Sectioning

[stevie_g]

Anyone out there have any experience Sectioning a late 30's GM body?
I'm about to dive in to a 1939 Buick Ambulance/Hearse project and thought it would be nice to pick your brain for Do's and Don'ts and "Don't even think about it".

[stevie_g]

Anyone out there have any experience Sectioning a late 30's GM body?
I'm about to dive in to a 1939 Buick Ambulance/Hearse project and thought it would be nice to pick your brain for Do's and Don'ts and "Don't even think about it".

[Steve Hamilton]

depending on the design of the doors and the shape of the bottoms of the doors this may or may not work for you.....
A friend sectioned a 56 ford pick-up cab. I asked him where he cut and welded the doors?????
He got a big grin on his face and said after all the measuring and rechecking, he peeled open the hem on the bottom and up the sides to the pre determined point. Then cut out the proper amount of the inner door structure from the sides to allow the bottom of the inner to be moved up into it's new position, and welded back together. The door skin now extends below the door structure. Next the skin is trimmed and hemmed back over the inner structure.

The skin is just shortened not cut in two and welded!!!!!!!!!

If your door has a rib or bead at the bottom this not work as well unless you have a pullmax type machine to form a new rib prior to welding the inner bottom back in place..... I thought this was pretty neat !!!!!

Steve Hamilton

[Steve Hamilton]

depending on the design of the doors and the shape of the bottoms of the doors this may or may not work for you.....
A friend sectioned a 56 ford pick-up cab. I asked him where he cut and welded the doors?????
He got a big grin on his face and said after all the measuring and rechecking, he peeled open the hem on the bottom and up the sides to the pre determined point. Then cut out the proper amount of the inner door structure from the sides to allow the bottom of the inner to be moved up into it's new position, and welded back together. The door skin now extends below the door structure. Next the skin is trimmed and hemmed back over the inner structure.

The skin is just shortened not cut in two and welded!!!!!!!!!

If your door has a rib or bead at the bottom this not work as well unless you have a pullmax type machine to form a new rib prior to welding the inner bottom back in place..... I thought this was pretty neat !!!!!

Steve Hamilton

[baggedchevys]

stevie_g

i had a 38 buick special delux that had way to many modifications to it, one mod being a sectioned body. if i had a choice i would never do it on that style body again. if the back of your cab/body slants forward it is fun to get everything lined back up. if i had any advice to give would be take some pictures of the car copy them onto paper as big as you can and cut it up and paste it back together. most of the time if you can do it on paper you can make it happen in metal with a little effort i hope this helps out

Chris

[baggedchevys]

stevie_g

i had a 38 buick special delux that had way to many modifications to it, one mod being a sectioned body. if i had a choice i would never do it on that style body again. if the back of your cab/body slants forward it is fun to get everything lined back up. if i had any advice to give would be take some pictures of the car copy them onto paper as big as you can and cut it up and paste it back together. most of the time if you can do it on paper you can make it happen in metal with a little effort i hope this helps out

Chris

[Kerry Pinkerton]

I have a 40 Roadmaster. I THINK that the 39's began the curved sides of the more modern cars on some lines. The door skins bulge out from the plane of the window glass. I know in 40 it was the Supers and Roadmasters. Everything else was still slab sided. The curved panels would be a much more difficult section.

The chassis under these things is robust to the max. Almost as stout as an Imperial, almost. The suspension sucks though. Lever action shocks which act as the upper control arm. I've heard of people doing frame swaps with full size chassis.

[Kerry Pinkerton]

I have a 40 Roadmaster. I THINK that the 39's began the curved sides of the more modern cars on some lines. The door skins bulge out from the plane of the window glass. I know in 40 it was the Supers and Roadmasters. Everything else was still slab sided. The curved panels would be a much more difficult section.

The chassis under these things is robust to the max. Almost as stout as an Imperial, almost. The suspension sucks though. Lever action shocks which act as the upper control arm. I've heard of people doing frame swaps with full size chassis.

[rookie]

Steve, A couple things here, First buy a lot of say 1/2 square tubing and run them from side to side, front to rear and criss cross before you make any cuts or you will have a HELL of a time lining anything back up, especially with the wooden frame work in 30's Chevies ( no boxed inner panels for stength). The suggestion of doing it with paper has a lot of merit, make a lot of cut outs and fit them together that way first to give yourself a game plan. As for windshield and back glass frames, I myself would lengthen the roof before tilting the windsheild post and reworking the rear, especially if this is your first attempt. Last, go slow. Think everything out before you cut, and DON'T GIVE UP!

Best of luck Steve, Phil

oops, he did say sectioning for some reason chopping got stuck in my head.

[rookie]

Steve, A couple things here, First buy a lot of say 1/2 square tubing and run them from side to side, front to rear and criss cross before you make any cuts or you will have a HELL of a time lining anything back up, especially with the wooden frame work in 30's Chevies ( no boxed inner panels for stength). The suggestion of doing it with paper has a lot of merit, make a lot of cut outs and fit them together that way first to give yourself a game plan. As for windshield and back glass frames, I myself would lengthen the roof before tilting the windsheild post and reworking the rear, especially if this is your first attempt. Last, go slow. Think everything out before you cut, and DON'T GIVE UP!

Best of luck Steve, Phil

oops, he did say sectioning for some reason chopping got stuck in my head.

[Dutch Comstock]

You have to make a very good plan when you section a vehicle. You have to figure each panel are where it will section best. The side view picture is best to start with first to get perspective of the finished product and then to get some ideas where you might cut. The picture will not truly give you good ideas where to cut as it is only one dimension and will not let you see the problems you will have joining the sections back together. The bottom of the door idea works on a lot of cars and might work on yours. A lot of times you cut in the middle of the sides where the body is rounded out. You can use a level to tell you where this point is and take equal amounts off both sides of center. You have to figure out what you are going to do with hood, rear quarter areas at to rear door and how you are going to do the fenders.
The one thing you have to be very careful of again is body proportions. You might have to chop the top some to keep the perspective.
Chip Foose has some excellent pictures of doing the 35 chevrolet to give you some ideas of how they went about things. Dutch

[Dutch Comstock]

You have to make a very good plan when you section a vehicle. You have to figure each panel are where it will section best. The side view picture is best to start with first to get perspective of the finished product and then to get some ideas where you might cut. The picture will not truly give you good ideas where to cut as it is only one dimension and will not let you see the problems you will have joining the sections back together. The bottom of the door idea works on a lot of cars and might work on yours. A lot of times you cut in the middle of the sides where the body is rounded out. You can use a level to tell you where this point is and take equal amounts off both sides of center. You have to figure out what you are going to do with hood, rear quarter areas at to rear door and how you are going to do the fenders.
The one thing you have to be very careful of again is body proportions. You might have to chop the top some to keep the perspective.
Chip Foose has some excellent pictures of doing the 35 chevrolet to give you some ideas of how they went about things. Dutch

[Randy Ferguson]

Hi Guys,
When planning a top chop, section, or most any other body mod, I've found it very useful to take a few pics with a Polaroid camera from different angles and use tape to mark off varying amounts of material removal. This way, you can cut the picture up and use scotch tape to rejoin it back together at the desired marks. This method will help reveal what problems you may encounter along the way. There is no 100% foolproof way that I know of, just take your time and plan each step out before you start cutting. Eventually, I would like to see us have more regional meets so we can share ideas on all these aspects, while helping each other with our own individual projects. Often times, we end up ditching a project because it either takes too long and we get bored with it, or it becomes too overwhelming for us to tackle on our own. If we would all work together from time to time, we would all learn more tricks and get more accomplished in the end. Small scale MetalMeets, if you will!!

Randy

Randy Ferguson Metalshaping & Kustom Paint
8376 E. 1200th Ave.
Robinson, IL. 62454
(618) 544-2972

[Randy Ferguson]

Hi Guys,
When planning a top chop, section, or most any other body mod, I've found it very useful to take a few pics with a Polaroid camera from different angles and use tape to mark off varying amounts of material removal. This way, you can cut the picture up and use scotch tape to rejoin it back together at the desired marks. This method will help reveal what problems you may encounter along the way. There is no 100% foolproof way that I know of, just take your time and plan each step out before you start cutting. Eventually, I would like to see us have more regional meets so we can share ideas on all these aspects, while helping each other with our own individual projects. Often times, we end up ditching a project because it either takes too long and we get bored with it, or it becomes too overwhelming for us to tackle on our own. If we would all work together from time to time, we would all learn more tricks and get more accomplished in the end. Small scale MetalMeets, if you will!!

Randy

Randy Ferguson Metalshaping & Kustom Paint
8376 E. 1200th Ave.
Robinson, IL. 62454
(618) 544-2972

[stevie_g]

First, I want to say thanks for confirming my plan. I had talked this over with a friend in NY and wanted a little more input before I jumped in. If you'd like to see how I hope it turns out, click here.
http://www.swampfoxcustoms.com/AmbulanceLimo.htm
I'm really looking forward to being a part of this group.
Any ideas why I didn't get an amail notification of any of the posts?

Thanks again gang,
Stevie G

[stevie_g]

First, I want to say thanks for confirming my plan. I had talked this over with a friend in NY and wanted a little more input before I jumped in. If you'd like to see how I hope it turns out, click here.
http://www.swampfoxcustoms.com/AmbulanceLimo.htm
I'm really looking forward to being a part of this group.
Any ideas why I didn't get an amail notification of any of the posts?

Thanks again gang,
Stevie G

[rookie]

Stevie, when you typed in your initial question, at the bottom of the page on the left there are 3 boxes. Check the one marked "notify me when a reply is posted".That will take care of it. If you go to edit you should still be able to check it. It took me some playing around to learn to navigate through this site too.

All the best, Phil

[rookie]

Stevie, when you typed in your initial question, at the bottom of the page on the left there are 3 boxes. Check the one marked "notify me when a reply is posted".That will take care of it. If you go to edit you should still be able to check it. It took me some playing around to learn to navigate through this site too.

All the best, Phil

[David Miller]

Stevie -

Unfortunately your ISP uses a erroneous blacklist that prevents you from receiving mail from metalmeet.com, even though MetalMeet does not send unsolicited Email (spam) and never has!

Here is what your ISP sent back to metalmeet:

stevie_g@swampfoxcustoms.com
SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<stevie_g@swampfoxcustoms.com>:
host mail.swampfoxcustoms.com [63.251.216.36]:
554 Service unavailable; Client host [66.246.65.243] blocked using blackholes.easynet.nl; Blacklisted by easynet.nl DNSBL - http://blackholes.easynet.nl/errors.html

[David Miller]

Stevie -

Unfortunately your ISP uses a erroneous blacklist that prevents you from receiving mail from metalmeet.com, even though MetalMeet does not send unsolicited Email (spam) and never has!

Here is what your ISP sent back to metalmeet:

stevie_g@swampfoxcustoms.com
SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<stevie_g@swampfoxcustoms.com>:
host mail.swampfoxcustoms.com [63.251.216.36]:
554 Service unavailable; Client host [66.246.65.243] blocked using blackholes.easynet.nl; Blacklisted by easynet.nl DNSBL - http://blackholes.easynet.nl/errors.html