Klink's 1930 Chevy

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Very nice shop, I made the mistake of not doing all the finish work in mine before I started on the first project that was 4 years ago.[dr

I started my project in my shop at the last house and because I had been sitting on the '30 for 20+ years I was itching to get started... so things never got finished in the old shop... and every time I tried to finish some aspect of the shop there were always things in the way. So this time I made a point of getting the shop done (I know they are never "done"). I have to admit building out this shop was a lot of fun! Some of my buddies have been giving me a hard time because it's starting to look like the build out will never be done. I'm currently stuck on a project in Mexico (work is why it's taking so long) but when I get home in a few days I'm off for the rest of the year! All I have left is to find homes for everything that came out of the old shop; oil, paint, solvents etc... thens it's back to the '30. I'm also planning a disk brake and master cylinder upgrade and new springs for the rear of my '53. I figure 2 long days to put everything in it's place then it's back to cutting, welding, grinding and wrenching. I'll get it nice and messy then post some pictures... looking forward to breaking in this shop.
 
Finally back to work on the car...

WOW, it's been a long time since I've worked on my '30. Between moving, building a shop and work I've been pretty busy. The shop is finally "done". Today I put in a few cross braces for the floor. I need to get the doors off so I can put the rockers in. Now I need to brace the body through the door jambs. Feels good to be working on it again.
 

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It's hard to believe that 9 months have gone by since my last post. Progress on the car has been slow. Work has been keeping me extremely busy. Lots of traveling and very little time for much of anything else... I was hoping to spend more time on the car over my Christmas break BUT the wife wanted to visit the oldest in Vermont, so off to Vermont I went. Well I finally got some time in the shop. The goal is to re-structure the car in steel. Originally it was wood... I made up some B-pillar pieces for the back side. The side adjacent to the door will get beefed up as well. Here's the drivers side.
 

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The original sheet metal pieces are proving to be a challenge. Because of the wood and steel braces that went on the wood the gaps in the sheet metal parts are pretty big. The rockers were pretty much gone so I ordered some from Fiberglass and Wood. The parts looked pretty good but they weren't correct. The offset that accommodates the bottom of the door isn't deep enough. It's short by at least 0.100". So I have to modify them. The first picture shows the original and the second is the aftermarket. The other pictures show the drivers side in different states. I made up some angle with a 0.4"" offset and sliced it so I could form it to the sill plate. A lot of work on a new part but what am I going to do? I went really slow on this. Hopefully I start getting more free time. I've been doing things in the shop but not much on the car. It felt really good to fire up the welder...
 

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I've been working on the A pillars. There's a lot to do here, first I had to remove the dash which of course meant that the cowl was going to turn into a noodle (it did). So I'm pretty close to having a cowl support done. I'm using 1 by for this. It will tie into the A pillars and the firewall which should provide stiffness for the A pillars.

I bought some water based epoxy primer. It's a Rustoleum product, ROC Prime 100. I'm using it on the interior. I'll let you know how it works. Nice to be making progress...
 

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You are being thorough and meticulous and will have a build you can be proud of when done.

Interested in how the paint works out.
 
I like how you are going about this. Chevys are always tough once you take the wood out as they become so flimsy. [P
 
You're making it look easy Klink....looks good.
I'm also interested as to how the paint works.........

I think the paint is going to work out well. I painted the underside of the cowl with it and after I let it dry for about 6 hours I put the cowl support in and out a half dozen times while I worked on it and the paint didn't scratch. I did a test piece as well, I plan on abusing it to see how tough this paint is. Currently I only plan to use it on the inside, but I just started using it. It brushes on ok even though it goes on a little thin. It doesn't level out so the brush strokes remain. It's very low VOC and the water cleanup is nice. The biggest draw back is that it's not available in quarts.
 
More A pillar work today. I only took a few pictures so it doesn't look like I got a lot done today but I'm pretty happy with my progress... I finished the welding on the cowl support and I cleaned up the welds too. Most of the welds I only hit with a sander to make sure there are no sharps anywhere. I'd hate to reach into a blind spot a few years from now and get a cut... The welds that face the passenger compartment got the full treatment. Only because I'll be installing the dash to this side and I'm not sure exactly how this will be done so it seemed easier to blend them now. I also made the inner A pillar pieces. These consist of the main piece which is just a flat piece with the curvature in them. The pieces that go against the cowl were made with a shrinker. These have been spot welded to the main pieces and will go against the cowl. All the surfaces that go against another part have been painted. Painting really slows things down. I'll get better at planning the activity... I hope.
 

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I think the paint is going to work out well. I painted the underside of the cowl with it and after I let it dry for about 6 hours I put the cowl support in and out a half dozen times while I worked on it and the paint didn't scratch. I did a test piece as well, I plan on abusing it to see how tough this paint is. Currently I only plan to use it on the inside, but I just started using it. It brushes on ok even though it goes on a little thin. It doesn't level out so the brush strokes remain. It's very low VOC and the water cleanup is nice. The biggest draw back is that it's not available in quarts.

Would a foam roller work? Where do you get the primer and how expensive is it? Thanks
 
Would a foam roller work? Where do you get the primer and how expensive is it? Thanks

I believe a foam roller would work just fine. I bought this from Walmart.com.
They had the best price at $130 for a gallon and free shipping. Compared to other epoxy primers I looked at the price is pretty good.
 
I managed to get a couple of things done tonight. My wife is out of town this week so hopefully I can manage a little more time in the shop. I got the cowl brace installed, still lots of welding to do on it but at least its set. I also got the inner A pillar pieces installed. I also made the edge pieces for the inner A pillar parts. These will go on the edge, the other A pillar pieces already have them installed. Softening the edges on the interior parts is pretty important. Those edges can become pretty deadly in an accident...
 

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