My Half A$$ Studebaker Rebuild

[Topper2011]

Nothing like redoing work, but par for the course. I've never done body work and it shows.



Since I've cut portions of the weatherstrip channel on the sides, I wanted to make sure the inner back panel is located correctly. I reinstalled the trunk lid to check the latch location. Originally, my car did not have hinges, the lid was just sitting in place with the latch holding it in place. Glad I bought all those parts way back when.





Still needs a little bit more, but this distracted me.



Like Bullwinkle, I don't know my own strength. It broke the body mount. Plus, it has cracks.

[Topper2011]

I thought I could use some locking pliers to grab the bolt at the bottom and twist it all the way through.



You can see this is a Crescent locking pliers and it's actually a better design than the original Vise Grips. I like the release lever way better than the Vise Grips. Go check out a pair when you get chance. Since the bolt has a tapered end, I failed to get the bolt out.



No problem, I'll weld a nut to the end and screw this sucker out.



I failed. I welded the nut fine, it just didn't weld to the bolt. Time to drill it out, no easy way now. I'll just center punch it since I'll probably have to drill it almost completely out.



I ended up knocking out the captive nut. Well that was easy. I did finally finish the poly bushings in the left side shackle.

[Topper2011]

I have to stop work on the car early.




I picked these two park benches up for free.



They both need new slats, but the iron ends are very intricate.



Another project I've been looking to do.

[bensherb]

Nice! Quite the score.

[Topper2011]

Everyday a little bit more gets done.




Starting to weld in the channel.



Setting on the welder looks about right.




Wanted to remove the little wrinkles and shrink the edge with my MAPP gas and air gun.

[Topper2011]

The advice on Trev's Blog seem to work.



The panel can be beaten flat now. I did run into an issue up at the corner of the opening, lead! I used the torch to scrape what I could of the lead away. I don't believe I can weld the channel to lead, so it has to go.


Not quite sure how to deal with this.

[bensherb]

The advice on Trev's Blog seem to work.
I did run into an issue up at the corner of the opening, lead!
Not quite sure how to deal with this.

Just heat it up and wipe it away. A puddy knife and damp rag will wipe it clean. Don't get so carried away that you overheat and warp the steel though. The lead should be soft enough to wipe away at about 500F leaving the steel around 150F. The area will remain tinned, welding will burn through it, but you can hit it with a disk and sand it away if you want to or have problems. That lead is filling the seam where the upper fender and the rear suround/cowl are welded together. It should only be about .090" to .125" thick. When you're done with all the panel replacement you can lead the seam again, it's an interesting and fun skill to try, or use plastic seam filler.

[Topper2011]

Just heat it up and wipe it away. A puddy knife and damp rag will wipe it clean. Don't get so carried away that you overheat and warp the steel though. The lead should be soft enough to wipe away at about 500F leaving the steel around 150F. The area will remain tinned, welding will burn through it, but you can hit it with a disk and sand it away if you want to or have problems. That lead is filling the seam where the upper fender and the rear suround/cowl are welded together. It should only be about .090" to .125" thick. When you're done with all the panel replacement you can lead the seam again, it's an interesting and fun skill to try, or use plastic seam filler.

Thanks, I was looking into the Eastwood kit for leading. I've watched a couple of videos and it looks like a good way to go for this high stress area.

[Topper2011]

Continuing saga of the right side weatherstrip channel. Thanks to Bensherb's suggestion of using a wet rag and putty knife to get rid of the heated lead. Plus I've been watching a lot of videos on lead filling a car. Like everything in my head, "Looks easy enough, what's the worse that can happen?"




He also said I cannot get rid of the tinning of lead, but that I could probably mig through it. It worked.



I did more stitch welding.





Looks like I'm going to need the body man's friend, Bondo. Or I may look into the Eastwood Lead Kit.

[Flashback]

You definitely got my respect on this project. It's not for the faint of heart.

[bensherb]

.
Thanks, I was looking into the Eastwood kit for leading. I've watched a couple of videos and it looks like a good way to go for this high stress area.

I lead pretty much all "high stress areas" and anything I need to fix on a motorcycle gas tank. Last things I leaded were the top of a Kawasaki Ninja tank after welding it into a Harley FXR tank, and a '63 VW ragtop roof into a '69 body. I didn't add any other filler to them just primer. It's trickier but just as easy as plastic (in some ways easier). The trick is to do a good job of tinning first. Vertical panels are more difficult than horizontal ones though.

I still need to lead that same factory seam on my dads car. I replaced that right side fender on his '53 several years ago with one from a '62. I had to graft in part of the '53 tail light section for it to work but never got around to leading the factory seam. He's always driving it.

[Topper2011]

Well, you can really tell when you don't know what the heck you are doing if you have to redo your work again.



I wasn't happy with the gap, so I recut the first half of the channel and repositioned it. It's better now.



This gap closed up and only some of the weatherstrip shows.



I think I'll call this side good.

[Topper2011]

Started to work on the left side. This time I'm avoiding going as far forward as the passenger side. I made a little bracket to bridge the pieces.





Test fitting the channel.





My paint came today. Yea, I know I have a cheap spray gun and could have sprayed it myself, but this is being done at home and all I need is one of my neighbors to narc on me and the fire department would be here fining me. Pretty hefty, the paint guy warned me. He said I can spray as much as I want as long as they are in spray cans, so they mixed up the colors for me.

[r1lark]

Topper, let us know how this paint does as far as spraying out and laying down smooth. I've considered ordering some paint from TCP Global to do small touch up areas (door jambs, etc) but wasn't sure how good the paint would actually be.

[Topper2011]

Topper, let us know how this paint does as far as spraying out and laying down smooth. I've considered ordering some paint from TCP Global to do small touch up areas (door jambs, etc) but wasn't sure how good the paint would actually be.

Will do. These are from TCP and thought I'd take a chance on it. I really can't ruin the "paint" on this car anyway and it will stick out like a sore thumb either way.