I am getting kind of discouraged. Been trying to line up the body work on this beast for a long time and am not gaining on it atall. Does anyone know how to shim up the body sills so everything lines up and looks good?Sills look good--level and straight--but when I try to attach the body panels I cant get the doors to line up with the cowl and the rear fenders. I get the hood-cowl and doors all lined up --then the fenders and rear panels wont line up. What is the proper procedure to go thru to line them up?? Do we use a lot of shims? Any advice would sure be a help.
Thanks
ken

Where Are You From? Kamloops B C Canada

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1930 Durant- Model 614 -Deluxe Rumble Seat Coupe

Hey Ken;
Check your membership roster and either call or email Jim Greenamyer. He has worked and replaced Cathy's wood on her roadster and made new sill plates for his Flint. He's really really good at what he does and probably can help you.

Where Are You From? Oviedo, Florida

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes 1928 Durant Model 65 4 door sedan

How about Lance Hayes who rebuilt Charlie's 619 from ground up. As another idea. Less wood in the 30 - 32 than pre 30 mostly wood car bodies. See first set of photo's.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

Ken-There are shims between the body and the frame(actually sit on the side splash aprons). the were a thick canvas-rubber material like a fire hose. Underneath the cowl at the rear attachment bolt, and under the doorpost at the attachment bolt. They provide some alignment for the doo gap. Did you not have any old wood to go by? The cowl and doors being all metal will give you something to go by since they are a fixed distance. The upper door tin and the doorpost tin will give you some help with the contours of those wooden pieces. A picture of what you have might help us to see what you are up against. ross

Where Are You From? Orygun

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1930 6-14

Their is a pamphlet titled "Tips on auto body woodwork" written by Don Marsh who has restored over 20 wood framed, metal clad bodies. He is selling them on ebay for around 18 dollars and it shows many tips and procedures to redoing a wood body. I found it to have valuable information in helping me to restore my Durant body.

Where Are You From? Hyattsville Md

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Useless book for 30 - 32's but I sent Ken the pages.

Frank recommends this on ebay 230806773027

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

Ken,

A coupla thoughts: On my 40 coupe I found that making a temporary wood shim strip to set between the door and the sill of the correct thickness that will allow both halfs of the door hinge to link freely...Their should be an approx. 3/16 air gap around the door...The side/door headers should have a slotted mortise for the rear door post to adjust at the top, this may help to fine tune the adjustment between the door and rear quarter panel....You can also get a certain amount of adjustment between hood and cowel by adjusting the hight and side travel of the radiator....Have two tape measures on hand, Its a given that you will wear one of them out.

Where Are You From? Yuma, AZ / Leavenworth, WA

Do You own a car built by Durant? Several

You lads with pre 30 do realize Kens is a 1930. Steel posts and a lot less wood than the all wood bodies with tin tacked to it.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

Norm,

I'm curious how the rear quarter body metal fastens to the rear door post on a '30 6-14 coupe if it is all metal and has no wood filler (sheet metal screws?), I can understand a sedan's center door post being all steel....As I recall on my '29 M-40 coupe the rear door post has a metal jacket, then the body metal lips around the post approx a half inch then is fastened with body nails going through both pieces of sheet metal into the wood post.

Where Are You From? Yuma, AZ / Leavenworth, WA

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes three

Hi Bill .. your right its the front and middle post of sedans that is metal. Take a look at Charlie Spitz's 619 # 1 set of photos and one shows the rot of the last post the back door swings off of. That pic above is out of the Leaside 1930 614 booklet of models. Too bad they didn't also show a cut away of a coup.

Here's the exact same coup as Kens near Avonmore Ont beside the hwy. Fellow thinks he has a gold mine not a rust mine ha ha.



I was just saying the 30 - 32 body's are less wood and more steel. Later 32 and 33 are all steel with wood to hold material up top.

Here's the only surviving 32 685 Frontenac and its a coup same body as the 633 coup of Keith Reid

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

Having replaced all the wood in my 6-14 coupe I don't know how you could put more wood in the car! The doors are all steel except for some wood around the windows to hold in the window reveals. But the coupe has wood sills , door posts, header rail, door upper rails wood that runs around the waist of the body, rear window frame, wood rails going from the waist pieces down the sides of the rumble seat lid to a large wooden piece going across the lower rear of the car behind the rumble seat. All these pieces were mortise and tenon together and they all have to be just right before you can nail the outer tin to them. Believe me it was a lot of work, and if Ken didn't have anything to go by I would say it would be an almost impossible job to get it all together and look right, unless you hired that guy Norm from the Yankee workshop on PBS! Ross

Where Are You From? Orygun

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1930 6-14

Thanks Ross .. sent you pics of Kens coup from 2011.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

I had it together and thought it looked pretty good -Then I saw a few others and realized I was not as good a carpenter as I thought. So I dismanteled it and am trying hard to rebuild it a bit tighter and better looking. It is a real chore but it seems to be starting to come together better. Going to have to put shims in in a few places to make it all line up but I am gaining. I will keep you all informed as I go along --and maybe ask a few more questions at times as well. It has been a real experience anyway. Thanks to all the experts out there who have given me a bit of advice to help me out. I will post pictures of the finished product when (and if ) I get it done.
Ken

Where Are You From? Kamloops B C Canada

Do You own a car built by Durant? yes

I just got the repro Fisher Body Service Manual 1926 - 32 on closed cars GM off ebay. 230806773027

Don't know how close it is to our cars. Much the same idea of another book I have 1943 about metal body work and installing tops etc, but not wood part.

Here's the 32 coup in the Fisher book. Seems this has a golf bag and parcel holes.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan