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Part 2: Rounding Doors, Shaving Handles, and Frenching

(Click photo to enlarge)

Rounding the upper door corners. In this picture the corners are already cut off with a hacksaw, and are laying on the roof.

This is the rear corner welded back in. I also welded along the cut line on the door corner, so it can be ground to a nice radius. Doesn't look too bad already.

(Click photo to enlarge)

(Click photo to enlarge)

Speaking of Bondo, look how little will be needed here to get a nice transition from the roof panel to the new filler pieces for the rear quarters. The idea is to get the metal to fit, and use as little filler as necessary.

I've started on the removal of the stock door handles and locks, you can see how I have the holes filled in. I have had very good luck with just lap-welding in a section of patch metal from the back side, then skim-coating the area with fiberglass-reinforced filler and sanding that smooth. If necessary I then re-skim with ordinary filler, and end up with a nice smooth panel.

(Click photo to enlarge)

(Click photo to enlarge)

Note the R-134 refill bottle sitting on the hood, then look closer at the new headlight extension. Yup, same stuff. I got these free at work, and split the bottle along the weld seam. I then traced out a 7" diameter circle on each end, and cut them out with tin snips. The bottle was very close to the correct diameter, like it was made to fit the fender flange. A small amount of shaping was necessary to put the body creases into the large end of the extension, and once tacked in place, very little filler will be needed at all. I plan to make up a 5" deep bezel out of aluminum sheet for each one, with a rolled lip edge to meet the headlight cutout in the end of the bottle. This is a good alternative to using the stock Ford 'pot metal' extensions for a custom look. They can be cut as deep or as shallow as necessary, by going closer or farther away from the weld seam when cutting.

Click here for Part 3: Skirts, Lowering, and Airsprings


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