Puget Dude’s creations and fabrications (Random project thread.)
- Thread starter PugetDude
- Start date
Got the replacement set of headlight buckets mocked up with the trim rings and the halogen retrofit kit.
Looks good, but the glass lens isn’t tight in the reflector/gasket/lens/trim ring stack up.
Might be as simple as a strip of fairly dense weatherstripping behind the reflector.
On the right track now I believe, but these are going to need a little hammer and dolly work to remove 81 years of road rash.
Can use the first set for mock up when I mount the radiator, grill shell and hood, and work on these off the car.
Looks good, but the glass lens isn’t tight in the reflector/gasket/lens/trim ring stack up.
Might be as simple as a strip of fairly dense weatherstripping behind the reflector.
On the right track now I believe, but these are going to need a little hammer and dolly work to remove 81 years of road rash.
Can use the first set for mock up when I mount the radiator, grill shell and hood, and work on these off the car.
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rattle_snake
Well-known member
As it should be carry on, enjoy the build.
MrPink
Well-known member
yep loving the build. I want to build an old school hot rod at some point.
Had a couple of hours out in the garage this AM, wife had some of the neighborhood ladies over for coffee and I needed to vanish..
Inspired by MP&C, Don Long, Randy(Timewarp100) and the other eminently qualified body guys here on the GJ, I decided to try a “no filler” approach to the dents on the headlight buckets, rather than the old “slather and sand” method I used in my misguided youth.
First dent was about the size of a quarter.
Used my favorite ball pein hammer and one of the new Truper body hammers I bought last year.
Took my time, held it tight against the bench top so I wouldn’t start raising dents on the outside of the bucket. Really like the Truper hammer, very nice fit and finish, good balance. Think I paid about $10/ each for a starter set. Tap-tap tap….Halfway there…
View from the inside:
These old buckets are really heavy gauge steel, gave me plenty to work with. Dent worked up nicely from the inside, took about half an hour start to finish.
Hit it with a 60/80 grit sanding pad.
Now what am I going to do with that gallon of Bondo I bought last year?
Inspired by MP&C, Don Long, Randy(Timewarp100) and the other eminently qualified body guys here on the GJ, I decided to try a “no filler” approach to the dents on the headlight buckets, rather than the old “slather and sand” method I used in my misguided youth.
First dent was about the size of a quarter.
Used my favorite ball pein hammer and one of the new Truper body hammers I bought last year.
Took my time, held it tight against the bench top so I wouldn’t start raising dents on the outside of the bucket. Really like the Truper hammer, very nice fit and finish, good balance. Think I paid about $10/ each for a starter set. Tap-tap tap….Halfway there…
View from the inside:
These old buckets are really heavy gauge steel, gave me plenty to work with. Dent worked up nicely from the inside, took about half an hour start to finish.
Hit it with a 60/80 grit sanding pad.
Now what am I going to do with that gallon of Bondo I bought last year?
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XJSuperman
Well-known member
spread it on the floorboards for sound deadening 
On the other headlight bucket there was a pretty good size dent right on the crown- too deep to get a body hammer in there.
Ended up using a piece of wood that I rounded over on the belt sander to knock the dent out from the inside, (the wooden block method wasn't very precise, couldn't see the end of the block as it related to the dent- ended up taking it out enough that I knew I could work it back) Planished the outside with a body hammer to knock the high spots back down. Back and forth a few times, used the 60/80 sanding block to show me the highs and lows.
Here’s what it looked like before I started- (photo from the eBay listing, they definitely picked the best angle.. the dent was at least 1/4” deep and 1-1/2” long forgot to take a picture before I started…..
Block of wood, worn out sanding block and a brand new made in Mexico body hammer. This one took a bit longer than the first one, the dent was about 1-1/2” long and spiraled around the cone end a bit.
Ended up using a 60 grit triangular sanding pad in the OMT to feather the planishing, then switched to the hand sanding block.
Only fair that I get to pick the best photo angle, too.
Ended up using a piece of wood that I rounded over on the belt sander to knock the dent out from the inside, (the wooden block method wasn't very precise, couldn't see the end of the block as it related to the dent- ended up taking it out enough that I knew I could work it back) Planished the outside with a body hammer to knock the high spots back down. Back and forth a few times, used the 60/80 sanding block to show me the highs and lows.
Here’s what it looked like before I started- (photo from the eBay listing, they definitely picked the best angle.. the dent was at least 1/4” deep and 1-1/2” long forgot to take a picture before I started…..
Block of wood, worn out sanding block and a brand new made in Mexico body hammer. This one took a bit longer than the first one, the dent was about 1-1/2” long and spiraled around the cone end a bit.
Ended up using a 60 grit triangular sanding pad in the OMT to feather the planishing, then switched to the hand sanding block.
Only fair that I get to pick the best photo angle, too.
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Thanks, Tony. Haven't done any bodywork in 20+ years; this was a fun project. It's in the high 90's here today so I'm working in the shop with the A/C on...supposed to drop into the 70's tomorrow so I'l open it up and really make some dust this weekend.Awesome job on the dent removal
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Excellent work on the metal finishing Scott.
Here’s my entire auto body tool inventory, it all fits in one 18" deep drawer.. Four New Truper body hammers, a couple of HF specials-- UHMW mallet and a hammer that came with the *******, three T- dollies and a little 4-ounce jewelers chasing hammer and a 2-ounce Stanley ball pein for the really fine stuff. Not sure how the tube bender ended up in there...
(Also use my Estwing ball pein hammers that hang on the pegboard)
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Took a break from the ‘32 to try something different.
This was an experiment to see if I could wrap the steel house numbers I built last year with copper; I want the natural green verdigris finish so they pop out instead of blending in. When I first built the marker I intended to get the steel copper plated but couldn’t find a shop interested in doing them. So, this was a $20 experiment that I can fix with a flap disc if it didn’t work out.
First order of business was to pull the numbers off the monument and clean them up. The 5/16 “ all-thread standoffs are just friction fit into 5/16” holes so they were easy to remove. A coarse Scotchbrite disc in the M12 grinder took all the rust and scale right off.
I did the first number (6) with dead soft 28 gauge copper sheet just as it came from the vendor. ( ~$5 each for a 6” x 6 “ sheet delivered from Amazon)
Got it done but had quite a bit of spring back, so I annealed the rest of the sheets before cutting and forming.
Used a propane torch and a quick quench in a bucket of water- what a difference, it really made it a lot more pliable. Marked and cut the pieces out with snips.
Worked the copper sheet around the steel numbers with a little Stanley 2 ounce ball pein hammer and an old flat head screwdriver blade . Even with annealing I did get a few small tears on the edges but I was able to solder them shut. Also had to put a couple of soldered tabs on the 8 because there wasn’t any way to close the inside of the curve without snipping through the edge. Had to use the same repair technique somewhere on every number because the copper wanted to tear on inside corners.
Ended up with some solder on the edges, but none on the faces after a quick pass with the Scotchbrite disc.
I sealed the back sides of these with a skim coat of Big Stretch Urethane caulk to prevent moisture getting in between the bare steel and the copper wrap.
Gave them a quick polish with 00 steel wool and put them back on the monument marker to weather out.
Time will tell how these are going to hold up.
If they don't I'll look for some 1/8" solid copper plate and make replacements.
This was an experiment to see if I could wrap the steel house numbers I built last year with copper; I want the natural green verdigris finish so they pop out instead of blending in. When I first built the marker I intended to get the steel copper plated but couldn’t find a shop interested in doing them. So, this was a $20 experiment that I can fix with a flap disc if it didn’t work out.
First order of business was to pull the numbers off the monument and clean them up. The 5/16 “ all-thread standoffs are just friction fit into 5/16” holes so they were easy to remove. A coarse Scotchbrite disc in the M12 grinder took all the rust and scale right off.
I did the first number (6) with dead soft 28 gauge copper sheet just as it came from the vendor. ( ~$5 each for a 6” x 6 “ sheet delivered from Amazon)
Got it done but had quite a bit of spring back, so I annealed the rest of the sheets before cutting and forming.
Used a propane torch and a quick quench in a bucket of water- what a difference, it really made it a lot more pliable. Marked and cut the pieces out with snips.
Worked the copper sheet around the steel numbers with a little Stanley 2 ounce ball pein hammer and an old flat head screwdriver blade . Even with annealing I did get a few small tears on the edges but I was able to solder them shut. Also had to put a couple of soldered tabs on the 8 because there wasn’t any way to close the inside of the curve without snipping through the edge. Had to use the same repair technique somewhere on every number because the copper wanted to tear on inside corners.
Ended up with some solder on the edges, but none on the faces after a quick pass with the Scotchbrite disc.
I sealed the back sides of these with a skim coat of Big Stretch Urethane caulk to prevent moisture getting in between the bare steel and the copper wrap.
Gave them a quick polish with 00 steel wool and put them back on the monument marker to weather out.
Time will tell how these are going to hold up.
If they don't I'll look for some 1/8" solid copper plate and make replacements.
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royce
Well-known member
Style and graceTook a break from the ‘32 to try something different.
This was an experiment to see if I could wrap the steel house numbers I built last year with copper; I want the natural green verdigris finish so they pop out instead of blending in. When I first built the marker I intended to get the steel copper plated but couldn’t find a shop interested in doing them. So, this was a $20 experiment that I can fix with a flap disc if it didn’t work out.
First order of business was to pull the numbers off the monument and clean them up. The 1/4 “ all-thread standoffs are just friction fit into 1/4” holes so they were easy to remove. A coarse Scotchbrite disc in the M12 grinder took all the rust and scale right off.
I did the first number (6) with dead soft 28 gauge copper sheet just as it came from the vendor. ( ~$5 each for a 6” x 6 “ sheet delivered from Amazon)
Got it done but had quite a bit of spring back, so I annealed the rest of the sheets before cutting and forming.
Used a propane torch and a quick quench in a bucket of water- what a difference, it really made it a lot more pliable. Marked and cut the pieces out with snips.
Worked the copper sheet around the steel numbers with a little Stanley 2 ounce ball pein hammer and an old flat head screwdriver blade . Even with annealing I did get a few small tears on the edges but I was able to solder them shut. Also had to put a couple of soldered tabs on the 8 because there wasn’t any way to close the inside of the curve without snipping through the edge. Had to use the same repair technique somewhere on every number because the copper wanted to tear on inside corners.
Ended up with some solder on the edges, but none on the faces after a quick pass with the Scotchbrite disc.
I sealed the back sides of these with a skim coat of Big Stretch Urethane caulk to prevent moisture getting in between the bare steel and the copper wrap.
Gave them a quick polish with 00 steel wool and put them back on the monument marker to weather out.
Time will tell how these are going to hold up.
Fine work Sir
csp
Well-known member
I didn't see it mentioned, where did you find those Truper body hammers?
Nice work on the headlight housings.
Nice work on the headlight housings.
Security Measure | eBay
Filter results for “ Hammer”
They have a good selection of Truper stuff including body hammers.
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Miss the Pontiacs
Well-known member
Nice work on the sign looks great. The copper sure makes it pop. Is the stone ballast needed so it doesn’t blow away?
Jayman17
Well-known member
Great job putting the copper overlay on your house numbers, I think weathered copper will
look great on there.
Jay
look great on there.
Jay
Back on the ‘32 project this week; dug the Speedway fiberglass hood out of the unopened 4 year old shipping box to see how it was going to fit. The answer is not that great… it was too long and the outside ends want to splay out from the grill shell and are, very tight against the cowl.
First step was to remove the excess from both ends of the molded part. I really like my Dremel saw with the diamond blade for cutting Fiberglass. Cuts smooth, no vibration like a reciprocating blade, and is easy to control.
Cleaned up the cut edge with my wife’s cordless Ryobi RO sander. (Remind me to blow all the fiberglass dust out and off of it before I put it back in her tool drawer…)
Initial fit up after trimming both the excess/flash off both ends was fairly close so I decided to fab a couple of mounting tabs for the grill shell out of some 3/8” x 1-/4” bar stock I had leftover from another project. Cut these to 1-1/2” long, drilled and tapped a 5/16-18 hole in each one and tacked them in place. They will be hidden when I get the radiator in place- already had it in and verified clearance for the SPAL electric fan I am using. (need to make a shroud for it soon)
Just used a couple of plain hex bolts to secure the shell in place for now will switch to stainless button heads for final assembly.
With the bottom of the grill shell secured I could finish scribing and trimming the hood to 32” long at the center point. (Old rule is 32 on a ‘32.) Yellow tape was rough cut, blue was the second scribed cut, will use orange for the final- lets me see where I already worked it.
The fit on this hood isn’t that great, the cowl recess measures .600-.625” deep and the glass hood is only .100-.125” thick. I ordered some rivnuts and screw on rubber bumpers to allow me to fine- tune the fit at the firewall; I was able to scribe and grind the lip on the grill shell to get the front edge mostly flush. I looked at stock cowl lacing but couldn’t see it being thick enough to bring the hood up flush.
We’ll see how these bumpers work out- plan is to install aluminum rivnuts on the cowl step to secure the rubber bumpers- I can sand them to the height I need to align the top of the hood flush with the top edge of the cowl. I’ve got the back edge of the hood shimmed up ~1/2” or so in the photo; the front edge is sitting on the steel grille shell flange I ground and scribed.
Still not sure how I am going to fasten this hood down, I’m not planning on running hood sides. Clamps, mounting brackets, hidden bars?? Don’t think I want the leather belts and springs unless can get this fitting a lot better…might need some clamping action with the hold downs to pull this hood down tight to the rubber bumpers; it won’t sit down flat on its own- probably the difference between a Speedway Motors. hood and an unknown body.
I have a set of radiator support rods I will mount up to secure the top of the radiator at 32-1/8” away from the cowl, then start working the hood to fit.
More to come..
First step was to remove the excess from both ends of the molded part. I really like my Dremel saw with the diamond blade for cutting Fiberglass. Cuts smooth, no vibration like a reciprocating blade, and is easy to control.
Cleaned up the cut edge with my wife’s cordless Ryobi RO sander. (Remind me to blow all the fiberglass dust out and off of it before I put it back in her tool drawer…) Initial fit up after trimming both the excess/flash off both ends was fairly close so I decided to fab a couple of mounting tabs for the grill shell out of some 3/8” x 1-/4” bar stock I had leftover from another project. Cut these to 1-1/2” long, drilled and tapped a 5/16-18 hole in each one and tacked them in place. They will be hidden when I get the radiator in place- already had it in and verified clearance for the SPAL electric fan I am using. (need to make a shroud for it soon)
Just used a couple of plain hex bolts to secure the shell in place for now will switch to stainless button heads for final assembly.
With the bottom of the grill shell secured I could finish scribing and trimming the hood to 32” long at the center point. (Old rule is 32 on a ‘32.) Yellow tape was rough cut, blue was the second scribed cut, will use orange for the final- lets me see where I already worked it.
The fit on this hood isn’t that great, the cowl recess measures .600-.625” deep and the glass hood is only .100-.125” thick. I ordered some rivnuts and screw on rubber bumpers to allow me to fine- tune the fit at the firewall; I was able to scribe and grind the lip on the grill shell to get the front edge mostly flush. I looked at stock cowl lacing but couldn’t see it being thick enough to bring the hood up flush.
We’ll see how these bumpers work out- plan is to install aluminum rivnuts on the cowl step to secure the rubber bumpers- I can sand them to the height I need to align the top of the hood flush with the top edge of the cowl. I’ve got the back edge of the hood shimmed up ~1/2” or so in the photo; the front edge is sitting on the steel grille shell flange I ground and scribed.
Still not sure how I am going to fasten this hood down, I’m not planning on running hood sides. Clamps, mounting brackets, hidden bars?? Don’t think I want the leather belts and springs unless can get this fitting a lot better…might need some clamping action with the hold downs to pull this hood down tight to the rubber bumpers; it won’t sit down flat on its own- probably the difference between a Speedway Motors. hood and an unknown body.
I have a set of radiator support rods I will mount up to secure the top of the radiator at 32-1/8” away from the cowl, then start working the hood to fit.
More to come..
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The hood looks awesome! hopefully you will get it fitting perfectly and I know you will come up with a cool creative way of latching it down, you'll have to do what I do to figure it all out, I will sit and stare at it for days until it hits me 
555
Well-known member
Thanks for the photo, 555. I am leaning towards stationary pins into a boss on the firewall and maybe a couple of push pull clamps into the steel grille shell- (or the other way around) I want something small and unobtrusive. If I do it right the latches should be nearly or completely out of sight.
The 6-32 aluminum rivnuts and a mandrel will be here Wednesday; my set only went down to 8-32 . I’ll get the hood sitting flush at the rear and then figure out how to secure it.
This Speedway glass hood is really flimsy, should probably stiffen it up with some additional glass mat, maybe glass in a lightweight piece of square tubing on the edges to give me something solid to work with.
The 6-32 aluminum rivnuts and a mandrel will be here Wednesday; my set only went down to 8-32 . I’ll get the hood sitting flush at the rear and then figure out how to secure it.
This Speedway glass hood is really flimsy, should probably stiffen it up with some additional glass mat, maybe glass in a lightweight piece of square tubing on the edges to give me something solid to work with.
Stiffening it up would be a good choice. Then again I know how you’ve grown accustomed to rattling fiberglass
/me runs and hides
I’m pretty certain I’ve got several 1/2” diameter 3’ long glass rods out here. I’ll look tomorrow when I get back in the office.
/me runs and hides
I’m pretty certain I’ve got several 1/2” diameter 3’ long glass rods out here. I’ll look tomorrow when I get back in the office.
shortykorte
Well-known member
Duck tape…..
Or ditch hood for a big blower.
Or ditch hood for a big blower.
MrPink
Well-known member
I wonder if you can get some 1/4 turn fasteners and make brackets for them? I believe 4 of them would hold a glass hood for sure.
Hey bud, I'd have sworn I had my collection of glass bracketry out here but it might still be out there as its not here. I'll let ya know as I'm planning on being out there unless something happens to keep me here next week......ya hear me?.
Au contraire, I exist therefore I.......I........I......ahh fuc-it......I got nothing.Hear here. They're not here but they might be there? Well, there you go, then; they are where they are..
Understandable; what I hear is that you're here because you're not all there. So there.
Toolfool
Well-known member
Must be the AZ heat. 
RivennHewn
Well-known member
Testing, testing. 1,2,3…..
Is this thing on?
Is this thing on?
RivennHewn
Well-known member
LOL... Been up at our place in the mountains since Memorial Day building a deck addition. Dragged my welder up here to do the steel rail sections. Hybrid design with 8" Log posts. I'll post pics when I get a little further along.
Dang,
I figured you’d been too busy getting the Rod running to bother posting .
Now ya tell me you’re out playing on a deck?
I’m starting to question your commitment
Dang,
I figured you’d been too busy getting the Rod running to bother posting .
Now ya tell me you’re out playing on a deck?
I’m starting to question your commitment
Been up here avoiding triple digit weather in PHX; we're at 6500' elevation. High today was 73.LOL... Been up at our place in the mountains since Memorial Day building a deck addition. Dragged my welder up here to do the steel rail sections. Hybrid design with 8" Log posts. I'll post pics when I get a little further along.
Dang,
I figured you’d been too busy getting the Rod running to bother posting .
Now ya tell me you’re out playing on a deck?
I’m starting to question your commitment
Been too busy working on projects to keep this thread updated; finally got a chance to take a breather and post a few pictures…
Remember the Oklahoma license plates in post #2? The entire face layer peeled off when I soaked them overnight in Simple Green. I have had an idea floating around in my head over the last year for a way to use them. (Inspired by a couple of different images I found online) so I dug them out and painted them along with the rest of the leftover plates and some steel diamond plate I had in the drop pile. Added a few pieces of polished aluminum diamond plate from the scrap bin for the shadow accents. Decided the 4th of July would be a great time to show off the result…
It measures 39 “ x 71”, same size as the first one I made last year. So, they went back-to-back on the little trailer as our entry in the neighborhood 4th of July parade.
Now hanging on our new back deck- pics of that to follow.
Remember the Oklahoma license plates in post #2? The entire face layer peeled off when I soaked them overnight in Simple Green. I have had an idea floating around in my head over the last year for a way to use them. (Inspired by a couple of different images I found online) so I dug them out and painted them along with the rest of the leftover plates and some steel diamond plate I had in the drop pile. Added a few pieces of polished aluminum diamond plate from the scrap bin for the shadow accents. Decided the 4th of July would be a great time to show off the result…
It measures 39 “ x 71”, same size as the first one I made last year. So, they went back-to-back on the little trailer as our entry in the neighborhood 4th of July parade.
Now hanging on our new back deck- pics of that to follow.
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The little covered deck on the back of the cabin was barely big enough for a grill and a dining table. We’ve been wanting to expand it for a while; this is the summer it finally happened.
We came up Memorial Day weekend and started digging footings for the Sonotube columns. Got those dug and poured (24 60# bags), gave them a week to set up before we started framing on the deck. Welded up a little frame out of #6 rebar scraps for the footings and added a couple of #6 vertical bars full height of the tubes when we poured them. Three 12” diameter columns for a 16’x17’ addition, luckily we already had a 12” glulam beam to attach the new framing to the old deck.
Dropped the 4x12 x18’ girder in place; it was dead level without any shimming or trimming. 2x10 Framing didn’t take that long, but the Trex decking pretty much wiped out my knees…we recovered the existing covered 2X cedar deck with Trex so it all matched. We used Trex clips on the new framing and Camo screws on the old deck, only visible fasteners are on the **** joints and picture frame border.
Railings next…
We came up Memorial Day weekend and started digging footings for the Sonotube columns. Got those dug and poured (24 60# bags), gave them a week to set up before we started framing on the deck. Welded up a little frame out of #6 rebar scraps for the footings and added a couple of #6 vertical bars full height of the tubes when we poured them. Three 12” diameter columns for a 16’x17’ addition, luckily we already had a 12” glulam beam to attach the new framing to the old deck.
Dropped the 4x12 x18’ girder in place; it was dead level without any shimming or trimming. 2x10 Framing didn’t take that long, but the Trex decking pretty much wiped out my knees…we recovered the existing covered 2X cedar deck with Trex so it all matched. We used Trex clips on the new framing and Camo screws on the old deck, only visible fasteners are on the **** joints and picture frame border.
Railings next…
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