Rustbucket49's 1949 Chevy Build

[rustbucket49]

Smashing the Trunk

Well I'm still doing some welding on the trunk. Got the guts welded in for the most part. About have 2 sides welded up, but need to work on the corners some more where I screwed up. Started making the pieces to fill in at the top as shown in the picture. I used my newest tool - it's shown in the second picture - it's called an english wheel (otherwise known as a fender.....)

I will go on record as saying there is NO WAY chopping the top on this car could be as big of a pain in the patooty as squashing the trunk lid. Hoitink is on steroids - or I need to get his chainsaw and 2 stroke mix.... If I ever meet the dude, I'm buying him a beer for what's he's accomplished in such a short period of time !!!

 

[hoitink]

Dude that trunk looks great! Almost makes me want to redo mine **NOT** it's a ****ty job and I know yours will turn out better than mine. Props goes out to anyone that actaully chooses to do these trunks as they look easier than they are, and yes after that trunk the top will be no problem at all to whack...

Car's look'n good man.

 

[cnchotrods]

Beautiful job on the decklid. I've always wanted to see how they do that. Thanks for the pictures. Looks great.

 

[ANNAMEL]

enjoyed catching up on the build looks great!! Its only steel.Keep plugin away at it. you and the kid. After he gets done with your i got one for him to build for me.

 

[rustbucket49]

Hey thanks for the comments guys ! I will get there someday I hope - not as fast as Superman Hoitink but perhaps before I croak.

 

[hillbillysurf]

Good job rustbucket49 !! Love seeing them old Chevys getting a face lift and a chance to roll down the road again in style. Keep Hammer'n Dude !!!!!

 

[rustbucket49]

Smashing the Trunk - the saga continues

Well I made some great progress on the trunk smash yesterday so figured I'd update my build thread. I learned some lessons on what and what not to do with the help of the great guys on RRR. Thanks especially to Hoitink (a.k.a. Superman), RodGuy1 (a.k.a. RodGod), Fatdog409 and Madman for their advise and inspiration.... Here are a few posts w/ pix of progress.

The first picture is the problem that I created for myself after welding in the upper panel after the smash. I used a flap wheel to grind the weld bead and ended up warping the panel - so I had to go back w/ a hammer, dolly and shrinking wheel to try and straighten it out - the red is low spots, yellow is high and green are correct contour...... I'm still working that out. Bottom line - I spent too much time apparently w/ the flap wheel and got way too much heat. After suggestions from Superman Hoitink and RodGod, I started using a hard grinding wheel which knocked down the welds MUCH, MUCH quicker and followed w/ a random orbital sander and 80 grit to get the welds silky smooth !! Worked great w/ no warpage!!!

Second picture is the section I had to cut out since it had rusted through. I screwed up the contour a little on the strip to the right and will need to use a little body filler, but not much.... I added some extra weld bead to correct the contour - you can see that on my next posting of pictures.....

The third picture is my $8 slapper I fabbed out of 1.5" x 1/4" steel and rebar.

 

[rustbucket49]

Smashing the Trunk - After grinding and sanding weld beads

Here are the latest pictures as of today. Just need to work a few areas w/ shrinking disk (Madman rules !), use a little body filler, strip the rest of the old paint and put epoxy primer on it. Also still have a little work to finish on the guts inside - no big deal. I ended up taking about 6-7" out of the trunk...

You can see in the 4th picture on the right side where I added some extra weld bead to correct the contour.. I need to add a little body filler through there just to get it smoother, but no big deal.

I am pretty happy how it turned out - I still can't believe Superman Hoitink finished his so quick. This was a job for a hack like myself - but I feel more confident to proceed w/ taking a few inches off the roof now !!!!

 

[Sam_Fear]

Can you get a full shot of the car? Wondering how it looks now. Good job!

 

[earthman]

Thanks for the documentory RB. Going to be a nice ride.

 

[rustbucket49]

Can you get a full shot of the car? Wondering how it looks now. Good job!

I will need to push it out of the garage, but I would like to do that also - need to do that anyway to clean up and do some sanding. I will try to get pix w/ the smashed trunk and also the stock one. Probably will be a few days or so......

 

[rustbucket49]

Finally got the sled out of the garage for a cleaning session. Here is a profile shot after the lid pancake. Not quite apples to apples angles, but first is before shot w/ bulbous arse and next 2 are after pancake

 

[rustbucket49]

New tool - bending brake

Pic of new tool I made.....

 

[rustbucket49]

Firewall paint

Firewall smoothed out, primed and ready for color....

 

[Sam_Fear]

.... Not quite apples to apples angles.....

Well who ya trying to impress? Looks great to me!

 

[chipper]

nice work RB keep it up