57 Ranchero based on Fairlane?

[jvo]

Made a little more progress today. Whacked the rest of the Fairlane roof off, and prepped it for the Ranchero roof.  I spent time yesterday fixing the really badly pitted areas above the vent windows at the front of the roof, where the stainless trim was. 

[jvo]

Made a slice at the top of the B pillar, so I could slant the bottom of the back window outwards for the finished look.  Everything fit decent.  I can't complain for the first mockup.  The right rear corner is just a hair higher than the other side, about a 1/4 inch, and so far I haven't come up with a solid solution for that, cause almost all of the measurements are the same as the other side.  I think its a combination of a tiny bit here, and a little bit there, to add up to that 1/4 inch.  I'll be thinking hard on how to fix that before I start welding anything.

[jvo]

And now everyone can see what I meant about leaning the rear window forward, and having a tapered B pillar.  The cardboard version is exactly on scale, but the angle will be the same when done as the angle of the A pillar.  Back of the B pillar is in finished configuration, except that I want to roll it outside in the alley so I can stand back about 30 feet and see what it looks like.  Only problem with that is that there is a good foot of snow in the alley right now, with a bunch more coming in the next couple days, and on top of that its minus 30 out there.  Might have to wait till next week to have a good look.  Might have to change something yet.  We will see, I guess.

[Ecode70D]

JVO
      You deserve a lot of credit for doing a job like this.  It is looking great.
Jay

[alvin stadel]

John, I'v been watching your build and to me it looks good. As I study the pictures of the door glass opening was wondering if you will be using the hardtop window frames and flippers [top seals] you got from me or if you will be using 2 dr. post window frames.  Take care, Alvin

[RICH MUISE]

impressive amount of planning is obvious......"love it when a plan comes together". I'm going to like it. It would be so cool to pull up next to a oem Ranchero at a show.

[jvo]

First of all, thank for the kind comments guys.  And Alvin, yes, I am going to use the hardtop window frames that I got from you, but I don't think I will use the flippers up top.  I have been looking at all types of weather stripping, and I haven't decided for sure yet, but am leaning towards the weatherstripping and weather strip channel from a 64 Pontiac Grand Prix. 
Originally, I was going to go with rounded corners on the top rear edge of the window glass, with the stainless pieces I got from Alvin, but I am now leaning towards a sharp corner, as that is what is at the top front of the vent window, and its also easier to make ( although the easy part is not what makes me want to do it). I found the Pontiac weather strip channel on eBay, but its going to cost me about 150 in Canadian pesos to buy it, so I haven't pulled the trigger on that yet.  It seems as though that will be slightly less "thick" than the original flippers and weatherstripping.  A friend of mine that I just did the rear quarter panel rust repair last month for his 72 Dodge Charger, brought some weather strip channel over and we tried it, but it wasn't quite what I wanted either.  Another friend runs a local restoration business and specializes in rubber stuff, and he gave me some 78 Eldorado weather strip channel that was close, except that it is curved.  So far, I think the 64 Pontiac Grand Prix channel is what I want, just have to find the extra cash to bring it home.
I am still going about this one piece at a time, and the direction could change in a minor way at any given time. 
I forgot to post the pics that show the difference in the roof profile right behind the windshield.  I really like the Fairlane roofline as it is slightly flatter for the first 10 inches or so. 
The photo with the dark brown top is the original Ranchero with the profile gauge, and the other is quite obviously the Fairlane. You can see the difference in that photo. 
Also loaded a couple of pics of the slices that I made in the upper part of the B pillar on the outside, as well as the two spot welds that were drilled out on the inside that allowed the back window to move to where I wanted it to be.  It was very flexible at this point, after doing the cuts.

[jvo]

I finally got over the flu, so today I finished welding up the top of the roof panel.  IT was lots of fun, as its very flat across there.   Wray Schelin taught me in his class to weld an inch, grind and planish an inch, to remove any warpage, then repeat.  Takes a little longer initially this way, but I didn't have to chase oil cans for a week now either.  Turned out pretty good, as all the shape seems to be in the right places.  I still have a bunch of metal finishing to do on the centre of the roof, but its very very minor now, so I'll finish that when I do final body work. 

The last two pics in this post are the start of what I would like to have photoshopped.  If you look at where the cab meets the bed, it looks like the car is bent down in the middle.  When you stand from the front of the car at an angle, it sort of looks like the back end has a big whale tail in conjunction with that.  I clamped a steel ruler in place in the following pics to show how I am probably going to raise the top of the bed side up to.  That would make the bed side slightly higher than the bottom of the drivers window, but I think it looks better than without it.  Doing this makes the top of the bed rail pretty much even with the bottom of the back window of the cab as well.

[jvo]

Here are the other pics of where the B pillar meets the top of the bed.  Hope this is clear as mud.  I hope someone could possibly photo shop that to where it would look better before I do the final work.  Tomorrow I will finish welding the bottom of the B pillars, and once they are done, the cab should be pretty much solid.
AT that point, I will cut out the old package shelf, and perhaps remove some of the sheet metal along the old trunk edge so I can actually fit the Ranchero bed piece in there.  That would get rid of some of the "hump" from the area by the package tray, so it might look a little better as well.
I envision that area to be quite a bit flatter like the original Ranchero bed top, but we will see when I get there, I guess.  But a photo shop would make it really neat if possible.
I'd also like to see what the car looks like in the original Fairlane yellow and brown colours.  Thanks if anyone is able to do it.  I don't have an inkling of how to go about a photo shop deal, and there's about 10 inklings in one clue from what I am told.

[Jeff Norwell]

Outstanding work John.

[hiball3985]

First I will apologize if I misunderstood what you were referring to. Hopefully I was some what on the right track.
All that type of body work is mind blowing to me. I can take a small dent and make it worst 

[hiball3985]

I'm just looking for excuses not to get on the roof and clean the rain gutters, so I did some sanding and priming. I hate sanding 

[jvo]

Wow, thanks guys.  However, that shot is not quite what I was wanting.  The look I am after is the one with the steel ruler right behind the vice grips in the above photos.  I guess you have to look closely to see the steel ruler clamped in place there to simulate the body line I want to do. 
It would blend the line for the top of the box about an inch and a half above where it is right now, so the quarter panel wouldn't slope downward to where it meets the B pillar.  I am thinking of that line coming straight through, which would also make that line a little higher than the bottom of the drivers window. 
The photo shop you did is wonderful, as it fills in the spaces, but its kind of like a "before" pic.  I wish I knew how to do that, but its a learning curve that I don't need at my old age of 63.  I already sold my Index mill solely because I didn't need the learning curve of becoming a budding machinist, even though I loved it.  Not enough time anymore.
That is also why I don't frequent my metal shaping forums much any longer, as I have several projects in mind for the next few years, and I was "wasting" too much time on that.  I learned enough metal skills to do my own work now, which is what I wanted.  I also do a bunch of metal work for others so i can afford to eat.  I post a little also on instagram under metalmagicone. 

Jim, if you hate sanding and sculpting bondo as much as I do, you should hone your metal skills.  Its not that hard once you get used to it, and I find its very rewarding to metal finish it so you don't have to sculpt the shape back in.  Its easier to do it with metal as far as I am concerned.  I ain't that good at sculpting. 
The roof shots above look like they maybe have a bunch of highs and lows, but I use a stainless steel ruler laid over the panel, then look for light under it, and shrink down the high spots, and dolly up the low spots.  After welding the roof in place, which I probably have about 8 hours in it, including metal finishing to this state, there is only about the thickness of the stainless steel ruler for low spots, and/or high spots.  I know it looks like more than that, but its because I run either a hand sanding block over the surface or a DA sander to reveal the highs and lows.  It looks a LOT rougher than it is.  It is actually smoother than a baby's bottom.  But I still have a little work to make it better, to be happy with it, but that will come with finish body work later.  Anxious to move on right now. 

[hiball3985]

Maybe this is closer? My photoshop skills are as bad as my body work. I'm almost 71 and I will never get better at body work, although I can paint. This is why I only do engines, trans, rearends, suspension, electrical etc..

[terry_208]

That body line reminds me of the lines on the station wagons.