57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'

[knomadd]

Wow, that looks like a brand new body! Well, sort of... I bet you'll be happy you did it in the long run.

[Low Elco]

Looks Great, Vic! Sorry I didn't get to see you more on Saturday!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by CG

Seems like a good process. I always hear chemical dipping does a great job but there is a chance of chemical left in tiny nooks and crannies. This process sounds like it takes care of that possible problem and gets where you cant get with rust preventative surfacer.

This is either the third or fourth body I've had chemically stripped (going back over 40 years) but the first time for e-coating. I've heard the same cautionary tales about chemical immersion stripping but have never had an issue personally. That said, if the company doing the work takes shortcuts when rinsing and neutralizing, I can see where it could lead to that exact problem.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Looks good Vic..

Thanks, Greg.

Originally Posted by knomadd

Wow, that looks like a brand new body! Well, sort of... I bet you'll be happy you did it in the long run.

Hope so, Duane. I keep telling everyone this is my last build, so it needs to outlast me.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks Great, Vic! Sorry I didn't get to see you more on Saturday!

Thanks, Chip, I wish we'd had more of a chance to visit but you were busy when we first stopped by and then later on our paths didn't cross again. We left shortly after they made our group take down a couple of the EZ Up canopies. Too many trucks and not enough space. Great weather though.

I went two out of three falls last week with the 9" rearend. The long side axle was too long and wouldn't seat in the taper bearing race. Measurements indicated the center pin in the differential was offset toward the long side by about 3/16". After multiple calls to Roadster Shop, Speedway and Strange, I solved the problem by cutting 1/4" off the long axle. According to the tech at Strange, you only need 7/8" of spline engagement and I ended up with 1" on the short side and a little more on the long side. Apparently different styles of differentials can have widely varying pin locations. The tech at Roadster Shop said they only guarantee their setup will work with an Eaton Trutrac. It would have been nice if they indicated that on their website.

For those who are wondering what that e-coated body is gonna sit on, I've posted a few shots of the rolling chassis. I'm not sure whether I'll keep the 6.2 LS3 emblem on the FITech intake. I have another piece of the 3M vinyl wrap without the cutout for the emblem in case I change my mind. We towed the chassis to the upstairs garage yesterday and covered it up. Body work is in my immediate future.

.

[Low Elco]

Whoooo purdy!

[mongocanfly]

chassis looks awsome..!!!!!!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Whoooo purdy!

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

chassis looks awsome..!!!!!!

Thanks guys, It's always nice to hit a milestone.

I've been doing a lot of cutting, welding and grinding. The humps below the original front bench seat interfered with the bucket seats I plan to use, so I cut them out on both sides and welded in some 14ga flat sheetmetal. Then drilled and tapped some spuds to weld into the floor and the underlying supports. Had to fab up a front support on both sides as the original didn't go all the way to the tunnel. Hell for stout now, which it needs to be as the safety belt mounts are built into the seat frames.

The rear door jamb down at the rocker panel was rotted out, so I used a repro patch to repair it. Also had to fix the underlying material as well and all it needs is some seam sealer to be ready for the road. I'm also well underway with the suicide door on the driver side. The hinge portion is welded in and I'm about to finish up the surrounding sheetmetal patches.

I have a lot of small repairs to do including mods to the firewall, so October may be devoted to metal work for the most part.

[BlueJeep]

Interesting how similar the 57 floor is to the 54, and how they seemed to not get any better in the rust department in that rear door opening. How are the inner rockers?

Looks great!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by BlueJeep

Interesting how similar the 57 floor is to the 54, and how they seemed to not get any better in the rust department in that rear door opening. How are the inner rockers?

Looks great!

Ow ow ow! Fortunately, mine wasn't nearly that bad. I've been there on other projects, though, so I know what a time killer it is to patch those spots. Looks like you're going at it the right way.

My inner rockers are perfect except for one spot all the way forward on the driver side. Should be easy to patch. My floorboards have some small pinholes but are structurally sound. I'm leaning toward leveling those areas with All Metal then coating with epoxy. Then the floor will get a layer of acoustic deadener on top and a heavy coat of 3M Body Schutz on the underside. That should prevent any moisture from ever creeping back in. Not that I plan to drive it in wet weather, but there's always the chance you could get caught out in something unexpected.

[Vic1947]

The hinge and latch assemblies for the rear driver side suicide door are finally welded in and functional. So both sides are well on their way to being complete. I'll need to patch in some more sheet metal to smooth out the jambs and finish grinding a bunch of welds, but having working doors on both sides is a relief. Due to space constraints when I installed the hinges, the doors arc slightly upward when fully open, but you can't really see it. I measured the top corners of the doors and they rise about one inch when going from fully closed to fully open.

I also machined the pulley assemblies for the inside door handles. To retain the normal action of pulling upward on the handle to open the door, I had to do a 180 with the actuator. It's installed temporarily for now but it works great.

I gotta tell you, though, I'm pretty tired of welding and grinding. I'm sort of looking forward to body work. (Nah, just kidding - I hate body work!)

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks great, I like cable and pulley set up.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks great, I like cable and pulley set up.

So did I, Dale, for about 5 minutes... then I toggled the door lock. What happened next had me scratching my head for awhile. The cable went slack and the inside handle would no longer open the door. If I removed the latch and reinstalled it, the handle would work perfectly. But as soon as you did a lock/unlock, it failed. After several tries, I finally snapped to what was going on.

There is a long slender rod with a horseshoe shaped spring at one end that is connected to the lock mechanism. In the lock position, the rod is pushed down to a slot that disengages the lever from the latch release. When you unlock the latch, the horseshoe spring is supposed to retract the long slender rod to a position that engages the release lever. What was happening was that the cable was unable to assist with returning the lever fully. Kinda like trying to push a chain across the floor.

So, my fix was to add an extension spring to the lever to force it to retract fully. I'm guessing that in the original configuration, the weight of the handle along with a solid connecting rod were what forced the lever to retract enough. Naturally, I only had one spring in my junk box that was remotely close to what I needed. McMaster-Carr has some that may work, but I need to do some deeper digging. Springs tend to resist modification so I'd like to get as close as I can right off the bat.

[mongocanfly]

well ,you may tired of it, but its looking good

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

well ,you may tired of it, but its looking good

Thanks, Greg. I'll be glad when it heads to paint, though.

[Vic1947]

Firewall mods, brake pedal overhaul and mock-up of the Ididit column. I must have misplaced the u-bracket the lower column cover bolts onto. Looked everywhere and couldn't find it, so I was forced to order a new one. I'm 100% certain that one of these days I'll stumble across the original and utter an appropriate expletive.

[sduckworth13]

Looking good Vic!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Looking good Vic!

Thanks, Scott.

[mongocanfly]

yep....the easiest way to find something I misplaced is to buy a new one...then the old one mysteriously appears outta nowhere...

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice smooth firewall. The column looks good too...I thought I was the only one that had that problem with lost parts.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

yep....the easiest way to find something I misplaced is to buy a new one...then the old one mysteriously appears outta nowhere...

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Nice smooth firewall. The column looks good too...I thought I was the only one that had that problem with lost parts.

Misplacing a part is only half the story. The thing that really gets me is how I can drop a small piece of hardware and it just vanishes into thin air. It may or may not reappear at a later date, but at that moment it's gone as if it never existed as soon as it leaves my fingers - no matter how far out I extend the search radius.

[Vic1947]

One of the design elements I'm planning to use is a knockoff of the Project X 57 Chevy grille bar. When the guys on HotRod Garage removed it to make way for a stock bar, I got a closer look at how it was made and realized I'd never be able to duplicate it, since it was CNC'd from a single block of aluminum as I'd suspected. I don't possess the programming skills, machining capability or the bankroll to make it happen. So I'm taking the poor boy way out...

I decided to use the grille bar that came with the car as my starting point. The chrome on it was blistered and it would have to be replaced anyway. So the plan was to cut away the round turn signal portion of the bar and replace it with a couple of pieces of flat stock formed to follow the curve of the bar.

I've had some Muggy Weld zinc rod for a long time and never used it so I figured it would be perfect for working with the pot metal. My first attempt was with 1/8" thick 5052 and was a spectacular fail. Called the guys at MW for advice and they said my flux was way too old to work. So I ordered a new bottle and when it arrived, I tried again, but with no luck. So I switched gears to something I knew would work - ultra formable 260 brass. The zinc rod took to it as easily as it did the pot metal.

I cut out the lower half on one side of the parking light bulge and fit the .094 brass stock I'd formed into the opening. Soldered both sides then cut away the top half and repeated the process. Took it slowly in steps and used a wet washcloth clipped to the previously soldered areas to sink away the heat. The last thing I wanted was to have the whole mess get too hot and fall off.

Once all the seams were soldered inside and out, I used a small air grinder, a bastard file and a D/A with 80 grit to prep it for All Metal. The picture with the yellow tape shows the cut line for the final width. Now I just need to repeat on the other side.

[mongocanfly]

that turned out good Vic..!!!!!,,,are you gonna chrome plate it?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

that turned out good Vic..!!!!!,,,are you gonna chrome plate it?

Thanks, Greg. According to the folks at Muggy Weld, the Super Alloy 1 can be chrome plated, but it requires a slow copper charge before the nickel and chrome. Right now, I'm leaning towards wrapping it or painting it body color. The lower half of the bar will need some work to correct the profile. I have limited options to do that. Lead or Lab Metal would require heating the part beyond what the SA1 can stand. So I'll probably use All Metal filler to get the shape I want, then decide.

There's a guy in KS I talked to a few years ago that does spray chrome. Don't know if he's still doing it, but I remember he wanted to do 100% of the filler and prep work himself to guarantee the job. IIRC, he wanted around $750 to do a bumper, not including the prep work. Irrespective of cost, I have a hard time handing off a half finished part to someone and trusting they can complete it the way I see it in my head.

[Vic1947]

The grille bar is ready for epoxy primer and filler. I sent a text with some pictures of it to the sandblast guy not too far from me. He wanted $250 to blast the remaining chrome off it. Took a pass. Instead, I used the DA to remove most of the chrome/nickel and then stuck it in the glass bead cabinet to rough up what was left. It hung out the end of the cabinet, but I draped a towel over the opening and it didn't make too much of a mess. Just some copper and pot metal left now. Epoxy will bond to it with no problem.

I did some research on spray chrome and I'm tempted to give it a try. The videos make it look easy (as you'd expect). They say the reflectivity is about 95% of actual chrome. For just the bar, which sits in the center of the grille all by its lonesome, it might just work.

I also got started on the bumper bullets. I used the plasma cutter to remove the centers and then a carbide burr in a die grinder to get up to the line that was stamped in them. I put one up in the mill and used a boring head to open it up the rest of the way to fit the light (Dakota/Durango lamp). Next up will be to figure out how to attach the bullets to the bumper.

[Vic1947]

After carefully marking the new smoothie bumper, I took a deep breath and used a 3" hole saw to open up the necessary clearance for the new parking / turn signal lights. Normally, I hack away without regard to the consequences since I figure a Sawsall, welder and grinder will fix anything, but in this case I really didn't want to buy another bumper. 3" was probably overkill, but I had plenty of room and there wasn't any need to conserve the space. My current plan is to weld some threaded tabs to the bumper bullets (which will require chroming anyway) and drill holes into the bumper for the fasteners. Mulling over the best location for said tabs but the photo with the arrows shows a couple of potential spots.

[Vic1947]

Here's a look at how I fastened the bumper bullets to the smoothie bumper. I made some small threaded tabs and marked their location inside the bullets. Then I drilled two slightly oversized holes for the 1/4-20 fasteners that attach on either side. Mocked up the final location by threading the fasteners into the tabs and then set the bullet down in place. Used the MIG to tack the tabs to the bullets then removed the assembly and TiG welded the tabs more securely.

As you can see, the tabs draw the bullets down firmly in place and provide plenty of clearance for the backside of the lights. Found the correct pigtails for the 899 halogen lights on eBay and got them on the way. Still a long way to go before wiring, but that should give me more than enough time to misplace them.