FGT No9 Aust restoration

[Keith Webb]

I had some time today to begin the task of removing the rusty panels on the recovered body.
It is not as simple as you may think. When these bodies were assembled some 68 years ago at the Ford factory in Geelong they were diligent in their panel attachment. Wherever they could tack weld, they did. As you can see from the images the skeleton of the upper body is angle iron whilst the lower sub-frame is channel.
The panels are 16 gauge sheet steel and in addition to being tacked every four inches or so are seam welded where they join.
I know two others have completed the task of removing the panels from either a No8 or 9 FGT so I would be interested to hear your approach. I have found the best way is to cut along the lines of the frame using a thin cutting wheel on a small angle grinder, remove the large panel then (because there is a lot of rust) chisel along the lines where possible before using the 9" grinder to remove what's left of the weld as well as rust. The plan once it is stripped will be to have the frame sandblasted before reskinning.
Fortunately we have almost all of the engineering drawings for this body which show where every attachment goes.
So if anyone can suggest a better way, please yell out.
Here are a few images:

The first panel removed.



Despite the panel rust the frame seems to be usable.



Looking down on the right side. The bracket you can see is for the spare wheel which was carried internally on the No9 which was not equipped with runflat tyres.



One of the seam welds.



Tools.



Note the D^D on the chisel.



Cheap Chinese 9" grinder.