1961 e-pup work in progress aka Snuffleupagus

Donn wrote:You should frame that "sheet" of Bando, maybe a world record?

Hahaha I know right!

Well I still didn't get anything done on the floor pans. Brad Potocik came into town and we raised a little too much hell to get much accomplished. I'm gonna share a few pics from our adventures before I get back to Snuffle.

Here's the infamous Brad Potocik on one of his custom bobbers. (yes, we ride without helmets, and I take pics at the same time. I don't expect everyone to understand)



Met up with some of the Hard Knox guys (local Hot Rod Club) for a little while. If you're ever in Anderson, check out downtown. There are several new bars and restaurants that are pretty damn cool.



It started getting dark on us and all we had were shades, so we had to call it a day.



I had planned to make a long ride through the Western NC mountains on Sunday but everyone else bailed out. It ended up storming all evening anyway, but we did manage to get about 100 miles in. This is in the northwest corner of SC off of hwy 107, just before the storm.



We hauled tail back down to Anderson to hang out with another buddy of ours and ended up passing this beauty. That spoiler added about 30 hp   



We got up Monday morning and decided it was way too nice out to be working in the garage, so we hit the road again. This time we went to Ceasars Head and back, about another 100 miles round trip. This time we beat the rain by about 15 minutes!!


Alright, back on subject here. Brad brought the stud puller along and got a couple of things a little more in line. Here he is working on the welded seam from the driver corner patch panel.





Definitely helped a lot!



There was also a real thick spot of filler on the top panel of the passenger bed side, so we decided to grind it down and see what was under there. It ended up being a pretty sizeable dent so after a lot of heating and shrinking with the torch and some water, he was able to put the stud gun to use.




Brad discovered I was snapping pics



The lower patch panel should be sitting on my doorstep by now, so I'm gonna attempt to work on getting the old cut out and new one welded in through the week. After 6 years of off shift, I finally moved up to day shift! So now I have to get used to this sleeping at night thing haha.

Nice pics (bikes and vans)!!!! Keep up the progress pics since it motivates me to get out to work on mine. But, then again, the bike pics motivate to go ride mine and not work on the van. Either way, I need to stop working so many hours and find time for anything else.
It's awesome seeing vans getting brought back to their glory.

GMan's passing has reminded us all that life is short and we should make the most of the time we have with each other on this planet. It's GREAT to see people making time to enjoy their passions and sharing it with those who mean so much to them! Great looking Epup and Bikes! Thanks for sharing those inspiring pics!

Hey Gavin. I'm a newbie here, but I'm a fan of both your work and your truck. I wish GM had made a similar body. I think they're beautiful. Maybe some day I'll get the nerve to dive in and convert a G van to a pickup.

Keep the pictures coming.

Jim

I wonder how many here have a bike? The pairing of van/epup seems natural! Makes me want to take mine out! As soon as its back together! 

xjamesx wrote:Nice pics (bikes and vans)!!!!  Keep up the progress pics since it motivates me to get out to work on mine. But, then again, the bike pics motivate to go ride mine and not work on the van.  Either way, I need to stop working so many hours and find time for anything else.  
It's awesome seeing vans getting brought back to their glory.  

Thanks! It is really hard to get motivated on anything other than riding when the weather is nice. I know what you mean about the hours! I'm busting out 70+ hours a week right now. I just have to do what I can for a couple of hours after I get home. The American Dream! Gotta love it!   

vanny wrote:GMan's passing has reminded us all that life is short and we should make the most of the time we have with each other on this planet. It's GREAT to see people making time to enjoy their passions and sharing it with those who mean so much to them! Great looking Epup and Bikes! Thanks for sharing those inspiring pics!

Yes, life is short and I try to live it to the fullest, when I can. Thanks for the support and compliments! I love the support of this community. It takes a unique individual to enjoy these vans/pups so it's great to have common ground that we can all appreciate!

Lostranger wrote:Hey Gavin. I'm a newbie here, but I'm a fan of both your work and your truck. I wish GM had made a similar body. I think they're beautiful. Maybe some day I'll get the nerve to dive in and convert a G van to a pickup.

Keep the pictures coming.

Jim

Thanks for the support! Have you checked out the chevy corvair pickup? They have very similar styling! A G van pickup would be cool, too!

jimthefred wrote:I wonder how many here have a bike? The pairing of van/epup seems natural! Makes me want to take mine out! As soon as its back together! 

That's a good question! Might be a good thread to start!! What kind of bike you working on?

The patch panel finally came in!! Took a couple of days to get to it but damn I've been itching to get started!!

After close inspection, my pup gave it 2 paws up.



Taking note from posts I've read about the lack of sharpness on the breaks, I decided to trim off about an inch and keep the factory seam. I didn't cut off but an 1/8th or so on the leading edge because I need as much of the new metal as possible.



Mac's auto does have a very nice panel with a fairly close metal thickness. Top is original, bottom is replacement. I didn't mic it out, but I am happy with the panel.



After cutting, I sat the panel over the existing area and scribed it. A lot of people might use a sharpie; DON'T USE A SHARPIE! It WILL bleed back through the paint. It might take it years, but it will. I prefer a scribe because you get a much finer and accurate line to guide from. This is not the final line, just a rough guide. I cut a little below the line so I'll know what I need to get out of the way for a good fit.



I didn't even think about how the bed and fender well is held in place. I sure did find out! I did use a sharpie on this because I needed a rough line and that piece is gonna be a fridge one day.




The leading edge. Unfortunately, the damage is a much larger area than the replacement panel.



Cut out around it the best I could. I neglected to buy a spot weld drill, so I'll have to extract that with an alternative process.



The alternative is to cut it out in sections and break off the spot weld. I discovered you can't do two spot welds at a time with a weak structure.







Those few little spot welds took me longer than the rest of the above process. I ran out of time and hope to continue here soon when I get home from work.

gavinator wrote:

jimthefred wrote:I wonder how many here have a bike? The pairing of van/epup seems natural! Makes me want to take mine out! As soon as its back together! 

That's a good question! Might be a good thread to start!! What kind of bike you working on?

Ive got a 75 Ironhead short chop Ive been hot & cold on since 2010. I really need to get my garage in order so I can play around again. We just moved into this house a little over a year ago so It takes most of my time now. Great work on the van so far! Im a pro bodyman and painter for 30 years so if you need to pick my brain feel free!  That thread sounds like a winner-Pull the trigger on it!

jimthefred wrote:

gavinator wrote:

jimthefred wrote:I wonder how many here have a bike? The pairing of van/epup seems natural! Makes me want to take mine out! As soon as its back together! 

That's a good question! Might be a good thread to start!! What kind of bike you working on?

Ive got a 75 Ironhead short chop Ive been hot & cold on since 2010. I really need to get my garage in order so I can play around again. We just moved into this house a little over a year ago so It takes most of my time now. Great work on the van so far! Im a pro bodyman and painter for 30 years so if you need to pick my brain feel free!  That thread sounds like a winner-Pull the trigger on it!

Man that bike sounds awesome! I need to post some pics of Brad Potocik's ironhead. That would get you motivated! I'll definitely keep you in mind when I have questions. Everything I know so far is from Brad or trial and error. I just might go start that thread here in a few beers haha.

Trail and error mixed with common sense,patiance and tunnel vision make for great results! Remember, Its only steel. Steel likes to be coaxed- not forced! Kinda like that bitchy girlfriend in the 10th grade 

Well it's been a good while since I've posted an update. Here's the run down since then:


Before I started fitting the patch panel, I wanted to get the old fender well material out of the way while I had more room.





It was a bit tricky trying to hold the panel and tacking it up by myself.



The patch panel didn't take care of all the damage, so instead of trying to hammer it back in shape, I just cut it out and welded in a new piece.





I wasn't quite as patient as I should have been and I did get a little warpage, but nothing that can't be fixed with some heat and hammering.

My friend suggested that I shave the gas hole and move it inside of the bed. Good idea!!





I got all the wiring in the cab the way I wanted it, fired it up and a few minutes later, I discovered a freeze plug had rusted through.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=3634&pictureid=43056

I jacked the motor up and replaced the plug and then I decided to go ahead and put on the vortec heads and intake.

Before:



During:



After:



Changing the oil:



Finally took her around the block last night....open headers haha. Should be getting the exhaust ran tomorrow.

Awesome progress, even if it is slower than you wanted. My van time is limited too but this is inspiring since I'm in the middle of the same (but more panels to weld in) boat. Keep us updated...

looks like the same guy did the prior "bodywork" on your truck that did mine. Fantastic re-work, you have the right skills for that job. Truck is looking great!

Thanks for the positive feedback!!!

I finally got a dual 2.25" exhaust ran a couple of days after my last post. I thought I was purchasing the knock off Flowmasters when I got the Flowtechs from the local parts house, but I was mistaken. It's a pretty free flowing exhaust but it's really quiet. I was a bit disappointed at first, but it's actually growing on me. It has a deep rumble at idle and doesn't have that "drone" when going down the road. I'll stick with it for now.

Now for the most recent stuff. There's a couple of local car shows coming up over the next several weeks and I wanted to take Snuffleupagus, but not in a half primered fashion, so my friend suggested we just strip it down to bare metal, get some panels beat out, rust replaced, hit it with some 36 grit, and top it with some Ospho. Then to top it off, we are going to put his bare metal fully custom ironhead sportster in the bed. Twist my arm why don't ya!! So we begin!

I knew there would be a fair amount of filler on this thing, but not like this!! The passenger side of the truck looks like it was used to pick up golf balls on the driving range.




I count 6 layers of filler on the passenger door. I would later find out that it wasn't necessary. They had built up an 1/8" layer of filler on the front of the truck and tried to block off of it.


Passenger rear corner. If it's not rusty, I'll try to massage the dent into shape. Or, I just buy the patch and weld it in.


I tried to capture the true essence of the sheer amount of filler on the nose. Keep in mind, this was not really dented in, they just decided to add a slight crown to the area between the headlights. I can't imagine how much sanding they had to do!!! WHY???


After the first long day of sanding and hammering, we fired up the grill.


Day 2:

Never having been up close and personal with an econoline, I didn't notice some of the body lines they covered up with filler. It's hard to tell, but the area just above the grille has somewhat of a flat spot before it starts to bulge outward. They used filler to just make it an angle straight up to the bulge. I tried to capture it but I don't think it's too noticeable with the pictures.


VS


and


VS


This dent in particular just chapped my ass. It's easily accessible from the inside of the cab. Why not just knock it out with a hammer?? Again, I don't think you can tell just how thick the filler is. The dent + covering that body line = about an inch.



Another friend joined in on the party.


So, the next couple of weeks will entail massaging out dents, fixing rust, and sanding sanding sanding. I'd love to lower the truck before the show.but I just don't have the funds to do so at this time. I'll try to post up progress pics along the way.

Man, I can't believe how much BONDO they caked onto that EPup!! Good for you for taking the time to do it right! Also, good to have friends who help pitch in. Nice work so far!!!

Holy WOW is right!!! There's enough bondo for 10 cars on that truck. Now with all that extra weight ground off, you'll probably get an extra 5 mpg out of that rig. Glad to see you're doing it up right. Keep those inspirational pics coming

I like the progress you're making. The wheel arch looks great. Unfortunately the quality makes you have to do a ton more work to put them in. The way you did it was the best. Glad to see you put the effort into it.

The nose on these are what makes them. When they are straight they look great. Bondo'd up and they look like a prize fighter after 12 rounds. That little lip just above the grill is very noticeable when is not there. The body line through the headlight bezels is just as noticeable. Another is the reveal line around the headlight grills. I love a straight nose. It's the signature of our trucks. Good luck on your restore. It looks like it is in very capable hands.

Duane in Tennessee

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Big W wrote:Holy WOW is right!!! There's enough bondo for 10 cars on that truck. Now with all that extra weight ground off, you'll probably get an extra 5 mpg out of that rig. Glad to see you're doing it up right. Keep those inspirational pics coming

Haha, I wish I would have weighed it first to see how much it shed. I'm trying to get it done right haha.

vanny wrote:Man, I can't believe how much BONDO they caked onto that EPup!! Good for you for taking the time to do it right! Also, good to have friends who help pitch in. Nice work so far!!!

Man tell me about it!! Everything in my garage has a nice coat of powdered filler haha.