doctahouse

The trunk drop off's were screwed into place in case adjustments needed to made. The quarter is coming off after to allow the por 15 on the inside panels and braces.



For anyone that is doing full quarters on a vert, you will need to keep the pinch weld area off your vert. The quarters will not fit without the piece unless you have some mad skills on an english wheel. This piece is to be graphed into place.




I used 2 screws to hold the piece in place.


Aluminum backer for filling in the holes. Works great but the aluminum gets hot fast.




Some gap but it's an easy fix

doctahouse

Body lines are looking real good now.




Temp screws. I'll need to drill holes for the plug welds after.



Some pushing power was needed. This taillight housing is hard to fit in.





The bottom will need alot of work to make it look good.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Looking good Doc.

Now I just need to get off my butt and do some of this to my 61.

Not sure if you know this, but if you use copper pipe and flatten one end like a spoon it works really well as a backer for gap and plug welding on sheet metal. I have a few but the one I use most of the time is almost a foot long with the flattened "spoon" on one end. The long handle doesn't get hot and there is no need to clamp it in place.

doctahouse

Thanks!!

You just saved me a bunch of work. I've got some copper flat bar but figured I'd use some aluminum because of cost. Thats a really good idea for the copper tubing. I've got a few hard to get to spots I need to fill and that will do just the trick

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Cool, glad to help.

I learned it from an old hot rodding friend. I used some scrap water pipe I had after fixing some plumbing. Where there is free, there is me.

doctahouse

Big gap at the bottom




I took a piece of poster paper and a magnet then took spary paint to get a template.



tacked in place



all cleaned up


Next was the metal ready and Por15






Quarter now on

Typical trunk gap tight at the end


Height is looking good

lq46liter

I had the same idea but was not sure which tank to use. One post said a 92 caprice tank but cannot find one. What year of tank are you going to use? And will you be redirecting the filler tube. I was thinking of coming out behind the license plate. Would take a little fabrication but think would work. Thanks for any information. Project looks great.

doctahouse

Thanks....
91-96 Caprice/Impala. I'm sure the roadmaster and fleetwood have the same tank too. I'll re-direct once I see where thw nozzle will end up. I think the plate would be too low. I'll most likely make a hinge system out of the center of the bumper.

doctahouse

Back at it. Cut the drivers quarter off. The top of the wheel house where the fuel tube comes through was rust out. I will not be using the door anyways so I cut it all out and placed in new metal.









I placed the convertible pinch weld on top. I used the whole piece this time. This quarter for some reason sat 3/8" higher than the door. Can't explain this one?

Gas door area had me really worried. So I trimmed it a bit.


I had welded two washers per side so I could use the ratchet strap to pull the quarter in for good gap. I then tacked the trunk lid down so it wouldn't move. It was tight crawling in and out of the trunk to get the taillight all fit up good. Good thing for porta powers!!

The radius is way out. Both quarters will need work in this area though. Drivers is the worst. I would guess that from the factory, the trunk was not centered. I measured it out and was out about 5/16" from center. It's dead on now.


Body lines are pretty good.




I pounded the metal only to find out I really didn't need to. Oh well, it's a wheel house. I'll dolly it out.



I got a really good tight fit on this side. No filler metal, less welding!!

doctahouse

Here is some pictures of the old drivers quarter. What a mess and hack job.

doctahouse

The corner of the trunk lid needed some work to get the gap right.











pretty even on this side


Quarter is slightly higher than the trunk lid on passenger though

doctahouse

Here is where my trouble begins. I have really been thinking of how a plan to tackle this. This is going to require lots of screwing around to get the right fit. The top of the taillight housing isn't bad. The bottom however is out a mile. I've got to make this work with the cove inserts. It's almost as if the housing is twisted down clockwise. I can't add a filler to the bottom because then the trim and cove will be too short. If I twist the housing counter clockwise, the gap will be on the opposite lower corner which will then to make it not symmetrical with the passenger. I'll see this weekend how it pans out I guess.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

You mentioned this as a problem area...


This may seem obvious but how does the trim that goes over the tail light panel fit? I would make note of the trim and it's gaps, then adjust what you can move easily (sheet metal) to see why and hopefully fit properly what you can't (trim). Just an idea.

I have a friend with a 63 vert that is going through nearly the same process. We weren't very impressed with the quarters he got for his car because they had a lot of subtle variance from the ones on his car and every factory car I have seen. I don't know where they were purchased or when. I also don't remember anything glaring and obviously wrong, but there was tons of little stuff to fix. We ended up using the original quarters and patching spots with aftermarket metal instead of replacing them whole. The fit wasn't so great and it appeared we would have more time invested in getting the repops right than we did getting the originals worked into shape. Obviously you didn't have that option.

By the way, great work. You have come a long, long way!

doctahouse

Thanks. I think I'm clipping along pretty well with just some weekend time. I don't have time at night so Saturday's and part of Sundays is all I got.

As for the taillight, the trim will end up short. It looks twisted to me, rather than poor stamping.

I'm thinking of making a 3" round plate, 1/4" thick, then weld a 1" nut in the center of the plate. After, I'll bolt it into the factory taillight holes. I will then trim the bottom left corner of the taillight housing and quarter enough so when I put a socket and snipe bar on that 1"nut/plate, I can twist the housing into place equalizing the gap.

By trimming the bottom corner, the quarter will drop enough so the trunk height will still be dead on once it's twisted.....I hope

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

I agree, it looks like the quarter skin is too high which twisted the tail panel upward. When you look at the top of the quarter skin it immediately rolls upward too much instead of laying flat like the deck lid then rolling up with the body line. The problem is figuring out WHERE the quarter is too high. By this I mean is the skin itself out of spec or did you make a mistake and install the rocker section 1/8" (3 mm) too high? It's possible the rocker is just too high, I've done that before. Good luck, I have faith in you.

doctahouse

Parts are back from the stripper. Turned out real good. At least there is no sand blasting warpage.






The sealer didn't come off. He said I could get it off with some elbow grease.


Hood left front

Hood right front

doctahouse

The dipping tank left the nylon rope in a sparkling white finish!!


Poor fender

doctahouse

It's been awhile since I've had sometime to get some work done. The door skins came in last week and gave some motivation to get crackin.


I applied POR15 to all the inner door frame areas plus the door skins. After that, I had sound deadend the skins. What a difference between the quarter skin and the door skin.






Next was the skin. Easy to install. I used a self tapping screws to keep it squared and down tight.




I lined it up the best I could. I'll need new bushings for the hinges to make sure it tight. They're a little sloppy. Other than that, the lines line up real good.





Did some work on the trunk too. I think I will stop now and just get a new trunk lid. This one is pissing me off with the holes and craters.




Making progress.

doctahouse

Got a couple good scores at the Red Deer Swap Meet. Rear coves, not a dent or ding for $20 for the pair and a Vintage Air box. Complete with A/C, heat, defrost for $280. Another local purchase was the OG tinted windshield. Far from needing that but good to have.

doctahouse

Finally, some progress after all this time off.

I changed my design of the oil and went with a single plate welded to the bottom of the pan. The oil drain plug was graphed into the plate for space saving. I was really hoping that the motor would drop enough to fit the oversized truck intake, but it doesn't. The pan is really the same depth as an F body, but far less the price for a complete f-body pan conversion. The cost is really in the 3/8” aluminum plate and the time to grind it all up.

Test fitting the pieces. The plug is sloped on an angle to allow as much of the oil drain out as possible.







Here is the dye pen. Check for leaks now before. There was a crack that needed to be welded up. Not sure how that happend? Better to find out now then later.