Page Twenty-Nine - Jeepers Creepers

 

Before - note the gaps and
missing turn indicator holes

With all the patch panels glued on, I switched focus to Alphie’s eyeballs.  You’ll remember, the front clip is the Organ Donor’s, and it needed much fiddling to get it to fit Alphie’s snoz.

The areas below the headlights and turn indicators (“signals” to the Yanks) were rusted out, either completely or paper-thin and flaky.  My concern was how far out of round they were.  Would they match the diameter and shape of the headlight bezels?  This problem finally made it to the top of the list.  Crack on.

I had ordered repair rings from Classic Sunbeam, but I hadn’t taken the time to fine tune the fit.  To fine tune things, I needed to clean up the headlight buckets and the headlight cradle (the inner bucket with the adjusters, the thingies that adjust Alphie’s stare).  (I took the time to restore, meaning bead blast, straighten and paint, the inner buckets and trim rings.  With a Lucas headlight, they look smashing – see the before/after pic.) 

Before and After - I love a well restored part - TIDY!

With the buckets in place, I installed the headlight bezels…  I have two pairs: one pair is chromed, and the other is painted.  I thought the chromed ones may have been aftermarkets, but I noticed the mounting tabs look the same on both pairs, so maybe chrome was an option.  The painted ones are pot metal, and someone tried to pry one of them off and bent it, and it’s a bit out-of-round too (see pics).  I haven’t tried fixing it yet, and I know that if I break the piece off, I can’t re-weld it – I’ll attack that problem later.  Besides, I kinda like the chrome ones.

People, Don't pry parts!

The thing is the chrome bezels are slightly smaller than the painted ones.  I discovered this as I was comparing the match between the headlight openings on the wings and the mounted headlight buckets and bezels.  I also discovered that I would never get them to match exactly.  It could be that Sunbeam used the thick gasket between wing and bucket to mask the mismatch; I don’t know, not having a factory unrestored car to compare to.  (Judging by other Sunbeam fit and finish features, door gaps, etc. they probably didn’t worry about getting an exact match.)

A tad out of round

To match wing and bezel, I cut the gap below the headlight opening, giving me a way to adjust the diameter/fit with the wing.  I temporarily attached the repair ring with screws to the wing and adjusted the diameter to get the best match I could.  That sounds easier than it was.  I would screw the ring in place, re-install the bucket, the headlight cradle and bezel and check the fit.  If it wasn’t good enough, and you know it wasn’t good enough, I would take it all apart.  I would re-adjust the gap, re-screw the repair ring and re-install the headlight buckets, many times.  Scrutinizing every time.

My pictures are rubbish, but maybe you can see that I got the outside curve to match the bezel passingly well, but on the inside curve, the wing sticks out just a bit.

Once I got the fit as good as I could, I welded the repair ring to the headlight opening and fitted new metal below the headlight.  Next step…

It appears I used the Playboy fuzz filter,
but wing matches the bezel on the outside. (chrome bezel)

It's hard to see with the blur, but the inside curve
doesn't match as well. (painted bezel)

Turn Indicators:  On both sides, the screw holes where the turn indicator assemblies mount had rusted through, and I didn’t trust their placement given all the “adjusting” I did to the headlight openings.  On the passenger side someone had drilled a second hole and there were remnants of brass, indicating a brazed “fix” at some point.  So off to the shed to find the turn indicator assemblies for a match up.

With shrinking cuts, but without turn indicator holes.

I “installed” the indicator assemblies in place using a mishmash of screws and wing nuts and went about scrutinizing.  I checked that the assemblies weren’t crooked and that they fit the curve of the snoz, and, of course, they didn’t.  The passenger side was worse.

Indicator hole template made using the indicator gasket

When I pushed the wing to fit Alphie’s chin, it puckered out the turn indicator opening on the passenger side.  I tried pounding it back in shape – gentle pounding, of course – but didn’t fix it.  I needed to shrink the metal, but how?  After several scrooting sessions, I decided to Sawzall small cuts that would allow the metal to shrink, and when I got the contours right, I could weld up the cuts.  And Oi if it didn’t work – yeah, I’m surprised too.  See the pics below.

Next problem were the vanishing and misaligned screw holes.  On the passenger side, they weren’t there.  On the drivers, they were in the wrong place.  Passenger side first: using the assembly-to-body gasket as a guide, I made a paper template with the holes, see the pic.  Transferred the paper to 16-gauge metal and fitted it to the opening.  I drilled oversized holes to give some room for adjustment and tack-welded it in place.  With the assembly installed, I scrooted the fit from outside and inside the wing.  I refitted and trimmed as needed until I had the final fit.  I MIGged everything including the shrinking cuts, re-installed the assembly and re-scrooted.  I can’t emphasize how much scrooting!

All welded in but it needs grinding.

The driver’s side got similar treatment, but I only needed to weld up the holes and added a tab of metal for strength.  Both sides needed some final grinding to finish the fit.

The factory used sheet metal screws to attach the assemblies to the body, but that seemed insufficient.  I got some #6X32 screws and nuts, re-installed the assembly with them (scrooted the fit again) and welded the nuts in place.  Tidy!

I can see that it doesn't fit tight to the opening.  Adjusting the bucket/wing fit will close the space. It fits the top of the wing. Some slack please!

Another view.  Looks better from this side.

Cracking fit if I do say.  Next came clean-up.  I ground welds inside and outside the wing.  I used JB Welded as filler to cover welds and bring the profile in shape.  (I’ll fine tune the profile when I get to final body work before painting.)  I also MIGged some rust-throughs on the headlight openings and ground the welds and JB Welded to make a flat surface to mount the headlight assemblies.  A touch of primer and Bob’s Your Uncle!

Sorted, Brilliant!