1958 Ramber American

[pplace]

Originally Posted by 123pugsy

Wow, Zane. Outstanding work.



Sorry, I missed the part of why you have a rotating tail light?

Well the short and simple answer.....why not!!

In reality I knew I didn’t want the cap or fuel door on the quarter panel. I don’t like them in the trunk (for mess and fume reasons) so the logical place is to hide it behind the tail light. As for it rotating? I hadn’t ever seen that type of actuation before (not saying it hasn’t been done) so I thought it would be a fun challenge to come up with a working solution to that problem.

[123pugsy]

Originally Posted by pplace

Well the short and simple answer.....why not!!

In reality I knew I didn’t want the cap or fuel door on the quarter panel. I don’t like them in the trunk (for mess and fume reasons) so the logical place is to hide it behind the tail light. As for it rotating? I hadn’t ever seen that type of actuation before (not saying it hasn’t been done) so I thought it would be a fun challenge to come up with a working solution to that problem.

Of course, D'OH!, the fuel filler.


Thanks for the clarification, and ya, it's really cool.
Please post a video of it when complete.



.

[pplace]

Catchup update #12

Now that the tail light mechanism has been built, it's time to see what it looks like installed in the quarter panel....

There are two video links in this post as well.



Starting with a basic platform that will be the mounting point for the tail light mechanism (top) and the fuel fill location (bottom)



This is the back side of the mounting pocket that will go into the quarter panel, tacked up....ready for final welding. It's a bit crude, but it's to never be seen again shortly.



The frontside of the pocket all welded and cleaned up a bit.



The original tail light mounting location on the qtr. Basically just a flat surface that the original tail light housing bolted to.



Cut out the old opening right at the edge of the quarter panel.



Slid the new pocket in and attached it with a few quick tack welds.



A view with the new custom tail light finally installed.

Here is a video of the operation of the tail light mechanism in the vehicle. Again, note how it first extends away from the quarter panel before rotating. This is to ensure it doesn't scrape or chip the future paint.

Also note: The gap between the tail light and qtr. will be tight eventually. I left it a bit big to account for bodywork, primer, paint, etc. I can also shim the actuator mechanism in or out to get a perfect fit.

https://youtu.be/Dd8CsFmpkFc



Now to focus on how to route the wiring for the tail light & turn signals. Here I've added a micro female pin connector into the tail light side of the mount.



In the body side of the mount I have the micro male pin connector. This routes down the center of the inner shaft, and eventually out of the housing end cap.



Just simply screw the pin connectors together.....



and slide the two shafts together, finishing up by adding the two bolts on each side of the shaft.



Here is a picture of the mechanism installed and retracted into the quarter panel without the tail light installed.



Now to my gripe...….

The customer sent these original tail light housings off to a company to use as a perfect reference for creating the new custom tail lights.

As mentioned earlier, these are simple units with a flat mounting surface that just bolted to the flat surface of the quarter panel. Seems simple enough to duplicate??………..



Unfortunately when we received the custom tail lights back from the company, they completely changed how they mounted!?!? I have ZERO clue why they did this, and in all honesty, they made it harder for themselves to do it this way.

My customer contacted them and explained his dislike. They basically said "Well the shop should be able to just build a pocket for it to set into"

True enough, I could.....but that isn't the point. The customer asked for a copy of the original. Also keying into a tight pocket, could make the situation of fitting, chipping, or scratching the paint that much worse.

Also if you look close...the "clamps" they designed to hold the light in would actually protrude out the side of the quarter panels (they are wider than the light itself) Just very ODD and frustrating.



Here you can see the large step from the quarter to the tail light housing.



The solution that the tail light company said they would do is to make an "adapter ring" that filled in the step and gave a flat mounting surface.

This works....sort of, but gives the tail light a much bulkier appearance (in time the tail light will be chrome plated)

Also, worse than the added bulkiness is the lack of correct "flow" into the existing quarter panel. (look back at the original tail light......it blends nicely into the quarter panel)

I suggested a couple fixes for this to our customer (that I'll explain a few photos down)



A view from the top, again very poor tail light design that doesn't follow the original contours or shape at all. VERY FRUSTRATING.....and these cost the customer a lot of money!



With some tape stretched over, you can see that gap.



A view from the top with the tape showing the gap / poor flow.



My two options for the customer were to have the tail light company make another set of adapter rings, but make them like 3/8" bigger and I would file and shape them while on the vehicle to match the flow of the quarter panels.

The customer at this point wanted no more to do with the tail light company, and wasn't thrilled with going back to them another time.

So, in the end, I said I would just fill the ring with body filler to make up for the gap. In the end I also suggested we paint the ring the body color, instead of chrome plating it. This will help take away the bulkiness of the extra chrome ring. In the end, the customer agreed, that this is the best route to go.



These pictures were just roughed in with some filler, to give an idea to the customer how it should look when finished.

In the end, this validates to myself why I dislike farming out any work unless I know I'm 100% incapable of doing something. Anytime I let work out of my hands, it seems the quality or the vision isn't the same as if I were to do it myself unfortunately.

Here is one last video of the tail light when I was testing the wiring.....

https://youtu.be/dK9BctWz3GU

[Don Papenburg]

Boy i hate when that happens . Them dingbats should have offered to redo them lights. If someone pays you to do a job you do it right or not at all. If you do it for yourself and you screw up you live with it or most likely you redo it or find a creative way to make it look like it was intended to be that way.
It looks like you will make it disappear. Give your client a bill to present to the light guy . Fat chance of getting paid , but it sends a message.

[Gojeep]

Impressive engineering there.

[pplace]

Thanks again for all the compliments on the project. Coming from this group it really means a lot!

I probably only have another post or two before I'm caught back up in actual real time.



I now have the trunk floor, rear floor kickup over the rear end, package tray, wheel tubs, and misc. braces either welded in or tack welded in. Much of it I'll final weld when it's on the rotisserie in the future. Will make it much easier to weld and grind.



It was nice to finally be able to remove that temporary brace across the trunk opening!



Now to figure out something for this area...….



After some patterns were made, it was time to visit some of this stuff.



Fitting the inner quarter structure into position......



Cut out the center access panel and installed some nutserts.



Fabricated a cover to bolt into place. This will give me access later to get inside to corrosion protect, insulate / sound deaden, etc.



And mirrored the work for the passenger side as well. The second duplicate of anything is never as enjoyable as the first!



Finally a picture from the front showing all the work that went into this from the wheel tubs back!

[keith]

Dane beautiful work. I do have a question ...can you post some pictures of your Porter Ferguson Autobody Cart?

[pplace]

I’ll try to get some sometime. We actually just converted it over to a welding table / workbench. It’s been forever since we ever used it for fixturing & holding fenders in position or anything.

[pplace]

Hey guys,

I'm still here pluggin away on the '58 Rambler. I'm sorry I've been poor again posting too many updates. In time I promise I'll update every step I've done......

However, right now I have a question that has always plagued me, but finally bothers me enough that I just have to ask. I didn't know where to post it, but figured in my thread would be as good as any place.

When I use my shrinking disc I always (95% of the time) end up with dark or discolored metal. It doesn't really sand, scuff, grind away, it's almost like it's embedding it into the metal.

Any thoughts or recommendations on what I can do to prevent this? Am I doing something wrong? Typically I try to get the high spots to an "amber" type color or a bit more and then cool with air or water (typically air)

Any help is appreciated.

I"ll add two pictures of the hood (or previous dance floor) that I'm currently straightening out. I'm not finished with the hood, but it's a good example of what happens. It's actually much straighter and smoother than it looks in the pictures. What happens is the high spots obviously get "embedded" and discolor darker longer, and the low (previous low spots) stay cleaner longer.. So right now it looks uneven because of the color variations, but by hand and the light reflections (in person) are really decent.

For a bit more interest to this post, I'll also include a hood bulge that I needed to shape and add to the hood in order to clear the top of the super charger top cover on the engine. I first mocked up a foam shape, until I (and the customer) were happy with the appearance. (put some primer on it to help him visualize it a bit easier) After that I shaped up the bulge. I'm now straightening the hood before I scribe, cut & weld the bulge into the hood skin.



Here is the discoloring of the sheetmetal during the shrinking disc (it has been cleaned and gone over with a fiber wheel.



Close up shows the reflections (not perfect, as I'm not done) but trying to show it's smoother than it appears because of the color variations.



Mock up hood bulge

[steve.murphy]

Glad to see you’re still on this project. I really like the hood design and interested in hearing about the shrinking disk question.