The fabrication of this '35 included a lead joint to join the side to the rear. This lead joint being 71 years old was beginning to crack. Replacement of the lead could lead to additional cracking in the future so Randy cut out the joint for replacement.
He had this done so quickly I missed the removal of the old joint. He already had the right rear joint replaced.
The section above the gas filler is done and the lower section is clamped in place.
The photo on the right shows a bit of the repaired lead joint and the beginning of the tail pan installation. The beading on the EMS tail pan was too wide to match. Randy cut the ends off the EMS panel and tighted the bead up in the tipping wheel. The factory and EMS beads were sliced down the middle for joining by tig welding.
This may not be as exciting as a fuel injected, supercharged engine build up but I feel these steps are important for a quality street rod build. I'll update more as time and progress allows.
The rough area under the old spare tire mount was cut out. The corners are rounded to eliminate stress cracking. The repair procedure is the same as described in the fender repair.
The patch is fabricated then clamped in place.
The installation procedure is the same as for the fender patches, short tig welds, slapper and dolly into place
Before we disassemble for paint work we want to check the fitment and clearance with the body and the running boards. It was a good feeling to see the fender mounted.
There was another patch area needed for the left fender so we checked against the smoothie fabrication running board. By the way we were very impressed with their quality and fit.
The left fender still needs the patch panel installed. The grill opening will be filled with a chromed Alumicraft on 1/4" spacing. The fit is pretty good considering he uses a jig shell rather than this one
Occasionally a large area of the fender may be too rough to repair. In those situations it is quicker to make a larger repair panel. The rough surface is smoothed and trued with bondo for the making of a flexible shape pattern as described in door skin fabrication. This fsp is shown on the left.
The pattern provides the information needed to form the replacement panel as shown.
While I have been provided a tremendous learning experience regarding metal shaping I can take no credit for the work performed. The craftsman behind the metal work on my '35 Chevy is Randy Ferguson of Ferguson Coachbuilding.
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