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Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:03 am

I recall disassembling a T34 in less than a weekend too. Jason & I lifted the body off the chassis and carried it onto the driveway. But the reassembly process unfortunately takes a bit longer. I'm sure John will complete it in record time. He's focused, has the right tools for the job, and has been planning this resto for several years.

Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:03 pm

You're not wrong Lee, hence my joke about how easy it is to pull stuff apart :lol:
Will make the rotisserie next week and then the serious repairs can begin.

Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:16 pm

Lee Hedges wrote: I recall disassembling a T34 in less than a weekend too. Jason & I lifted the body off the chassis and carried it onto the driveway. But the reassembly process unfortunately takes a bit longer. I'm sure John will complete it in record time. He's focused, has the right tools for the job, and has been planning this resto for several years.

With 4 kids in tow as well :wink:

:lol:

Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:23 pm

Thought I'd better start on making that rotisserie today as the body of the car has been in the way most of the week so I haven't been able to get any cars in or out of the shop.

Felt that the best and quickest way would be to use a couple of engine stands and seeing as I already had one I just bought a 2nd used one locally.
Started out making the mounts that bolt on the bumper mounts in the body, mainly tried to use scrap steel that we already had at work so it was a case of whatever works.
Figuring out where the center of gravity was on the body became a bit of a guessing game so after deciding how high to make the stands I cut up one of the engine stands and lengthened it by about 200mm and also widened it between the wheels to make it more stable.
That worked out pretty well and with the body hanging level in the gantry crane I could then measure up the back of the car and make the stand for that end.

With the 2nd stand done I dropped it down on the ground but it became evident pretty quickly I'd need to tie the stands together to stop them splaying out.
Some simple furniture tube bolted between the stands sorted that problem out pretty quick.
The great thing is that when this is done I can then use this stand for the Convertible and all I need to change is where it bolts to the body

Its certainly not going to win any awards but I didn't feel like spending all day making this thing so rough and ready it is!!
Balance is perfect, spins over very nice and at no time does it want to suddenly drop away from you so that's pretty cool.
Will be miles easier to work on the lower half of the body this way.

Was thinking today about a sunroof, so if anyone knows of a roofcut available I'd sure consider it for this car.
Either a roof with or without posts, doesn't matter really.

Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:03 pm

Well done on the rotisserie. :wink:

Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:45 pm

Been thinking all week where to start.................I guess it was a little overwhelming looking at the scale of repairs to be done!
In any case I thought replacing the panel above the transmission would be a decent place to start so in order to get at it properly the parcel shelf needed to come out so I got to work drilling spot welds out.
Bob, Used your washer trick on the rear lid springs that worked easy as.
Putting them back in is easy too, hook the spring in at the bottom, then hook on the hinge, slide hinge into place and put the hinge pin through, remove washers........job done.

Ended up having to drill through all 3 skins to be able to release the parcel tray but after a few hours work it came away relatively cleanly.
That panel is in decent shape, just have to make a new box section that runs along the front of it as the ends have rusted off.

The little shelf below that was also heavily rusted so I took that out as well and will have to make a new one of those.
With both trays out of the way its easy enough to get at the main panel above the transmission so that will have to come out next, chipped off all the old sealer so I can find all the spotwelds.

Before that panel comes out I'll first get to work making a new panel, pretty much will have to be made in 2 pieces at least but I'll be able to join them somewhere.
Side panels also need quite a few repairs but these are also easy to get at now with the parcel tray out of the way.
Tell you what I'm super happy I made that rotisserie as its made life a whole lot easier!

Sat Feb 11, 2012 10:14 am

Glad to have been some help, even in a small way. :wink:

Looks like you've got a bunch of sandblasting to do. It also looks like your car has the same problem mine did, in that it's rusting thru the primer. I swear, I think these cars were built out of rusty steel. :evil:

Your "C" posts looked almost exactly as mine did too, except mine had holes in them. I just fabricated new pieces, after I cut, sandblasted and epoxy primed mine, before capping them off.

I see you found the same thing I did with mine, after scraping the old seam sealer off, you found rust hiding under it. You might as well remove all of it before you sandblast though, as it'll save you time and effort in the long run. I only say that, because I found holes in mine in some of those spots. :roll:

Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:45 pm

Car? what car? all I can see is rust :lol:
Yes...well my C posts do have holes as well, just further up.
Yeah all the sealer is coming off, plan is to blast every square inch of the body and epoxy prime it.
I'll do it in stages, blast the area I'm working on and first epoxy seal it before welding in the new metal.
Trouble is that it will still be rusty in the seams where you can't get at it but unless you drill the whole car apart there's not much you can do about it, perhaps some kind of rust inhibitor may work.

Sat Feb 11, 2012 7:39 pm

Can't you dip it in Zinc?

Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:35 pm

probably not, but you guys have car body EDP processing available.

Something here I would absolutely kill for.

Sun Feb 12, 2012 9:49 am

racoguy wrote: Car? what car? all I can see is rust :lol:
Yes...well my C posts do have holes as well, just further up.
Yeah all the sealer is coming off, plan is to blast every square inch of the body and epoxy prime it.
I'll do it in stages, blast the area I'm working on and first epoxy seal it before welding in the new metal.
Trouble is that it will still be rusty in the seams where you can't get at it but unless you drill the whole car apart there's not much you can do about it, perhaps some kind of rust inhibitor may work.

Yeah, mine was gone in places where the seam seal was applied. I don't think drilling out ALL of the spot welds is feasible, as you'd need jigs just to weld it back together. This is one of those deals where you clean it up the best you can, seal it as best you can, and hope for the best. There's not really a lot you can do, short of taking it ALL apart, and sandblasting and sealing everything. :roll:

I don't think zinc dipping it would help, as I don't think it would get under the spot welds (maybe between them yes). The problem is both pieces of metal currently have rust trapped between them, and you can only clean so much of it out.

On my own car, I just cleaned it up as best as I could, and sealed it up. I don't know how long that will last, but the car is already almost 50 years old (it's 48 right now). :wink: I did mine in sections, working from the middle out, and from the bottom up. Granted I did do some of the outside first, but once the body was seperated, the bottom was the first order of business. I didn't want the 2 seperated for too long, as sometimes that causes a project to stall, and I had a self imposed deadline. I also didn't want it to become a multi-year (7+ like the norm on these cars) project, as then you begin to forget where stuff is stashed, or what went where. :shock:

Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:37 am

Yeah I've been there many times, even having 2 of the same part and not being able to find even one of them :lol:
Not this time though, all of the Ghia's parts are in boxes on pallets in my pallet rack close together so I know EVERYTHING for that car is in one place!

My new bead roller turned up today so I'll first get to work modifying that strengthening the unit and putting an electric drive on it so I have more control over the sheet.
Built an english wheel some years ago which has been usefull for a few projects now so let the fun begin.......................wonder if it will still be fun a year from now.................... :roll:

Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:44 am

Wow a couple of weeks have gone by already, not much more has happened to the car but I have been busy organising my tools so that the serious work can begin so this update is more about that.
Bought a cheapo bead roller a while back so I set to work reinforcing the main frame and adding an electric drive to it, did that with a 30:1 worm / roller and a variable speed drill.
The drill I have isn't really powerfull enough at ultra low speed so I'm looking around for something with more punch.

The concept works extremely well but the drill is the weak part.
Also cut down a trolley I had to mount the bead roller and english wheel on, keeps things tidy and stops them walking around the floor.
Last thing Saturday I started making the roller profiles to be able to roll the ridges for the new panel above the transmission.
Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll be fabricating some panels!

Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:00 pm

What a great day working on the Ghia!
Time had come to start on making the replacement panel for under the rear seat.
Last week I made the appropriate shape dies in the lathe for the deep grooves that are in that panel, after running a couple of test pieces I soon realized it distorts the rest of the panel quite badly when bead rolling such a wide deep groove.

The solution turned out to be quite easy, by pre stretching the area where the groove goes in the english wheel it raises / stretches the metal thus keeping the sheet more flat when rolling the groove.
Unfortunately the throat on my cheapo bead roller isn't deep enough to make the panel in one piece so I decided to make it in 3 pieces, started out with the center panel and marked out the center groove and once this was rolled I pressed the ends with a press tool I made to final shape the ends of the rolled groove.
Worked outwards from there and to finish off folded the front and rear lips to end up with the below

Once that was made I set to work making the new legs to support it, those were easy enough in the press brake.

The end pieces were quite challenging also and kinda glad I made them separate as it also allows me to fine tune the total length of the finished panel.
Some templates of the wheelhouses helped a lot as the old panel was soo badly rusted that I couldn't copy them.
Few trial fits with the cardboard I marked it out on sheetmetal, rolled the groove, bent up the edges and offered it up in the car which looks pretty good so far.

Last job for the day was to punch the holes of the body bolts to go through and attach on of the side pieces after some careful measuring in the car.
I'm super stoked how this came out considering I've never used a bead roller, possibilities seem endless............ :lol:
The next panel on the list is the big one above the transmission, looks like that also will be made from 2 or 3 sections but we'll see....

Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:18 pm

You are already a 'tin knocker' on your first job! 8)

Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:28 pm

I've been thinking about the above transmission panel for most of the weekend :roll: , getting the groove to radius would always be the problem.
Having a few hours spare time today I played with some ideas, it just isn't possible in the bead roller................ with the 70 degree downward angle on the sheet it fouls on the bead roller frame well before a 70deg angle.

Sooooo after thinking some more the other option would be to run the groove, stop and re start the groove on the other side of the radius (if that makes sense?)
But in all honnesty I didn't want to give up on a continuous groove soo easily :lol: so in the end I made another press tool and ran a couple of test pieces, works primo!! :wink:
Where the panel bends back the other way (at the floor pan end) I'll make another press tool the reverse of what I have and that way I should be able to make that whole panel in one piece but time will tell.
I WILL win the battle against RUST :D

Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:15 pm

:shock: bloody friggin' hell.... are you a pressman? sheesh... you take it to extremes.... wow... all i can say , wow

Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:43 pm

You do know that you have the startings of a T34 metal bit sales biz in the works mate :wink:

=D>

Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:15 pm

Not only that but he has a dedicated free marketing platform & worldwide distribution network already in-place as well ...

Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:39 pm

While thats a really nice thought I don't think taking all day to make 1 panel is really viable from a sales perspective.
Most of what I'm doing is all self taught and I quite enjoy figuring out how to make stuff in my own shop, I have no previous experience pressing panels or anything like that so every step is a learning curve :lol: