1932 Canadian Oldsmobile DCR

[hursst]

Getting to the party late, but very happy to see more of your masterful work.

[chistech]

Thought I’d post n update. There is no update. Haven’t worked on the olds at all. My packaging machine service business has been very busy plus my 92 year old mom, who is fully cognizant, chooses to live alone in her own house, got dehydrated and then dizzy, falling in her bedroom hitting her head. She is absolutely fine, she’s a tough Italian with a lot of even tougher Irish in her, but we brought her to live with us for the past week. In the mean time, her oil tank has had a small leak so we’ve been waiting for the oil to be used up so I could replace the tank. We’ll of course, it came at the same time as her needing all this additional care. Went to remove the tank after cutting the fill piping and hand pumping out the majority of the old, dirty oil, to find the legs were down through the concrete cellar floor! Had to sawzall them off and finally move the tank out. Then put the new one in which of course has its openings in different locations so I had to get creative with the piping but yesterday the oil company came, filled the tank, and I fired up the boiler. No leaks and no boiler issues. Thank god. It was an adventure for sure. Still have some very dirty oil in jugs to haul out of her basement and a heavy as hell, 1956 made 275gallon oil tank. Think I’m going to let my nephews bring that up. I’m not the “bull” I used to be when it come to stuff like that. I’ve done my time! 
     While I thought I was going to get back on the olds this week, a relative had an issue with a bad transmission so I’m dropping one in their car first for them. Just another little thing added to the list. I know the owner of this olds is in no hurry and feels I’ve been able to make fairly quick progress on it but I always try to keep moving on customers projects. Unfortunately, sometimes life does get in the way. 

[Ozzy1932]

Ted, no worries on my end. I wish the best for your Mom. Family is always most important. We had he same exact problem with my mom few years ago. Hopefully she can adjust to her new living arrangements. Have a Happy Thanksgiving !

[chistech]

Finally had a chance to get back on the olds. The rear deck was full of pitting and some pits were deep enough to be pin holes yet the metal around the holes is still thick. I was contemplating cutting out the pitted areas and replacing the metal not only to get rid of the pits and pin holes but because the rear deck was stretched some and was buckling when I tried to line it up on the belt rail wood. I figured I would have to shrink it some with some heat. Adding to the difficulty of replacing all the areas is the edge has the tacking lip for nailing into the belt rail wood and the wood has a curve to it. Making the 90d bend for the lip is difficult because of that curve. I ended up opting to fill all the pin holes with the mig. After filling about 20 holes (all of the holes) I ground all the weld down smooth to the surface and realized not only did it save a ton of time by being a lot less work, but the simple spot welding of the pin holes shrunk the rear deck just enough to get rid of the buckled, stretched area. While there’s still some pits, the metal is solid and the body man can simply work his magic on it. Done with the whole upper deck, I moved on to the drivers side of the body.

     The first step is the fit the aftermarket inner fender well. After some cold forming with a body hammer over a round ball to start the top edge of the well to fit the original well, the bottom edge is aligned and put in its proper location on the bottom edge of the kickup and sill. The aftermarket wells have two holes drilled in them which allows you to hold the well in place by screwing into the side of the kickup. With the well held fast, the perimeter of the well is worked with a torch and ball peen hammer (round end of the head) into the round of the original well. I then drilled through the old captive fender nuts on the well side to help locate the new ones in the replacement well. The holes then got enlarged enough for the 5/16” bolts and the fender was test bolted in place on top of both the new well and the remains of the original. The well then got removed and the new captive nuts installed. The original well got cut out just about 3/4” below the top of the round all they around the well. The lower corners, front and back were rotted away. Before welding the replacement well in place, I started working on the back rear corner by making up a piece to replace the rotted corner. This piece has to be shape to flow into the curve of the well so that is the reason I’ve held off welding in the well. I make and fit the pieces first so I don weld myself into a corner so to speak. 
        Before doing any more work on the well, I decided to go back to working the deck lid. The lid was in fair condition when it arrived with a bent bottom edge and some old repaired hinges. I had previously worked the bottom edge but there was about 8” that was going to require heat so out came the torches and big heat tip to heat the metal enough so it could be bent back and shaped. The bottom edge is made up of the outer skin and the inner panel which is tacked welded together. The 8” area was so badly bent that the spot welds had popped and the two pieces were separated. This allowed me to work the outer skin edge then bend the inner edge back to the outer.  With the lower edge straightened out I did not weld the two pieces back together as I’m not sure if the owners body man might want access to tweak the bottom edge. I’m sure he can weld it up when he’s happy with it. I then moved on to the hinges. Of course removing them included broken screws and some loose captive nuts. Once the hinges were removed, the broken screws were drilled, heated red hot, then easy-out removed. As you know, this is lots of fun and time consuming. A new set of aftermarket hinges were supplied with the spare parts and it was no surprise that while they’re close, they are not exact. Not only are the side lugs too long, hitting the inside top of the lid before the hinge can sit flat, but the pivot holes are undersized with no spacers as the originals were made. I removed the 3/16 spacers from both original hinges, bored the replacement hinges with a selfcentering step drill to 1/2”, then welded the spacers to each hinge. Using a tap I cleaned all the threads I could reach. The side captive nuts are too close to the side lip to get a tap in so I cut a tap short and ground a 3/16” square on the end. Using this tap, I was able to chase the threads and clean them up. I have two captive nuts on the passenger side that came out and I will be addressing that next. The side lugs were trimmed with a cut-off wheel to allow the hinge to sit flush as it should. I attached the drivers side hinge and it fits well. 

[chistech]

My reasoning for going back to the deck lid is because I wanted to make sure the lid fits as best as possible before I made the drivers side rear corner and weld the back all up solid. The original hinge posts were rotted and a repopped pair came along with the repopped lid hinges. As my last post pointed out that the repopped stuff is close but it’s never quite right and always needs massaging to work. The hinges did fit the lid but they appeared to have a slightly less length of pivot. This measurement was by eye so I first needed to weld in two pieces of threaded 1/4” stock to replace the captured nuts that had come out. I weld in the bar stock by drilling two holes on each side of the bolt hole, mount the hinge and put the bar in place under the surface, then screw in the screw tightly, holding the bar in place. Then with the mig on high, I feed wire right into the center onto the bar which penetrates the bar enough first, then puddles up, melting into the sides of the drilled hole. I altered the broken bracket by cutting out sections to either side of the screw hole which allowed me to weld. The new hinge will cover the weld.

       With the hinge mounted, I installed the deck lid. Sure enough, as I was afraid of, the lid didn’t want to adjust to the rear of the opening enough. It fit pretty good with the original broken hinges but was going to require some fiddling because of the repopped hinge posts but now with the new ones, it’s a whole new ball of wax. I had to remove both hinge posts as the captive nuts were not allowing for enough adjustment. Looking at the captive nut cages I could see that first they were quite made  right and the holes didn’t allow for enough adjustment. Not going to get into it much but both posts needed disassembly and rework to get what was needed. The rear edge that I got the dent out of is still not shaped as it should, is hitting the knife edge metal in the damaged area, and I’m going to talk with Brian about if this is something better suited for his body man. He is a very accomplished race car restorer and I’m willing to bet he probably has better equipment for getting the lid as it should be. If Brian want me to attempt it I will as I don’t think I’ll make it any worse.

       With the lid now pretty good as far as location in the opening, I moved on to the rear corner sheet metal repair. I made a patch panel up, scribed a line on the body, then cut the out rotted metal out leaving a 3/8” buffer from te patch dimensions so I could use my flange tool. I then removed the fender well so it wouldn’t interfere with my patch, and welded it in. With the corner in, I moved on to the front lower body quarter panel patch just behind the B pillar. This patch was a repopped panel, which is great to have but not quite right. It appears they make these panels to be welded on top of the original metal because the bead that goes around the wheel well opening is always too large and doesn’t match the shape of the car’s bead. This means of course, more massaging with hammer and dolly. The front edge of this lower panel also needs to be bent with three small 90d bends where the metal goes around the edge of the B pillar and gets covers with the pillar cover metal.

       Using the same technique as the rear corner, the car body panel was measured, cut, and flanged. Then the patch panel was put in place lining up the front edge of the vertical portion of the bead with the front edge of the bead n the body. It was measured for length to the front edge, cut, then the series of 90d bends done. I then welded in a small moon shaped piece to fill the front edge of the lower body bead. Te panel gotclamped in place then welded in. Now it’s just some trimming of the inner fender well then it will be welded in with the front and rear panels welded to it. That will finish the panel replacement and major body panel work on the body. There’s still more welding and more tin knocking but nothing like what I’ve been doing on the body these last few days. I’m looking forward to be getting up off the floor for a while.

[Ozzy1932]

`Thanks for the update Ted ! What a transformation. I'm amazed at how much you have done. It's a real treat to see what you have done and how you have accomplished it all !

[chistech]

Back from my Christmas vacation with the wife down in Florida. As typical, when I got home the phone started ringing right out of my pocket with packaging machinery customers. First few days of this week were spent traveling to do repairs and then doing both machine and parts quotes when I’d get home each night.

      Today I was able to get back to the olds. I finished up the drivers side welding in the whee well and rear lower corner. Bolted up the fender to check fit and it looks great. Fitted each of the landau arm stanchion bolts and ferrules to the body side. The drivers side had a good circle shape with adequate even spacing for the grommet. The passenger side was a different story. The hole in the body was badly Oval shaped towards 7o’clock so a small fillet of sheet metal was made and welded in. I assume the whole got in this odd shape from the wood deteriorating and causing the  landau arm to force the bolt stanchion bolt down and back. With the new fillet in place, the hole was rounded out to allow proper spacing around the ferrule to clear the grommet. Both grommets and ferrule 

s were installed and checked for fit. Didn’t get any before pictures of the egged hole but it was just another small thing that needed fixing.

      With all the heavy welding done on the rear body shell, I went back and installed the rumble lid again. I again pulled off the drivers side hinge post and worked the caged nut some more to get a little more rearward movement of the hinges pivot bolt. I also worked on the back edge some more and got it looking pretty darn good from what it was. I adjusted the knife edge metal some and started to line up the bottom edge of the rumble lid with the curvature of the lower deck metal. Anyone who’s done a rumble seat knows that the lower rear sheet metal often needs to shimmed to get it not only to clear the lid when it’s opened but to also line up with the lid when it’s closed. Got the lid pretty darn good so I removed it then pulled the body of the wood. I tin knocked some low areas where I had welded and it pulled in slightly then tin knocked any area I could see that needed it. Tomorrow I’ll start disassembly of the wood, then it will be glued and screwed back together. It will get a coat of copper naphthalene to preserve and insect proof it. This will yield me the whole wood frame done other than the two a pillars and dash  cross beam. Once reassembled, I’ll start on the pillars.

[chistech]

Been my typical machine repair work busy plus I changed accountants because the one that was recommended to us when I started the business is absolutely terrible. The difference is night and day and the new accountant is having us gather so much more information that’s it taking a lot of time. 
      Did disassembly on the body wood but I disassembled it as sections. This allowed for disassembly of the section, adding the glue, reassembling it, then fastening it back to the rest of the wood to dry straight and true to the rest of the wood frame. Two of the original four seat adjuster nut plates were missing from the car so I made up two on them I then installed two on each main sill underside in the dado where they’re intended to mount. The wood got treated with my modern day concoction that closely resembles what was used to treat the wood originally. After a lot of research and conversation with other extremely knowledgeable people on GM cars it was agreed that copper arsenic was used as an insecticide and most likely mixed with creosote to “brown” up the green mixture. I’m sure anyone who’s taken an original wood bodied GM car has seen a greenish tint in places and a brownish thin tarish covering on the wood. With neither copper arsenic or creosote available, my mixture is made from copper naphthalene and pine tar. Not quite as brown/black as original but looks pretty close. With the lower sills, cross sills, kickups, and rear cross sill all assembled and treated, I’ll now disassemble the belt rail wood and go through the same process to finish off the rear body wood. Then I’ll start on the A pillars and dash cross sill.

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Great job as always. Mike

[Ozzy1932]

Looks excellent Ted ! Thank you for the update.

[chistech]

Completely finished disassembly/reassembly of the remaining rear body wood today. All got the pine tar/copper naphthalene treatment and glued. Added all the screws I hadn’t put in and repainted all the metal brackets. I added the small rocker panel wedges to the top of the main sills. Many don’t realize that these wedges were used on some of the GM cars under the front end of the rocker. The front end 6” of the top of the rocker is upswept  and without these wedges, if the rocker was stepped on at the front, it could be bent down and or causing the bottom o the rocker to pull its nails. Chances of this happening is pretty rare but they were originally there so I put them on. Put a topcoat of black on the primed rumble lid drip rail but only on the under and back sides. This will help prevent it from rusting but leaving the inside rail and gutter in primer will allow for the painter to paint the gutter with the body color without running a risk of paint compatibility. Next thing will be to install it. 

[Ozzy1932]

I can see how important those wedges are. I’m glad you installed them in there. The wood has a great look to it now with your wood treatment. The DCR is looking great Ted 😊 

[hursst]

Wow, masterful work.  Another perfect restoration coming to life.

[chistech]

Nailed in the golf bag door area close off metal that I made up new. It fit as it should. I then suspended the framework off my hoist and checked for then touched up any areas I might have missed with the insecticide mixture. It then got mounted back to the build frame and bolts were tightened to secure the wood for when the sheet metal is nailed on.

 

With the need to go back to making wood pieces like the A pillars for example, I started going through all that I will need to make and the various thicknesses of ash needed. I need to make all the door wood. A complete seat frame. The two floor boards, the mid bow wood, and the front roof bow. The rear roof bow is steam bent and will be made by the vendor who made mine a few years back.

 

i got the bow assembly out of my storage trailer to disassemble it. The metal mid bow frame is in bad condition and needs some serious repair. One side is broken completely off at one of the screw holes and the other side is cracked at the same, opposite screw hole. The bottom frame pivot area was rusted to the pin causing it to be bent which I straightened.  The bow frame will need some welding among other work like some new landau arm studs which one is broken, the other badly rusted/pitted. The bow framework is needed to check the landau arm position and is shimmed in position on the belt rail top using tar paper so the assembly will be restored and bolted on the body when it goes back to Brian.

 

To get started on disassembling the bow assembly, out came the blue wrench (Torches). Lots of areas needed heat to remove all the rusted fasteners. Luckily, all fasteners came out. What amazes me is that even though the bow assembly is in bad condition, the almost always lost T bolt escutcheon plates are still on. The bow assembly is definitely very original as the escutcheons, original type fabric remnants, and very few tack holes in the wood show me that this car most likely never even had its original roof replaced! The wood on the mid bow, while mainly just 3/4” thick, is very involved with lots of intricate inletting.

Blasted and primed some parts I’ll be needing I the future. Tomorrow they’ll get painted gloss black. 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Didn’t get any pictures but straightened the mid bow and welded both the cracked end and the end that was completely broken off. There were quite a few screws that were broken off so all got drilled and either got the easy-out treatment or drilled close then tapped. All threaded holes got a tap ran through them. The threaded clip that was broken free of the windshield bow front bracket was aligned and welded back in place.

      The mid bow, two floor pans, and tool try were dropped of yesterday for powder coating. As mentioned earlier, many bolts/screws were broken off and that included one of the two’s bow hinge bolts. The one that came out was in just fair shape and seeing that I had to make one new one, I decided to make two. The bolt is a large diameter, slotted flat head 3/8” bolt stepped down to 5/16-24 on the end. Turning two of these out of scratch would be to time costly so I looked at what I had. Many years back when my dad was alive, a customer of my dad’s was a plant manager of a screw factory. He gave my dad bags of SS hardware in all threads up to 1/2” and in many head types. I’m fortunate that many of those are slotted head which works perfectly for the era of cars I work on. All this hardware is in four multi draw cabinets and I was able to find some round slotted head 3/8 screws. The length of these was perfect and the only downside is they’re fully threaded. Luckily the bottom of the mid bow hinge and the hinge end of rear bow arm, which pivots on the bolt in the slot in the middle of the mid bow hinge, covers the bolt from sight. Once the bolt is painted black, any visual threads will be hard to see. 
       Using my 3/8” lathe collet, I reduced and shaped both heads to more closely resemble the original. Each bolt was the put through the collet from the inside, reduced the end, and tapped it 5/16-24. The outside diameter of the threads was slightly larger than the hole in the hinge so the threads got turned down a few thousands. I ordered some 3/4” and some 5/8” hex stock that I’ll use to make new landau arm standoffs for the mid bow and roof iron end bolts. These bolts and standoffs are unique and not commercially reproduced so I’ll have to make them. 
    Got a lot of roof bow, door, and starter pedal parts blasted and painted up. All of these parts will be needed as I move along with the body restoration, floor wood, and seat frame.

Edited January 21, 2023 by chistech (see edit history)

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Just a thought, since the bolts are for a hinge pivot, would it be better to make a sleeve for the bolt to go through?  Just a thought. Mike

[chistech]

2 hours ago, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said:

Just a thought, since the bolts are for a hinge pivot, would it be better to make a sleeve for the bolt to go through?  Just a thought. Mike

That was a thought Mike but while it’s a hinge, it’s not like a door hinge that’s used often or a hinge that carries weight. This is a hinge to fold the roof bows up or down and the rotation is only about 80 degrees. The hinge is only operated when the roof is raised or lowered. With that in mind I don’t believe the threaded area will be effected much. I’ve only folded my roof twice on my own Olds and really only once since the cars been completed. When I did fold it down, it remained down for a few weeks, then I raised it and put the car away for the winter. If I was to sleeve it it would have to be a very thin piece of brass tubing because the threaded end is 5/16 and the remainder is 3/8”. Turning the bolt down is difficult also to get a true overall diameter along the length. Weighing the options and it’s use, I just don’t think doing anything more is necessary. If I had a round slotted head 3/8 bolt that was only partially threaded, I of course would have used that but these days, bolts like that are almost impossible to find. The bolts I used are stainless which is an upgrade as they won’t rust which will prevent any binding years to come. The side that had broken actually had rusted in the hinge which caused the bottom of the mid bow hinge to get bent. Once I get the bow back from powder coat I show the assembled hinge so you can better visualize how the hinge is made.

[chistech]

Mike, here are some pictures of my own Olds roof bow hinge. I sleeved my own as both my hinges were worn and I opened up the holes some for the brass sleeve. Brian’s bow, while in fairly rough condition, had virtually no wear in the hinge holes. You can see the bushing in the picture but this is from the rear which once the roof is on, is almost impossible to see.

[chistech]

Have some more done. After blasting and painting the starter pedal mechanism, I dug out my spring jig and bent up a couple springs out of 5/32 music wire. This stuff is thick, tuff, and hard to bend but the jig held in my big vise makes it as easy as it can be. I get 3 springs out of one 36” length of wire. With the new spring made, it was installed on the painted pedal, replacing the commonly broken original. On all the olds I’ve seen or worked on I’ve only seen one original spring intact. Other olds owners who claim to have functioning originals , usually have some hybrid spring set up and don’t realize that it’s not correct. The intact one happened to be on the starter pedal linkage that came with the parts chassis I purchased. I was kind of excited to find one and planned to use it on my restoration of my own car. I pushed the pedal down a few times and it snapped! And that is how my jig and my spring fabrication came about. It seems the metalurgy used on these springs wasn’t very good. My springs as cold wound music wire and so far have held up without failure.  I’ve now made and sold about a dozen which is a fair amount considering there aren’t many 32’ olds around and many are owned by people who could care less how the starter mechanism is pulled back as long as it’s pulled out of the ring gear. 
      I also tackled some more work on the lower bottom edge of the deck lid. This lid had been hit and bent in pretty bad on the drivers side. Someone had worked it enough so I imagine they could open and close it but it’s shape was not good. While they were fixing it, the lower edge which should have a stepped “S” shape to it  was completely flattened and was instead bent 90 degrees to the surface of the lid. The “s” is to close off the view of spacing between the lower edge of the lid and the top of the lower deck pan. With the edge at 90d, you could look right through the gap. This edge is a crimped edge with the outer skin getting crimped over the edge of the inner support metal. We’ll, not only is the lower edge not formed correctly, the inner metal had been pulled out of the crimped edge almost in entirety except for about 6” on the passenger side. Using a stout but thin blade flat screwdriver, i painstakingly worked the crimped edge open along the whole length of the outer skin. The issue is when the back of the lid got hit, the inner support metal pulled out of the crimp and got got bent in in the process. Now with the bottom edge shaped correctly, I will have to pull the metal up some to tuck it underneath the edge so it can be recrimped. I have an idea on how I can lift the metal up and in and it will mean me putting some small slots in the inner metal so I can insert a flat blade screwdriver and leverage the bent metal up. Once the inner metal is back where it should be, I’ll not only crimp it but lightly mig weld it so it won’t pull from the crimp again. I’ve done as much adjustment and altering of the hinges to get the lid as best as I can. It’s not perfect and Brian’s body man will have to work a little magic on it. The drivers corner is still in a little deep because the damage changed the corners radius some. While the back edge is pretty darn good matching the lower deck pan, moving the corner out any further would throw off the whole back. The gaps on the side and top are pretty darn acceptable so I’m leaving it where it is. 
      I added a picture of the landau arm standoff studs. You can see one is broken but both are rough. I’ll be doing my best Joe Puleo and turning a pair up out f the 3/4” hex stock I have coming in.
   

[chistech]

With a little bit of work I was able to get the inner metal lip out to the outer skins fold line. Holding it out in position with clamps, the outer skin was bent back over and squeezed tight with vicegrips. Once that was done, I continued to bend the bottom lip in the “S” shape to close off the gap as it should when the lid is closed. With the lid closed the gap is wider than it should be. The lid is most likely a chevy lid. Many people say there are body parts that will work between the brands but I do know that the overall rear deck length from the back of the belt line wood to the bottom of the lower deck pan is longer on the Oldsmobile. The deck rail wood pieces will not fit an Oldsmobile and are too short. I know this as I tried a new set in my own car when I was restoring it and I ended up returning them for that reason. While I have the lower edge of the deck lid shaped very well and matching the car, there should be a piece of sheet metal welded on to the bottom to add about a 1/4” and then be bent in an “L” shape to increase the length of the edge that hides the gap. I’ll talk with brian as he might want his body man to do that. I am done with the lid now as it’s fitting pretty good and is acceptable to me especially with all the variables we started with. I will now pull the lid and body metal one more time. Unscrew, the glue, and screw the knife edge wood and supports in. These pieces are the only ones I didn’t glue in the case of having to adjust more for the lid. Once that is done then the body metal will go on and be nailed in place for good.

       The hexagon stock I ordered came in so later in the week I’ll start on making the hardware I need. Tomorrow is my wife’s birthday so no car work!😁

[chistech]

Turned up two new landau arm standoffs and installed them in the newly powder coated mid bow frame. Brian needed a set of landau arms and I had picked up a nice set a couple years back off eBay so he’s going to use them. I had to ream the end whole some because they were too small from the copper when they were rechromed. With the bow on place on its hinges and the landau arms installed, I was extremely happy with the vertical alignment to the door jamb. In most cases, the bow hinges often get shimmed some with asphalt roofing paper. That was the technique used by the factory and often when disassembling a cabriolet, you’ll find the asphalt paper under the hinges. The shims are used to get the mid bow parallel to the jamb. The passenger side is basically perfect and the drivers side is barely tipped forward at the top. A piece or two of A paper will fix that. It’s a relief when you’ve completely rebuilt a car with new wood, aftermarket parts, and repaired broken frames to have things line up as they should on virtually the first try. 
    I took a picture of the hinge bolt from the rear and while you can see the threads now, once the canvas roof is installed, you won’t be able to see them with the roof folded, the base of the mid bow hinge and the arm of the rear bow completely covers the pivot point from view.

      I had ordered a lot of new hardware for this car and it came in this week. One of the things ordered were large ogee washers normally used on dock piling. The olds used a large thick domed washer to support the head of a 7/16-14 carriage bolt at six of the ten body mounts. The washers sit inside the bored recesses in the main sills. Though they’re not exactly as original, they fit the bill with a little work. Each washer was clamped in my lathe Chuck at the first jaw recess groove. This allows for just enough material to be removed to lower the height of the ogee washers. Preparing these mounts now will give Brian the proper body mounting hardware when he gets the body home and mounts it to his frame. 

[Ozzy1932]

Ted, your work up to this point has been absolutely amazing ! Thank you for sharing these pictures and the details of what you have done to resurrect this 32 Olds DCR !

[chistech]

Pulled the body sheet metal for what I hope is the last time. Removed the metal knife edge and the knife edge support wood. Made up the center support block, drilled, glued, then screwed it in place. Glued and screwed in the support then replaced the metal knife edge. Installed the aftermarket deck lid rain gutter. I already found that the new gutter was made slightly narrower than the original but it was also made straight across the front when the original has a curved front that matches both the curve of the lid and the inletting of the wood it gets screwed to. Using a wood block and a clamp, I pulled the center front of the gutter up to match the inletting then using small round head slotted wood screws, as originally done, screwed it in place. The sides of the gutter the got nailed in with serrated body nails. The newly powder coated floor pans and tool tray also got glued and screwed in place. The rumble pan, because it supports the weight of the seat , is both screwed and nailed on all four sides. The two rumble seat hold down blocks got screwed into the front edge of the rumble pan. The two golf bag door corner stop plates got installed into the inside framing. The mid bow was put aside for future rewooding and the attachment of the steam bent bow that will be coming. The body metal got trussed with some wood strips to stiffen it up the we flipped it upside down so all the fender well welds could be cleaned up and finished. The bottom edges of the body metal will be getting drilled for body nails. 

[Ozzy1932]

Looking great Ted ! Thanks for the update!

[chistech]

Made up the two folding roof iron bolts from 5/8” hex. These two bolts will need to be chromed. Blasted, then Primed and painted a lot of pieces including the seat frame irons and roller wheel brackets. These brackets originally had a sheet metal wheel that’s wrapped around a wood core. I’ve never seen a good wheel yet so I’ll replace those as I did on my own car with a pair of bearings on a bushing. I painted the backside of the primed latch pillar covers and primed/painted the knife edge. I also primed the front roof bow metal that lines the bottom of the bow where it goes over the top of the windshield. A rubber seal gets tacked into the center of the metal through the slots in the pan. Unfortunately the new aftermarket metal, which fits very nicely, has no slots along the entire length. This means it will goin the mill and get the slots cut.

       Set up my planer, changed the blades, and started laying up the pieces I need to make for any piece that’s 3/4”. Those pieces range from door wood, bow wood to the seat frame. After I had determined what pieces would fit in groups, I cross cut a 10’ 4/4 12”wide plank in three sections to make it easier to handle plus give the planer a break from long runs. I do have to say my $400 dewalt planer does an incredible job and handles a full 12” wide  piece of ash  with relative ease as long as you don’t try and take real heavy cuts. Once I had the pieces down to 3/4”, I laid out the respective pieces and traced them out. I made a passenger side regulator board a while back so I only need a drivers side. Luckily the regulator boards are 12” wide so I will be able to make one out of a single piece of the 10’ plank i planed. Using my big band saw, I cut everything out. I then used my horizontal sander to clean up all the pieces. Between the band saw and my big sander, I was able to produce the parts fairly quickly. There are some pieces that will require some inletting and dados so I don’t cut those shapes out but leave the wood in it’s dimensional state so it can be clamped in my machine to be milled. Before I move on to milling any pieces, I’ll layout, cut up, and plane the 8/4 stock I have for the A pillars, top bow, and inner door stiles. My plan is to have all pieces needing milling in a dimensional state so I can knock them all off at once easily. 

[JV Puleo]

 

NICE WORK!

[chistech]

12 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

 

NICE WORK!

Thanks Joe, the more I use the old South Bend the better im getting at it. Im able to make parts like this a little quicker now as my planning has gotten better about how to layout the pieces and where to make my initial cuts. I still haven’t learned how to single cut but luckily all the threading can be done with dies. I use the tail stock to keep the die straight.

[chistech]

Did all the inletting of the two mid bow side pieces then put the tenons on the ends and the mortises on the ends of the top piece. Added glue to the joints and assembled the wood on the bow. Drilled then countersunk the side pieces for the flat head 1/4-20 screws and then added the #12-3/4” wood screws around the perimeter. Later I will remove the wood to add the notches and depressed areas then hit the edges with a round over bit on the router. Then it will get stained and spar varnish. 
      Started on the seat frame pieces by making the mortises and tenons like the mid bow pieces. The seat frame has extra long tenons that can’t be made using my tenon jig. My jig allows me to make up to a 3 1/4” long tenon and the rear of the seat frame needs about 6 1/2”. Normally I’ll finish the tenons on the mill but I recently purchased a dado blade set and I think I’ll finish them on the table saw. 
     Got a box of custom made parts that Brian ordered from Jon Potter delivered today. Jon offers custom, hard to find parts for 31-32 GM cabriolets. Things like rear deck SS cast roof supports, winged T bolts for the roof, door ash try receptacle, window roller guides, and lower door window sashes. The sashes on this car were pretty much gone and Brian ordered a set along with most from that list. The new sashes are exactly like the originals and its quite refreshing when you get an aftermarket part that’s 100% correct. Even the felt location and clamping is exactly like the original. I removed the large felts from the originals by releasing the metal tabs pinching the felt tabs and lifted them out. Replacing them on the new sashes was simply the reverse. The small round felts secure differently so I put them in place with a dab of Goop. The sashes will get primed and painted then put aside for later.

[chistech]

Got off the road late yesterday afternoon and with the temps close to and later dropping to below zero, I didn’t think it would be worth heating the shop for the couple hours I could spend out there so I just finished the tenons for the seat frame bottom on the table saw and glued the frame together. Checked it with the square and it was perfect. Aligning and checking all your machines to zero or 90d depending makes a big difference as correct joints makes correct assemblies which makes a happy guy!😁 The seat frame sides, which traditionally were made out of two separate pieces of ash with the grain running perpendicular that were glued together with a mortise and tenon joint, will be made now out of 3/4” ash plywood. The seat frame sides take a beating and the two piece side was reinforced with an iron to help compensate for the load put against the seat back both when driving and adjusting the seat. My upgrade is using the plywood but I still install the iron for the look of originality. The plywood itself is completely covered with the upholstery so no one can tell the difference but the seat frame is a whole lot stronger and secure. I already ordered the sheet of plywood and just need to go pick it up. The sheet also gets used for the floor and toe boards.

[chistech]

Went to my wood guy and picked up the sheet of “wood gold”, full dimensional 3/4 ash plywood. The supplier was out of 4x8’s so I got a 4x10’. Just $250! Man, things have gone crazy but it’s what’s needed for the floor boards also. I made up the seat frame sides, cut all the dados then fit all the pieces together. There is still some areas that need notches and reliefs then some round over bit treatment but the major work is all done. Just put the side support irons in place but they still need to be bolted and screwed in place. Will try and finish it up tomorrow then glue and screw back together.

[chistech]

Finished up all wood work with the ash plywood. Finished off the seat frame and it’s hardware. It still needs a couple small steel angle pieces at the front of the two inside of the side uprights that help hold the sides from spreading away from the lower seat frame. Those are missing from what I have so I’ll need to make those up. There is also a 2” wide steel strap that runs around the front edge of the frame that brings the front edge of the seat frame even with the sides. I’ll ask Brian if he can locate that if not I’ll need to make one up too. Brian will be bringing me a couple of seat adjusting mechanisms so I can make up one out of the parts. Still have the rear rollers to rebuild. I added all the blind nuts where they go and because of the side frames now being plywood, instead of using wood screws at the top  rear cross board, I used special fasteners designed to get a solid grip in plywood. I used was called cross nut fasteners for 1/4-20 threads. A cross nut is a round piece of 3/8” steel with a 1/4-20 thread across it. One end has a screwdriver slot that is inline with the threaded hole so you can line it up with the machine screw. They are installed by drilling a 3/8 through the side of the plywood on center with a 1/4” hole drilled through the edge of the plywood. I used 1/4-20 flat head machine screws instead of the wood screws which allows a extremely secure and strong joint for the rear cross board. These seat frames don’t have a turn type adjuster, instead, you pull up a small lever on the drivers side and then the driver either pulls the seat forward with his legs or pushes back, most often putting a fair amount of pressure on the rear seat back and that rear cross board along with the three uprights. 
        I made both the floor board and toe board from the ash plywood. The toe board got all the needed holes drilled and the ends inletted for the mounting screws. The seat frame and all floor boards got the copper naphthalene/pine tar treatment then I bolted on the restored starter pedal along with the two gas pedal standoffs. Right now the floorboard is oversized and I won’t cut it to its proper size until the cowl is mounted and the toe board is in its proper location. I will need to add the hole for the shift tower and I’ll be making Brian the dealer added steel battery access plate. I will then cut the floor board for that and bolt it up.

     I will be starting now on the cowl cross sill and the two A pillars. I laid out the cross sill and need to plan how I’m going about making the tenons and all the inlets. It also has an angled cut along the top. It appears the majority of my work should be done with the piece left with parallel, square sides and cutting the piece out with its curved shape should be virtually the last thing done. Much of this type of wood work, while involved with lots of inletting, lots of drilled holes, often angled, and even angled tenons is not that hard to do if the steps to do all the work is planned out in the proper sequence.

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by chistech (see edit history)

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Ted, you are right about the planning process. It’s time we’ll spent. It can longer to do the planning than actually making the cuts. Mike

[chistech]

3 hours ago, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said:

Ted, you are right about the planning process. It’s time we’ll spent. It can longer to do the planning than actually making the cuts.

 

Mike Mike, I go to car shows or read different forums I always see or hear the same comments, replacing and making the wood is so hard. Some others that make wood, talk like it’s rocket science and that most could never do it so you need to send your project to them! They actually try to discourage people from trying it. If the average person has some decent wood working skill and some basic tools they can make car

 wood. What that person does need, in my opinion, is troubleshooting skills though, and that is the skill that many don’t have. Planning out the proper sequence of making a piece is basically troubleshooting. It’s not a lot different than a machine flow chart. This can’t happen before this, or, after this happens, then this has to happen. The problem is you have a piece you need to make and you need to make it in a sequence of cuts, rabbets, and borings, that do not prevent you from completing that piece. If you need to make 90 degree rabbets you don’t cut a piece that is rounded out first as you need the squared edge to work the router off of. When I look at an original piece, I always look for any straight sections that line up as often those straight sections is how that piece was originally set up on the machines they were made with. I know you completely understand this along with others here who do it daily like Joe Puleo who probably spends half his day planning his attack to making some of those pieces! If a person has good troubleshooting skills I believe they can navigate 80% of life. The other 20% is good luck!😁

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Ted, I totally agree!  Some just get it. My dad could always find out what the problem was with a car or truck. We understand what the concepts are and have the ability to alter it to a problem no matter what it is. Mike

[chistech]

Started on the cowl cross sill today. After tracing the original, the first thing done was to set the table saw blade on an angle and make the angled cut down the length.second thing done was to make a tracing of the shallow rabbet for the metal dash panel.paper pattern made then traced on the new piecthen the shallow side of the tenon was done in the mill.next the deep cut to make a 5/8, .6250 tenon.the piece was clamped down and the shallow rabbet for the dash was done free hand with my small trim router. The router was easy to control because the bit depth was only 1/16”.leaving the piece uncut as far as the final shape allows the material to support the router base to make the rabbet.the end have a small angle to match the width of the A pillar. This was done on the 12” disk sander. Again the straight edge of the piece allows this to be easily done.the other end doneeach angled end get the router treatmenteach end from the tenon in 6” is perfectly flat (no curve) on the bottom and the edge gets rounded over with the router. This is where the heavy steel pillar to dash cross sill corner iron gets bolted. The round over is to clear the inside of the 90d bend in the iron.There are two round reliefs I the cross sill. These are easily done with the end of my horizontal belt sanderhere’s the finished and sanded piece next to the original.The original A pillars are fitted to check the new piece.The passenger side corner fits perfectly.The drivers side is still a little proud of the Top of the A pillar but I originally left it that way because there are borings very close to the tenons on both ends and they are first done with forstner bits at an angle and are done to clear the nuts for the bolts for the corner irons from the cowl sheet metal. These angled boring will be done tomorrow on the mill.

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, these are the steps in the required sequence to make this piece up correctly. Real happy with the way it turned out as it’s the first time I’ve need to make a new dash cross sill.

Edited February 14, 2023 by chistech (see edit history)

[Ozzy1932]

5 minutes ago, chistech said:

Started on the cowl cross sill today. After tracing the original, the first thing done was to set the table saw blade on an angle and make the angled cut down the length.second thing done was to make a tracing of the shallow rabbet for the metal dash panel.paper pattern made then traced on the new piecthen the shallow side of the tenon was done in the mill.next the deep cut to make a 5/8, .6250 tenon.the piece was clamped down and the shallow rabbet for the dash was done free hand with my small trim router. The router was easy to control because the bit depth was only 1/16”.leaving the piece uncut as far as the final shape allows the material to support the router base to make the rabbet.the end have a small angle to match the width of the A pillar. This was done on the 12” disk sander. Again the straight edge of the piece allows this to be easily done.the other end doneeach angled end get the router treatmenteach end from the tenon in 6” is perfectly flat (no curve) on the bottom and the edge gets rounded over with the router. This is where the heavy steel pillar to dash cross sill corner iron gets bolted. The round over is to clear the inside of the 90d bend in the iron.There are two round reliefs I the cross sill. These are easily done with the end of my horizontal belt sanderhere’s the finished and sanded piece next to the original.The original A pillars are fitted to check the new piece.The passenger side corner fits perfectly.The drivers side is still a little proud of the Top of the A pillar but I originally left it that way because there are borings very close to the tenons on both ends and they are first done with forstner bits at an angle and are done to clear the nuts for the bolts for the corner irons from the cowl sheet metal. These angled boring will be done tomorrow on the mill.

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, these are the steps in the required sequence to make this piece up correctly. Real happy with the way it turned out as it’s the first time I’ve need to make a new dash cross sill.

Looks excellent Ted. I’m very glad I had a good sample for you to copy. 

[chistech]

Here is the passenger side dash sill corner iron in place. The drill bits show some of the crazy angles the holes are drilled. While some hold the iron, the sharp angled one is for the cast lower windshield frame corner bolt and that bolt goes through the windshield frame, through the cross sill, and come out a hole in the corner iron. It needs to be in the correct place so the windshield frame mounts correctly. It has to be drilled now as it would be almost impossible to line the hole in the windshield frame up with the hole in the corner iron. These are where the two bolts that secure the corner iron to the dash sill go. The bolts used are carriage bolts that sit in bored recesses in the top the pieces.Here is the top of the original with the drill bits exiting the bored recesses.The new piece was measured for the recess locations and angled in the vise so the bottoms of the recesses would be 90d to the drilled hole.The dash sill all bored.The dash got attached to check alignment all holes. Where the hex head bolts are located are where the chrome oval head screws that go through the sides of the lower windshield frame go. The dash panel will also get nailed into the cross sill. I had to slightly trim the top edge of the router face in a couple areas. It was routed free hand an i fitted it close so I expected I would have to clean the edge up in a few places.The dash panel all fitted and once the wood is treated the pillars attached and put in place, the dash panel will get all nailed in.

Edited February 16, 2023 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

With the dash cross sill finished as far as it can go right now, it’s time to make up the A pillars. The pillars were originally made from two separate pieces of wood that got glued and screwed together and that is how I’m making them. The 1/4-20 flathead screws that go through one hole of every hinge also help hold the two pieces together. With today’s modern glue, delaminating isn’t a worry. First thing to do was to layout the original pillar on the wood with the hinge rabbets 90d to the board edge. This showed me the width of board I would need. 5” wide was required so a piece of 12” x 2” was cut to length then cut into two 5” wide pieces. I then cut a piece of 12 x 1 the same way.The 2” boards were about a 1/2” too thick so I re-sawed them on my bandsaw. Before I got my big saw, I would have had to plane the board all the way done to the size I needed taking a tremendous amount of time to do. Once sawn, 4 light passes through the planer got the desired thickness. Some strips of waste ash were cut to fit tightly in the hinge rabbets on the original pillar. The boards were marked were the rabbets should be then lines were drawn across the boards with a square. The strips in the hinge rabbets were then aligned with the drawn lines which now showed exactly where the pillar should be traced on the board.A close up picture of the alignment.couple more pics showing the process.The pillars traced out on the pieces and marked so I make a left and right, not two rights or two lefts like I’m willing to admit, I’ve done before!😡

A future pillar in the mill getting rabbeted for the hinges. A strip of wood that I used in the originals is used here to check width. The width is 1 7/8”. What I found strange is the lower hinge on both pillars is set slightly deeper than the top and middle. Did both pillars top and middle with this as far as I got today. I’ll mill the lower rabbets tomorrow.

[edinmass]

Just found this thread. Very, very, very impressive. Craftsmanship everywhere. Humbling and thought provoking. Having attempted wood work, and not been successful, I can say IMPRESSIVE! You have a lot of heart and dedication. Not too sure about your sanity. A spectacular example of “can do”. Makes me feel like a newbie.  You get a never before given FOUR thumbs up. 👍👍👍👍

 

 

You can work on my cars anytime. Stop by next time you come south to Florida……we can run a few cars around. Best, Ed.

[chistech]

Thank you Ed for your kind words and the four 👍👍👍👍. I probably am somewhat insane and my wife would agree with you. Thank you for the invite to FL. I usually go down around Christmas to the villages to visit my MIL. My wife and her do a to of things and I get a little bored. It would be great to head a little further south, take a drive, have a drink and a cigar! I was actually going to PM you because after this Olds leaves my garage, I have a 31 Cadillac sedan coming in to get reassembled and the drivetrain all gone over. Motor is done and it’s a V8. I figured you’d be the guy who could answer questions if I have them.