Hi everybody As I have written in an earlier post, I have purchased from Classic Wood a complete wood kit for my 32 4 door. Now I am in the process of getting it mounted together which has turned out to be a major challenge. Each piece of wood which I take into my hands I must identify what it is, where it is supposed to be mounted and how it should connect to the next piece so that in the end everything fits together perfectly. Additionally it turned out that many pieces have to be adapted, that sharp angles have to be grinded off so that they fit into the metal profiles. Some bulges on the wood have to be grinded away, some pieces have to be cut away, some joints need some improvements so that the pieces fit together properly. All this needs countless tries and attempts and an endless patience. So I see that fitting the wood kit will take me quite a bit of more time. But I am not complaining and I will not claim anything, on the contrary, I am glad that I have something to work with on my Chevy. The positive thing is, that every day I have a small sense of achievement when I find out about another piece of wood where it belongs. Now I am still at an early stage, but once I can show something I might post some photos in the ”žmembers projects“ section. And by the way, can anyone tell me the trick which I must apply to remove the handle of the windshield regulator?
The windshield regulator handle is held on by the same type clip as the door/window handles. If you have the clip out and you are still having a problem removing the handle it may be seized to the splined regulator shaft. As for the wood it's much easier to remove some wood than add it on. My suggestion is to find a good illustration and label all the wood pieces before starting assembly.
Hi Steve Thanks for your reply. Well I was searching for a clip under the handle of the windshield regulator but I did not find one. And just pulling on the handle did not bring any result. So I decided not to apply too much force and ask first. But I assume that pulling hard is what I need to do. And the option of replacing the wood piece by piece is not practicable for me any more. I dismantled the car around 7 years ago. I threw away the wood as it was mostly rotten. The body was sandblasted and welded and primered and painted at the inner side. Now it is resting on a selfmade wooden support frame on wheels. Mounting the wooden pieces is a very slow and laborious process but I will manage finally. Maybe I need some more help from guys here in the forum when one or the other detail seems to be mysterious for me.
Karl, your suggestion of posting some pictures, along with your experience putting it together would be a great service to this group and the hobby in general. You get lots of atta boys if you do.
1937 Chevy 1/2 ton Pickup 1950 Chevy Styleline Deluxe Coupe 1953 Chevy 1/2 ton Panel Delivery
I'd rather walk and carry a Chevy hubcap than ride in a Ferd.
Are you building the wooden structure on the vehicle frame with the sills firmly bolted down? With the starting body /frame shims in place.I was told to do that by someone who has re-wooded many old Chevrolets. I did that and it was not without challenges but worked out well.
Hi I hope I understand your post correctly. The main sills are not bolted down. The main chassis is separated from the body. And the body rests on a wooden support frame. I will have to fit the wooden parts beginning from this point. And I will try to align the doors right at an early stage as long as it is possible to do adapations. I will post photos as soon as I have something to show. I am progressing very slowly, I am glad if I can spend one hour a day on the Chevy.
Sorry I wasn't clear. If you try to fit the wood to the body it will make door alignment and other panel fitments difficult. The cars were built by putting the metal around the wood which was held in some sort of secure jig to assure it was correct. If you put the sills to the frame where they will live and they are held down with the 8 body bolts, you will be starting from a secure and straight point. Of course you will need to take many measurements along to be sure it stays square through the process. When I say sills I mean the sills and cross pieces which would have to be put in before bolting it down.
What happens when you build it in the metal and bolt it down and the sills change shape?
It has been done many different ways, just a suggestion.
Hi Dave It is becoming clearer for me how you mean it and giving it a second thought it all sounds logical and makes sense. This also shakes up all the ideas I had in my mind about how I would go ahead. I will have to think again about how I proceed and which steps in which order I must go. Thanks a lot for your valuable input. You also write that the cars were built in the way that the metal was built around the wood. This also makes sense to me. When I took out the old front door pillars, I discovered that there were bolts in the wood from the outer side, covered by the metal and inaccessible for dismantling. These cars were not built for an easy repair. Now, having to build the wood into the metal, the other way round, you have to find methods how to do this. I use blind rivet nuts so that I can bolt the upper ends of the front door pillars to the metal. I am glad that I posted here and this way get new ideas and can participate in the experiences others have made.
My attempts in fitting together the wooden pieces with the other parts every now and then brings me to a point where I think, what is going on here. Chistech you are right that this is a puzzle but this one where the parts just do not fit together as nice and neatly as you would like them to fit. Now I am at the back of the car trying to put together the rear window frame with the other rear parts. And here I discovered that I do not figure out where the two metal supports should be mounted to. In the photos I made at dismantling it looks like they would support the rear belt rail from the bottom. But for this now they look about 1” too long. https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16325.jpg But they also do not fit between the belt rail and the rear window frame. Then I am not sure about the dark wooden parts https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16326.jpg They were mounted there when I took apart the car, but I am not sure if that was original. And here I have wooden parts of which I just do not know where they go and how they are supposed to fit https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16327.jpg 022-0573 are called “Rear end sill to body brace” in the invoice. 017-0474 are supposed to be parts of the rear window frame, but that one seems to me already complete. My request is if anybody can help me in any of these mysteries which puzzle me at the moment. The ideal case would be if somebody can supply me photos of the correct mounting of the rear wooden parts. Any help is highly appreciated. Karl
the 2 pieces 022-0573 attach to the 2 metal supports that attach under the rear window frame. If you can enlarge the attached photo, you see the 2 support arms going from the rear cross sill to the bottom of the rear window lower belt. Your wood (0573) would replace the piece that are under the 2 screws. The other 2 can't ID yet. Hope that helps.
I just noticed that the 22 support arms at jpeg 16326 are sitting on TOP of the blocks that your rear seat locks to. The supports should be to the inside of the block (almost touching the block) and under the lower belt bar.
My thanks go to nhinchas for the photo and the explanations. It is a pity that this photo is not very clear in the details when I enlarge it. I am also not quite sure if I understood your explanations correctly. So please let me go through this point by point. Does this show the correct placing of the rear metal supports at the bottom? https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16362.jpg Does this show the correct placing of the rear metal supports at the top? https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16363.jpg Does this show the correct placing of the “Rear end sill to body brace”? https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16364.jpg If the above questions can be answered with yes, then I get to the problem which I am facing. When I place the metal support bar correctly at the bottom, then the top looks like this https://vccachat.org/gallery/48/medium/16365.jpg It seems the metal supports are just too long, or the two wooden pieces above them are too thick. Maybe I need to make the lower rear window frame piece a bit smaller? Maybe I need to make a cutout in the rear window lower belt? Or a combination of both? Any suggestions are welcome and generally any good photo of the correct installation of the rear wooden pieces would be highly appreciated.
In your picture 16365, your window frame is not connected at the bottom joint (the joint should be flush, see my pics Window Frame # 1 and 3). That will lift the lower belt bar to allow the metal support to fit.
