Neil's 52 Zwitter

[nshaddox]

All replacement metal needs tweaking. These cars were mass produced. It’s absurd to expect them to all be the same and to expect replacement panels to be one size fits all. That said, KF stuff is pretty nice. Autocraft is nice too. Virtanen stuff is the bomb. The rest is kinda shit. I bought my KF stuff direct off the website, and shipping was quick and reasonable.

I’ve got a lot of shit going on. I’m also a working professional sort of at this stage in my life. I’d rather buy stuff that doesn’t need 5hrs of fussing with to fit right. 1-2hrs is reasonable. Worth the big bucks.

[geneL3c]

Neil, I've gotten parts from most of the usual suppliers and agree with your assessment of the quality issue, especially Mika at Virtanen. Also got parts from Wolfparts ( Sweden ) that the body shop I'm using seems to like for the quality and fit, not so much with Wolfsburg West though, haven't used Autocraft yet. Thanks for the info.

[nshaddox]

@vw356 that shop is sweet, I’m surprised it was so affordable. I’m a city guy through and through though. Maybe one day in the future I’ll have a shop; for now I’ll make do with 2 2 car garages.

Got a bit done this morning, inner firewall patches mostly in, a few pin holes left and I’ll have to do some straightening from the backside once I have the outer panels removed.

[geneL3c]

Neil, Really, really nice work ! Very close to what the body shop should be doing on my '55 donor car for my Typ 87 clone. Sure would be a nice surprise if they are moving as fast as you are, I hope to get to see what they have accomplished in a couple of weeks. BTW, the body shop temporarily welded the doors in place before they cut out the heater channels ( which I understand have already been replaced ) so that the body wouldn't get out of rig. Gene

[nshaddox]

Time for an update; didn’t want anyone to think I haven’t been working on anything.

So with the bottom of the tunnel removed, you wouldn’t believe how flexible the frame gets. So much so that I’m a bit worried about making sure it’s straight when I weld it back together. Decided I needed to make a jig. Luckily I have a 64 pan to use as a template. Had some plates laser cut and collected some i-beams and finally got it mostly together.

The idea is to be able to bolt up a frame right side up for pan install and body cart usage, or upside down to repair conduits and rot on the bottom. Since the frame head has some built in caster, I made a beam spacer thing that can flip around too which hopefully will work out well. Remains to be seen whether the other holes will line up when its flipped.

And the best part is it all still ticks into the garage! Amazing.

Also been working on the paperwork side still, kind of a saga but I think I finally have everything I need to not get turned away by the SOS again. Slow progress.

[nshaddox]

Finally have a clear title for this thing. 4yrs of wondering how to do it and researching VIN recovery techniques. A winter patiently waiting for a practice piece to season in the snow. A month waiting for a state cop to verify the invisible VIN. 2 trips to the SOS. A few weeks waiting for an appraiser. A few weeks waiting for the state to accept or reject the paperwork. Big milestone for the project.

[geneL3c]

Neil, Congratulations, I've been there too, I guess the title gods were smiling on you after all ! Gene

[Peter_N]

Wow Neil, it's great to see that people like you are going the extra (long) mile to get this car back on the road.
I'm sure getting the title has given you even more motivation to get back in the shop and fix it.

Keep up the good work
_________________
My 1958 PGSG project topic

[nshaddox]

Thanks!

Had my friend over today so got some things wrapped up in the garage.

We flipped the 64 pan earlier in the week and discovered there were some alignment issues with my plates. Specifically the frame head locating plate had a wider gap to the pan upside down than right side up. I believe this is because the I beams aren’t totally parallel and the frame head has some caster. No big deal, just needed to make a different spacer.

Here is the gap with the old spacer. Didn’t take a photo of the new one.

Here are the adapters and reinforcements for the rear torsion tube.

Upside down 64 pan with 52 frame thrown on top for storage earlier in the week.

And finally, swapped the 52 frame on. Bolted right up. Tunnel still flared out a bit in the middle but I have a plan for that before final welding. A lot of rust repair needs to happen first.

Also did some welding on the 64 frame because the pans were done pretty poorly on it. Wrapped that up and got it out of the garage so there is more room to work on stuff in there now.

[nshaddox]

Fiancée was out with her folks tonight so I got down and dirty in the garage and wrapped up the patch panels on the nap hat to make a cleaner conversion to juiced brakes.

Pretty happy with it. Much nicer than the large hole made by drilling a bunch of smaller holes method the previous owner sometime in the last 6 decades used. My favorite part is you can still tell the main hole was made by hand if you really look close, so one can still scratch their head another 6 decades from now and say ‘this really was a cable brake car, huh?’

[geneL3c]

Neil, Good decision to go to hydraulic brakes, cable brakes are horrible, especially if you intend to upgrade the engine, very nice work, as usual, Gene

[nshaddox]

Michelle let me play in the garage almost the whole day today.

Tackled the rotten part of the tunnel that gets hidden by the bottom plate. Only got one side done because it started sprinkling outside and I had to move everything back into the garage.

Next side should be easier because pedal cluster reinforcing plate and gas line won’t be near by.

Didn’t want the weather to be an excuse so started fitting donor piece for front bottom tunnel section.

Once that was fitted, decided to go ahead and make the splice. One less thing to do later. Weather started cooperating better too so I was able to get The whole weld cleaned up nicely. Still a couple more thin spots that will need separate patches.

That might be the last update for a bit. Wedding is less than 2 weeks away now and work schedule is going to be intense through September at least. I’ll keep plugging away on this whenever possible though. I’d really like to finish up the frame by the end of September/mid October.

[nshaddox]

Managed to sneak a few more hours in the garage.

Patched Napoleon hat and frame head wings on passenger side.

And then the lower tunnel repair piece fitted.

At this point I think the bottom of the tunnel is ready for reinstall. Have to make some calls to see whether it’s better to blast now or dip later.

[nshaddox]

Probably called about 15-20 different e coaters here in the Midwest so far and haven’t gotten anyone to give me a quote yet. Most places have lines where max length is 72”. I have 3 or 4 more to follow up with this week. Found quotes on dipping and blasting. Dipping for sure pricier but I think I’m gonna go that route so that I can weld this bitch back together this week. Tired of not seeing progress in the garage. Patched the last little rust pits and holes in the bottom plate of the tunnel and pounded out some dents today. Also cleaned up the flanges with a wire wheel and vacuumed out the debris that gathered in there from all the rust repair activities. I think I’m gonna start welding the frame back together tomorrow.

Also my buddy Wheelie Pete gave me some nice trailing arms for the beam in exchange for help sorting and swapping parts, so I think I’ve got a batch of stuff nearly ready for powder coating now. Might disassemble barndoor spindles first.

[nshaddox]

Got the bottom of the tunnel mostly reinstalled. Just did all the spot welds and some tacks up front where the factory laid bead welds with torches. Planning to replicate those but need a bigger torch tip. Lots of hammer and dolly work to keep the seam close together while welding. Lots of clamps. Slow work but big milestone for the project.

[nshaddox]

Succeeded in finding local welding shop that had the torch tip I thought I needed for torch. Tried my hand at duplicating the factory gas welds on the frame. They are kinda ugly but I think that was the point. Should be strong enough. Definitely looks the part. Probably could have used a larger torch on the torsion housing. Was using a #2 in case anyone was wondering.

Also cleaned up the spot welds.

Just a few more things to touch up tomorrow before flipping the frame and tackling floor pans.

Still striking out trying to find an e coater. If anyone has a lead let me know.

[Suboval]

[nshaddox]

Finished gas welds on frame horns. Pete came by and helped. Got frame flipped around on the jig everything lined up pretty good but spacer is definitely different than the 2 I’ve already made for up front by the beam. I think there may be a slight difference in frame length between the early style frame head and late one, but not sure what’s really going on. Or maybe frame horns are different between split case and tunnel case cars. The early style frame horn close offs are definitely differently shaped. I-beams could also just be in bending since they are pretty thin webbed. Should have used square tube on the longitudinal frame jig pieces. Main idea was to try to eliminate twist and I think that was a success since bolt holes all at least lined up.

Checked floor pans for fit before just to see how much effort that will take.

They will need some trimming at the front and maybe the back. Probably a bit of massage work around the outer edge of the nap hat.

[nshaddox]

Got pans 99% trimmed to fit

Most of the heater channel holes seem to be off, but especially the rear most one. Pans were 1/4” or more too long. Better to have extra material than not enough though so I’m alright with it.

Also gas welded inner seams of frame horns like stock. And all cable conduits to the frame as well. Front of frame basically done now. Just need to repair cross members before welding in pans for good.

Also had to fix the accelerator cable conduit. Cable had started sawing through the top of the conduit. All better now.

[Two Glove Boxes]

Looking good!