Rod's 8-Door!

Got the section over the passenger side windshield off.

Latest progress.
Got both sides of the windshield lip off, and started working on the front corners. Again, I cut the main portion of the roof off and am now removing the edges.
Driver's corner

Passenger side corner


P corner peeled back

Windshield edge

Windshield edge with roof edge

Driver corner peeled back

starting down the Driver side rail

D corner off

Corner cleaned up a bit

Corner cleaned up a bit another angle

Rail coming off

LOOKIN GOOD i say chop the top 4'' sints your going this far, would be cool

dodge man wrote:LOOKIN GOOD i say chop the top 4'' since your going this far, would be cool

I'm too tall for that!
This is just a skin replacement, which in the grand scheme of things is fairly easy, although tedious.
A chop would require cutting and welding each pillar, all 8 doors, and cutting glass to fit. Oh, and stretching the roof or leaning back the windshield too, due to the longer top when it's lowered. All much more work than what I'm doing. Some day I'll try a chop, but I also want to build a T bucket. Lots of stuff on the "someday" list!

yeah it would be a lot of work, being 60 my someday list is real short, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74FmSc2C2Pc&feature=related

Got some more of the roof removed. Working front to back on the driver's side.
Above driver door

Cut and peel off.

cutting through spot welds

Notice the roof edge is not all the way out to the edge of the drip rail

Since the roof edge moved in, a section did not get spot welded.
This is an example of the variable tolerances on these old vans and the Quality Control involved! From mid point of the side window back to the corner, there were NO spot welds for about 18-20 inches.
If you go back to page 2, post #20, the first picture shows how the roof edge swerved in here.

Around the corner and working on the back. A quarter done. I will go back and straighten the drip rail edge after cleaning and treating all the inner structure.

Where I left off on Friday. Almost all the rail only has surface rust. Nothing really soft. It should be fine once cleaned up and treated. I'll do all the roof support stuff too while it's accessible.

Back in the 80's = I rented a vacuming type sandblaster from "safetykleen" corp-along with the usual parts washers they had & serviced. That thing was great for doing exactly the work rod is faced with!! I dont know if they still have them yet heres one from northern tool.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200435367_200435367

ebay has also http://www.ebay.com/itm/28-Gallon-Abrasive-SandBlaster-Sand-Blaster-VACUUM-20-/221116758223?pt=Sanders_Sandblasters&hash=item337b95f8cf=cheaper

Thanks for the links Twinpilot! While I've go a small air hose spot blaster, and still will end up blasting the 66 body, I will probably take this one over to a local sand blaster.


While the scope of this is truly minor compared to the incredible fabrication/repair/restoration of
kevbarlas' 1959 Ford Thames Restoration
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t18092-1959-ford-thames-camper-van-restoration

or the work, quality and SPEED of MASTER bricoleur's 8-door work
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t25226-master-bricoleur-a-100-8-doors#102432
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t28680-masteur-bricoleur-a-100-8-doors-it-s-done
which reminds me I gotta add his beauty to the 8-door post,

or the over the top build from scratch of a modern A-100 PU from down under
by Zuffen
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t25887-an-australian-s-version-of-an-early

I hope this gives each of them a well-deserved pat on the back and shows them that us Americans can get into a tiny bit of work too!

Here are some more shots from the past couple week's work.

Making alot of progress on a Major job. What you using to get rust off in channel's

Sanding with 80 grit and a DA, wire wheels on a drill and a grinder with a worn flap disc. The disc works best, I'll have to get more. When they are new, they are too aggressive. Worn, they are great.
I'm still debating what to use to finish these areas. Probably a ospho or naval jelly , then either Rust Bullet/POR-15 or an etching primer.
Considering the area is not one big flat surface, I'm leaning toward a brush on.

you should be spraying them places as you go with a good zinc weld thru primer. keeps from rusting and still weldable if you don't glue your roof panel back on.

Rod, believe it or not I'm excited for you and fully understand the amount of work you're putting into this project. I'd be doing the same thing for sure. Can't wait to see this one come together. Scott...

Weld thru primer is nice, but I don't think it will protect fully. I do plan on that for the thin section where the roof will lay down.
For the rest, I gotta fully coat it with something more permanent.
I need to do the top and bottom of each rib, all the inner areas and the inside edge. I'll knock down as much as possible, then go back and wipe it down with something before coating.

http://www.rustbullet.com/videos.asp#auto

Okay, so we left off with bare ribs.
I used an acid rust converter, then brushed on a nice etching primer. I taped the edge where the roof skin is going to sit, that will be coated with weld-thru primer.
It had to sit outside over the winter break.







I towed the donor van back down and I'm drilling out all the spot welds so the skin can be installed on the 8-door.
I had previously chiselled out all the sealer.


The tools for the job.
Wire wheel to clean the gutter seam and make the spot welds more visible
Sharpie to mark each one
Hammer and punch to center punch each weld
Pilot drill
Spot weld arbor and cutters


Cleaned and punched


Pilot hole drilled. This does not have to go all the way through, just enough for the arbor to center IF you are concerned about the lower layer.


The spot weld cutters are easy to break if not careful. I also was not worried about the underside except for a couple sections I will be fitting into the other van, so in many places, I just drilled a big hole to punch through the spot welds.


On the areas before (for learning curve) and into the areas I wanted to save the gutter too, I used the cutter. Her's what it looks like, including one that went too far... that learning curve!

nice job rod, i went through 20 of those spot weld cutting bits on my 67 chevelle floor, lots of fun,,

Wow rod the work looks great. You have come a long way from when you towed it home..

Thanks guys!

I've got it drilled almost all the way around. The fun part now is going back around and getting it loose. In many places, the hole didn't get all the spot weld. In others, the seam sealer is still holding it together.
Again, I'm not concerned about a lot of the rail (sorry, that's just the facts) so prying is a matter of getting the roof skin off nice, not so much keeping the rail nice.
After much more drill, pry, chip and $#%^%@@^, I've got 2/3s of the right side and the RR corner loose, and half the left side. The windshield area which is where I started is the worst. I've really butchered that inner structure and it's still not loose.
Here's the right side. That's the roof edge up on the rail, not down in the gutter.

great job...

Didn't know you had this project going, so I just went through the thread and all the pictures. Quite amazing that the dome light fixture survived the fire. After the van's all polished up it might be kinda cool to keep that old charred fixture in there – as a reminder of where it came from and all the hard work you've done.

Ehhh, maybe not.

You're doing a terrific job Mr Rod.

CANT WAIT TO SEE IT DONE, YOU GOT A PAINT COLOR PICKED OUT YET ROD ?

dodgeman, it's all about how it plays out.

If I fix it up and sell it, it will probably go back to Blue/White. Less prep and paint work, and a combo that is popular and should be easy to sell.

If I keep it, I'll go with something else. I don't care for the combo. Kind of hard to have this one, the 66 panel and the 108 all as fun cars, along with 2 other running regular vans (89 and 02), plus all the other fun cars. It's cool and rare, but I really want to complete the 66 that I started. I guess if I get it running and it is fun and on it's best behavior, it might just stay. If it fights me, it's outta here!

P.S. I threaten to sell off stuff all the time. I can usually buy right but have a terrible time selling stuff. I get the mouth breathers that expect to buy an old car for pennies and that everything is perfect and they can bring it back for me to fix. I have the worst luck selling, that's why I have so much stuff around!

Lol. I with you bro. I hate selling cars. You want to but you don't cause people are stupid. The projects coming along killer tho man!! Keep it up!