I still needed to get the trunk floor in when I stopped last night. Today after I got started again, I took this shot of a body mount before covering everything with the sheet metal. There’s plenty of room to get an 11/16″ wrench up there from the underside if need be, but it was much easier and a better photo op to put them in before the last of the floor.

The rear seat sits higher than the trunk floor and the upward bend behind the seat is 4″. IIRC the back bend in the trunk is ~6″ tall to keep the center hump level and to allow for a flat trunk floor. I overlapped the center lateral seam 1″ at the underlying end flange to add extra stiffening and ran the floor straight back to a slight bend about 7″ forward of the roll pan.  I was going to locate the holes for the airbag supply lines directly over the bag stems, but thought better of it and left this to the person finishing that job in case they wanted them elsewhere.

  Continue Reading »

Here’s a quick shot I snapped through the windshield opening on my way out and while not quite ready to go for a ride, there is space to put your passengers, stuff, or whatever is going to go onto the former back seat.

With the four-link suspension coming up through the floor, there was talk about not needing the back seat, but I got to thinking things through and came up with a best-case scenario allowing for maximum clearance below and still leaving a conventional looking – and usable – interior. All that’s needed is a little padding and a back to separate the passengers from the trunk and you’re good to go.  

  Continue Reading »

Getting the rear of the body to where it needed to be took quite a bit of effort over the last few days since anything that might’ve been holding it in its original shape had been hacked out for frame modifications and for the bagged suspension. You can see the results of expecting an already ill-repaired roll pan to act as a structural member – a job for which it isn’t designed.

Continue Reading »

It’s been almost a month since I’ve posted about the ’40 Chevy, but nowhere near that long since I’ve worked on it. As a matter of fact, I’ve been working on it quite regularly and have re-written this post 3+ times in an attempt to keep a positive spin on things.

I looked back at the previous posts to find out where I left off after finishing the chop and remember I was originally asked if I’d be willing to weld in some sheet metal over the existing floor. The answer was, “No.” I don’t work that way. So I was then asked if I’d be willing to cut the rusty floor out of an even older sedan and modify it to fit into the ’40 because that was supposed to be easier on me and therefore cheaper by someones estimation. Again the answer was an emphatic ”No.” And so began the replacement of the front floor, firewall and body mounts, now being followed by the rear passenger compartment, trunk floor, mid- and rear-body mounts.

  Continue Reading »

It’s not that I don’t enjoy the challenge of trying to figure the shape created by the cross-section of a cone as it’s intersected by a slope of x degrees so I can cut the right size & shape hole without having to scrap a piece I’ve just spent hours cutting, bending, and fitting into place (i.e. a transmission tunnel meeting the front floorboard), but yesterday I was contemplating why I might concern myself with working on areas that nobody else will notice.

The reason for repairing a significantly structural piece like a body mount is relatively obvious, but the only real reason for making the indent and pressed hole match an original on a part that will sit behind and beneath the inner wheel well of a non-restoration vehicle is simply for the joy one receives from taking pride in their work.

  Continue Reading »