jaransonT3 from MI - Page 5 - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

**jaransonT3** · August 31st, 2009, 03:32 PM

After working on Nate's buggy over the weekend, it was the Sled's turn this evening....

Started with this...

and ended up here...

Small steps....

**jaransonT3** · September 1st, 2009, 04:50 PM

Tackled another area tonight that I have been putting off. Turns out it wasn't too bad. See, when I laid the decklid of the Fasty down to get a flatter trunk and make up some of the space left when I moved the roof forward, it left an awkward gap at the bottom of the decklid where it used to meet the body...

I wasn't sure if I wanted to add to the bottom of the decklid or raise the body up to meet it or a combination of the two. So I did a bunch of noodling and

tonight and decided it was easiest and kept the best lines to add to the decklid. I had the bottom portion of a Squareback liftgate that had already donated its license plate recess for the project..

so I cut the bottom lip and a bit more off, shimmed the decklid to be flush with the body and did some trial fitting...

Looked like it was going to work out great so I marked it out, trimmed it up, ground it down and tacked it in place...

Yup....that will work, so I got it welded in place a bit better and ground it down some and here it is...

Still need to fully weld it and do a little hammer and dolly work to get it just right, but it works for me.

One more area tackled.....only 10,000 more to go.

**jaransonT3** · September 16th, 2009, 05:48 PM

I did get a bit done on the Sled the last couple of days. Got the decklid extension fully welded and ground down. I also spent some more time stripping paint off the car.

**jaransonT3** · September 23rd, 2009, 06:03 PM

Had a nice surprise when I got home from work. Ryan (CrackMonkey) sent me a pair of front bumper brackets for the Sled...Thanks again Ryan.

so of course, I started modifying them...

Welded a couple studs onto the back of the bumper for the outside mounting location. Still need to modify the bracket for that stud and extend it out to reach the large bolt holding the over-rider on.

And slid it in place. I still need to modify the brackets where they meet the body since the holes don't line up with where I want the bumper positioned.

I like it.

**jaransonT3** · November 15th, 2009, 04:23 PM

Well, now that Nate's buggy is out of the garage, I got back to working on the Sled.

Had most of the day today so decided to tackle the c-pillar to body joint that I have been putting off. First thing I find was a it of an "oops!"...

One side of the body was a bit lower than the other. After some

and

...it was much better...

Then it was time to tackle the next problem I have been struggling with. Because I lowered the roof without widening it, I ended up with this weird wiggle (highlighted by the green line) in the body lines...

So, I started out by pie cutting a bit out of the c-pillar along its length...

After squeezing the roof rails in and tweaking the roof panel down to close the gap and welding it up, I ended with this line. There is still a slight wiggle in it, but I think I can massage that out as I go with a bit of filler and such...

and here is a rear view after completing both sides...

and then I tackled one other area that still needed to be filled in...

and called it a day.

I have tomorrow off and plan to spend some of it working on the Sled. I am also going to try to run over to Windsor and pick up my new Lincoln SP170 that I bought from Unkl Ian.

**jaransonT3** · November 20th, 2009, 07:00 PM

Well, I got out in the garage tonight and completed the modifications to my welding cart. It still needs to have the welds ground down and a coat of MasterSeries on it, but it does what I need it to. I will likely add some hooks and stuff to hang the cables and hoses better too.

and then I tried it out.

These are the first welds with the new welder.

What a difference! Much cleaner, much better penetration. Will take some getting use to. I can actually see the weld puddle now.

Of course I had to jump right in and try a little on the Sled too...

I like it!!

**jaransonT3** · November 22nd, 2009, 06:42 PM

I spent most of the day out in the garage today. Decided to tackle the one remaining area of the Sled that I have been struggling with....the dreaded C-Pillar to body to Fender joint...

Started out making some cardboard templates...

Then transfered it to some sheetmetal and cut out a pair of matching pieces...

Then I did some fitting of the filler panel and a put a little shape into the panel to fit the body lines better...

Marked out the body to match the filler panel...

Trimmed away the excess material...

and welded the filler panel in place. I really like the new welder. Much nicer welds and almost no burn-thru...

Here are a few shots of with the fender in place. I really like the way the body lines flow now...

I managed to got the other side fit, shaped and tacked in place before calling it a day...

Did I mention how much I like my new welder...

**jaransonT3** · December 3rd, 2009, 08:42 PM

Got out and spent some time with the Sled tonight. Started fitting a couple of pieces for the inner part of the fender "fins", but run out of grinding time before getting them close enough....

...so I moved on to fitting some small filler pieces and doing some welding (have I said how much I like my new welder?

). Here is what I ended up with...

Still need to grind the welds, but it was too late tonight. Small steps....

Put a couple of extra pictures in this post for Brian. I think the bodylines show up pretty well in these.

**jaransonT3** · January 2nd, 2010, 06:13 AM

Fired up the heaters in the garage today and got some work done on the Sled...

Filled in the top rear of the door and the top of the b-pillar. Still have some grinding to do, but one more thing off the list...

I also finished filling in some of the c-pillar holes and extending the rain gutter down to the new body crease...

More tomorrow....

**jaransonT3** · January 2nd, 2010, 04:13 PM

Managed to get a lot done today with the help of these two guys...

and my insulated cover-alls.

Did a bunch of welding and grinding...

and also added the inner part of the right hand, rear fender. Got it tacked in place...

and full welded and ground down...

I still need to trim it to fit and complete the work in the fender well area underneath the fender before welding it in place.

One debate I have been having with myself is what to do at the bottom of the valley between the fender and the body.

Leave it a sharp crease or put a decent size radius in the bottom?

I am going to get it all trimmed to fit with the sharp crease and then play around a little with some clay or bondo and decide if I want the radius. Then I can add it in steel if I decide I want it. Opinions?

**jaransonT3** · January 15th, 2010, 06:17 PM

Manage to get out in the garage for a couple of hours this evening. Could have been a bit longer but run out of propane for the one heater after about 15 minutes. Was getting pretty cold out there even though the temperature outside was a balmy 30 degrees or so. <G>

Just spent the time doing some small patch panels on the inside of the c-pillar and package tray area. Sorry no pictures. I am going to get a refill on the propane tomorrow and plan to spend most of the afternoon and evening out there. I will take and post progress pics.

I did mock-up the seat the other day. I am planning a bench seat and right now am considering using the Fastback rear seat as the basis for it. Something like this...

I might use a couple of front seat bases and join them in the middle so form the cushion of the bench seat. There is a little more shape to the front seat cushions than the rear seat cushion.

I still need to relocate the e-brake and figure out how to make it work.

**jaransonT3** · January 17th, 2010, 08:36 AM

Spent some time on the Sled tonight. Looking at the e-brake, I am thinking one of the under dash pull handles that UnklIan posted will work nicely. Will just have to run a tube for the cable on the top of the tunnel. I can bury it in a simple tunnel cover.

Did a bunch of welding and filling little rat holes today.

More tomorrow.

**jaransonT3** · January 17th, 2010, 08:37 AM

Fiddle around tonight with the interior in PhotoShop. This is my current thinking for the interior.

I have a nice dark grey leather (several hides) that should work for the seats and door panels with insert accents of green flake vinyl.

The side chrome of the seat will need to be a custom piece.

**jaransonT3** · April 3rd, 2010, 09:04 PM

Huge thank you to the folks that came by today for SledFest 1. Bob and Sue (bobnotch) and Brian got here about 9am this morning. After a quick tour of the house and some generally BSing. We got to the working on the Sled. Eric (detroit73super) got there about 10am or so and Greg stopped by a bit before noon or so.

We got a ton done....including rolling the Sled.

on to the pics.....

Eric and Sue working on getting all the tar and sealant off the floorpan...

Brian cleaning up some holes for filling...

Bob "persuading" a fill panel into place...

Bob in the glow of the wleder...

Flintstones...meet the Flintstones...

Sparks and arcs...

Body on the floor. Interesting that this is only 2-3 inches lowere than the finished parked ride height...

Another shot of the body sitting on the floor...

Brian, checking out the view and making vroom vroom noises...

and then we rolled the Sled...to better get at the underside for rust repair...

Bob doing what he does best....

Sue pitching in and sanding the black rattle can paoint of the car...

Brian doing some more grinding. He is standing on the platform we put together to be able to work inside the car without standing on the roof.

one of the patch panels done today. I thnk Bob counted 23 total...

The rocker looked solid but Bob ended up replacing most of the outerskin. It was very thin.

Some small patch panels...

Filled in the bumper tube holes. These were my Easter eggs.. .

Some more small patches...

Eric even volunteered to start the blasting of the floorpan. Made good progress through two bags of sand. Time to recycle the sand and keep going...

They left me plenty to do. Going to need to do some serious repair on the bottom of the rocker...

Thanks again folks. Unbelievable progress!

**jaransonT3** · April 11th, 2010, 06:41 PM

The Sled will NOT be Clementine Orange.

Had a perfect day today to go out and blast the floorpan some more. Got the entire bottom done.

FOund some pinholes that will need to be fixed...

and a couple of significant spots that I am glad I found now...

and a smaller one on the other side...

There are small drains in the bottom of the frame horns that had gotten painted over at some point. Water got trapped and rusted out the bottoms of the frame horns. I will fix it and use the pan still, but it just goes to show what can be hidden in an otherwise good pan.

Going to start the repairs tomorrow and finish blasting the topside. Getting close to being ready for the MasterSeries.

**jaransonT3** · September 6th, 2010, 09:42 PM

Well....best laid plans often go astray. It has been almost 2 MORE months since I worked on the Sled.

This time I really did it though. I spent some quality time with the Sled on Sunday cleaning thins up and making some patch panels. and then on Monday, Bob (bobnotch) Heydt and Brian (66311) Gardner came by for SledFest 2.0. We got a ton of stuff done. Finished up the rockers and all the other stuff on the bottom of the body shell. WE finished up the day by flipping the body back over right-side up. Now I can working on getting the rest of it finished up and the rest of the paint stripped/blasted so I can get it in MasterSeries.

Was great motivation having Bob and Brian over. They both jumped right in....pulling the wiring harness, scrapping old gaskets, grinder, welding whatever need done. Bob is a welding machine.

Thanks again guys. We got 4 days of work for me done in about 7 hours.

Oh yeah....pictures. Almost forgot about those....

Felt great to be back at it after taking most of the summer off.

**jaransonT3** · September 6th, 2010, 09:42 PM

Here are the pictures that Bob took....

**jaransonT3** · September 23rd, 2010, 04:49 PM

Been working on the Sled over the last few days. Been working on the floorpan, but got tired of trying to work on it on the folding stand. Way too hard to flip over to weld on either side....so since I had two engine stands I figured I would make a makeshift rotisserie. I had to add some height to the yellow one and then had to change the angle of the tube at the top so they are closer to horizontal.

It works great...

so this is what I have been up to on the floorpan....fixing rust.

I even got some MasterSeries on part of it as you can see.

These are the only areas that I have left to repair before I can finish putting the rest of the MasterSeries on it.

Then I can get the suspension back on it and work out the airride system....

**jaransonT3** · September 28th, 2010, 04:28 PM

Got the floorpan covered in MasterSeries tonight.

Even got both sides done, thanks to the rotisserie I built last week...

I plan to put another coat on tomorrow...at least on the high risk parts for rust.

Feels really good to get at least one part of the car "done" sort of.

**jaransonT3** · October 9th, 2010, 07:05 PM

Spent some time with the Sled over the last couple of days and today....

Stripped the front beam down to the basics so I could get it cleaned up and start prepping for the adjustable height front end...

Bump stops! we don't need no freakin' bump stops...

More to come on this front. I also started modifying the seat tracks and making the floor mounts for the bench seat.

You can see the small reinforcements on the top of the front pyramids. These will get a slug welded to them on the underside before being welded to the pyramids. This slug will get drilled and tapped for the forward seat mounting bolt. You can also see the large angle that will get welded to pan to provide a mounting surface for the rear of the track. I also started making the track adjuster towel bar. Still some more to do, but the final fitment will happen after I build the bench cushion frame and set the track width.

Here is another shot of it...

My youngest son Ethan was also out in the garage helping today and we re-arranged things so that he can start working in "his" 69 Squareback. I think he is going to sign up here and create his own build thread.

Part of the rational for doing this now is that I am going to borrow a buddy's body rotisserie for the Sled. Picking it up tomorrow!

I will post pics of it tomorrow, hopefully with the Sled body on it.

**jaransonT3** · October 12th, 2010, 03:56 PM

OK...went and took some pics of the rotisserie in action...

How cool is that?

Oh, and I also made a couple of slugs for the tapping plates for the front seat mounts and got them welded to the reinforcements. Now I just need to get them welded to the pan.

**jaransonT3** · October 19th, 2010, 05:39 PM

Spent some time working on the cushion frame for the bench seat tonight. I also managed to get the reinforcements for the seat mounting installed.

I started with some nice new 1" square tubing and built a couple of frames for the main cushion structure...

Then I built the connector pieces for going up over the tunnel and got the entire main cushion frame welded together...

I need to lay-out and drill the holes for mounting the seat tracks to the cushion frame and get them mounted before I can finish up the towel bar for releasing the tracks and can drill and tap the mounting bits on the floorpan. I also have to add in the details for the pivot of the seat back frame and the stop for it in design position.

I am also going to add some sheet metal anti-submarining bits to it that will also lengthen the nose of the cushion structure.

**jaransonT3** · November 1st, 2010, 08:15 PM

Took the day off from work today to make it a 4 day weekend since we have election day off tomorrow. After doing a few things in the house, I got out in the garage and did some work on the Sled. Unfortunately, it was all undoing stuff I had previously done.

If you remember, I have been working on getting the mounts for my bench seat on the pan and working on the seat frame. This is were I was at...

I ran my ideas and pictures past a good friend who I have worked with for years designing seats. He really knows his stuff and I value his opinion and talent. Simply the best CAD designer I have ever worked with.

Anyway, we got to talking and Marc volunteered to put the seat design in CAD and help me with the set-up of the seating position and design of the seat. After giving him a bunch of measurements of the pan and the frame I had already made and an idea of the h-point of the seat and how much lower I wanted it due to the chopped top, he put it all into CAD.

Turns out I can not get the seat low enough with the current mounting scheme and still have a chance at making it comfortable....

so....

...off all the old mounting stuff come. Lots of cutting and grinding. I am going to build new front and rear crossmembers for each side to mounting the seat track to. These will be almost 2 inches lower than the current ones. This is a cardboard mock-up of one of the crossmembers...

Tomorrow I will get to try out my new brake when I make the crossmembers. Fun, fun, fun.

**jaransonT3** · November 15th, 2010, 09:24 PM

anyway, as promised here are some pictures of the latest sandblasting, paint removal and welding. Not real exciting, but it is getting closer....

Small steps, but steps in the right direction....

**jaransonT3** · November 15th, 2010, 09:25 PM

Spent some time this weekend doing a bunch of welding and grinding and some sand blasting. Uncovered a few more thin spots so I got them welded up. I have tomorrow off and am planning on doing a bunch more. I will take some pictures tomorrow.

I also have been fiddling with the seat trim some....think I am getting close to identifying what I want. This is the latest and greatest....

and another color combo I am leaning towards....