210 Wagon Progress

[MP&C]

Randy, thanks for the kind words. I like making those subtle changes that look like they belong yet have you scratching your head to figure out what was done.


Back on the quarter, Chris had started to cut out the gas door opening so it could be shaved. Large holes used in the corners to minimize the shrinking and buckle effect you see when welding in sharp corners. The cutoff wheel had got away from him (guess we need that lazer guide from Sears!) and he thought the next best thing was to cut out some more. Two more mis-cuts and we would have a three door wagon on our hands......














Still had the old door skins laying around, this seemed the perfect candidate to make the patch with. Cut it oversize, marked the hole, trimmed that oversized, trimmed some more, some slight work with the sanding disc, and Viola! A nice, tight fit.








Now I needed a nice bench to weld on, and still have access for planishing the weld dots. Good thing these paint stands were in the way, I probably wouldn't have given them thought.





Aligned as we went, dot welded, planished, ground down the weld, repeat.





Nice tight fit

















.....and we'll finish this next time.......

[carls 56]

thanks for pics and updates robert. nine work.

[Donnie]

Great pictures...unbelievable amount of great workmanship...I think I need more tools...D

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments guys. Continuing on with the patch. Got some more weld dots in and decided to not planish for a few of them, to show the deformation that occurs. I normally will run my hand outside along the perimeter of the patch to check for any deformation. Normally you will start to see a buckle depression in between some of the welds. Here is the back side, first we'll show the full weld penetration we're looking for, then the deformed metal.











With only planishing the three weld dots adjacent to the buckle, here are the results.





This is why you need to planish as you go, to keep the panel as straight as you can. After a few more passes of weld dots, planishing, and grinding, I'll start to mark the areas left to be welded, sometimes they're hard to see in the welding helmet. Of course, maybe that's a sign of the eyes starting to go....or a dirty welding helmet.








While I was working on this quarter, Chris was tackling the other. We still had some flange to remove where someone got in a hurry in putting this thing on. We'll butt weld the seam when the flange has been removed.








Another area we plan to tackle, this is the damage from dirt that had accumlated between the pinch weld beneath the tail light.





So we plan to remove this pinch weld seam on both sides and butt weld below the tail lights to prevent a future occurance.

[MP&C]

Boy it's been a while since I updated. We had a cruise to FL and Nassau just after Thanksgiving, and came back to snow on the ground. That was a couple weeks ago, and now look.......







I measured about 9 inches earlier today and it's still falling. I know some of you guys see this on a regular basis, but we normally have everything shut down after 1/2" falls. Heck these clowns around here can't drive on dry roads, much less add some rain or snow. My daily driver doesn't hide indoors much, but it seemed easier than cleaning off a bunch of snow. So the shop is really packed now...





The welds on the gas door were finished, and checked the panel to see how far out we were.











With the slight low spots I thought I'd give this a go. It sure makes easier work of stretching, lets just make sure we don't get carried away.





I did get it a bunch closer, and will work on it some more tomorrow and get some final pictures.

[MP&C]

The more you dig, the more you find. The other day I happened to be looking inside this gaping hole where a quarter panel used to be, and thought I saw a light.





So this evening Chris tried his hand at cutting out some rust and forming up a new repair panel.








He used the shear, press brake, and then got to use the shrinker/stretchers. After that we fitted it up, marked it a few times, cut it a few times, and somehow still ended up with about an 1/8 gap on the center area of the inside joint. No sense in wasting his efforts, we clamped it in and welded away.











This will give him some practice at grinding tomorrow...

[MP&C]

The welds inside the wheelwell were ground smooth, getting it one step closer to closing up the quarter.





One other area we saw some noticeable rot in was the stiffener brace along the window opening.








As this will also help to strengthen the quarter across where we plan on welding it together, this is another candidate for repair. Here's the newly formed replacement.








Here it is test fit into place.





The window divider was rather fatigued on the end flanges, so it was removed also. I'll likely tackle the new one tomorrow.

[finallyhavea57]

You guys are doing great work Robert. Also, your detail in explaining everything is unquestionable.

Don

[56-210sedan]

Once again, very nicely done Robert

[m.kozlowski]

Beautiful work.