Someone get this man authorship 

"JR1" (type35bugatti) 11/07/2015 at 15:04 • Filed to: Mods, authorship

1

14

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Any man willing to spend 10K on a Mercedes to get her running right deserves to live in Oppo amongst us.

Even if I have to put $10,000 worth of neglected maintenance into it over the next couple years to get her back to how she should be, I’m still $120,000 up on the original MSRP

Besides we always need more people who appreciate land yachts

DasWauto > JR1 11/07/2015 at 15:26

1

I’ve added him. In the future though, just refer people to a club openings post: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/tag/clubopenin…

That way we don’t need threads like this. Though we should probably do a new club-openings post. I’ll make one up and schedule it for Monday sometime.

JR1 > DasWauto 11/07/2015 at 16:21

1

Yeah I couldn’t remember when you guys did a last one so I wasn’t sure if that was a thing anymore. Thanks Das

bob and john > DasWauto 11/07/2015 at 17:44

0

jarod DOES have a point..when WAS the last club openings post?

DasWauto > bob and john 11/07/2015 at 17:49

0

June, I think, click the link. I said I would make a post for Monday and I have, it’s scheduled. I just need to find/make a lead image.

orcim > DasWauto 11/08/2015 at 06:28

0

Lead images rule! Be bold! Be progressive! Connect with the audience!

Like, maybe a shot of me taking the wheel nut off an Escort, crying, with a 6’ cheater bar after hours of trying, when I did *not figure out* that I could have just beat it off with a chisel and sledge in about 10 mins.

Or not. Maybe something more inspiring like you’re prolly already thinking about.

DasWauto > orcim 11/08/2015 at 21:15

1

If you do have a shot of yourself crying with a 6 foot cheater bar trying to take that wheel nut off I’ll certainly use it if you want me to. :)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > JR1 11/09/2015 at 09:58

0

I’ve been out under the Capri over the weekend mapping out how the rockers are supposed to work. Uh, wow. Look at my little diagram here: there’s a staged sandwich of 5 pieces of metal, even before you count that added piece on the outside. Red details indicate rust: to hit solid metal in the floor/weld something to the floor won’t be too hard because the majority is just a straight edge with some holes further back, but both of those reinforcing plates will need help. Above the little red cut lines is good metal. I think my fix will look something like this:

The reason for not making the one big piece go all the way to being the outside skin is that at the front fenders, that outer piece is the front fender, which can be rehabbed. Also, that way I can weld it to the outside inner brace more easily. The process is: get the inner rocker and floor stabilized, get the front and rear torque boxes fixed (more crazy Dagwood-sandwich shenanigans), then make the above and weld it in place - inner piece first, then outer (plug weld holes to hit the inner and floor), then outermost. Piece of cake. For a given definition of cake.

Still, I’m sure you can understand why nobody else was bonkers enough to try this. Three new pieces of angled metal over 7’ long, and about a hojillion patches’ worth of prep to get it to that stage. When done, should have factory stiffness, look, construction (effectively) and better than factory lifespan, but... wow.

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 11/09/2015 at 10:36

0

Damn that looks like it is going to be a lot of new metal. It sounds like you were the perfect person for this car. It looks very involved but you will have one unique piece when you are done with it.

Now just to be clear what does orange indicate on your chart? Just a refurbished piece?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > JR1 11/09/2015 at 10:55

0

Orange is patching where the inner rocker is gone, but long sections of the inner rocker are okay-ish. So that part will be probably edge to edge patched instead of cut out to the top and completely replaced. It partly depends on whether there’s enough at the bottom to “grab”. A lot will kind of have a flange/angle added to replace the rotten bottom edge and no more... probably.

At the firewall, there’s a three-layer crazy cake: the fender liner, the outer firewall, and braced away from that, the footwell. There’s a huge open space between the footwell and the tire, which does two things: kills noise, and makes the body stiff (what you’d call a torque box: a box-like tube structure stabilized by the floor and connecting the subframe on one end to the rocker on the other). Looks like this from the side - again, red for rust:

That whole setup has the rocker running next to it and forms a three-sided box inside the fender - this is one of the bits I was saying I have to fix before welding the new rocker pieces in. Here’s the other (from above):

You’ll see that the rear subframe isn’t attached that well to the car anymore... This is probably what’s allowing enough flex for the rear door trouble. That being said, fixing the torque box isn’t as hard in back as in front.

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 11/09/2015 at 11:07

0

Well do you think the rust is going to be the hardest part about getting this thing put back together? How long do you think it will take you to get it all complete? Luckily it looks like you have a pretty solid plan to get it finished and surgically put back together.

I imagine the Ranchero will get finished before you start on the Lincoln right? Or will you be working on them simultaneously together?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > JR1 11/09/2015 at 11:16

0

Well, my dad would prefer I don’t work on them both at the same time. That being said, it’s actually less fresh metal and shenanigans to get the Lincoln structurally sound than it is to get the Ranchero “right”. There’s probably still much more to do overall, too, not to mention getting set for paint. There’s no question the Ranchero still needs more money-wise to get done than the Lincoln does working(surprisingly). I think I may work on getting the Ranchero to the point of rolling, so I can use the spare bay to do the rust fixes with less fuss, rather than camping out in both bays.

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 11/09/2015 at 11:22

0

Really? I can’t believe you think the Lincoln requires less work. That seems kinda amazing to me. The Ranchero must have been ROUGH.

How did the craigslist ad for the Imperal go this weekend?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > JR1 11/09/2015 at 11:25

0

It’s next weekend, not this one past. I’ll keep you posted - that has good odds of being sheer comedy.

The trouble with the Ranchero is how many different places it has holes. Little dribs and drabs... everywhere. Add to that the reengineering/redesign custom stuff, and it ends up being a *lot*. Also, the engine, suspension, radiators, etc. etc. run away with the price point pretty fast.

JR1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 11/09/2015 at 11:50

0

That all makes sense the custom work in the Ranchero probably adds up. And yeah keep me posted on the Imperial.

If 505 ever comes back he will likely be pretty surprised to learn you bought the Lincoln