, thank you for that 👍. Like the dash vents, I've seen them installed similarly, but not with as much style. And those seamless transitions and adjusted gaps like the dash to A pillars. I now have more work to do. I do have a couple of questions about how things will turn out, so I'm on the edge of my seat for new content from you. Very curious to see how the area between the back glass and duck bill looks. I'm doing a similar, but personal project where the drip rails were previously deleted and I just continued with the look by radiusing the top front corner of the doors and pillar to match the curves. But having to reskin the roof to get rid of the ridge line I decided to weld the rearward seam as well. Sorry y'all, for writing a book up here 😬. I hope all are doing well. Oh, and can anyone tell me what the extra mounting holes/embossed areas under the front edge of the hood far left and right of the latch are? I'm really confused 🤔 by them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 On 3/1/2022 at 8:58 AM, novice.at.best said: I can't stop looking at the extremely precise and detailed work you've been doing. It's making me question the meaning of my own existence 🤯. JK. You have opened my eyes to alot of new ideas and different processes, thank you for that 👍. Like the dash vents, I've seen them installed similarly, but not with as much style. And those seamless transitions and adjusted gaps like the dash to A pillars. I now have more work to do. I do have a couple of questions about how things will turn out, so I'm on the edge of my seat for new content from you. Very curious to see how the area between the back glass and duck bill looks. I'm doing a similar, but personal project where the drip rails were previously deleted and I just continued with the look by radiusing the top front corner of the doors and pillar to match the curves. But having to reskin the roof to get rid of the ridge line I decided to weld the rearward seam as well. Sorry y'all, for writing a book up here 😬. I hope all are doing well. Oh, and can anyone tell me what the extra mounting holes/embossed areas under the front edge of the hood far left and right of the latch are? I'm really confused 🤔 by them. Thanks for the compliments! I'm not sure what the holes under the front edge of the hood were used for, I don't remember anything being attached there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 Getting the doors and hood in alignment meant I could work on making the bottom of the hood fall in line with the body line that goes through door. I used string to pull a reference line to see where to trim the hood. With the string set, I clamped a straight edge in place and used a scribe to mark the upper edge as a reference that wouldn't be changed so I could move the string out of the way. This is how much the back edge needed to be moved up. Relief cut. Bottom edge pulled up and tacked in place. Double checking with string. The passenger side was checked and found to be in good alignment. With this set on both sides the cowl sections can be finished to match. The header panel fit was really bad, the gap was really inconsistent and the inner flanges where the header bolts to the fender needed reworking. The inner flange was made at a 45* angle, which looked strange with the two panels bolted together. Lumpy flange. I straightened this so the two panels could be bolted together with consistent gaps after being disassembled for paint. 45* flange hammered so the section visible through the gap is at 90*, and beginning to make relief cuts to straighten the edge. Making the edges flush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 Same process on the other side. The grill opening didn't match the grill edge on either side, so I welded 1/8" rod to close up the gaps and made reliefs where needed to even out the gap. I made a template of the grill so I didn't have to mount the grill itself 4,783 times to check progress. 1/8" welding rod to fill in the big gaps. 1/16" gap all around. I'll probably open this up slightly to make room for filler/primer/paint so that the finish painted gap ends up at 1/16". Passenger side. Welds kept as flat as possible to minimize grinding. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 As usual, I'm amazed at your work and how bad the original sheet metal was manufactured. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lahti35 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 Looks great, lots of craftsmanship here, impressive! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidC9057 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Amazing work!! You persuaded me to buy a shrinking disk. Now if I can learn to use it! To have taught yourself how to work metal in this manner is outstanding. I actually have some work I need you to perform. Please let me know if you are able. I live in York SC. Not far from you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidC9057 Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 Hope everything is well for you as you haven’t posted in awhile. It has to be a hassle to work and post along the way. But I sure have gained a lot of knowledge from you for my upcoming restoration. Thanks for all the great pictures and text. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 14, 2022 Author Share Posted June 14, 2022 On 6/10/2022 at 10:53 AM, DavidC9057 said: Hope everything is well for you as you haven’t posted in awhile. It has to be a hassle to work and post along the way. But I sure have gained a lot of knowledge from you for my upcoming restoration. Thanks for all the great pictures and text. I'm doing well, still working on the truck but have had more problems than solutions with it lately. The hood and cowl fitment have been a big pain to get corrected, I'll post details of that soon. I ended up cutting the left side of the cowl off, and removed the hood's inner braces for better access to repair the braces and to reposition the skin on the braces for better fit against the cowl and header panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John S. Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 theastronaut , very nice work. It's all about the gaps. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 21, 2022 Author Share Posted June 21, 2022 After fixing the grill gaps I moved to the passenger side cowl. The bottom edge had rust in it that I had already cut out. I pulled string to determine where to fold the bottom edge to match the body line in the door. The aluminum c-channel was used to align the cowl skin at the correct depth compared to the hood and cowl before welding it in place. The edges were tweaked to even out the gaps. I had welded up the antenna hole earlier but there was some distortion from not being able to planish out the welds. With the cowl cut open I now had access to the back side. I smoothed out the welds on the back side using a mini belt sander, then planished the welds to level the surface. I always try to place weld seams where I have access to the back side for grinding and planishing, but the weld seam for the cowl made that a challenge. There is a hole in the upper kick panel that opens up into the cowl cavity and I was able to barely reach into it to hold a dolly and still reach the outer panel with a hammer. Grinding the welds flat on the inside between rounds of tacking/planishing wasn't as easy, I had to lay on my back with limited visibility and very little room to maneuver a grinder inside the cavity. Contour of the panel was retained by planishing the weld dots- no flat spot from weld shrinkage. Checking the alignment with c-channel after welding the panel in. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 21, 2022 Author Share Posted June 21, 2022 The driver side of the cowl had the same rust and fit issues. This side didn't have an access hole and even if it did I didn't want to go through the hassle that the passenger side was. I should've done this on the other side, there will only be about 2" of butt-weld seams on exterior surfaces that don't have access this way so no planishing/contorting will be needed. Cutting the cowl top off caused the top of the firewall to flex forward from the weight of the hood, so I welded in a turnbuckle and pulled it back into the correct position. The edge of the cowl and the edge of the hood didn't match up before cutting the cowl open. Having the skin off let me rearrange the edge to match the shape of the hood for an even gap. I used a chisel tipped hammer to move the crease over, along with a machined down hub as a post dolly and the bead roller to keep the corner sharp. The dark line is the old edge. Making progress. I'll finish shaping the cowl once the hood is back together an on the truck so I can make sure it's surface is in line with the door and hood. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 21, 2022 Author Share Posted June 21, 2022 The hood ended up needing a lot more work than anticipated. Moving the doors outward to align the A-pillar and window frame meant that the cowl had to be widened to match, and to get the shape to flow from the doors to cowl to hood meant the hood needed widening as well. The front corners of the hood didn't match up with the shape of the fender tops, and the passenger side hood was too short once I had bent the side out to match the shape of the cowl. I initially cut the passenger side lower edge off to make a new taller piece to weld on. I use tape and mark the bends and overall length to use as a template for the new piece. The hump and curved outer edge were made with the tipping die on the bead roller, then fine tuned with the shrinker/stretcher. This edge was in rough shape so I made a new section to weld in. Test fitting and tweaking. Forming an offset for the new panel to fit into. The corner was rusty and dented and shaped wrong so I made a new one. Lots of puckering from shrinking the edge, half of it shown hammered out. The front edge of the hood was rusty and I had cut that out back when I stripped and blasted the hood. Between the front edge, passenger edge, and passenger front corner being cut out the hood was too flimsy to fit the new outer edge. With the brace still in it wouldn't be possible to planish the welds across the front. I also found some stress cracks around the spot welds so I decided to remove the braces so I could do a better job of patching the rust and making the hood fit the cowl properly. This rust along the back edge was flaking up and would've caused a high spot to show up later on, and eventually would've rusted through. With the skin off I can mock up the braces, weld in the new outer sides, all while setting the gap to the grill filler panel and fenders, and making sure the back edge is flush with the cowl. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 21, 2022 Author Share Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) Starting with the front brace, there was a plate that the hood catch bolted to that also extended up to the emblem holes in the outer skin. The owner wants to delete the emblem and its recess so I cut off the sides that extend up. There was some damage around the emblem area and someone had brazed the inner brace to the outer skin at some point. The mounting pad for the hood catch bent so I flattened it out. The safety catch used slide in clip nuts to fasten it to the brace. I flattened out the clip recesses and made a plate with nuts welded to it to clean up the look and make it easier to mount. The clips don't let the base sit flat and they move around whenever you loosen the bolts which makes it harder to adjust accurately. I also welded up the holes for the emblem mounting studs. The edge that sits against the hood skin was curled and rough. I ran the edge through the planishing hammer to flatten it and pulled tape for a reference to grind back to. Things like this are quick and easy to do while its apart and will make the sanding the high build much easier. Another area that only takes 5-10 min and makes life a lot easier when sanding primer; the cut outs had rough edges that I flattened with a hammer and dolly. There are a couple of unused stampings that bigger trucks used for latching the hood that aren't needed. Edited June 21, 2022 by theastronaut (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARY F Posted June 21, 2022 Share Posted June 21, 2022 Outstanding work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novice.at.best Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 (edited) YES! Now those extra stampings and holes finally make sense👍, thank you. Beautiful work sir, keep on hammering out miracles. Edited June 22, 2022 by novice.at.best (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 28, 2022 Author Share Posted June 28, 2022 On 6/21/2022 at 5:18 PM, GARY F said: Outstanding work. Thanks! On 6/22/2022 at 8:02 AM, novice.at.best said: YES! Now those extra stampings and holes finally make sense👍, thank you. Beautiful work sir, keep on hammering out miracles. Thanks! I didn't remember removing anything from those spots on the hood brace so I asked what they were for on the Ford truck forum. It's interesting how they used the same stamping for the bigger trucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted June 28, 2022 Author Share Posted June 28, 2022 I didn't post many details on patching the other side, so I'll be more detailed about this one. I formed the top to bottom curve on the slip roll, then added a bit of compound curve on the english wheel, then formed the tighter curved edge on the Pullmax. The brace and patches are 16g so they required more force to shape than thinner panels. I already had this die set that was a close match. Clamped in place to scribe the trim line. Precision trimming with the Beverly shear. It's possible to get a tight fit with minimal gaps or need for further trimming/grinding if the scribe line is accurate. Welded and smoothed. The overlapped areas didn't match up well so I used a hammer, steel block, and a rounded over air chisel to flatten out the areas that didn't lay flat on the lower piece. The flat areas weren't very flat and there were raised bumps from spot welds. The height of the front edge wasn't consistent from side to side and it had random offset spots pressed in. Originally this edge had padding stapled in place to support the skin while allowing the skin to float on top of the brace. I'll either use similar padding or two part 3M NVH Dampening Material. Since this edge will be very visible when the hood is open I wanted to make it the same height all the way across, both for looks and so the padding or 3M NVH will support the hood evenly. I made a set of simple Pullmax dies from 1" steel bar to reform the edge into an even 3/8" offset. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted June 30, 2022 Share Posted June 30, 2022 Better than new! This truck will be outstanding when finished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novice.at.best Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 Crazy attention to detail on those hood braces. I'm wondering if you'll add some extra X bracing under the hood? I'm definitely going to try on my 66, it's just got alot of flex to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 Getting started back with updates, I'll break them up into a few posts since I have a ton of pics for the work done on the hood and some of the forums I post to have a 20 pic/post limit. A few post back I started making new pieces for the bottom edges of the sides of the hood. Before cutting off the old sides I made notes of how steeply angled the outside edge was bent every few inches. I also made tape templates to rough in the shape of each end. The rear edge had an offset area stamped into it to allow a flange on the brace to fit flush with the bottom edge. I trimmed a piece of scrap 18g to the shape of the recess and used it to define the edges and depth of the recess, then formed it with a rounded over air chisel tip and hammer. The hard part- making all the pieces fit together with each other while making sure the edges were in the correct locations. Getting a piece too high or too low, or too far in or out, or too far forward or backward meant the gaps and flushness would be way off once its all welded together. At this point the hood skin was really cut up; both sides and almost all of the front were cut out so it was pretty flimsy. I decided it would be best to focus on getting the inner braces and sides fit together first. With the front brace shimmed into the correct position and clamped in place, I started fitting it's flanges to the new sides. The sides were shimmed off the top of the fender the correct height to keep their edges in line with the bottom of the cowl. I decided to shave the holes in the braces to make body and paint work go easier later on; getting paint shot through holes like this onto the inside of the outer skin is a pain and it never looks as good as you want it to. The outside edges of the holes had lumps on one end so I used a socket and mallet to cold shrink them down smooth. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 To set the width of the rear hood brace and hood sides I first had to set the location of the rear of the new hood sides. I also needed to finish the left cowl bottom patch. I used magnets to float/clamp the aluminum C-channel in place down the length of the door, cowl, and new hood side. That keeps all the new pieces flowing well from panel to panel. String was pulled down the door's body line at the correct height so that the new bottom edge of the hood isn't too high or too low, which would throw off the body line and hood to fender gap. Shape of the door transferred to a profile gauge, gauge used to check the shape of the cowl bottom patch. Adding curve to the flanged ends until the shape matches the door edge. The middle of the panel was stretched to add shape by hammering on top of a slightly rounded dolly to add shape. Low across the middle after tacking in place. After planishing the welds, still not all the way back to shape. Low again after more tacks. This was good enough to hold it together to finish fitting the cowl in place so the hood could be fitted. With the C-channel and string in place I could accurately measure how long the lower flange needed to be made to make the panel sit flush with the hood and door. This flange won't be able to be added until the fender comes back off, and I need the fender on to set the hood's dimensions correctly. The front edge of the hood had been cut out for rust repair, and to shave the recessed emblem mount. I made a template of the edge of the upper grill panel and marked that shape onto a 4x6" steel tube. I supported the rear of the hood with angle blocks, making sure to keep the hood level in all directions. I initially overlapped the new panels and tacked them in place, then doubled checked the fit on the truck to make sure the front edge was in the correct location. With the fit where I wanted it I scribed and trimmed the edge and welded the new pieces in. The nice part of using tubing was that it kept the flange 100% flat. The braces were sandblasted and shot with SPI epoxy. I also made captured nut plates for the hood latch and safetey catch. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted January 3, 2023 Author Share Posted January 3, 2023 The hood brace was bolted to the hinges and adjusted back against shims to replicate the gap size and thickness of the outer skin. Also had to adjust the hinges some to get the angle of the brace corrected so the rear edge had a consistent gap along the cowl, and not tighter or looser at the top or bottom. Since the mounting pad swings in an arc I was able to move the hinges up or down to change the resting point angle. The overall height of the brace isn't that important since the rear flange is vertical; the outer skin can be moved up or down against the brace's flange as long as the brace isn't higher than the cowl, or too low that the outer skin's flange wouldn't reach the brace's flange. To start the brace was too narrow to match up with the hood side's flanges. Marking how much the brace needed to be bent outwards. I clamped the brace to a table and made a mark in the center of the brace to reference how much I was bending the edges. Double checking and making new notes. After a lot of hammering and tweaking, the brace and sides lined up. This area had a spot that fit too tightly against the cowl which would push the skin too close and make the gap too tight, so I laid a couple strips of tape parallel with the cowl edge. With the first piece of tape removed I was able to set calipers at the correct width (silver mark), then scribe the rolled edge to mark where the edge should roll over, then hammer the edge back the correct amount. The bottom of the hood brace flange fit too tightly against the hood side flange, so I used a ruler as a spacer/straight edge and scribed a line to trim to. Notice the 1/8" alignment holes drilled through both layers so it can be disassembled and easily reassembled in proper alignment. I did this to all of the pieces once they were fitting correctly. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted January 3, 2023 Author Share Posted January 3, 2023 On test fit #6,374 of the hood I noticed that the top of the cowl had a high spot along it's width, which created a weird transition from the cowl to the hood. Even the vents had a rounded shape. I was able to flatten the vents by tapping them down, with a steel block laid across them to flatten them evenly. To the left and right of the vents had the same bulge. After a few passes with the shrinking disk. The disc leaves the surface too smooth for primer to stick so I rough it back up with 100 grit on a 5" grinder, then 60 grit on a DA. The shape after- good flow from the cowl to the hood that should be able to be perfected with a single thin skim coat of filler. Same process on the other side. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted January 6, 2023 Author Share Posted January 6, 2023 More hood details. With the front and rear braces tweaked to fit better, I bolted the rear brace to the hinges, clamped the front in it's final location, and the new sides were spaced off the fenders and held in place with a couple of sheetmetal screws. I used tubing to make temporary braces to hold all of the pieces in place so I could begin fitting the skin to the braces and sides. The rear corners of the rear brace had tabs that fold over the hood sides and spot weld into a recess. The old tabs weren't the same shape on both sides and were in rough shape from all of the spot welds being drilled out, then the tab pried up to separate the skin from the brace. With the sides mocked up I made tape templates of the new tab shape to match the recess size. Instead of welding across the straight edge of the brace I made a rounded patch so the tab could be bent along the crease without worrying about the weld seam cracking. The recess didn't match left and right, so the new tape templates and tabs didn't match... I didn't catch that when I was making new hood sides using the original sides as templates. To correct that I trimmed both tabs to match and marked where the recess should end and reshaped it to fit the shortened tab. I taped a piece of 18g underneath to use it's edge as a guide for reshaping the recess. I relief cut the front corners of the skin to make them easier to reshape, and roughly marked the area that needed to be stretched to correct the shape. Edges pulled out flush with the upper grill panel, copper spoon used to weld a temporary bridge to hold that shape. Cardboard template of the upper grill panel's profile, tape template of the new hood corner. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike "Hubbie" Stearns Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 You are a true artist with metal. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 20, 2023 Author Share Posted February 20, 2023 On 1/6/2023 at 4:26 PM, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said: You are a true artist with metal. Mike Thanks Mike! New lower corner tacked in place, corner profile needs reshaping so both sides of the seam match. Hammer on dolly stretching to raise the lower side. Lower section opened up for a filler piece since the gap was too wide to weld. Other corner fitted and welded. Marking the inner flange to trim off the uneven edge. I made a template of the cowl's profile from 20g bent 90* then shaped with the linear stretch dies in the pullmax and the hand shrinker/stretcher, then built the structure up top to keep it from flexing. I used it to check and correct the hood skin. Lower edges of the cowl marked to match up the hood edges. Hood hung at the correct height to match the shrinker/stretcher jaws. Before/after correcting the hood profile. Double checking the hood skin fit before welding the braces in. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike "Hubbie" Stearns Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 Looks awesome. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 The battery had exploded at some point and etched the underside of the hood, which left some rust pits that sanding didn't strip. I marked those areas and spot blasted them to remove all of the rust. After blasting I washed the hood inside and out with Ospho to remove the fingerprint rust, neutralized it, wire brushed the inside to remove any flash rust, then DA sanded and shot the inside with a couple coats of epoxy. I wanted to fix the worst areas while the braces were out for better access so I skimmed/blocked them, then shot white epoxy over the repairs and behind the braces since the truck will be red/white and the inside of the hood will be white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 The battery had exploded at some point and etched the underside of the hood, which left some rust pits that sanding didn't strip. I marked those areas and spot blasted them to remove all of the rust. After blasting I washed the hood inside and out with Ospho to remove the fingerprint rust, neutralized it, wire brushed the inside to remove any flash rust, then DA sanded and shot the inside with a couple coats of epoxy. I wanted to fix the worst areas while the braces were out for better access so I skimmed/blocked them, then shot white epoxy over the repairs and behind the braces since the truck will be red/white and the inside of the hood will be white. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theastronaut Posted February 22, 2023 Author Share Posted February 22, 2023 With the skin finished that just leaves the braces. I had shaved and roughly straightened them but for the level of detail I'm shooting for just spraying high build and wetsanding the primer smooth wouldn't be nice enough. So I roughed up the epoxy and started filling and blocking each facet to correct and smooth all of the stamping distortion, spot welds, and uneven corner radii. Tape used to set the width of the radius, and tape on the edges of the block to prevent the already-established flats from being oversanded. This is something I've had in mind for awhile but hadn't got around to making yet. Correcting shapes with filler like this means you spend a lot of time sanding an even radius into the edges, and they don't always come out 100% perfect. Since getting the Bridgeport and lathe and learning more about cutting tool geometry I had the idea to make my own corner radius tools to shave an even radius after blocking two facets to a sharp 90* corner. I started with a piece of 1x1" steel to check my idea and see what kind of relief angles it would need to work correctly. I ended up on a 7* inside back cut just along the front edge and 7* positive rake angle ground into the face. I used a 3/16" endmill on this one but bought a set of endmills from 1/8" to 1/2" to make a full set of radius tools, and I'd like to make a set for both 90* and 45* edges. I'll make them more ergonomic with a handle, this was just an proof of concept test piece. I did look around at some of the radius tools for woodworking but they didn't seem like they would fit between panel gaps to set the final panel edge radius after blocking the filler/primer. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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