1952 F-6 Build

[sgtpontiac]

glad to hear about your friend's recovery...

They can do so much now heart wise...and glad you are back in your Happy Happy happy place.........

 

[mikec4193]

So I decided today that the only way to damp down all the turmoil that seems to be swirling around me is to get back to my "Happy Place"

Hey Torchie

My "Happy Place" is indeed in my garage. I go out there alone almost everynight...no radio allowed......no sounds except me and my metal cutting tools...I put my ear plugs on when I start cutting and grinding...then I can only hear myself breath and my heart beating...it is almost like my altar...I am at total peace there...

I thought I was the only one here that felt like that...

MikeC

 

[Sam_Fear]

They can do so much now heart wise....

No kidding there! Seems like anymore making it to the hospital is the hard part.

Hope he recovers.

Focusing only on what's directly in front of you is excellent therapy for the mind.

 

[Torchie]

Hey Torchie

My "Happy Place" is indeed in my garage. I go out there alone almost everynight...no radio allowed......no sounds except me and my metal cutting tools...I put my ear plugs on when I start cutting and grinding...then I can only hear myself breath and my heart beating...it is almost like my altar...I am at total peace there...

I thought I was the only one here that felt like that...

MikeC

Mike. You are far from being alone with these feelings. I would think that this goes for the majority of the RRR members. To me it doesn't matter where you find your peace. As long as you find some......
Thanks for the positive comments from everyone. And Sam you are right. When I had my little incident the Dr told my wife that if we had waited for the ambulance I would not have made it. She drove my the 3 blocks to the hospital (Small town living)
On to the progress.
Welded up the cut under the rear window and started to grind. About half way thru with the grinding. Plan is to finish this area tomorrow depending on how my hands feel and then get back to the roof and finish solid welding the second half of that.
Torchie[

 

[sgtpontiac]

Looks like it won't take ya long....

i wish I didn't have to do the body work on mine......welding not a problem....slinging mud and sanding is not my favorite...but looks like that mud thing won't be an issue for ya....grind it smooth and Bobs your uncle....

 

[Torchie]

This is what it looks like outside my garage this morning.
The temp inside is a balmy 32 degrees. Lets get to work......
Finished grinding the cut on the rear of the cab. Didn't turn out too bad but I do have some pin holes to deal with.
Welded up the driverside A piller as well as the same side upper relief cut. I think that I am gaining on it.......
Torchie.[

 

[bob w]

Continued nice work, Torchie. Hopefully the welding created some heat for you.

 

[gold03]

Looks good Torchie. Weather is just like that here too.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looks like you found a good solution on pushing the middle of the roof back up!

 

[Torchie]

Looks like you found a good solution on pushing the middle of the roof back up!

Do you think I could get away with leaving it there DR[S

Actually right now it is barely up aganst the roof. When I start on the drivers half I will move it over and apply some upward pressure. I have some heavey gauge sheet metal on the top of the jack to spread out the pressure and to help get things where they belong. Then I weld and hammer on either side of it. Move the jack and repeat. Not the fastest way in the world but it works for me.
Roof is turning out alright but not as nice as our Canadian brother.
Going to have to do some hammer/dolly time once it is all welded.
Torchie.[

 

[gold03]

My arm still hurts from all the hammer and dolly work!

 

[Dirtyrat]

My arm still hurts from all the hammer and dolly work!

I freaking hear that... I think the old schoolers used a lot of lead, at least thats what I keep telling myself [cl[cl

 

[Torchie]

I freaking hear that... I think the old schoolers used a lot of lead, at least thats what I keep telling myself [cl[cl

You bet they did. I owned an original Clarkaiser Custom that was built back in the mid 50's. Won best of show at the Detroit Autorama in 55. Man oh man the lead on that baby...
I also read an article about Bill Heinz(another Detroit guy) where he claimed that on one of his cars he must have put close to 100lbs of lead in the roof. Now I am sure that he was exagerating but not by much...
My goal is to get it as close as I can so that whatever I use, be it Lead or Filler, it will just be a little as possible.
Torchie.

 

[Torchie]

Finished welding up the roof split today.[cl
Ended up with a couple of flat spots right in the middle above the eye brow.
This is the spots that had damage to them before the chop. I thought that I had got them pretty well back into shape before I cut but they came back. Perhaps the heat from welding???
At this point I would give my spare leg for one of those hand held planishing hammer set ups.[dr But since (as my brother says) I seems to do everything old school I will tackle it with the old hammer and dolly and perhaps some help from the portapower. Sorry there aren't more pics but the camera batteries died from the cold.
Hopefully more tomorrow....
Torchie.

 

[icebox]

Looking good. Did you have all the wind today?

 

[Torchie]

Looking good. Did you have all the wind today?

Yes we did IB.
How's your build going?

 

[Old Iron]

I've been watching you and Gold doing the chops and I have to say you two are doing a fine job.
I finished chopping a 39 Ford pickup about 2 months ago a customer had started and couldn't figure out how to get the roof back together.
It took me 2 1/2 hrs just to get the thing straightened up so I could start putting the filler in.
This is pics of the roof before I finished the door tops.

With the differences in the radius of where the cab top corners met, I had to do the four pie cuts to make the fit.
What I'm getting at is, I respect the amount of work it takes to do a rounded top vehicle. [cl [cl [P [P[

 

[Torchie]

I've been watching you and Gold doing the chops and I have to say you two are doing a fine job.
I finished chopping a 39 Ford pickup about 2 months ago a customer had started and couldn't figure out how to get the roof back together.
It took me 2 1/2 hrs just to get the thing straightened up so I could start putting the filler in.
This is pics of the roof before I finished the door tops.

With the differences in the radius of where the cab top corners met, I had to do the four pie cuts to make the fit.
What I'm getting at is, I respect the amount of work it takes to do a rounded top vehicle. [cl [cl [P [P[

Thanks for the comments guys.
I hear you Old Iron.
Everything is a compound curve and unlike a car roof line you don't have the length of the roof line the ease into any sort of transition. I equate them to cutting a baseball in half and then adding a filler strip.And not having it look like a watermelon.
When I started doing the chop I supposedly had access to another rough cab with a good roof. Was going to put the 2 together with only one seam to weld. But that didn't pan out so here we are.......
I'm gaining on it.[cl
Torchie.

 

[gold03]

I sat on the cowl with my legs in the windshield opening to do the dolly work. Tough position for this fifty year old to get to... Or out of.[S

Things are looking awesome there Torchie. [cl

 

[Torchie]

I sat on the cowl with my legs in the windshield opening to do the dolly work. Tough position for this fifty year old to get to... Or out of.[S

Things are looking awesome there Torchie. [cl

Nice visual gold I am not sure that I am up for that.
When I was rebuilding the engine in my wife's boat a few years ago I used to have to take off my leg to get into the engine compartment.
The hard part was putting it back on so I could get out....
Hope to get back to it tomorow.
Torchie.