Starting to assemble my 1928 Coach (2 door) wood body (complete wood kit reproduction)...the main sills, sill kick-ups, rear cross sill and floor boards are already installed and awaiting all the "vertical" assembly pieces. I was told the critical part was getting the front doors properly aligned and gapped on the top, bottom and at the body lock pillar/latch
Does anyone have any tips, recommendations, or steps that I should know about before I start?
I know the Chistech will offer great advice. Plus there are many other wooden body experts on this forum.
The last few years I have kept up with a friend how is rebuilding a ‘31 Chevy Phaeton. We had some pretty long discussions about the project right when he was starting. He had received the body kit and had started laying out the prices and looking at how things fit together.
There were 3 key lessons I learned from those discussions in case I ever decide I want to tackle a wooden body vehicle.
- The location of the front cowl area with the front door posts is the starting point. That sets the whole body location on the frame as well as establishes the important relationships to the firewall, hood,and radiator. Everything else is in relation to the front cowl.
- The “kit” is simply a collection of pieces that will need a lot of “adjustment” to produce a good body.
- Work uniformly to the rear on each side. Do not get too far ahead on one side. While there will be variations side-to-side you cannot let those accumulate without reconciling them. Otherwise things could be really messy when you get to the rear of the car.
As a double check - in the '28 specification manual at the GM heritage site it lists how far back from a particular point the cowl sits. Somehow 48" sticks in my mind. I think that measurement was from the end of the frame horns. You might confirm that number in the manual.
From there you will need to set up your sills on a roll around stiff dolly so you can nail the bottom body flanges to your sills. On the dolly reinforce your sill assembly so as to not change your bolt hole spacing as you are assembling the body. Side to side and kitty corner both directions. Also keep it as flat as you can. Before nailing on the cowl measure the distance of your cowl between the end of the sills and the door flange opening. On the kits I have seen there is about 3/16" to 1/4" difference between the width of the hinge post sill slot and the width of the front hinge pillar post. That hinge pillar has to be screwed in place first before the cowl can be nailed to the sill and that post. Seems like there was a little discrepancy in the size of particular pieces and they had to figure in a way to make allowances.
Measure everything twice. I think as you progress the assembly sequence will make more sense. I am sure Chistech will have better suggestions and tips since he has more experience.
In 1972 I started restoration of a 1934 DB pickup, along with raising a couple of kids and going to grad school. I had no idea the thing contained wood when i traded a Winchester lever action rifle and $150 for it. I could do engine work OK but had trouble getting started on reassembly because the farmer had dropped in a 1929 car engine and I was ordering 1934 parts! The ladies at Obsolete Chevrolet Parts, in GA, were helpful and patient and exchanged all the wrong parts with no grief. Then there was the wood, almost all of which was bad. I spent more than I should have and got some pattern credit for some old pieces and got new wood. By then the kids were starting to be old enough to help and we proceeded to put the cab together. We were very careful, using tiny wood screws in place of the dozens of tacks originally holding the sheet metal on. There was lots of trial and error, with some wood trimming to get things to fit. Then the big day, when we hung the first door, now at least 15 years into the project. Imagine the disappointment when the gap at the top rear corner of the door was at least an inch too wide! No amount of shimming would help, so we removed many of those little screws (thank goodness they weren't tacks) and started trying to pull things back into shape. Along about this time, I learned that the cabs were originally built on steel jigs that held everything in place for nailing! The body work and painting were miserable too, with orange peel paint in Houston humidity and much redoing, but much less disappointing than the woodwork!
It's 2022 and the truck is still in my basement, in NC, after two moves in moving vans and much fooling around. The '29 engine runs, but I have a '34 engine almost ready to go it and the body has been two weeks from finished for at least 15 years. I'm 80 and may never see it done.
So I offer this as a cautionary tale. BEWARE of wood framed cars and don't start one without getting expert advice on procedures and sources. If you have too many hobbies, like me, prepare to drop them and get the car done while there's some enthusiasm and energy available. Ideally, learn the cost and lead time of replacement wood and be sure it fits your budget and expectations.
Jim rodman makes nice wood but he does make the A pillar (not sure if you know but the door posts are referred to using letters with A being the forward most) dado in the main sill slightly oversize. What I do is take an A pillar and check the hinge dados on the face with the hinges on the door. As I said Jim’s work has always been good so they should line up. If they do, assemble the two of them together with the upper dash cross brace making a “H” shape. Then put the metal A pillar covers on the A pillars and simply tape in place to hold them. If you put the A pillars in place in their respective dados, the bottom pillar cover should be about 1/16” above the top of the sill. Mount the A pillar brace to the bottom of the A pillar with one shorter than what’s used wood screw and tighten it up. Do this for both sides. Clamp the A pillar iron to the sill with a deep throat clamp from the inside of the car out. You will need to have the front of the sills unbolted from the chassis and the bolts shown in the tips of the sills removed. You can pull off the A pillar cover pieces and now install the cowl. Your A pillars should only be clamped in place and held with the one wood screw. You will need to slid the cowl on from the front and make sure the tips of the sills seat fully into the socket of the cowl on each side. A second or two additional people there to help spread the rear of the cowl over the pillars is a big help or make a spreader to hold the metal out if you work alone as I do. Once the cowl is fully to the back on the sills (you should be able to drop a bolt down through the front cowl iron and through the holes in the sill. Now your cowl is where it belongs as far as back and forward. Now let the cowl metal relax around the A pillars and over the dash cross beam. It requires a little dexterity to get this all to happen but once it looke correct and is correct the metal kind of snaps or fits into the wood. I then take the two rocker panels and slide them in lace over the sills. The rockers should give you, by the notching in them the locations of the two pillars and their relation to each other. The rear notch or B pillar notch should be lining up with the notches in the rocker panels pretty much. Now you want to for the bottoms of the A pillars as far toward the back of the car which should really put some tension on the lip of the sheet metal where it bends around the a pillar. The lip should also have some notches that coincide with the dados for the hinges. This means remove the clamp on one side and work the bottom of the pillar to the rear as hard as you can. I’ve made small wedges of wood that I drive up from the bottom into the gap of the front of the pillar and the front edge of the sill dado. This gap is usually between 1/8-3/16” on Rodman’s sills but we’ll fill it in later. With the A pillar the correct height, the nail edge of the bottom of the cowl should be up against the sill or the nail rail on the bottom edge of the sill depending on the car. So basically you should now have your cowl up where it belongs and the A pillars as far back where they belong. Those little wedges from the bottom should be holding things pretty tight. Now with you rocker in place, you car mount your B pillar in place using the pillar covers to set the height and the rocker to set the spacing. Put the bottom iron in place with one screw in the pillar and another clamp. I see your floor boards are in place so you have to maybe put one screw down into the sill but again try and use a shorter one in the case something has to be moved. You can now connect the tops of the two pillars with the roof rails and check everything up with a square. Measure the door opening to you doors and I, for shits and giggles, usually put a door in place to check the height and latch locations but I’ve never been off using this method. You now need to fit the rear wood in place and install the rear body sheet metal. Again the lip of the body metal should fit pretty tightly when you “pop” the lip over the B pillar. Once everything appears to line up correctly, mark the location of the pillars on the sills and make sure your pillar heights are right but they should be good. Now pull the metal off, yes, it sucks, but it comes off again, then screw the A pillars to the irons and screw the irons to the sills making sure the pillars are square to the sills (the door way openings) now make up those thin wedges to fully fill any gaps which are usually in the front of the dados. Remove the screws in the irons that go into the pillars, add waterproof glue to the joint at the bottom and tap in the gap filler pieces. I always make my filler pieces tight as a tight joint is always the best. You will then need to add two screws at the base of the A pillar that go into the side of the sill. I forgot to mention but use the proper spade type wood screw bits to drill all holes and soap all screws before screwing them in. I found Irish Spring soap with some spit on it makes the best lubricant for the screws. From hear it’s common sense working rearward but always check things by putting the body metal on before fully screwing and gluing anything. The sheet metal body on my olds was probably on and of 7-10 times constantly checking for fit. I did have to make my own wood so you are ahead of me there. You should use heavy roof felt both for anti squeak and a filler for small gaps between metal and wood.
