Neil's 52 Zwitter

[nshaddox]

Got a little work done on the driver side rear fender. Apologies for lack of activity here. Finally got garage workable and then took on a side project for my friends Datsun 620 that took about 60hrs of my time.

From top to bottom, a beat up 60 fender, the 56-59ish fender I’ll be using, and a donor early 60s crusty fender for patch material.

Patch in after more thinking than working.

Thought I might have to put cut the fender to wheel opening to get it to line up. Was off by ~4mm but looking at some of the paint stress lines on the original fender I decided the radius had been rolled out of position and was able to stretch it back into alignment. I’m 95% happy with it as is. Can always revisit later.

Still needs a little more finishing work here to match the 52-55 passenger side trim line. Will address lack of ribbed pressing and rust under first bolt hole at same time.

[VW_Jimbo]

Nice update! I was starting to think that you were not returning till after the kid grew up (like me)!

That patch worked out nicely! When I welded in the lower section on my rear fender, I may have left the trigger on a few seconds too long. It took some of the radius out of the fender, in both directions. Took a lot of thumping to get it to return to a fender again!

Looking forward to the next installment!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[nshaddox]

Back to back to back family/work/family trips kept me out of the garage for nearly a month. Sort of a lie cuz I was definitely out there still, but I've been jumping between metal work on the rear fenders for the 52 and modifying a '96 Ford Explorer intake for my '89 crown vic engine build. Its best to have as many projects going at one time as possible.

Anyways, enough progress has been made to photo dump the progress here. Only about a million more hours of welding left on this project.

Whispered some sweet nothings to the fenders and got them naked on a nice weather day a few weeks back. Uncovered a lot of old school body work on the driver's fender. Also discovered some on passenger fender, which made me feel better about stripping the paint since I thought it might have been OG, but was not.

Started filling all the bonus holes on the passenger fender. 9 in the general vacinity of the taillight. started working on some of the bigger dents too.

Then started addressing some tears. Got all crafty with a turnbuckle and some clamps to help hold the shape correctly prior to welding. Maybe that will help someone else doing the same work?

started on some mounting flange repairs too. Lots more effort required here, but I plan to keep plugging away at it over the next few weeks.

Its nice having a heated garage.

[nshaddox]

Still prioritizing daily driver engine build and associated side projects like designing some gauge clusters. I did run compressed air lines in the garage over winter break which has helped with some port matching work on that project and will be nice for all kinds of other applications going forward.

Took a break from CrownVicwagon work this week and did a little more fender work. Some of this stuff was done months ago. Tricky to maintain a build thread when I might only spend an hour a week on the project these days. So many things going on all the time.

Started tacking lower corner together to see if it could be saved or to help with general shape for repair piece. Quickly determined fabricating a patch was the better way to go.

Patch fabricated with vise, hammers, chisels, and shrinker. If I had to do it again I’d only half form the inner rib because my alignment was off quite a bit.

Welded in with TIG.

Some cleanup work with file, shrinking disc. More to do obviously but definitely getting somewhere with it.

[VW_Jimbo]

Nice update Neil! I was wondering when you might return to the Bug. I totally get the demands of juggling an involved hobby with a family life. You do not want to sacrifice anything but want to get something done on everything!

Good luck man!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[ddutch]

I follow this thread since you started working on this car. Did you ever managed to identify your car and get a birth certificate?
I remember that you wondered somewhere in the thread about what to do with paint. I like original factory paint and patina but your car and all of it's parts is a kind of patchwork of surface-rust, residues of different colours paint and dirt. Your idea and plan of acid dipping and an E-coat seems very appropriate for a project like this. After all the energy, your great talent and time you've put into this early and rare model over the years, I guess it deserves a very good (rust) protection and a quality paintjob in it's orginal colour (medium?) blue when all work is done, like this one;

It will look awesome, especially with the center of the wheels in white and body coloured hubcaps. Keep going with the impressive work you are doing, I like it.