Boss 9 Tribute

[Midlife 814]

I like the gloves on the front of the frame rails: looks like they want to grab a beer or two...

[Viperpete 36]

So I got the decklid lined up or at least very close to the original car's measurements. I layed the glass in to see how the front and rear glass fit. Not too happy. Pretty big gaps. I don't remember how big they were when I removed the glass originally or how much the trim covers. I'm going to try placing the glass back in the 69' and see if the gaps/fit are the same. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a large gap here....

 

 

 

 

Also, look how the roof skin lines up in the front versus the rear.

 

 

 

 

The passenger side is a little off. Not sure how to correct this. 

 

 

[potato 10]

9 hours ago, Viperpete said:

The passenger side is a little off. Not sure how to correct this. 

 

My first guess was put the doors in the door holes and see if you can tell how your body panels need to close up together to fit better.  That may be hard with your brace right there in the door opening.

My next guess is make something that perfectly fits the door opening of your old car shell.  Thats assuming your car door still fits in the opening of the old car.

Based off some of your other pictures, you're a bit of a welder.  I say use some scrap of angle iron or steel bars and weld up and catch some reference points on all sides of the door opening.  Then take that over to your new car where you're fitting your panels together.  Use it to help decide what needs to move where.  If you're feeling crazy, start tacking the body panels directly to the jig.  :P

 

I suppose you could take that idea further.  Build a little skeleton inside your old car (that can be disassembled and reassembled in the new car).  Make some features that come off the skeleton and come to certain reference points in the body.    This lets you copy the old car to the new car by making sure a bunch of points are all held properly in relation to each other.

[Viperpete 36]

Hey yall

 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I bruised some ribs back in June putting a drunken idiot in a headlock and it took a while to heal before I could get back to work on the car. But I have a nice update. I have fitted the rear seat bulkhead, rear quarter extensions, trunk lid, front fender aprons, radiator core support, fender supports, 3 pairs of fenders, and 2 pairs of doors so far. 

 

A friend lent me his 69 Mach 1 so that I could remove the front fenders to I could get measurements as my original car has no front clip. Poor car is rusted out really bad, runs and drives though. He is the second owner, it has 70k miles (I think). 351 and a 4 spd with AC. Nicely optioned. 

 

 

 

 

 

The rear of the new shell looks really really good. I need to move the quarters towards each other a little more so that I get a window width that is closer to my car. The quarter extensions actually fit better than the original car which is amazing. The rear bulkhead is interesting too. I think I've got it positioned approximately where it is supposed to go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door situation has been frustrating. They both came damaged and my stupid ass didn't unbox them for 2 months. CJ won't take them back but gave me a small refund. Either way, I don't think I am going to use them anyway. The passenger side is tough I just cannot get it to line up. I had to cut the drivers side a little bit to get it to fit (as it was completely misshapen) to the quarter panel and it fits reasonably well. I am going to remove them and try my original doors and see if they fit better. That will tell me more about the overall rightness of my shell. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have tried 3 pairs of fenders so far on the shell. My original ones and the Mach 1 fenders just don't fit very well to the aftermarket front end. I bought some new ones from NPD and they fit much much better. It looks like I only need to close up either side maybe a few millimeters to have pretty good clearance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The front fender holes that attach to the MTF core support do not line up. I'll have to drill out new ones. Both stock fender pairs did line up to these holes. 

 

 

 

I still need to get my front end perfectly square. Honestly working on this assembly table at this stage of the build has been a pain. It's so high up. I am constantly climbing up and down and performing a balancing act and trying not to fall off. My advice to anyone who builds one of these, make sure it is height adjustable! The hood fits terribly but I think that is because I haven't adjusted the hinges and the fenders aren't property positioned. Looks cool attached to the car tho.

 

 

 

 

I snipped the roof panel on the pass rear side and that took out those weird bends out of it. I still have to figure out how to pull it down or pull the quarter upwards so there is less of a gap where those 2 panels meet. The drivers side is a lot tighter. 

 

 

 

 

I am not going to use my factory doors and I am not going to use these new CJ doors either. NPD has some on order and should be hitting the warehouse around October I am told. Which means that I really can't do much more on the car at this point until I've got them. Everything seems to revolve around the fitment of the doors. 

 

Having fun with the build and looking forward to the coming cooler weather. I think the cooler weather and the welding stage are going to coincide nicely. 

[aslanefe 333]

Looking good. You will be doing a lot of welding with long runs; be sure to protect your arms, legs, neck etc too while welding (besides your eyes) for UV radiation. I did some tack welds for a short time without a welding mask one weekend (eyes closed of course), when I went to work on Monday people were asking me where I went over the weekend and got sun tan in the middle of winter.

[Viperpete 36]

25 minutes ago, aslanefe said:

Looking good. You will be doing a lot of welding with long runs; be sure to protect your arms, legs, neck etc too while welding (besides your eyes) for UV radiation. I did some tack welds for a short time without a welding mask one weekend (eyes closed of course), when I went to work on Monday people were asking me where I went over the weekend and got sun tan in the middle of winter.

oof that sucks. i've been welding for years. i always wear a auto darkening hood, long sleeves, boots, jeans and gloves. Ive been burned plenty!

[Viperpete 36]

Update

 

So the last few days I've been working to get the front clip squared up. I didn't like the gaps from the fenders and hood or that the front clip just didn't look right. I'm glad I kept the original front end as that was very helpful along with the Mach 1 to get the measurements I needed.

 

Overall, I'm really happy with the fender/hood/cowl gaps. Even in this rough mockup, I like the results. I'm actually quite surprised how tight the gaps are.

 

The fender apron brackets were a pain. I even tried using an original one, but that fit worse than the new ones. The metal is noticeably thicker on the original versus the aftermarket bracket FYI. I don't know how that will affect strength, but there is a significant difference in metal thickness.   

 

I ended up having to buy a second passenger side inner fender apron because the Canadian one I bought fit terribly (I didn't read the description on NPD's website, and it does mention the fit). So far they both seem to fit terribly, but the import brand (which is less money by the way) required less cutting away of material to get the measurements I needed. Neither of them hug the contours of the firewall precisely, but they will have to do for now. 

 

I tried mocking up the new fenders I bought recently, but they were not cooperating. I tried installing the passenger side one on the Mach 1 too and it just didn't fit right. The original fenders just fit better. They don't fit the doors that well. I wonder if I should try installing the original doors now too and see how they go together. 

 

The front bolt holes on the aftermarket fenders also do not line up with the core support at all. I don't like that. The original ones like up well enough. I'll try installing the new headlight buckets and see how those fit next. 

 

The hood is just laying there, no hinges installed, but looks nice and straight

 

The front end is about 1/16th - 1/8" off from being perfectly square. I just can't get it closer than that. It'll have to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

Thanks for the pictures!  We are embarking on (nearly) as much of a journey.  I will use these pictures as reference!

[Viperpete 36]

47 minutes ago, Cantedvalve said:

Thanks for the pictures!  We are embarking on (nearly) as much of a journey.  I will use these pictures as reference!

Happy to give you measurements i've taken if you need them. 

[Mike65 475]

WOW, great work so far Viperpete. That is a lot of sheet metal work, & I thought I did a lot on my 69 Coupe. Keep up the great work, & keep posting progress pics.

[Cantedvalve 128]

Hey @Viperpete I have a small piece that came with my body sides that I can’t identify (green arrow). Driver side.  Any ideas?

[Viperpete 36]

Here maybe?  @Cantedvalve

[Cantedvalve 128]

Eh.  Nope, those screw onto the pillar to mount the quarter trim panel.

how’s your car doing?  Haven’t seen much update lately.  We started fitting the body sides today.

[Viperpete 36]

On 1/14/2023 at 8:40 PM, Cantedvalve said:

Eh.  Nope, those screw onto the pillar to mount the quarter trim panel.

how’s your car doing?  Haven’t seen much update lately.  We started fitting the body sides today.

I was waiting for a new pair of doors for a few months. I got them, but while I was waiting i have been doing some armoring. Looking to get back to the build early Feb. 

[Viperpete 36]

So this is what I have been doing while I was waiting for my doors from NPD. I taught myself armoring. Back story.... I built myself a complete suit of armor (a couple years ago) for fun. Then this year I wanted to give my bosses something special for christmas so I made a helmet and stand and a pair of gauntlets. Both came out great. I shape the metal by hand with no heat. Helmet took 43 hours and the gauntlets took 19 hours. The helmet is modeled after a 13th century French Sallet style helmet. It's very comfortable. The interior is wrapped in foam and leather. The Bevor portion of the helmet is fixed to the stand but both pieces are movable. 

 

Hoping to get back to the car early next month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RPM 1,190]

Holy crap, you gotz skeelz!

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

Damn!

[Mike65 475]

Looks awesome, nice work.

[RandyatBBY 55]

wow a lot of work.  I did roll overs in the late 60ties,  decided to become a Jeweler.  But never quit working on my own bodys.  Glad I live in Califorina and bought my 70tie in 88 and has never been out of the garage since. 

I would use four come-alongs with body flange clamps to pull the roof down. you may need to cut small reliefs where it needs spreading and not distort other panels. 

[Viperpete 36]

Finally got around to doing some work on the car. Fitted the new doors. They fit much much better. Not perfect but much better. The horizontal lines are great. They line up to the quarters just fine. The gaps though at the back of the doors aren't great. I can fix that with some steel rod later. The bottom of the drivers side side quarter panel doesn't fit perfect. It's kicked upwards. I think i'm going to have to slice the quarter panel, add some metal and bring that down so it meets the rocker flush. I'll also have to add some metal to the bottom of the door as the gap is too big. I think i'm getting close to the welding stage. I'm getting nervous! 

Thoughts??

 

The passenger side fits better. 

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

Kind of looks like the quarters need to come up at the rear ,that would close the door gap at the top and level it to the rocker .

I bought one of those pull hydraulic rams at harbor freight ,hooked to my porta power along with a body clamp at the top of the lower  rear window opening on each side  it sucks those quarters up tight to that lower panel. 

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

This was a 67 conversion i did last year ,that pull ram was a time saver not to mention how tight it pulled those panels together .

[Viperpete 36]

3 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

Kind of looks like the quarters need to come up at the rear ,that would close the door gap at the top and level it to the rocker .

I bought one of those pull hydraulic rams at harbor freight ,hooked to my porta power along with a body clamp at the top of the lower  rear window opening on each side  it sucks those quarters up tight to that lower panel. 

I don't think they need to come up. The wheel well arch is flush all the way around. I think it's just a poorly stamped piece. Gaps practically everywhere else are pretty good. i dont know how I'd use the ram tool you mentioned to pull the front corner down anyway. It rests on the b pillar and the metal definitely wont bend that way. I tried already and it just made it buckle. 

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

Are you sure the wheel tub  isnt a bit to low ,that would set the wheel lip to low ,i have had to fight the tubs on a couple ,they are such thick metal they dont like to give any 

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

The 67s 8s are bad in this area also ,i clamp the two parts together and i have a 1/2 inch block of steel i set on the inside lip and carefully knock it down