Builds Colonel Mustard Revival

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Don’t you worry about bondo cracking?
Meh… not if it’s too thick.

I may grind this off and use the fiberglass reinforced stuff for the first coat when I do the real body work. Just wanted to see what progress looked like.

I also put a ton of 3M seam sealer on the exposed welds in the inside.
 
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How to free hand a wheel arch

This one will be picture intensive, however, I think it shows how to easily form a wheel arch without using purchased panels, which probably won't fit anyway. A bit of sheet metal, and some welding is all you need. Some old beer case cardboard helps too for patterns I learned this from Fitzee Fabrication on youtube, there is a link in my previous posts. I also used this on the rear quarter panel that you already see. It worked so well, ill end up going back to the driver side and re working that wheel ach, while that side is OK, its not a good as what we have here.


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Here is what i started with, similar to the rest of the vehicle, not much left, although technically better than the passenger side

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I cut out all the rust, then flanged and welded on some sheet metal that was at least 2 inches too long

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Then I mounted the door and used that to trim and form the edge to match the door cut out. This is where a body hammer and dolly works pretty well

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Hard to see, but a nice clean line here

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Similar to the door flange we will call it, next step is to weld on another oversized piece, then trim down to size

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top side trimmed and door fit checked

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Then do the same on the bottom

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And here you have it… you just made a wheel arch without much measuring, no need for a break, or a shrinker / stretcher, and you didn't need to buy a custom panel. Just take some patience and a lot of welding. Ill finish welding and grinding when I get the rest of the rocker panel replaced.

If there are any questions let me know. This technique can be used in lots of circumstances to eliminate the need to use a break and other complex tools to get fancy shapes. In the end I think it works just about as well, and takes less time
 
Im back! At least for about 3 months, completed an entire owners suite in my house with a full bath and walk in closet. Also finished siding the house and replacing a few more windows, along with all the facia, soffits, and gutters, was a ton of work so now I have the summer off to continue the restoration of the rustiest 60 ever.

The driver side rocker was not near as bad as the passenger side, but still had some challenges. I was able to save about a 16 inch section of the existing inner rocker compared to about 6 inches on the other side. I also had some old repair work to contend with. Welded up the floorboards poorly about 8 years ago, and get to re-weld them up a little better, but still poorly again!.
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What's left after cutting all the rust out, lots of holes to fill up


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A few days later, and i was able to piece together the inner rocker and floor boards, not exactly and perfect replica of what was removed, but should be close enough.

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Luckily the front of the outer rocker was in good shape, so I welded it onto the reproduction panel. It was a poor fit and took a lot of bending and swearing to make it look close enough.

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Here is the rocker panel clamped on, before i weld it in, ill need to install the doors and do a fit check, then weld in the bottom of the A and B pillers. There will be some issues with the fit up i think as its not going back together perfect.

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Going a bit faster than the other side, ill have to do a lot of re-work on the passenger side when i come back to it, but it will still turn out.

Thanks for reading, ill give another update in a few weeks
 
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Thank god.

I was worried. Glad you are back, I have been thinking about this thread in the last few weeks in regard to my 62.

Keep us updated.
 
I actually have one side mostly complete.

Rocker, a pillar, b pillar and the wheel well are all welded in. Still have to sort out the support structure under the body, that will be next.

Lots of grinding and bondo will be needed to make it all blend in. Fairly happy with the results considering what I’m working with. I’ll need to re work some on the passenger side with what I learned here.

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Just finished up the underside supper structure and seat belt bracket. Other than some extra grinding before paint the drivers side is done! Now back to the passenger side to re do some of the work I already did. And do everything all over again.

Did the best I could to make it looks semi original. Used 16 gauge for the floor support and 8 guage for the seat belt bracket. I will have to modify the seat belt hole a bit to make it work with the thicker bracket.

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Just finished up the underside supper structure and seat belt bracket. Other than some extra grinding before paint the drivers side is done! Now back to the passenger side to re do some of the work I already did. And do everything all over again.

Did the best I could to make it looks semi original. Used 16 gauge for the floor support and 8 guage for the seat belt bracket. I will have to modify the seat belt hole a bit to make it work with the thicker bracket.

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I won’t do another update for a few weeks, as it’s all the same stuff here. Probally do something when I get the frame finished up and body mounted. House work is calling so it may not be for a few months. I was pretty proud of myself for the A pillar here and well…. Probally only this group of people would be as well, my significant other didn’t seem to think it was as neat at i did. On the left is what was left, and well here is how it turned out. Can’t complain about that!

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After an absolutely asinine amount of welding, grinding, scraping sanding and painting, I am about ready to stick the body on the frame again. Maybe one weekend away. After that I’ll be close to ground level to take care of the welding, seam sealing, grinding and painting on the roof, rain gutters and interior.

Ended up scraping all the underbody coating and repainting with black paint. Very not fun job. I also seam sealed everything I could that would not hold water in. If you see older posts there was a lot of sheet metal work to get to this point.

On the frame you will see Trail Tailors 80 series suspension conversion welded on the front. I also did a lot of welding on the frame to deal with some rust, overall it’s in ok shape. Treated and painted with rustoleum implement paint. Also have the Trail Tailors frame stiffener in the rear.

Anyway, I’ll spend another week or two on this until the next house project come us.

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Body is back on the frame!!!! Pretty big moment for me here. I used some energy suspension universal body mounts and then made some spacers with some 3/16th polyethylene I cut with a hole saw to make up any height differences. Seemed to work ok. Saved a few dollars on the ridiculous project that will take forever to complete. I suppose it’s time to put the roof back on. Maybe a roll cage first???

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2nd on the cage plan.
 

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