The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

Just got back from my Tuesday night body shop class at the local polytech high school. My ongoing project is the Formula.

As you may know from following this thread, the car had NOS GM quarters put on it back in the 1980s, when they were still available. Unfortunately, at the time, the trunk drop offs were not available and the body guy did an amazing (though completely incorrect) hand-made version of drop offs. He used the existing trunk portion and then hand-made a flat panel and brazed it to the edges of the inner quarter.

Now that the aftermarket has finally come out with the reproduction trunk drop offs, I decided to replace the hand-made ones myself. (after I got an crazy estimate of several thousand dollars per side to replace them at resto shop).

The wonderful thing about this polytech adult education course is that you pay $400 for 12 weeks (every Tuesday night) and you get to use all their tools and expertise of a professional body man who is teaching the course. It is an amazing time!

Here is the before shot of the handmade boilerplate inner quarter:



And after I used a cutting wheel to remove the major section and then a grinder to grind the edge of the brazing off, where it mated to the outer edge of the quarter panel.



Since the far end of the hand made panel was properly welded and mated to the inner quarter structure and matched the flat section of the new repro dropoff exactly, I left that in place and then made mounting flanges from a two-inch section of the prior hand-made drop off.



Instead of drilling and welding the dropoff in, we decided to use what a lot of modern body shops are using these days: structural panel adhesive. This stuff is amazing. It seals the bare metal and provides corrosion protection between the panels as it bonds them together with an adhesive that is stronger than the steel itself.

[njsteve]

I made a template out of a couple of manila file folders and then placed it on the the repro dropoff and marked off for cutting. I used a plasma cutter (a really fun tool) and trimmed it down to size until the panel just popped in exactly. These repros fit very well, right out of the box when it comes to aligning with the edges of the GM quarter.

Here's the repro panel being trial fit:



The adhesive it premixed in the funnel that attaches to the dual cannister and is first applied to the mounting areas and brushed over any bare metal area, as well as any area that is to be a bonding point. Then a liberal amount is squeezed out onto the panel and the panel is put into place. A bunch of vise grips are then used to clamp it in place, but not too tight. You dont want to squeeze out all the adhesive.



Yeah, I know that's sacriligious to use that clamp on the paint...but the paint is old and bad and I have a piece of cloth under it. This was the only way to get the upper portion held in place. The clamp is pressing on a section of wood across the upper bonding seam. Plus, they are my Grandfather's woodworking clamps from three quarters of a century, ago.

[njsteve]

It takes 45 minutes for the adhesive to set up. It turns from grey to green when it is cured. I used a heat gun to warm up the panel and that speeded up the process, since I only had three hours for the evening class and there was only an hour left when we started clamping. After several hours it is harder than the steel.

And here is the semi-final result until we do the cosmetic body filler to get rid of any visible seams.





Oh, and in case you thought I did this all in one three hour class...I didn't. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] It took two classes, one to remove the old dropoff and the other to trim and install the new one. So, six hours total.

[Xplantdad]

Neat stuff Steve!

[jannes_z-28]

That adhesive sounds great, when I first started to read about this I thought &quot;Is he going to weld there and destroy the paint?&quot;

This stuff must be great!


Jan

[Donnie]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jannes_z-28</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That adhesive sounds great, when I first started to read about this I thought &quot;Is he going to weld there and destroy the paint?&quot;

This stuff must be great!


Jan </div></div>
panel bond adhesive is some good sh!t.

[njsteve]

It is an amazing product. It does what welding can do, without the heat damage to the paint and having to drill and weld up holes which can lead to a starting point for future corrosion.