1950 Plymouth Business Coupe Electro-Mod Build

[RNR1957NYer]

20 hours ago, jclars said:

One negative is the wheel track protrudes slightly, which I knew was the case before I started.  Also, AC lines interfere with the grille, but they can be rerouted. 

 

Wide body business coupe, anyone?

[jclars]

It's been done before.  But I promised myself I would not change the body to fit the donor car.  Only trim inside where it can't be seen.  Major item will be the firewall.   Unless it's customization like flared fenders?  Na.  How about some big honkin" "Keep on Truckin'" mudflaps?  

 

Hoist frame falling together nicely, and I think it meats the intent of my stamped drawing.

 

John

[RNR1957NYer]

34 minutes ago, jclars said:

Hoist frame falling together nicely

I know that's a positive phrase, but in my line of work using "frame" and "falling" in the same sentence gives one pause😆

[jclars]

I thought you might choke on that!

[jclars]

Finished the hoisting frame today.  I went with 14' long joist doublers.  They rest on the plate of one wall and are supported 6' out for the first post, then 8'-9 to the next post creating a workable vehicle bay.

 

The electric hoist is mounted on a 5' long uni-strut rail to allow a bit of adjustment.  The Lexus will be on wheel dollies to position it underneath.  The beam consists of a 4x4 sandwiched by two 2x6's.  It is anchored to the joist with some L-brackets.

 

Nothing fell down. 

Yet.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Hard to beat a gantry crane, I built this from some metal at the wrecking yard that was less than 50.00, the upright metal were already on hand as was the chain fall and the trolly....need and use....not as much as one would think but it was a most fun project if nothing else.  With nuts bolts paint and couple chunks of metal from the falloff bin at the machine shop, little at home welding...think total outlay less that 100.00   The casters I removed at no cost from a tossed industrial item long ago.  Pays to save some items for the future.  

Edited February 20 by Plymouthy Adams

[RNR1957NYer]

9 hours ago, jclars said:

Nothing fell down. 

Yet.

To quote the famous German engineer, Sgt. Schultz: "I seeee nothink!"

[jclars]

Plymouthy - That looks way to stable for any excitement.  Gone is the thrill of ripping wood fibers turning into creaks and groans as the load is lifted and the pending doom turns to silence...

 

Stay tuned!

[jclars]

Not even the sound of ripping fibers.  How boring.  

 

I got most major cutting done on the Plymouth, with several lifts by my chicken farmer gantry hoist.  Last major cut is to remove the rotten sills/rockers.  That will be next week at the earliest, as I am going in for cataract surgery in the morning and will be restricted on heavy lifting.  Whatever that means.

 

All I know is that I collected a box full of rust and rusty dirt and it weighed in at over 20 lb.  The floor and trunk pans weighed 175 lb, so the carcass is getting lighter as I go. 

 

The week set back is tolerable, as I have a list of light duty jobs to complete, including fine tuning trim lines to both the Plymouth and Lexus for cutting when I get back to it.  Also figure to replace the fuel pump and regulator on the Lexus as I got a CEL reporting a fault in that system before parking it.

 

All in all, I am satisfied with my progress and with my overall physical stamina, which had concerned me going into this type project.  I think the heavy stuff is almost over and I survived it!  Now if they just cooperate and fit together!

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

I remember cutting the donor firewall down to the proper size to fit the 48 and STILL be able to use all the components of the donor including the AC, suspension grafted to the original frame, steering column, ABS brakes etc.....you pictures bring back lots of memories.  

[jclars]

Well I was still on "light duty" so held off on the sills until the last day of my sentence.  It wasn't really "heavy duty" as most of the rocker and sill area was like swiss cheese.  But it was extremely dirty.  Had to change clothes between doors.

 

With some measuring, I determined that it would be best to sit the A and B pillars on the Lexus frame and add the outer panel afterward.  Picture shows the nice foundation this will provide.  I think I can do a little more pre-trim before hovering over the Lexus, but it becomes more difficult to visualize the closer I try to get, without going too far.

[jclars]

It was time!  I didn't want to bore you all with the preliminary cutting to the body and frame, as I tried to transfer lines of the Plymouth to the Lexus frame and vice versa.  This was the first drop, which didn't get as close as I'd hoped, but did not take too much off at the start.

 

Cutting with the right tools has been much easier than I expected, even on the old Plymouth steel.  So no regrets about taking it easy on the cut away pieces.

[RNR1957NYer]

Consider tightening up the gaps a little 😂

 

Exciting times!

[Sniper]

I am curious as to how well that old steel will weld to the new steel.  I assume, I know, the metallurgy is going to be different.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I found no issue with vintage sheet metal to modern when doing my last big project.  But of course I do not mig weld and use my torch almost 98% of the time.   I have a super good mig outfit.....just do not do body sheet metal as the weld is less malleable than torch and I do little other fabrication that the mig would handle as opposed to the arc welder.  I am running about 12 feet of bead today with the torch.  Got a good start and in for coffee and pizza.  

[jclars]

3 hours ago, RNR1957NYer said:

Consider tightening up the gaps a little 😂

 

A day later...almost close enough to weld!

 

This is actually trim #3 and the places I predicted as interference points are finally coming true.

 

[RNR1957NYer]

Earlier you noted the wheelbases are 1.2" off - you splitting the difference or are you favoring one end over the other?

[jclars]

Welding - I had hoped to create a mostly cushioned bolt down installation like the original.  I may be dreaming I know.

 

It is clear that I will need to rebuild the entire sill area, but may still opt to use the Lexus rail as the base.  I may have to get creative with the outer rocker to maintain a stock look.  

 

Today I will chop around the hood hinge supports, hoping to keep them intact.  May have to add reinforcing to beef them up, but another cool (to me) alternative is to go with a tilt up front end.  Have any of you seen an old Plymouth with this feature?

[jclars]

I am trying to place most of the difference in wheelbase at the rear.  It appeared to have more room for correction there after viewing the stock wheel placement within the fender.  My benchmark for precutting was based on the centerline of the rear wheel.

Edited March 19 by jclars

[jclars]

Another day, another 3 inches.  I can finally say with some certainty, that the body is going to slip over the Lexus pretty well in stock form on the outside. 

 

But another 4" to go.  The challenge will come with the rear end and front fenders.  Lexus trimming will be on the docket.

[jclars]

It is starting to look like I will be able to keep the hood hinges.   The trailing edge can be dropped into the wiper drain well hopefully.   This may push me forward of my planned rear wheel centerline placement.  I will have to weight the advantages/disadvantages of that.  Mostly as to how it looks at the rear fender.

 

As seen on the pic, I had to cut away the rear bracket for the front fender.  I have locations marked for it to be moved to the Lexus upper frame.

 

The next major rear obstacle is the support point at each end of the trunk bulkhead (C-pillar?).   I am planning to flatten the Lexus rail with some side pie cuts to lay it down at the rear fender.  Not sure of the structure inside, maybe none, so I will have to add some gussets to make up for the cut out area.  If that is not enough, I will have to remove the rear Plymouth body support.  The  only original body support that was fully intact (not rusted away).

[Booger]

Looks to me the wheel wells gotta go. But hey, you got some stones and I think you might just pull this crazy thing off!

[jclars]

Hey Booger - half the Plymouth rear wheel wells are gone, but there were some gaps in the Lexus frame that had a plastic liner.  I kept the liner, but wanted to close as many of those gaps as possible and maybe bridge the remaining with the plastic wheel well liner.

 

The notch in the lower left just happened in the last 3 hours as I changed course on the rear support interference.  More later when I sort my pix.

 

Edited Thursday at 11:54 PM by jclars

[jclars]

So I ended my shop day yesterday convinced that I would notch the Lexus rear frame where it curved up to meet the wheel well.  I had to gain 4.5 inches in the back (2.5" in front) and thought that would be the single biggest obstacle.

 

Then I revisited it this afternoon and realized it would not get me all the way there.  I would still have to trim the Plymouth rear mount.  And notch the trunk bulkhead and fender wells regardless.  So I devised a cutting route, lifted the body high enough to do the work from the inside and dove in. 

 

The first pic shows clearly what I removed.  It lived up to the cutting nightmare I had anticipated from the start but thankfully never materialized.  Until today.  3 hours of constant grinding, saw-zalling, prying and swearing.  Sure glad this wasn't at the front end of the project!! 

 

This one exercise should now enable setting the Plymouth sill (or remnants thereof) down on the Lexus frame rail.  I will rebuild the sill to the contour of the Lexus frame without having to notch it.  I was reluctant to mess with the structural integrity of the Lexus frame rail, having bragged it up as a very beefy part of the car!  (While leaving the rusty hulk of support you see in the pic??  I must have lost my marbles.  Oh yeah, that happened much earlier...

 

Next up - opening up the Lexus wiper drain well to allow the Plymouth hinges down.  Hoping to gain that 2.5" in front!

[jclars]

We have a successful landing!  Trim #4 got me close enough to know it is going to work, but still needs to go rearward by 1 inch as seen by the rear wheel well centering.  Also I would like to lower it another 1/2 inch in the rear and 1 inch in the front (for starters).  All are doable with further trims.