Folks Of Interest Clutch Popper Wednesdays

I started this thread a few months back on the Canadian Rodder forum, but thought I would share it with you guys.
I'll start from the beginning where I did on Cdn Rodder, and just post all the updates in a row until we get to tonights last update.

Here we go with number 1
Well I thought I would share some more of the stuff we Edmonton people do, and with that, I am going to introduce you guys to my car club, The Clutch Poppers.
We are a small club of three who like to build traditional hot rods and kustoms.
I started the club in 2007 with three other guys after I left a different Edmonton club. The other club was more into the Kustom Kulture Scene, whereas I was more into building traditional cars. My idea of a fun club get together is chopping a top, or putting a whole bunch of stromberg carbs on a ridiculous intake. It is not sitting in a crappy bar getting drunk with some pyschobilly band making a racket on stage. Just aint my thing....
Two of the original members left, or were asked to leave, both for their own reasons, and since then we've asked a few to join.
As of now we have just three, and it's quite nice.
There is myself, I'm building a 29 Model A roadster, late 40's style. I also have my 58 Edsel that is an early 60's style kustom.
Dave, one of the founding members is building a 51 Chevy Fleetline, early - mid 50's style kustom, and is collecting parts for his Austin pickup, that he would like to build as a mid 60's style gasser.
And last, but not least there is Johnny. Johnny has a 59 Edsel, mid 60's style kustom/lowrider, and has just started building a 27 T coupe, early 60's style.
Here are some pics of our cars.

This is my Model A
Model A chassis with a 32 K member
Flathead V8 with original Offy Heads, Weiand intake with 3 chrome 97's, isky 400 cam, mallory mag spark igintion, 39 trans and rear end, 40 brakes etc etc... you get the idea.



Here is my 58 Edsel
Lowered 4", kustom grille, shaved, metal flake candied rook with Watson style scallops, 64 t-bird interior and car phone! Lee lens taillights, lake pipes, chromed out 361FE, 57 Chrysler hub caps in front and louvered skirts in the back.


Here is Johnny's 59 Edsel
Lowered 4", pinner whites, flaked, laced and paneled roof.


And this is Johnny's T coupe.
Well at least what it looked like when he picked it up a few months back. ( I have no idea where I put the latest pics...)
He has a 394 Olds for it, Olds 3spd manual trans, 9" rear end, 40 ford front end, 51 Olds dash. Its mostly just a bunch of pieces right now, but over the winter most of them should get bolted together.


And here is Daves Fleetline.
Lowered 4" rear, 2" front, peaked hood, hopped up 235 inline 6, polished Edmunds intake with two Holley 94's, Fenton exhaust, 3/4 race cam, he smoothed all the casting marks off the block, painted the engine in single stage and then had Dave Dunbar come stripe it all up.


Here is a link to Daves engine on the break in stand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPT1j1OLfk

Anyways every Wednesday we get together at the shop and help each other out. We all work on one car a night, and rotate every Wednesday so everyone's car gets worked on equally. We usually always get up to something on Sundays as well, sometimes working on cars, and sometimes just drinking slurpees in Johnny's back yard.

So I thought tonight I would introduce the club to you guys, and if your interested I would post updates every Wednesday of what we did.

 

Well it's Wednesday, and you know what that means. Club Night.
Tonight it was my turn, so I had to buy supper. Tonight we dined at a Clutch Popper favorite, the New West Hotel. Built in 1959, the New West Hotel, has been a hot spot for West Edmontonians to get their kicks for years. It features hotel rooms with color TV, and telephones for the low price of $60/night. When your hungry, walk in to the fabulous cafe, where for just $8 you can have a delicious four course meal (seriously, it's good, and four course! thats why we go there)
and after dinner, walk over to the Tavern, where you can have a brew and enjoy some live country music. With all this, it's no wounder how the New West has remained open for over 51 years now.


Photo circa 1959, however it pretty much looks the same today.

After dinner we came back to the shop and loaded up some parts from the two cars we stripped on the weekend. On a normal summer day it would be no sweat, however winter finally hit Edmonton yesterday, so it was cold, snowing, windy, and the shops 1946 Transistor Truck Co. forklift snapped a generator belt, therefor the battery went dead. We managed to get the 303 Olds on the trailer before the forklift finally packed it in. The rest was hand bombed.




Once all that was done we worked on my roadster.


Johnny don't fit so well.


Johnny torqued the heads down after changing the head gaskets. ( had to pull the heads to fix a water passage plug that was leaking). Attempted to change the hose clamps to the proper period correct clamps, however they were to big and just wouldn't seal, so he put the regular o'l hose clamps back on. He also took the cardboard off the rad, and mounted the grille shell.


While he was doing that, I finished up fitting the floor boards, installed the ignition switch, and then started to make aluminum covers for the master cylinder, transmission and any thing else that need a cover.




And while I was doing that, Dave worked on the steering. He modified the pitman arm to take a normal early ford tierod end. And then started on the steering arm, and cut the draglink to fit.



And thats when we noticed it was already 11pm. Time fly's when your building hot rods! See ya'll next Wednesday!

 

Well as I said in the intro, we do also get together on Sundays, and sometimes work on cars, or sometime sit in Johnnys back yard. Well it's a little cold in the backyard, so we decided to work on some cars instead.

Johnny cut some rust out of his T coupe 1/4 panel, and welded in a new piece.







I got some more of my floor finished in my roadster.



But Dave decided to ditch us to go hang out at the mall with santa. Poor Dave, I don't think he had very much fun.

 

Wednesday night again...
We started our night by going over to the Newwest again for supper. Meatloaf was the special tonight. It was great. Pecan pie for desert.... Doesnt get much better.

When we came back from dinner Johnny and Dave got started on stripping the 394 for johnny's T coupe. Getting it ready for the hot tank.





They made a huge mess on the floor (but cleaned it up afterwards) and never took any pictures for you guys, sorrry. But i'm sure they will next week. They just got caught up in the fun of stripping a greasy old engine down.
While they were doing that I finished up the patch Johnny and I put in his 1/4 panel on Sunday. Welded up a few pinholes, some planishing, and have it pretty well metal finished now. I was distracted for a few hours while a customer and I went over his car, but to make up for it I worked on Johnny's car until 12:30. He did after all buy me supper!
The 1/4 still needs another patch in the back (the wheel wells are getting cut out) and some minor dent repair and it should be ready to bolt back on.




Anyways, thats all for now...

 

Well another Wednesday has passed us buy. This Wednesday was Dave's night and once again he took us to the fabulous New West Hotel for supper!


Tonight's special was Bacon and Tomato omelet with hashbrowns. It was delightful.


Oh and Vanilla pudding for desert. Well they said it was vanilla, but I think it was butterscotch. Johnny couldn't tell either. Anyways, it was good.

While we were there, Daves car was sitting in the shop thawing out. He bought a car cover for it, so now it won't get covered in snow.


When we got back, Dave started wiring up the engine bay.


Cloth covered wiring is a bitch to strip!


While he was doing that I started building brackets to hold Daves lake pipes. 1 1/2", it's gonna be snappy!




And Johnny crawled underneath to hook up the shifter linkage and the rest of the transmission stuff.




Dave double checking everything is hooked up right...


And by the end of the night, both lake pipes were mounted (not hooked up yet), the clutch and shifter linkage was all hooked up and working, and most of the engine is wired up. Pretty soon this thing should move under it's own power again.

 

Well tonight was my night. The special at the new west was Pork Cutlet, with corn chowder soup and mashed potatoes.

When we got back, Dave got started on fabbing up the headers for the passenger side. They do look a lot better than the drivers side, simply because there is no awkward steering box to go around.






Their all welded up now, and ready to bolt on. One more item crossed off the check list.

While Dave was doing that, Johnny and I teamed up and shimmed the body, and adjusted the doors so they open and close properly. The drivers door was a breeze with just a couple strategically placed shims under the body mounts.
The passenger door however was a bitch. After a few hours, and one really fat bubba gump lip, we got it. The fat lip was caused by a cordless drill. I hate drills!




Once the doors were good, I trimmed the rear valence.
I'm still not sure why this piece was like this, but I'm sure brookville has their reasons.
Anyways I thought it looked dumb, so 2 1/2" was trimmed off it.
Before


After


Oh and Johnny skipped his kids Christmas concert to be here tonight. He was going to go, but his son Liam insisted he come to the shop cause, "Christmas concerts are stupid, and hot rods are way cooler"


Fat Fred even hung out for a bit tonight. He is always at the shop, but normally he just sleeps on the old couch upstairs.


After seeing my lip, Fred came to the conclusion the "Hot Rod Gods" were angry with us, and therefor a sheep had to be sacrificed to calm them down.




It must have worked cause the rest of the night went smooth as could be, with no more injury's!


Anyways, until next wednesday.....

 

Holy crap, I was just about to go to bed, when I realized I never posted what we did tonight!
Anyways, it was Johnny's night tonight and we worked on his T coupe. Didn't do to much to it, as the weather is really crappy here and we were all feeling pretty tired. Plus I've shoveled so much snow I can hardly feel my arms.
Musical entertainment tonight was by the Old 97's, X, and the New York Dolls.

Johnny dug out his 1/4 panel again and three of us teamed up on it. Dave and Johnny went over the entire panel fixing dents and low spots, while I started making a new wheel opening.





I started out by making a template of what was left of the old one and transferring it on to some new 18g sheetmetal.



Here is the new piece, left big all the way around so I can trim it to fit once it is shaped.


And the shaping begins....


Always wear gloves! this thing will cut you so bad, you'll wish you never got cut so bad!


And here is the finished piece after running it through the nibbler for a while, and then the planishing hammer to smooth it all out. Next step, trim it down to fit, and weld it in!


Next week it's Daves turn! As you can see he is already excited.

 

Well now that Christmas is over, it's back to the regular Wednesday night schedule.
Tonight was my night, and as usual, we ate at the o'l New West. The special tonight was french toast with bacon, and chocolate pudding for desert.

As some of you know, I had put my 58 Edsel up for sale, and wouldn't you know someone snapped it up. It's moving all the way to St Louis Missouri.
However before it could leave, there was a few things that I had to finish up on it. After 3 years, and 22,000 miles, there were a few "quick fix" side of the highway fixes that I was gonna fix later, but never did.

Over the course of the Christmas weekend I managed to fix everything wrong with it, except for the roof.

The top is flaked, scalloped, and candied. This was the first top I ever candied, and of course I got a run in it. A nasty one too!

I was going to redo the top when I candied the inserts on the side of the car, but it ended up selling before I got around to it.

So tonight we attempted to blend a kandy paint job! It wasnt my first time attemting to blend candy, but so far it's my best!
Here it goes!
Here is a close up of the run!




What we did was sand all the candy off below the scallop, as it was good from there up.




We then remasked the pinstripe, and masked off the scallop. The blend was at the front of the scallop and the rear where it curves around the back.


All masked up and ready to go.


Two coats of Kandy, and the pin stripe tape was removed.




Dave cleaning up a little bleed through on the pinstripe


3 more coats of Kandy, then the roof was unmasked and the whole thing cleared.


Two coats of clear and it's done! As with every kandy blend, it's not perfect, however being that it's on a curved part of the roof, and has a scallop it came out pretty damn good! Unless I physically point out where the blend was, you wouldn't know.

I'm quite happy with it, and the new owner should be as well. I didn't tell him I was doing this, I just did it cause I couldn't stand seeing it go like that!



Anyways, thats all for now!

 

Wednesday night update!!
Tonight was Johnny's night, supper at the new west, I had the ham and cheese omlette, Dave had liver and onions, Johnny had a cheese burger.

Back at the shop we decided to take a break from his 1/4 panel and start on a chassis.
A few weeks ago, Johhny traded his other T coupe body to modelAbone for some cash and two 15' chunks of 2X4 1/8th wall tubing!

Tonight we cut the shit out of them!


Were going with a simple model A style chassis, 4" Z in the front, big kick up in the back....
Very similar to this one I just built, only with out the suicide front end


While Dave cut the tubing for the kick up, Johnny and I started measuring the front rails for the model A taper.








All marked out and ready for a big wedge cut







With the wedge removed, Johnny and I clamped the rails closed again and welded them up.







I love my Tig welder!




We were all having fun, but then before we knew it it was 11:00, so we decided to pack it up before 11:00 turned in to 2:00
Here is how it looks so far




It doesn't look like a lot was done, but there was, one more night, or a sunday afternoon and this thing should be finished.

 

Well you guys should be all up to date now.
Here is a link to the original thread
http://canadianrodder.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8536

Anyways if you all like what you see, let me know and I'll keep updating every Wednesday

 

very cool stuff i love the flex toob for the exhaust on that roadster should be cool i love your guys style very refreshing in this crap infested world now days

 

That's mint.. I like the dinner report. I'll have to check out the New West next time I'm in town.

 

Thanks

Check it out dude, great food there! 111 Ave and 149 st.
Hows the shifter holding up?

 

The Jalopy Kid's a first rate class act. I broke the shifter on my chevy at a gas station about 2 miles from his shop I'm 200 miles from home he's clearing out his shop for an open house the next day oh ya it's pissing rain I call he says sure bring it over they move cars in the pissing rain to get mine in then there's two guys on her like flies on poo end up they have to yank the whole shifter (Gennie)out and weld it up took a few hours and probably screwed up a good portion of his day and tied up two of his guys oh and did I mention I had never met him before this. Class act.

 

Solid man!

 

I've been lurking on the other site for a while now--one of these moons I'm gonna have to actually sign up--and the "Clutch Popper Wednesday" thread is fast becoming a favourite... I really dig what you guys have going on, and it seems like you guys have a pretty good variety of traditional rides so there's kinda something for everybody in there. Keep it up!

 

got any t shirts for sale to cover the beer fund????i lost weight and need too re stock

 

You guys got one sweet shop. Can't wait for the Austin build, I'm curious what kind of leg room you're gonna have in that thing though.

 

looks like fun. great cars.

 

Looks like a lot of fun. I will have to stop by on a Sunday.

P.S.

Tell Dave that he needs to wear a face shield when he is using the chop saw. LOL.

 

Your weekly updates are the best, Lee.

 

There is no Clutch Poppers shirts as of yet, but it is something we have talked about, and Dave was looking in to it. I'll keep you posted if anything comes of it.
There is however, LG Kustoms & Hotrods shirts.

It is a lot of fun, call me first though on a Sunday, as we don't always get together, and when we do it's usually in the afternoon.

haha thanks

 

Lee what a stand up guy you are! Haha. I wouldve prolly never noticed that run, but I appreciate your attention to detail. You guys have a bitchin shop. Too bad im a little far, otherwise Id be giving you a hand any time I could. Also, if you want to throw a Large LG Kustoms shirt in the truck, ill rep yo shit down here in the STL. Ill give ya some $$$$ for whatever they sell for.

 

One large shirt coming your way! And just an update, my truck is going in today for the new tires and alignment, and the Edsel will be leaving for sure on Monday to St Louis. It was suppose to be the 7th, but my Dad got called in to work this weekend.
shainerman is the proud new owner of my 58 Edsel, we traded cars, his shoebox is coming back up here to Canada to join the Clutch Poppers fleet.

 

Awesome, im moving this weekend anyway, so that will be less to deal with for me. I hope the Clutch Popper enjoy tearing up the shoebox and doing it good justice.

 

Nice worlk,Lee! New West hotel rules,I agree

 

Looks like you guys are getting alot of work done and having a ton of fun!!

 

We can't wait to get our hands on that shoebox!

 

DUDE!!!

I love what you guys got going on up there! We started our shop night for the exact same reasons you did and it has grown to be something like a machine. It just works. We have a blast. Your guys, shop, tools and cars are soooo cool.

Keep it up and keep the updates flowing.


Love it!





BloodyKnuckles

 

Johnny, I know you guys are gonna make me sick with how good it turns out, haha. I wish I had more space, knowledge, tools to be able to take it to the next level, but I dont. Ill be watching it very closely. All I can offer is to tell you the Edsel will be in a finished coat of paint by spring time.