56 crown vic
 

Getting some time to work on the crown vic. here's a pic of the new lower quarters fitted, still have to fit the rocker and then it will be time to weld.

Pic of the rocker fitted in place.

Up close pic of the seam. When it comes time to weld I will start by plug welding the big holes closed and then weld the seam solid, once the seam is welded I will remove the screws and weld the holes shut. It will probably take the better part of a day to weld this solid without warping it.

Tim great job. That is my favorite Ford.

How do you make the small holes Tim? With a punch? Or with a spot weld bit? (The ones with a center push pilot that look kind of like a hole saw.)

I have this tool that's a hole punch on one side and the other side steps the metal in so the 2 pieces of metal sit flush with each other.

Cool.

That tool is now on the list of tools I don't have, but want. :biggrin2:

Why do you use screws instead of cleco's ? :bigthink:

because i have screws.:biggrin2: i prefer screws because the panels don't always fit together perfect and the screw will draw the 2 pieces together vs having to hold the 2 pieces together while you put the cleco in.

OK, I've been happy using Cleco's on my race cars. That said the fit and finish was not all that critical.

I borrowed these from my friend Dave when I had to patch a set of expansion chambers for my Kawasaki H1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...F.jpg~original

Nice work :beerchug:

That looks like to much work.:biggrin2:

I was only doing small areas and since it's was round, warpage was less of a problem.

Plus them were to the point of either patch or throw away ( and I didn't have $700 for another set of chambers )

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...F.jpg~original

Good thing it's underneath and can't be easily seen :bigeyes:

Lot of work Tim, was it pretty solid to start?
The 56's have a killer interior. So much style, and chrome.

It's not to bad, the quarters are pretty rotted but other than that its solid. There's a ton of chrome and stainless trim on this thing, when we sent it all out to have the chrome redone and the trim polished it cost a little over $15000 to have it all done.

Looks good Tim. What size holes do you use for plug welds? The reason I ask is because I spent Thursday afternoon and Friday making a nice sheetmetal closeout panel for my firewall and it warped bad when I welded it. I then spent Saturday cutting it off to make another panel. I used 5/16 holes and I think they caused to much heat when I welded it. Think I'm going to try 3/16 or 1/4 holes next time.

This is what it looked like before and you can see how bad it looked after I welded it.

http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/...psfyxpl8p6.jpg


http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/...psyoj0hrha.jpg

The holes are 5/16 . welding sheet metal is a pain and it always seems like everybody want to turn the welder down so there's less heat but the problem with that is it takes longer for the weld to burn in good so it actually creates more heat, I always run the welder hot so I get a quicker burn in. When I weld sheet metal I only do a 1 second spot weld then move and I always try to keep about 2ft between welds so the metal doesn't get to hot and warp. When I weld the long seam on the quarter I will spot weld it on one end then move to the other end and then go to the middle and I keep jumping around like that which allows the metal time to cool.

Now that the right side is fitted and ready to weld I'm getting the left side fitted, I just got done cutting off the old skin.

Started welding and hour ago, going smooth so far.

I got both quarters welded on last Saturday, I've spent the morning grinding welds and have now started laying the mud. For those who may be interested I use evercoat z grip bodyfiller.

Looking good. Have you every used Rage Ultra filler? What about SPI primers? I know the SPI satin black epoxy I got is UV stable and can be used by itself as a chassis paint. No need to top coat.

I have tried rage but don't really care for it and its about $20 a gallon more in my area.

I was getting ready to start sanding mud but as I was putting a fresh piece of paper on my board sander I lost my grip and it fell onto the cement, can't really sand anything with it now and I'm out about $150.:bash2:

Is it broke?
if your board is bent, take it off and straighten it or get a new takeoff from ebay for $18.00 or so.
Them cheap harbor fright ones are ok, unless you are using it in a body shop situation.

I just bought a new sander, my old one was on its 3rd board and was starting to get a little tired. Yesterday I move the car onto the lift so I can start cutting and patching the underside, the inner rockers need some repair as well as the trunk pan.

Tim,
I had a 55 Crown Vic for about 30 years. At the time I did not have the tools or experience to do the body work justice. Your doing a great job.
Regards,
Chris

Working on the crown vic today and wanted to share this pic, if you watched my video on bodywork you heard me talk about guide coat and this pic does a really good job of showing how well it works. This car was blasted and then coated with really thick epoxy primer, its so thick I can block sand it without sanding through. I guide coated the door before I started sanding and as you can see it showed me every imperfection.

Guide coat is king. Not that I have any experience with it but just seeing some friends using it, makes sense.
Now a question for the master body technician. Do you use seem sealer where you attached the patch panel on the quarter? Do you use a lap joint to attach the panel before welding? Just curios I suppose.:bigthink:

the patch panel had a step to it so it could slip behind the factory panel, once it was welded solid i just ground the weld down and started the bodywork.

Looks awsome . Man you do goof work wish I was closer (and rivher) I'd have you do my 76 astre wagon! Keep it up

Tim,
Whats happening with the Crown Vic?
Regards,
Chris

not a whole lot right now, been busy with the 20 other projects at work.

Been a little over a year since I've updated this thread, the body got rolled into the booth on Friday and this morning was spent taping it up and getting it cleaned. I will be spraying this with three coats of polyester spray putty, it's basically a really high build primer that gets sprayed on out of a gun with a 2.5 tip. This will give plenty of room to dry block to ensure its poker straight. It's been hard to find the time to work on this since I've been the only bodyman here, luckily we hired a guy that's pretty good and him and I have been working on this for about two weeks straight, it's nice to have somebody in the shop that knows what they are doing and doesn't need any babysitting.

1 1/2 gallons later and it's looking good, after this has plenty of time to dry it will be time for block sanding.

Finally got to spray some paint on this project, the interior and trunk are sprayed and it took a full gallon of paint to do it.

I Hate plastic masking drop cloths,while easy and cheap, too many times the primer flakes off it when shooting base coat or final color and sticking like a magnet.
Then you've got problems.
Nope, learned my lesson many, many years ago.
Take the time to mask it in proper paper, you will thank yourself.
BTDT.
Looking good by the way. :beerchug:

Not an issue with today's plastic, it has a coating on it that makes everything stick to it like glue. Flaking off is no longer an issue.

Looks good Tim!


Two questions:
1.) Who's car is it? Customer? Or yours (or your dad's)?
2.) How big is that paint booth? It looks like it's pretty deep. Never noticed before, but looks like you got the whole car plus parts in it. Gotta be over 30' deep.... :bigthink:

The car belongs to a millionaire out of Texas, we did a few tractors for him and he wanted us to do this car. The booth is a 14x24 unicure with 9820hrs on it, unicure is one of the few booth companies that make them in the US.