Pumkinator: A G-Body G-Machine grocery getter...

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Wagon is really looking good..

[daveybtv]

Yea, I'm embarrassed to say that's what I did.... now If I had a classroom like that with all those machines, I would have done what Ben did too.

Great work Ben..keep it up.

Heck one time I just left the holes and through the Dynomat over it! LOL

[SRD art]

I had to take a 2 week break from the car to wrap up a bunch of class assignments for mid term grades, more on that in a few.

Getting back on the car I finished up the floors. The pullmax did a great job with the strengthening ribs and the end result looks great and matches the integrity of the factory floors. There was a lot of surface rust so I stripped the whole front floor area and coated it with Por-15.

Driver's side...



Passenger side. The dash and shifter shadow makes it look warped but it's nice and flat...



After the floor was complete I got the seat brackets knocked out. I decided to use the Mazda sliders and modify and weld them to the "legs" of the Cutlass seat brackets. Now they're just the right height and the sliders work fantastic. The back part of the seat also reclines back and forward smoothly, something the factory bench didn't do. I will finish them up by painting the brackets black and then building a sheet metal cover to keep them hidden.

[SRD art]

On Monday evenings I go to the "paint your own car" class at the school. This gives me another 4 hours a week to get work done, only draw back is it's in a different shop. So instead of working on the car itself I have some individual body parts over there that I work on.

This past Monday I worked on the front bumper. Mine is pretty rotted on the passenger side, you can see the floor through it! The rest of the rust is surface rust, which will be taken care of during sandblasting.



As I mentioned before, I picked up a wrecking yard bumper from an 85 Cutlass Supreme to get mine back in shape. The 85 bumper has different body lines on the top so the plan was to cut the bottom half out and graft it into mine. Nice thing about the later model bumper is that it has the turn signals in the bumper rather than near the headlights like mine. These will become functional brake cooling ducts.



First thing I did was using the plasma cutter I cut out a larger than needed patch area.



The turn signal openings are huge and would look out of proportion with my single compared to the 85 dual headlights, so I narrowed them by 4.5" where the weld line is. Here's a mock up of where they will go.



I then cut out a large rectangle from my bumper and also narrowed it 1" above the left side cut line to tuck it in close to the body. The weld has already been ground down in this shot. I then trimmed the new piece to fit and tacked it in.



Here's a couple shots of what it will look like on the car. I'll finish welding and get the other side done next week.

[SRD art]

Here I thought I'd take a moment and talk a bit about what we have been learning. First half of the semester we've been getting familiar with the machines in the shop by doing small projects. This included forming steel sheet metal and getting familiar with gas and tig welding. We covered mig welding last year and I was excited to learn tig this year.

Our professor is pretty dedicated to learning real hot rod based practical skills so his program is very hands on. We're also lucky to have some great forming equipment. This includes the Pullmax I've mentioned before, a Power Hammer, a planishing hammer, an Eckold that we use for shrinking and stretching, hand shrinker/ stretchers, a huge sheet metal brake, power shears, power and hand crank bead rollers, a slip roller, an english wheel, sand bags and mallets, and a few other big boy toys I'm forgetting. Here are a few projects we all had to make...

A simple circle made by running a flat strip through the slip roller until it was uniformly round and then tack weld with the gas welder.



Here the sheet metal brake was used to make a "multi angle with a curve and a fold" strip that had to match the one the professor made. The curve was made by making several small low angle bends.





Here I had to cut a curve in the sheet metal and using hand tools bend the metal over a wire, finishing it off with the Pullmax. If you're not familiar with this it's very common in areas like fender wheel openings on early cars such as a 30s Fords.



For this one I had to use two different dies on the bead roller. Can't help it, I like flames.

[SRD art]

The next projects were a little more complicated. First I had to use the mallets and sandbag to beat a flat sheet into a bowl that actually looked like a beat up mess when I got done. Then using the hand shrinker on the edges and a hammer and dolly in the center I worked it until it was a smooth 12 degree bowl that had to fit flush to the professor's template. After I got the grade on that one I then had to use the planishing hammer to put more dish into it to get it to match a 7 degree template curve. Here's the end result-





Next was using the english wheel to form a flat sheet to fit the professor's bowl. This was cool to learn because the wheel doesn't work like you might think as you try to make it travel across the panel. End result-





Next was a small version of part of an inner wheel well. This one started by laying paper over the professor's part and folding it to find out where the highlight was and where to shrink it for the curve. I then transferred our paper pattern to the flat sheet, trimmed, and hit it with the Pullmax and shrinking dies. That got the curve started but that area was a warped mess. The planishing hammer smoothed it out some and the Eckold with shrinking dies continued the curve around. Back and forth between the three machines ended in a nice smooth wheel well that had to fit closely matched to both the outside and inside of the professor's version.





Finally the one our professor calls the b**** project, a complex curve that has a concave long curve with a convex curve along the sides. I initially started the bend on the flat sheet cranking it over my leg. Then lots of trips back and forth between the Eckold shrinker and the planishing hammer finally ended up like this, again we had to match the one our professor made when laid on top.

[SRD art]

For the welding side we started with several gas welding projects, including butt welding with and without rod, vertical welding, welding up 1/2" holes, brass brazing steel to steel and copper pipe to steel. Gas welding uses a lot of heat so it warps the sheet quite a bit but it leaves a soft weld. Simply hammer and dolly-ing right on the weld straightens it right back out. Pretty neat.







This assignment we had to simulate bullet holes with a pick hammer, much like those that are often in old cars out in the fields. Then using a hammer and dolly I straightened them out and welded up the holes.

[SRD art]

Finally my most anticipated new thing to learn- TIG welding. For practice with this we worked with steel butt welding with and without rod, vertical butt with rod, stainless, and aluminum. Although I thought it would be easier, aluminum turned out to be harder. Although it's softer and you'd think you would use less heat, aluminum absorbes and dissipates the heat so fast you actually have to use more voltage and ac rather than dc to get a good puddle going. The throttle is sensitive because it's real easy to get it too hot. Here are a couple of my butt welds after some practice. Top one got a little too hot and sank in a bit. Other two aren't too bad for my first time ever tig welding aluminum.





Lots more practice coming...

[seancarole]

must be nice to work with good tools !!! one of the shops I used to work @ had a 1920's brake with leather belts and all it would break "bend" a 20' piece or 2" piece of steal loads of fun when the BOSS wasn't looking.

[chunger]

Ben, whatever you're paying for that school is totally worth it! What an absolutely great opp to learn skills - I'm envious! Funny about the bullet holes, I happen to have one that I need to patch up in my rear fender from before I acquired the car - any tips for me?

[67speedfreak]

Nice build !

[SRD art]

loads of fun when the BOSS wasn't looking.

Lol!

[SRD art]

Ben, whatever you're paying for that school is totally worth it! What an absolutely great opp to learn skills - I'm envious! Funny about the bullet holes, I happen to have one that I need to patch up in my rear fender from before I acquired the car - any tips for me?

It's been said that although not nearly as well known, our program is right up there with Wyotech as the best in the nation. I've heard a lot of shop owners express that Wyotech spends too much time in lectures and not nearly enough hands on. I haven't been there so I can't validate that tho'. Ours is just the opposite, our shcedule is 2 hours daily lecture, and that only because our professor has to meet expected standards, and then it's get dirty for 2 hours. The the shop is open for another 3-4 hours a day for us to work on our own projects. Our program is right about $2400/ semester including class fees and parking permit. The program can be completed in 4 semesters earning a university accredited associates degree in Collision Repair with a street rod emphasis. I'd have to verify, but I think I've heard Wyotech is like $8000/ semester. So, to answer your thought, yes it's every penny worth it. I also lucked out and got a full tuition scholarship this year. Cost me $82/ semester that the scholarship didn't cover.

On the bullet holes, see if you can hit them from an angle, not dead on, with a body hammer to work the metal back into shape. Then flatten it out with a hammer and dolly and weld her up. Good luck!

[SRD art]

Nice build !

Thanks 67, I appreciate that coming form someone that builds to your caliber!

[rfalker1]

I am really liking your grocery getter... Now just the issue of securing all those grocceries as you drive this awesomess!!

[Tony_SS]

It's been said that although not nearly as well known, our program is right up there with Wyotech as the best in the nation. I've heard a lot of shop owners express that Wyotech spends too much time in lectures and not nearly enough hands on. I haven't been there so I can't validate that tho'. Ours is just the opposite, our shcedule is 2 hours daily lecture, and that only because our professor has to meet expected standards, and then it's get dirty for 2 hours. The the shop is open for another 3-4 hours a day for us to work on our own projects. Our program is right about $2400/ semester including class fees and parking permit. The program can be completed in 4 semesters earning a university accredited associates degree in Collision Repair with a street rod emphasis. I'd have to verify, but I think I've heard Wyotech is like $8000/ semester. So, to answer your thought, yes it's every penny worth it. I also lucked out and got a full tuition scholarship this year. Cost me $82/ semester that the scholarship didn't cover.

On the bullet holes, see if you can hit them from an angle, not dead on, with a body hammer to work the metal back into shape. Then flatten it out with a hammer and dolly and weld her up. Good luck!

That's great... where did you get the scholarship from?

2400 a semester is very affordable, seems like a great deal.

[csouth]

You are learning some great stuff there. I'm jealous...LOL

[BulldawgMusclecars]

This build keeps getting better and better! Good work!

[John Wright]

Good job on the tin work Ben....your projects look really good, like you have done this before. ;)

[SRD art]

I am really liking your grocery getter... Now just the issue of securing all those grocceries as you drive this awesomess!!

Thanks!! Lol! When I first decided to hardcore the car for handling I used to joke that I was going to get a woman and 2 kid dummies and strap them in with helmets on and somehow secure a couple paper grocery bags full of empty food boxes in the back and then go racing. This was inspired by a photo I saw of an El Camino on a road course with a lawn mower bolted in the bed. Still might do it for fun one day...