1970 Convertible Restoration

[Mike65 475]

Mike, nice work on the fuel lines. Can you post a pic of the lines back at the fuel tank please?.

[latoracing 256]

It looks better in person.

[latoracing 256]

Time to get back to something funner, filling in the quarter marker lights. I can't just grab a piece of sheet metal and weld it in place, well, I could but Vic wouldn't be pleased with the results. I cut out some templates of the area for filler material shaping and to check the shape after everything is welded in place. The templates were of the passenger side quarter as the driver's side has some damage, which i'll get in shape before I install the patch.

Using a orange stripper wheel revealed a bunch of previous "repairs" that were covered in filler. The tail light panel has a fairly good size goose egg shaped divot close to the tail light opening, its pretty bad. Might as well get that back in shape while I'm here. Cut out another template and checked the profile of the area, not good.

In order to fix these areas the paint had to come off on both sides, more orange striper disc time. 

The upper section had been pushed in as well, so it was pulled and hammered back in to position. I have been using a shrinking disc for over a year on different issues, mainly self inflicted distortion when fabricating parts. It is nothing more than a stainless steel disc with a backing plate on my 4.5" grinder. It is not abrasive, but when you use it on the dented area (mainly on the inside of the trunk panel) a little soapy water helps lubricate it. Keeping the disc flat to the surface, as much as possible, you run it over the area with enough pressure to keep it on the part, no more. This heats the metal enough to quench it with the soapy water solution. Wipe off the excess water and repeat until the dent is gone. 

A little work, some pulling by hand and a little hammer / dolly time it looks like this.

This area had a bad oil canning to it when you pushed on the panel. That is now gone and as you can see the shape is really nice. I have some more little areas to planish out but this could be shot with filler primer and blocked out. I like my shrinker disk

[newstang 388]

7 minutes ago, latoracing said:

Time to get back to something funner, filling in the quarter marker lights. I can't just grab a piece of sheet metal and weld it in place, well, I could but Vic wouldn't be pleased with the results. I cut out some templates of the area for filler material shaping and to check the shape after everything is welded in place. The templates were of the passenger side quarter as the driver's side has some damage, which i'll get in shape before I install the patch.

Using a orange stripper wheel revealed a bunch of previous "repairs" that were covered in filler. The tail light panel has a fairly good size goose egg shaped divot close to the tail light opening, its pretty bad. Might as well get that back in shape while I'm here. Cut out another template and checked the profile of the area, not good.

In order to fix these areas the paint had to come off on both sides, more orange striper disc time. 

The upper section had been pushed in as well, so it was pulled and hammered back in to position. I have been using a shrinking disc for over a year on different issues, mainly self inflicted distortion when fabricating parts. It is nothing more than a stainless steel disc with a backing plate on my 4.5" grinder. It is not abrasive, but when you use it on the dented area (mainly on the inside of the trunk panel) a little soapy water helps lubricate it. Keeping the disc flat to the surface, as much as possible, you run it over the area with enough pressure to keep it on the part, no more. This heats the metal enough to quench it with the soapy water solution. Wipe off the excess water and repeat until the dent is gone. 

A little work, some pulling by hand and a little hammer / dolly time it looks like this.

This area had a bad oil canning to it when you pushed on the panel. That is now gone and as you can see the shape is really nice. I have some more little areas to planish out but this could be shot with filler primer and blocked out. I like my shrinker disk

amazing work! how well does that disk work? ive seen it used but cant figure out the whole heat to shrink thing. Ive seen and used a torch to heat then cooled with water. but the metal always stretches out first then when i cool it, it doesn't go all way down its still a bump. 

[latoracing 256]

This divot took about a hour to repair, the disc is good, but you have to take your time and feel what the metal is doing. Smooth dents are fairly easy, crunchy dents (like this one) take a little more time. It doesn't turn the metal blue when you use it, like a torch does. You get a feel for how long to run the disc over the area and hope the soapy water seams when it hits the metal. You can let it cool naturally, but that takes a while. The metal will continue to shrink after you use the water. It's a neat tool. A little practice and you can get good results. I did not use any sand paper on this repair, just a piece of red scotch-brite pad to clean the wheel and to remove the residue from the panel. 

[Mach1 Driver 560]

That is so cool! Very impressive. I don't want to steal your thunder, but I found a video showing how its done:

 

[Machspeed 219]

On 10/14/2019 at 9:51 AM, Vicfreg said:

 

 

 

 

Never seen a junction box cover plate used for such purposes....LOL! That's ingenious, Vic! Nice work. Hey, when the time comes, I'm gonna be bugging you about the electrical. 

Mike, as always, incredible the work you do! It's good to see you posting now with some regularity. Enrolled in an Advanced Autobody course at the local Vo Tech the other day. Hope to paint my Mach later this year.  

I saw the disc used to flatten a hood on one of those TV build episodes and marveled in it. Thanks for posting that link, Mach 1 Driver! 

[aslanefe 333]

4 hours ago, newstang said:

amazing work! how well does that disk work? ive seen it used but cant figure out the whole heat to shrink thing. Ive seen and used a torch to heat then cooled with water. but the metal always stretches out first then when i cool it, it doesn't go all way down its still a bump. 

After you heat with the torch, you need to shrink the bump by hitting it with a body hammer when it is hot then cool it. If you don't hammer it down, it will go back to it's shape before you heated. That disk on the grinder is pushing the bump while heating and shrinking it because of the weight of the grinder and/or you pressing it down on the bump. 

[Mike65 475]

14 hours ago, latoracing said:

It looks better in person.

 Mike thanks for the pic of the fuel lines.

[latoracing 256]

Getting to work on the marker light delete I needed some parts to fill-up the holes. A little 20ga scrap and a 8.5" radius lower anvil on the english wheel and the scrap was shaped to fit my templates. It took a couple of checks but it finally got to the shape I was looking for.

Cutting this formed sheet in half I put the part in the trunk holding it on the back side of the marker light hole and scribed the outline. A little trimming and a little final shaping the passenger side was tack welded in place and fully welded little by little.

I accomplished the weld with my TIG, it doesn't like paint or dirt so it got a couple of holes in the weld, which were filled up. I'm not going for a beautifully formed weld but rather for a higher crown quite cool filler application. I used .030" mild steel MIG wire and a 1/16" tungsten set on 55 amps DC- if anyone wants to know.I have sanded off the welds in order to planish out the area and get it looking like it should. The driver's side shouldn't take long either.

[Vicfreg 771]

Looking good!

[latoracing 256]

I wanted to show a little bit of the metal finishing process, at least what the area looks like while finishing the welds and related distortion.

The "proud" profile of the weld is almost leveled to the panel surface with a 36 grit rollock disc. The 36 grit cuts really fast and does not introduce a lot of heat back into the panel. A 120 grit disc would also remove the weld tops, but will get really hot, we don't want that. Once the tops of the welds are knocked down a flat faced body hammer and the heal side of a body dolly are used to give shape back to the weld areas. As the welds cool, they shrink, so they have to be stretched back out. It takes a little bit to get the shape in the general area then I switch to a slapper with the same dolly to spread out the blows. I use the stripper disc to go over the area to give contrast to the high and low spots. I meant to get some blue layout dye to really show this. At this point I use nothing other than hand files to level the metal. I start with a bastard cross cut flat file to highlight the areas to focus on. 

Paying attention to the welds, as they are the offending material that needs to be removed, and bringing up the low spots, the slapper and dolly are used to continue to bring out the material. I cannot access the back side of the quarter with a hammer, that would be much easier. Lots and lots of light rapid hits and "block sanding" the area with the file the metal starts to look better.

As the seams disappear, I move to the rear (left of the picture) to continue to get out the low spots. You can see the small divots or porosity in my welds from the paint contamination. They do not go all the way through, so I did leave these imperfections. More slapping and checking with the file I needed a reset on the finish to see lighter imperfections in the surface. Using the stripper disc again and switching to a mill file, the area was gone over again.

There is one little place (about the size of a pencil eraser) left to planish out in this picture. I can continue to perfect the surface towards the top, but these areas are so small, a skim coat of filler will be used anyway, so it will be left. You can get this entire surface like this using the same method. Start to finish on this fill in has taken 3 hours. 

Back to welding up the other side...

[Mach1 Driver 560]

thank you, that was very instructive

[latoracing 256]

The driver's side is a different story. Previous damage have distorted the panel, there's a bunch of stuff to fix. I was working on this side before fixing the tail light panel and the passenger side marker light delete. I do have access to the inside of this side so I can kinda use hammers to stretch welds and smooth out the other damages. This side received the same shape filler part, but it took a bunch of pounding to get the quarter to line up to the patch. It's getting there but it will take a while to get it to resemble the passenger side. 

[RPM 1,190]

 Really good stuff Mike, thanks. 

[Ridge Runner 1,112]

9 hours ago, latoracing said:

I wanted to show a little bit of the metal finishing process, at least what the area looks like while finishing the welds and related distortion.

The "proud" profile of the weld is almost leveled to the panel surface with a 36 grit rollock disc. The 36 grit cuts really fast and does not introduce a lot of heat back into the panel. A 120 grit disc would also remove the weld tops, but will get really hot, we don't want that. Once the tops of the welds are knocked down a flat faced body hammer and the heal side of a body dolly are used to give shape back to the weld areas. As the welds cool, they shrink, so they have to be stretched back out. It takes a little bit to get the shape in the general area then I switch to a slapper with the same dolly to spread out the blows. I use the stripper disc to go over the area to give contrast to the high and low spots. I meant to get some blue layout dye to really show this. At this point I use nothing other than hand files to level the metal. I start with a bastard cross cut flat file to highlight the areas to focus on. 

Paying attention to the welds, as they are the offending material that needs to be removed, and bringing up the low spots, the slapper and dolly are used to continue to bring out the material. I cannot access the back side of the quarter with a hammer, that would be much easier. Lots and lots of light rapid hits and "block sanding" the area with the file the metal starts to look better.

As the seams disappear, I move to the rear (left of the picture) to continue to get out the low spots. You can see the small divots or porosity in my welds from the paint contamination. They do not go all the way through, so I did leave these imperfections. More slapping and checking with the file I needed a reset on the finish to see lighter imperfections in the surface. Using the stripper disc again and switching to a mill file, the area was gone over again.

There is one little place (about the size of a pencil eraser) left to planish out in this picture. I can continue to perfect the surface towards the top, but these areas are so small, a skim coat of filler will be used anyway, so it will be left. You can get this entire surface like this using the same method. Start to finish on this fill in has taken 3 hours. 

Back to welding up the other side...

I love to do metal finish on the 30s models ,it is such a heavy gauge you can get it just about bondo free 

[Mike65 475]

Vic, I was looking & reading on your build where you did the Fitech & Pertronix wiring back in Jan 2018 & I did not notice any mention of where you mounted the ignition box, if you have a pic that would be great. I am thinking of relocating mine to the interior of my Coupe.

[Vicfreg 771]

Hey Mike. I put mine on the passenger side inner fenderwell.   I have a trunk mounted battery for me that was a good place to put it.

I also wanted easy access to the adjustment knobs, and also I wanted to be able to see the LEDs.   

Inside is a good location because it’s nice and cool. Glove box area would be a good choice if you had room.  

and in reality, once you get the box set up, you probably will never adjust it again
 

I have some pictures I will send you in a couple days

 

[Mike65 475]

Vic, did you need to extend the wires for the ignition box?. If so what type wire did you use?.

[Vicfreg 771]

Hey Mike. I put mine on the passenger side inner fenderwell.   I have a trunk mounted battery for me that was a good place to put it.

I also want it easy access to the adjustment tiles, and I wanted to be able to see the LEDs.   

I Have some pictures of that as well.   When I get to my computer early next week I’ll post them. 

[Vicfreg 771]

When I installed mine, I cut and capped the wires that I was not going to use for my installation. I did that with a double heat shrink end prep, which involves taking a small heat shrink, installing it 1/2 way down the end of the wire, bending it in half, and then putting a larger heat shrink over it, and then shrinking it.  Essentially, it is a heat shrink end cap.  Keeps the wires from potential shorting.  Pics below.   

The wires were long enough to run through the fenderwell, through the firewall, under the passenger side dash.   I have posted lots of pictures of that.  But, to answer your question, I used a high quality automotive wire same gauge as what was on the unit.  

Under the dash, I used connectors to run the wiring to various places, as the wiring had to go to a couple interfaces like the distributor, key-on power, tach signal, coil, etc.

 

I have shown the block diagram below.  

"PDRS" is battery power distribution block at the radiator support

"Dash Gnd"  is underdash ground bus (digital stuff only, have separate power ground)

Dist (+) is the plus side of my Pertronix III distributor, Dist (-) same

"3F" is the connection to Key-on-hot wire number 3F from the AAW harness

"121" is the square wave tachometer signal from the DHP box, runs to my EFI and the AAW wire #121 which is my in dash tachometer

The small boxes with "I" are my "Ignition" series connectors, which are all my interfaces between the ignition system and other car systems.

Each one of those has a connector pin-out diagram.   

Attached a picture of that

I have an entire spreadsheet of this stuff, if you would find it useful, I will send to you.

 

[Mike65 475]

Thanks for the pics & the info, I have one more question, when you hooked up the ignition box in the wiring instructions it says the red power & black ground wires to only connect them directly to the battery. Did you hook them right to the battery terminals?.

[Vicfreg 771]

Kind of.

I ran a dedicated large gauge wire power feed and ground feed from my trunk mounted battery to under the dash.  I installed a power terminal strip and a ground terminal strip that are reserved for electronics only (no inductive/resistive power feeds/grounds).   This is where I powered my "computers" from, which included the DHP box, my Vintage Air Controller, my VHX digital dash computer, and my EFI system.   I ran the electronics power/ground feeds on one side of the car, and the other power feeds on the other side of the car.  Did the same thing in the trunk for my PWM controller and power amp.

Sounds like a little crazy, but I used to design digital control systems, and we always separated power from control & Instrumentation.

 

 

[Mike65 475]

I have a power strip & a ground strip in the engine compartment & I wanted to use them for the power & ground, do you think that would be ok?. The power strip is being used to circuit breakers that power the cooling fan relays, & the ground strip is being used for all the AAW harness lighting grounds, the washer pump & the cooling fan relays. I have a ground wire that goes from the battery to the grounding strip then to the frame, & the power strip comes right off the battery side of the starter solenoid.

[Vicfreg 771]

If the power strip is supplying power to the cooling fan relay coils, then I would think twice about it without putting a diode or R/C network across the coils. Especially if the relays will be cycling on and off.  They create an inductive kickback that can cause voltage spikes....your digital ignition box may not like that.  

Some additional info here, discusses using diodes across the coil.

https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/relay-guide.html