1932 Ford 5W Coupe.

Right hand side is the worst.

I had to cut away the patch they put in the 1/4, plus about 3" of original metal above it, just to get the body to sit on the chassis.

There was some sort of a patch on the inside that went from the subrail to the B pillar and the inside of the patch.

When that was gone, the b pillar was no longer attached to the subrail.


That gets a little scary, because you get close to loosing all reference points...

So first job is to dig out all the sheetmetal pieces I've collected over the years, and see what will ( or might ) work.

Next is to cut out more sheetmetal ( the RHS wheel well for sure, but maybe more)

I have a original 1932 gastank here that belongs to a buddy, and the decklid that came with the body.

Those will give me more reference points I will need.

Between that and the LHS sheetmetal, I'll hopefully be able to get the RHS where it needs to be.

But I'll also have to check the angles of the A pillar, B pillar, and C pillar areas.

There is a good chance they warped that as well, and given it a lean to one side, or a twist along the whole body.
( That is pretty likely, actually...)

If so, I'll have to correct that.

And put in temporary bracing that can come back out when the body is strong enough again to hold its shape.


I'm hoping I can do all the repairs to the main body before I correct the chop.

Again to not loose too many reference points at the same time.
( and also because it can get really floppy when you cut everything at the same time )

But again.. That may be wishful thinking.

We'll see...

A new repro steel rear fender is about $750.

A really nice original is at least that.

This one was $60.

But it does need some repairs...









OK... A lot of repairs.

And start to correct it.

Because of how bad it is, I'll have to do it in stages.

And pics of some of the extra sheetmetal I've collected.






















Now that the RHS door opening is somewhat stabilized, the cowl area is next...

You are a better man than me Gunga Din!

But look at the positive, if it had been straight and true then where would we have got our entertainment from over the winter.....

Good luck Sir!

P.

All the likes I clicked today were in sympathy and support, you are a clever guy, brave too, but that is a lot of work.

However, no doubt you will fix it right.

Calling those repairs is being generous!
Looking forward to seeing this live again.

As those that have commented already, it is in very capable hands. Looking forward to seeing the results - and the journey there.

It's going to be a bumpy but fascinating and informative ride.

When you chop a top like this you can do one of 2 things to compensate for the miss alignment of the windshield area.

You can keep the A pillars at the same angle and lengthen the roof, or keep the roof the same length and angle the windshield back.

Leaning the windshield back seems like the quick and easy way to do it, and I guess it can be.

But because the upper door hinges are on the A-pillar, when you change the angle of that pillar the hinge has to move down.
Or the door wont open.

To do that right is a huge amount of work ( on my car the hinges were moved, but it wasn't done right...)











Also, the lower edge of the windshield isn't flat & straight, so when you lean it back you have to re-do the edge of the cowl that meets the windshield frame, or it wont close right.

So eventhough I really like the aggressive Bonneville Racer look with the angled back windshield, I decided to go for the stock angle with a lengthened roof.

Another problem with the A post area of my car is that the lower attachment points are gone ( cut out when they did the repairs to the lower cowl area).

I have a spare cowl that is pretty decent in the A post area, but it is damaged and incomplete.

So I cant use the whole cowl, just parts of it.

First came the labor intensive job of taking the cut off hinges out of the spare cowl, and the good hinges out of the cowl in the car.
And then put those in the spare cowl.