front end makeover w/ '53 buick lights & a merc'ish grill surround!

Since alot of this got buried in my build thread, i figured some of this might be helpful in a tech type thread.
First up is the donor car, my '51 cranbrook.



On the to do list are the '53 buick headlights. I love the look, but trying to find doner front fenders to use the headlight area was impossible. Heres what I came up w/

Rusty and useless buckets, The only thing ill use here are the stainless trim pcs. Also you can see what will soon be the perfect replacement lenses for this setup.
A shelving unit is a great starting point for new backing plates. Just trace the trim rings to the metal and bolt the start of your new buckets to the original headlight area on the car.


Once you have these bolted up, you can now start working the front fenders to fit the new backer.


The great thing about this is the stock headlight buckets from the cranbrook will still bolt into theses right to the stock location.
Now grab some cardboard to figure out what you will be doing to blend the rest of the fender to the headlight.



No fancy metal working tools needs, my knee, some hammer dolly work, and many hrs of trail and error.


W/ that part heading in the right direction it was time to get going on the grill surround that will tie into the headlight area. Ignore the smaller pc, it was just a test pc. The new surround will be 5" exhaust tubing! since a mandrel bender isnt in my garage, I do what I gotta do, Pie cut and weld


You will need to split this hockey stick shape in exact 1/4's since this will be used for both the left and right sides. And this was the best way I could think of to mark the exact center line.
Running the square down the side will only scrape the highest point which is also the center line.You can see the other center line is already marked and that was as easy as rubbing it on the concrete floor to find the highest point of the diameter. Now grab the cutter of your choice and quarter it it.


The quartering things not making sense to you? This should help:



thats it, use the other section for the exact mirrior image pc.
weld it up and finish as needed, but this should give a good basic template that should work w/ most cars.



Heres a detail pic of the cheapest thing I could come up w/ for the marker lights. Theyre everywhere, for cheap, they fit perfect, have a huge slection of lense colors , and all you have to do is tack in the bulb socket.


My application called for the front edge of the hood to be reworked, but the end result is just what I was hoping for.



jeff

 

Nice work... Very cool..no fancy tools...what's next?

 

Wow,That is some great work.Love the look!

 

That looks spiffy! Have you thought of using a 49 50 51 Merc hood ? I saw ,jusy last week ,a Merc hood on a 51 chevy , was very cool.

 

What you have done is awesome ,thanks for sharing

 

Wow! That came together great! Definately more than one way to skin a cat. Nice work.

 

Beautiful metalwork and a very attractive design, this is the kind of stuff I come here to see.

 

Mopars don't get the recognition they deserve. Model for model year for year they are best looking low. Priced cars in America. (Except a couple 60's cars)
Very nice job

 

Good work man, big improvement!

Looks like you nailed the chop too, a lot of guys miss the boat on those and it doesn't flow.
Can you post a side profile pic?

 

Cool thread, can you shed some light on your floating center grill it looks neat, but im not sure what its made from.

Brent

 

that looks bitchin' good job!

 

It's great to think some of us think alike when building customs.

Did the same treatment to my aussie 56 dodge (54 PLYM), i made my own buick style teardrop headlights and inside trim but i lil shorter in height and 2" tunneled plus i used exhaust tube for the grill surround and then molded in the stonetray.

 

It didn't happen if you don't have pictures....

 

JCS, Great Fab work and design,

Which Knee did you use for metal
shaping ? (ha ! ), Looks really

smokey2

 

I ended up using my right, but im sure my left would have worked just as good if needed.

Now if I could only win tech week and get some real metal working tools!

And for the people that asked for other pics, ill post up again later when i get a min.

thanks, jeff

 

Came out great, and that's coming from somebody who normally dislikes this era of mopars. Looks like its headed in a good direction.

 

Really nice work, looks great.

 

A buddy in high school had a car like that. LightGray/w Metalic Maroon top. One night he ran her up 104 mph , Next morn fired her up with a rod knocking.

 

So the fact that you cant figure it out means i did what i wanted to do

this pic should help pc together the puzzle


maybe one more pic should tie it all together


All the stainless pcs were stock from the "51 cranbrook and the bullets are nothing more than dummy spotlights bolted to a 1" aluminum bar

jeff

 

all trimmed up I was able to make it fit exactly how I wanted


jeff

 

I like it! Kustoms rule!

 

my favorite part about the car is the built in tool rack on the front bumper. ha. no but seriously....looks good. nice work

 

That turned out really nice!

 

Well done...looks killer. Thanks for sharing.

And, where's that build thread...I looked but couldn't find it. Got a link?

 

Nice metal work. I've had that same idea with the exhaust tubing floating around in my head for a while. Thanks for the proof that it will work. Did you use a mandrel bend to start or just a piece of straight tube?

 

yup, just a straight pc of pipe.

jeff

 

Ha, I just looked thru my pics and I dont even have a good current side pic.
heres an old one from after I finished the chop


jeff