1940 Packard 120 Convertible Restoration

[Ol Blue K20]

After watching you use your awesome skills. Those doors don't scare me. I'm confident you'll do something amazing.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by MP&C

That door looks like a good project for Rock Hill! Come back with new inner door and new door skin...

Your work is looking stellar John, gives the owner a good perspective looking at the inner door next to it..

Appreciate it Robert! I think that would be too large of a project to take, and I'll probably be too busy watching and learning from the other guys. I might make a baffled aluminum breather box for the VW motor, it'll need one to vent the block at 8,000 rpm. I've been meaning to build one for a few months but just haven't taken the time to do it.

Originally Posted by flashed

From what I have seen you do with the rest of the car I think you could build a door blindfolded .

I think the guy that patched the doors was working blindfolded.

Originally Posted by duallyjams

The rust in the middle of the door is the water line from being submerged under water.

Wouldn't be the first submerged car that we've worked on. Had to rewire and redo the ac and brakes on a '67 427 Caprice that had been flooded.

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Can 1940 Packard doors even be found???

There are a few places that sells used Packard parts that may have a door. A coupe door would work, I'm pretty sure that they converted coupe doors to use on convertibles. There are caps welded on at the two spots where the window frame was cut off, then they leaded over the caps to blend the caps into the door. That would be much easier to replicate than fabricating well over 1/2 of the current door.

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Makes me wonder if another restoration shop did the door like that. One thing for sure, the restoration that is in progress on this car now could be used as a text book on how to do it correctly.

It wasn't done by complete amatuers, their bodywork was very straight.

Originally Posted by 68Timber

And before lunch. Packard or not, I bet it wasn't done this well when it was built.

Lunch which day? It is nice for the owner to have a car that's been apart this far, especially when they plan on keeping it in the family for generations. Being able to use modern products like epoxy primer, weld thru primer, and epoxy seam sealers means that the metal is sealed up better than anything ever appied at the factory. Having good products makes spending all this time worth it, you don't have to worry about if it will last.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Looks like someone liked silicon bronze.

Break it down. Bet you could build better doors.

At this point "better" still isn't saying much!

Originally Posted by plainred65

More great work John, always impressive.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

After watching you use your awesome skills. Those doors don't scare me. I'm confident you'll do something amazing.

It would be amazing to find a rust free door shell...

[theastronaut]

I'm back from the Redneck Roundup in Rock Hill. Made new friends and learned a lot from watching other guys work on their projects and the various presentations throughout the weekend. I appriciate MP&C prodding me to sign up for the allmetalshaping.com forum, I wouldn't have known about the meet had it not been for signing up for the forum.


One of the things I learned more about was the "flexible shape pattern". I've seen pictures of them posted on allmetalshaping but didn't know anything about them. One of the presentations on Friday included a brief discussion on them so I thought that the passenger side fenderwell lip would be a good place to try one out.

The concept is to use reinforced shipping tape to make a non-deforming yet flexible pattern that shows how much shape a panel has so you can accurately determine how much shrinking or streching the panel needs. It also helps determine if an area of a panel has bends only- no stretching/shrinking needed to arrive at that particular shape.

I used a layer of blue painters tape as the first layer, being careful not to overlap anywhere. Then I used a single layer of reinforced tape on the spots I thought would need to be stretched, and a double layer (at opposing angles) on the area that I though was only bent- the inner flange. Once it's pulled off the panel (the painters tape makes it easy to remove) you use baby powder to kill the adhesive so it can be handled without it sticking to everything.

I didn't get a picture of it before I had removed it and used baby powder on it so I taped it back in place for a quick pic.




It doesn't look like much pulled off until you weigh down the spots that will lay completely flat, in this case the inner edge. If it will easily lay down with no wrinkels or bucking you know that that area only needs bending to arrive at its final form.




The ruffles along the outer edge won't lay flat. You can see that there is "more" tape for that section than a straight/flat piece so the new metal needs to be stretched in that area.




I cut a blank out, using the flat section of the tape pattern to mark out the inner flange's curve. I probably would have made this in a straight section and used the brake to make the first bend, then stretched and shrunk each side to curve it. With the shape pattern, I already had the correct curve of the flange so I could go ahead and cut it to shape. Once the piece was cut out, I set up the bead roller with mis-matched dies to make a makeshift tipping die to get the curved bend started.


Initial bend and stretching.




I had some leftover 1/8" plate in the scrap pile that had the same radius as the fender opening. I smoothed the edge and bent it to the same shape as the opening so I could use it as a dolly to form the edge over. This supported the edge, and a piece of tubing hammered beside it made the flared edge.








It's roughed in, still needs some fine tuning to match the shape of the opening, and to match the proper gradual increase in flare from top to bottom.

[duallyjams]

won't be long you be holding one at your shop