Читать книгу Project Mustang - Larry Lyles - Страница 9

After stripping the exterior and the interior, the Mustang is a shell with the engine, drivetrain, and dash assembly still in it. I have an engine stand just waiting for the engine, but something I learned a long time ago is that engines and drivetrains are a lot easier to remove with the front sheet metal already off the car. But because panel-to-panel alignment back in the days of “build it faster because everything looks good at 80 mph” was not a priority, I still have a lot of sheet metal work to do to this car. So for now, the engine stays put and the body hammer comes out.

The next step in the restoration project is to work on the sheet metal. This includes aligning both fenders to the hood and making a serious lead repair on the right fender.

ALIGN THE FRONT PANELS

Body Shop 101 teaches body repair technicians that every panel on the front of the car aligns to the hood. That is to say if the hood isn’t in perfect alignment with the body structure of the car, nothing else, including the doors, will line up.

What do the doors have to do with the front sheet metal alignment? Photo 1 is a good example of what I’m talking about. Think of this fender as if it were hinged near the front of the door. Swinging the front of the fender out-board will cause the rear of the fender to shift inboard, particularly at the point marked by the X. That, in turn, closes the gap between the fender and the door just below the stripe (lower arrow). This also causes the gap at the top of the fender to widen (top arrow). A closer look shows this is exactly what is wrong with this fender. It has been shifted outboard at the front, causing the gap at the top to widen and the gap near the bottom to narrow.

Note: When I shifted the right fender, shown in photo 1, inboard at the front, the top rear of the fender moved back and outboard slightly. This slight shift closed the wide gap at that point and caused the gap along the area near the X in photo 1 to widen slightly. The result was a better gap line between the door and the fender, which was what I needed to happen in the first place. That’s why alignment always starts with the hood. The alignment of everything else keys off this single panel.

PHOTO 1: The door to fender alignment is terrible. The door rubs the fender near the lower arrow, and the gap is much too wide near the upper arrow. All of this is because the fender has been shifted outboard at the front.

Photo 2 shows where I’ll start the alignment process. The hood must be aligned with the cowl, which means the gap between the cowl and the rear edge of the hood must be even and parallel. I make the necessary adjustments by loosening the hinge bolts and shifting the hood either forward or backward as needed. I use the Eastwood Panel Gap Gauge shown in chapter 2 to help make this gap perfect.

PHOTO 2: Fender alignment actually starts here, with the hood. The hood must be aligned with the cowl first, then the fenders aligned with the hood.

PHOTO 3: Although the hood and cowl alignment is critical, the alignment between the hood and the tip of the headlamp housing is critical as well.

PHOTO 4: This is the result of our alignment work. All gaps are even, about ¼ inch wide, and the tips of the headlamp housings align with the leading edge of the hood.

At the same time the rear gap in the hood is being established, attention must be paid to the alignment between the leading edge of the headlamp housing and the leading edge of the hood. Recall I had left the headlamp housings in place? I did this because they play an important role in getting the hood into perfect alignment with all the other front sheet metal pieces, such as the fenders.

Note: The fit between this headlamp housing and the fender is far from acceptable, but it isn’t something to worry about at this time. Whoever installed this housing failed to attach all of the mounting bolts, so the housing moves at will. I’ve already had the headlamp housing off once, and I know I can easily shift it into the correct position when needed.

When both fenders are in perfect alignment with the hood, you should have the result you see in photo 4. All gaps are even and not too wide, about ¼-inch width is normal, and the hood is in alignment with the leading edge of both headlamp housings. What are all the marks on the panels? When the initial inspection of this car was made, I marked every problem area I could find, including dents and alignment problems, so that nothing would be overlooked once I began the sheet metal repair work on the car.

Did I have to do anything special to reach this point in getting all the front panels aligned? Other than adjusting the hood and loosening the fender bolts shown in photo 5 (arrows) to shift the right fender inboard, not really. Whoever worked on this car previously simply did a poor job of aligning the panels. Speaking of fender bolts, look closely at photo 5, and note the two additional fender bolts at the front of the radiator support. These bolts must be loosened any time fender alignment adjustments are made.

But then, everything isn’t dipped in chocolate sauce here in Mustang land. The left fender, the Taiwan refugee, still fits like a saddle on a hog because the top rear of the fender stands a full ¼-inch taller than the cowl panel in that area.

TIP

If a perfect alignment between the leading edge of the headlamp housing and the hood cannot be made, the problem lies with the fender. It will need to be shifted either forward or backward until alignment is achieved.

I mentioned in chapter 3 that this fender would need some major rebuilding to make it fit. My thought was that the fender had been stamped incorrectly and the only solution would be to turn to the Eastwood Planishing Hammer #28116 PH and reform this portion of the fender. But I got lucky. Once the fender was removed from the car, I noticed the edge of the fender (photo 6) had been left too tall. This was a manufacturing flaw, but one with an easy fix. The cure was to grind away the excess metal in that area. That allowed the fender to sit lower on the cowl, and—presto—my fender troubles were over.

REPAIR THE RIGHT FENDER

I spent a couple of hours getting the front sheet metal on this car aligned and looking good. But after all that work, I still had one major problem to overcome. The body line where the right fender meets the hood is crushed about midway along the length of the fender, shown in the marked area about mid-fender in photo 4. I can hammer and dolly-work this area to bring it to a point where only a small amount of filler will be required to finish the job, but this is an area I don’t like to apply plastic body filler to. Old cars need maintenance, and that means people leaning over the fenders to access the engine. The last thing I want is to risk having a tiny bit of filler chipped away from the edge of the fender by someone’s belt buckle.

So instead of using plastic body filler to complete this repair, I’m using lead. I’ve selected Eastwood’s Deluxe Body Solder Kit #31126, which contains everything I need to make this repair. Items found in the kit include lead bars, body file, tinning butter, tallow for protecting the wooden paddles, wooden paddles, and tinning brushes. Items not found in the kit but still needed include 3M P100 respirator #7183, eye protection, #00 steel wool, baking soda, and heavy gloves and a torch (not shown). I prefer a plumber’s propane torch for lead-working because it supplies plenty of heat and is easy to handle.

Lead-working any panel begins by cleaning the repair area of all the old paint. I elect to grind away the old paint using a Norton 40-grit disc #23606 on a grinder. It quickly removes the old paint and leaves the metal extremely smooth with no deep grinder marks. I grind at least 6 inches past the repair area to give myself plenty of room to apply the lead.

Once the paint has been removed, the next step is to apply a coat of tin to the metal. Because lead does not stick to bare metal, the tin acts as a flux to get the lead to adhere. I start by generously painting the repair area with the tinning butter and applying it using the tinning brushes provided in the kit.

PHOTO 5: The arrows point to the row of fender attachment bolts. These, plus the two vertically mounted bolts at the front of the core support, must be loosened before the fender can be adjusted.

PHOTO 6: Once the left fender was removed, the problem became apparent: too much metal on this lip. I marked the area of metal to be removed and ground it away. This will let the fender sit lower on the cowl and correct the fit.

PHOTO 7: The Eastwood Deluxe Body Solder Kit #31126. What you get: lead bars, tinning butter, tallow, lead-working paddles, body file, tinning brushes, and an instructional video. You add the rest.

PHOTO 8: A layer of tinning butter is applied to the bare metal. Lead won’t stick to an untinned surface.

PHOTO 9: The tinning butter is heated. A caramel colored film will develop over the surface as it is heated. Use the #00 steel wool to wipe away the film and expose the bright tin beneath.

PHOTO 10: The lead bar is heated to a point at which it is almost melted. At that point, the bar is pushed into the warmed tin.

TIP

If the panel you’re working on has small bits of old paint trapped in the dents where the sanding disc can’t reach, try heating the trapped paint with a propane torch; once they char, use a wire brush to remove the specks.

After coating the repair area, I heat the tinning butter with the propane torch to form a layer of tin over the steel. Tinning butter is gray in color when applied, but after heating it begins to melt, and as it does a caramel-colored film develops over the surface. This film must be removed, and to do so I use #00 steel wool to wipe away the film and expose the bright tinned surface beneath.

Once the tin has been applied, the next step is to apply the lead. Applying the lead is a simple matter of warming the repair area with the torch while concentrating most of the heat on the lead bar. Hot lead, like everything else liquid, reacts quickly to the forces of gravity; I want to apply the warm lead above the dent so it can work its way down into the dent. I heat the bar until it just begins to melt, then push the heated end into the warmed tin, much like snuffing out a cigarette. I allow the bar to melt and separate, leaving a clump of lead on the repair. This process is repeated several times as I work to form a very lumpy buildup of lead.

Once the lead has been applied, it must be smoothed using a wooden paddle. Notice that in photo 11, my wooden paddle has become charred on the working end. The tallow provided in the kit should be applied to the paddle to prevent it from burning when it comes in contact with the hot lead, but it won’t prevent the paddle from charring under the heat of the torch. A little extra tallow on the top of the paddle will reduce this charring as well as lengthen the life of the paddle.

The process of leveling hot lead with the wooden paddle is not unlike spreading warm butter over a slice of bread. Too much heat, and the butter (lead) just melts and runs off. Not enough heat, and the butter (lead) tends to clump and become lumpy. But apply just enough heat, and the lead moves to where you want it and immediately skims over to hold itself in place once the heat is removed. The tallow also helps in this cooling process, so don’t be afraid to use it generously on the paddle.

TIP

It may be necessary to file the repair smooth, then apply additional lead to fill any low areas.

PHOTO 11: A wooden paddle is used to level the hot lead and smooth the repair area. Before use, the paddle was dipped into the melted tallow to form a protective heat barrier to prevent the paddle from burning.

Once leveled using heat and a paddle, the lead repair can be refined using the body file provided in the kit. How about an old body-man’s trick? In photo 12, notice that the center of the file blade has been raised off the base of the file. I loosened one end of the blade and slipped a ¼-inch nut between the blade and the base. This acts to curve the blade to prevent its sharp ends from digging into the soft lead. Don’t worry, curving the blade won’t affect the way the blade cuts the lead, nor will it have much effect on how level the repair becomes as it is filed smooth.

PHOTO 12: This is an old body-man’s trick. A small ¼-inch nut was slipped between the blade and the handle to form a gentle curve. This curve ensures that most of the cutting is done near the center of the blade and not at the ends, where the blade would have a tendency to gouge the repair.

I prefer to file the soft lead until the edges feather into the metal surrounding the repair, as shown in photo 13, then change to a block with 40-grit sandpaper to do the final smoothing.

Once the repair is complete, the acid in the lead must be neutralized. This is one of the most important steps when making a lead repair because neutralizing the acid allows any subsequent coats of primer or body filler to permanently adhere to the lead. To neutralize the acid in the lead, I mix a portion of baking soda and water into a thick paste, about the consistency of toothpaste, apply the paste with a clean shop towel, and scrub the repair area thoroughly. I repeat this step at least twice, then do a final rinse with clean water.

PHOTO 13: The repair is filed flat using the modified body file.