This is awesome! I agree with most folks that the first version is best but it would be wrong to cut up Valley Custom work. Any chance of this car coming to the Custom Car Revival in Indy this July? Congrats on the Rodders Journal feature. Can't wait to see it!
Wow. Late to this thread but my admiration for your work is strong, none-the-less. Thanks for undertaking this project, and seeing it next to a clone of the original would be amazing.
The work on the Ron Dunn Ford continues. The Rodder's Journal photo shoot is done and so it was time to unfortunately melt out the old lead and replace with new lead. Driver rear fender area is mostly done, passenger rear is currently receiving lead. In these pictures the body is sitting on a mock chassis.
Nice. Found my pics of the car from years ago when we were asked to leave the property in Burbank. Parked behind the drag race Anglia in the driveway, it was. Had to be the late eighties, early nineties.....
I'm a little surprised at the amount of lead in the car. I had the idea the the Valley Custom guys were mostly about metal finishing all of their body work, and using a minimum of lead. No shame in that; I'm just surprised.
Did Valley Customs do all of the renditions? If memory serves, it got wrecked at some point and was redone. Just curious... I was under the same impression about the Valley boys and their metal finishing. In the end its still better than a load of "Bondo"... By far one of my favorite customs.
I hadn't thought about that, but yours is a good point. I, too, recall that the car was wrecked; the re-customizing was done by Valley Custom, but the accident damage might explain the use of lead in the repairs.
Update on the Ron Dunn Ford: Lead work is finished. Interior and underside have been prepped and primed. Body is back on the chassis for final fit-up of doors and front sheet metal then it is on to paint!
You are correct about Valley Custom Shop and their metal finishing. While there is a fair amount of lead in the nose and taillight areas, the body section seam is completely metal finished. And yes it was in a wreck which led to the restyle in'57 also done by Valley Custom. Here's a few shots that you guys might like. Looking at the inside of the quarter panels you can see all of Valley Custom's pick hammer marks. Note the extensive pick hammer marks on the driver side, this is the side that had been wrecked. In the other picture you can see that the body section seam did not require any lead at all. We have not done any metal work on this car aside from a few minor patch repairs. We have left all these areas alone so as to preserve the Valley Custom Shop history and legacy.
It's looking great, thanks for the update. Those last few pics are a pretty cool glimpse of history too.
Looking great. Nice to see hot rods and customs being restored back to the way they were. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I have admired sectioned shoeboxes for many years....the Ron Dunn car has been one of my favorites. So glad that it is being brought back. Attached are a couple of pics of my sectioned shoebox.
Hot off the press!!! If you have not yet had a chance, go grab the latest copy of The Rodder's Journal! The Ron Dunn Ford is one of the features. TRJ did a fantastic spread and a wonderful in-depth article. The photography is of course amazing and is a great look at Valley Custom Shop's timeless metal work.
Steve, earlier you mentioned that it was time to remove the old lead and replace with new lead. What is the reason for this? Does steel start to rust under lead work?
If applied correctly no, it will not rust under the lead provided you have tinned the surface properly. However, over time the lead will expand and contract from the temperature changes and will begin to crack. It will lose it's original properties. The Ron Dunn car had sat outside for many years and the lead was cracking. You can't apply new lead to old lead so the only thing to do is to melt out the old and replace with new. If you don't, you will have paint adhesion issues.
I had a partner in my shop at first...he wanted to braze panels on a '29 roadster we bought at Turlock swap in '76. I explained that brass wasn't in our curriculum, and he argued 'til I showed him the door. I bought him out, the formerly channeled '29 became a Highboy, and repairs got made with oxy-acet weld. (very little lead, and NO brass)
Steve's Auto Restorations (@sar34) - Agreed! ... Curt Iseli (@Curt Six) and Geoff Miles / Steve Coonan (@TRJ) did a wonderful job on the "Down In The Valley" article ... Here's a little blurb from The Rodder's Journal issue #64 webpage: For years the classic Valley Custom-built Ron Dunn Ford sat unassumingly in a driveway in Glendale, California. And then it was gone. A short time later it turned up in possession of Steve Frisbie of Portland, Oregon and is now undergoing a complete restoration. We wanted to shoot the car in baremetal since it gave us a rare once in a lifetime opportunity to show the metalwork of Valley Custom as it had been done more than 60 years ago. The photos confirm that Neil Emory and Clayton Jensen turned out not only some of the most tasteful customs of the era, but some of the best constructed as well. Just thinking about sectioning the slab-sided ’51 Ford coupe is indeed mind numbing.
Thank you sharing the updates on the Ron Dunn Ford, just finished reading the TRJ article the other evening. Can't wait seeing finished.. I was able to see the car awhile back at the Portland roadster show. Good to see this car getting it's do...
The Ron Dunn Ford is now in color!!! When the car was redone in 1957, Valley Custom Shop had used a custom mixed color based off of Chevrolet's '57 Sierra Gold. We were able to match the color from a few spots on the car and our painter Jay Spencer shot the custom mix late yesterday.
The Jalopy Journal
