25 Dodge tourer restoration

[Mattml430]

Back onto the chassis today and fitted up the new rear brakes. These are bonded linings and not riveted. I was able to take a light skim off the drums on the lathe to clean them up. 
I used an old hub and machined it perfectly true and then bolted the drum to it so I could hold it in the lathe properly. 
I couldn’t believe how true these old drums were after 100 years. 
Wheels are back on. 

[Minibago]

Did you bond the linings Matt?

[Mattml430]

7 hours ago, Minibago said:

Did you bond the linings Matt?

No mate I got Victorian brake company to do them. They do an excellent job I’ve been using them for years. 
$560 for all four which I thought was pretty fair. 

[Minibago]

Did that cover linings too Matt?

[Mattml430]

52 minutes ago, Minibago said:

Did that cover linings to Matt?

Yes mate that was the complete job. 

[Mattml430]

I managed to get a start on the body today. 
There is quite a bit of work to do on it with the timber and panel work. 
My first job will be folding up some new cowl legs. As we know they all rust out badly. 
I’m lucky to have all the timber there to cut new pieces out of it. The boaters must of moved up the wheel arches after gobbling up the spokes. pulled apart ready for new pieces to start going in. cut some new Timbers to slide up into the new legs. Used a bit of spotted gum to give it a good solid base. 

[Mattml430]

New legs are made. I have patterns for these from making them previously. I plasma cut them out In 3 sections and fold and weld them up. Cutting out the old one and replacing the bottom 6” of cowl. I use masking tap to get a nice straight line with the grinder. I will use the old piece to make a cardboard pattern to cut a new one out. Not much left of the old girl. Rust has certainly got into it. 
 

I use magnets to hold the cardboard onto the tin and then run the plasma cutter over the cardboard. I machine the end of the plasma cutter nozzle so it runs along the edge of the cardboard. It cut’s about 1mm to the edge. 
This gets rolled a folded to match the old piece before trying to fit it. 
new leg and panel fitted. I sat it on the chassis to make sure everything was lining up ok. Onto the other side tomorrow. what a mess all this old rust makes. 

[nearchoclatetown]

Plasma torches are a fun tool. The guy that invented them was using his head. Looks like the body will be as good as new soon. 

[Minibago]

You make it look easy Matt.

[Mattml430]

Got the other side welded on and cleaned up. I have bolted the cowl back onto the chassis so I can start putting the body back together with all its new timber. 

[AussieBuick]

Hi Matt,

Great work, what gauge of sheet metal are you using for rust replacement ? 

Thanks

Norm 

[Mattml430]

Thanks Norm

1.2mm / 16g cold rolled sheet. 

[nat]

24 minutes ago, Mattml430 said:

1.2mm / 16g cold rolled sheet. 

       Built like a brick s**t house.

[Mattml430]

Got the front door on this morning ad then fitted the B pillar up to it. I had to replace the bottom 5” of the B pillar panel. 
It’s been glued into place with epoxy and screwed together. Came up very solid which I was happy with. Even used the correct screws to keep the coppers off my back. 😂Onto the next side and I’m in the middle of replacing the timber stile that hold the hinges on the front door. 

[30DodgePanel]

That's it. ...

"Honey!.. I'm moving to Australia!"

 

Wife: Why Australia?

Me: They have the fastest mechanic on the planet, I'll be driving my Panel within weeks!

Wife: Well in that case go ahead, I need that piece of crap out of my living room. Don't let the screen door hit ya!

 

Amazing work as always Matt 

[nearchoclatetown]

30Dodge Panel, I'm still betting these pictures are time lapse photography. If you go back to the beginning pictures on this car the Shepard was a pup. 

[nearchoclatetown]

Matt, just watched a documentary on a platypus. I think you should have one as a pet for the shop. Cute little devils. 

[Mattml430]

1 hour ago, nearchoclatetown said:

Matt, just watched a documentary on a platypus. I think you should have one as a pet for the shop. Cute little devils. 

Haha I’ve told the grandkids there is a crocodile 🐊 in the dam. I drive them over in the gator to see if we can see it. They are totally shit scared of going near the dam. I’ll tell them when they are 25 that there’s not really a crocodile in the dam it was a platypus. 😂
They have nasty spurs on their back legs to I think, that hurt if they get you. 
That dog of mine is in so many photos. 

[Mattml430]

Shouldn’t you be out in the shed Doug working doing something constructive. 

[nearchoclatetown]

That's what my wife keeps saying. 

[Mattml430]

All the front seat base, back, pillars and doors are fitted. The left door gave me a bit of grief, but I found it was the pins on the hinges that were worn so once I built them back up the door worked well. 
rebuilding the back corners. 
The old tool tray was rusted out so I made a new one of them also. 
with just a bit of work to finish on the B pillar panel all the front will be done and now onto the back. 

[nearchoclatetown]

Matt, in the door jams is the wood exposed when finished? It is in my Fisher bodied coupe. 

[Mattml430]

Yes they are but I will be painting it in the body colour

[nearchoclatetown]

My coupe has the wood painted too. This is shaping up to be another great looking project. I still think you should adopt a platypus for the shop. They don't look like any other animal in the universe that I know of. 

[30DodgePanel]

8 hours ago, nearchoclatetown said:

My coupe has the wood painted too. 

 

12 hours ago, Mattml430 said:

Yes they are but I will be painting it in the body colour

The wood sills on the floor board sides are painted black on my panel and the jams are what the body was originally (Algerian Green). 

 

Are your wood floor sections that are exposed painted black on the cars also?

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by 30DodgePanel (see edit history)

[nearchoclatetown]

The wood floors are bare wood in my coupe because it had carpet that was held in with snaps from new, maybe first for DB? The actual sill plate is metal. The Fisher JOB number is cut into the wood floor. Matt, the brackets that support the B piller to the seat frame, are they cast iron? The triangle shaped pieces?

[nat]

     Ethylene glycol antifreeze is the best wood preservative I know of.  Don't take my word for it, check it out on your own.

     I'm generally hesitant to use it around the home for fear that the animals I like might be attracted to it's sweet flavour and run up a huge veterinary bill.  Supposedly the addition of some cayenne pepper will keep that down to one lick and possibly deter other wood gobblers.

     Australia's dryish climate doesn't pose the same sort of rot concerns that one in a more humid climate has but it looks like we both have to deal with insects. 

     We don't see much of termites but powder post beetles are a miserable lot.

[Mattml430]

The floor in this was bare timber also. This will be stained and painted with a 2pak satin finish. 
I have some beautiful wide boards stacked in my hay shed for this exact purpose. 300mm /12” boards. Very hard to come by these days. 

[Mattml430]

Laminating the wheel arches up. 
I’ve machined the timber down to 1/4” and used 3 laminations to create the wheel arches. I shaped up some 3mm steel to the exact shape and welded it to the bench. 
Using epoxy glue hopefully it won’t spring out to much. It will be a lot stronger than the original timber that had a lot of short grain across it. 

Not a whole lot left of the old one  Pre bending it for an hour before gluing. The timber. 1/4” thick. Epoxied up. I’ll leave it glued up for about 18hours. 

[nearchoclatetown]

So you are not steaming it? That's pretty clever. 

[Minibago]

The price of wood you would not think it grew on trees!!!

[Ted Levitt]

Matt, I love the work you’re doing, but I have just one question, how many elves are working in your shop with you?  Do you work at an amazing speed love what you do, learn something every time I watch.

[nearchoclatetown]

Ted, one of the elfs is named Ron, also known as adult supervision. 

[Mattml430]

The new wheel arches came up ok. 
The second one is still in the jig but will come out tomorrow. Laminating timber is so strong is amazing how ridged they are. Almost no movement at all. 

[Mattml430]

I had some other Nickle plating to do this week so I thought it would be a great time to get stuck into all the Nickle on this car. few small repairs and little dints to get out of some of it. 
I think I will sand blast the kick plates before trying to clean them up. It’s very hard to get all those edges clean enough without doing that. Handles are brass and bronze so they will be easy enough to clean up. Handles and cowl lights done. 
Preparing the headlight bezels. I use a scotchbrite on the linisher to get it back to brass and then a finer scotchbrite on a 4” grinder. After that I use a trizac belt on the linisher to do the final finish before polishing. 
Trizac belts don’t leave scratches like normal fine belts. 

[Mattml430]

Got all the rear seat base timber all cut up and machined to size. I left the old base all together inside the tub while I rebuilt the new one. It’s so much easier when you have everything there to copy. 
I need to replace the inner metal guards and about 2-3” of the tub all the way around as rust has got the better of it. 
All the timber ready to assemble the base. 
I managed to get it all together and sitting inside the tub. At a quick glance it all seems to fit ok. 

[Mattml430]

Made some progress today on the rear wheel arches. 

Rear door hinges post cut out. with the rear post in place and the seat base made it was time to cut out the rust. 
New piece rolled up and tacked in. 
Definitely a tricky piece to fit in. 

The laminated wheel arches fitted in nicely,

It will be all disassembled and screwed together with slotted screws and epoxy glue. I think I will fit all the doors first to make sure it all lines up. There’s no going back once it’s glued with epoxy  

The guard fits in and I’ll bolt it up with the encapsulated nut’s tomorrow  

Hinges just need to be fitted to the post also. The door fits in the gap nice and evenly. So hopefully I can get it to do the same when it’s attached to the hinges. 

[30DodgePanel]

I have to ask, was there a reason for the shape you cut and I assume you finished the bend of the outer section (where your pinching it) long before cutting the shape you needed?

 

Regardless, thats pretty smart since you had to make up for the flare/angle of that part of the body and I presume you had to eye it since there's probably no measurement for all those angles to that flare. 

Is there anything you guys can't do?

WOW!

 

[Mattml430]

8 hours ago, 30DodgePanel said:

I have to ask, was there a reason for the shape you cut and I assume you finished the bend of the outer section (where your pinching it) long before cutting the shape you needed?

 

Regardless, thats pretty smart since you had to make up for the flare/angle of that part of the body and I presume you had to eye it since there's probably no measurement for all those angles to that flare. 

Is there anything you guys can't do?

WOW!

 

No real reason for cutting it like that Dave. Probably more that it only needed about that much removed to get back to good steel. Also if I cut it straight I would have had to cut into the back corner more which was not necessary. The internal flare to attach to the timber is done on the bead roller. It’s about 3/8” and done freehand to get the curve. I did that in 3 steps and try to push the shape into it as I go each time. It naturally wants to bend the opposite way you want it to go,  so it needs a little persuasion while it’s going through the machine. 

[AussieBuick]

Hi Matt, More talented work from you, I have the very same rust repair to do, my thought is to weld a thin strip to the edge to form the 90-degree bend around the curve.

Bead rolling around a curve is past me... Earlier you mentioned using spotted gum for the main runners what is your timber of choice for the rest ???  Thankyou for giving us a great insight into restoration techniques.