Customs 47 Chevy Custom build thread?

I haven't been doing a lot of posting lately, but the "old timers" know I used to do much more. The interest in customs seems to have died off quite a bit lately, or so I seem to see it. Well, I've been building a 46 or 7 (not sure, title and components don't seem to match) Chevy coupe, on and off for about 12 years. I might be able to do a little cruising with it, toward the end of the summer, in primer to wok out the bugs. So, I was wondering if there was any interest in me scanning and posting pics from an album I started in the beginning, covering the build of the car?
Here's some shots form the first pages.
I first got the car to build for a customer, but he later found a ragtop version, and I bought this car. He took the engine, and I got a truckload of misc. parts, hopefully a whole car!
He had cut out the factory K member, and I wanted to drive the wheels off the car when it was done, so I decided to use a completely rebuilt 69 Camaro sub I removed from a car I was building. I know it's not totally acceptable here on the HAMB, but I build them the way I like, for the way I drive! The exterior will be completely traditional, as an early 50's Barris style custom.

 

YES PLEASE!!

 

Please post the album. Thanks

 

Post it all. I'm working on a '46 coupe and need some good ideas.......Al

 

Well, not a lot of response, I'll put up a few more. Really takes time to pull the pics, scan, crop and resize them to post here, but I'll do some more, just to see how much "custom" interest there is.
Just don't steal all my ideas, please!
First, I decided to keep the spirit of an early Chevy custom, and leave it a straight six. BUT I wanted reliability, power, and ability to buy parts on the road to fix it. So I picked up a 292 truck engine. More on that later, but it necessitated raising the hump in the firewall to fit the taller engine, also sitting higher, due to the late subframe.
To get motivated, I had to chop the top early on!
You can see my best friend, Rusty (RIP!) cutting the A pillars with a hacksaw. I like to do this, as it gives you more control and accuracy on the cut line, as opposed to a Sawzall.
The rest are the usual chop pics, though at the end you can see a way I like to visualize how the roof and rear window angle are going to work, but tacking together a wire frame of the shape and covering it in tape. Though I didn't take pics, I did wind up changing it once...bringing the rear window in closer to the front, and angling it up a bit higher.
I did have to do a lot of English Wheel work and make panels to handle the changes in curvature and approach to the rear window as it sat. But it makes for a much better job than just pie cutting and lots of weld seams.
I also filled in the rear quarter windows. In these old (10 years or so) pics, I just sheet metal'ed the window openings. After talking to Donn Lowe about what I was doing, he told me to cut it all out and eliminate the window frames, do it all in sheet metal, or eventually the window frame seams will witness up, as the roof will flex around them and they won't, eventually disrupting the filler, or even cracking the welds.

 

I was in this shop a couple months back getting some work done on my Plymouth. I couldn't stop looking at this car while I was there. Hopefully Mark can post a picture of how it looks now.

 

Scanned some more pics. Working on the grill. I bought it thinking it might be a Caddy grill, but later found out it's a 50 Chrysler. WAY too wide, so I cut off the ends at a point where there was a flat area inside, that I could attach new ends to. I fashioned new ends out of 18 ga. sheet, short up top, and going longer toward the bottom. The middle one is cut out for a parking light. Very happy with the way they came out.

 

Nice work Mark. Keep them coming!

 

Yep, let's see more of it...I need to see how the grille fits the hood and vice versa...

R-

 

Roger, that part of the build is a heartbreaker! When I first did this grill stuff (before I started concentrating on finishing the Kopper Kart, so 2006?) I had modified a 54 Chevy upper grill bar to use. The stock Chevy one was pot metal, so it wasn't easily modified, especially with as much reworking as it needed to fit. The 54 was sheet metal, so I spent a LOT of time making it work......and the the chrome plater LOST it! Well. I had been so disheartened, I didn't even consider doing it all over again, until a few months ago...and I just got it back from my NEW plater on Monday! For now, I'll just say it was 12 different pieces put together to make it!

 

Looking good. You said - Well, I've been building a 46 or 7 (not sure, title and components don't seem to match) Chevy coupe, on and off for about 12 years. Well from the holes in hood for the front emblem the hood is at least a 1947. The 1946 emblem is no where nearly that wide as you may be able to see from my avitar if you can enlarge it.
Keep posting photo's as your work progresses.
Jimmie

 

Wow. Just seeing the thread. I am currently working on a 48.

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Well, a little interest, so I'll keep going!
Next I installed a set of 41 Lincoln skirts for a nice flush mount look. Besides cutting the fenders out, making a new inner lip, and repairing all the rust I found, I actually had to reshape the rear part of the fender, to get it to match the surface of the Linc skirt. Lots of stretching, by hand, since the fender was already welded to the body.

 

Next the body was sandblasted inside and out, Rust repaired, and the undercarriage POR-15ed, and then 2 part bedliner shot over it, for maximum protection.
The engine I chose was a 292 straight six, to keep in the spirit of the old Chevy customs. I love the sound of them, esp. with a stick, so I also put in a T-5 trans.
I love a great looking engine, so I spent a lot of time grinding, sanding, and detailing the block smooth. Then I shot it with epoxy primer, guide coated and block sanded it, then shot House of Kolor Candy Apple Red over a gold base. Stovebolt Engineering supplied a lot of advice, and hi compression pistons, and a cam, as well as a Clifford 2 x 4 intake, and Tom's Cast Iron exhaust manifolds. The intake, oil pan, timing cover and T-stat housing got chromed, the exhaust was black Porcelainized, and finned side and valve covers installed.

 

looks great, please post more.

 

Nice !! Keep em coming ....

 

Very cool!! Can't wait to see more!! I'm working on a '48 coupe.


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Put together for trial run and engine break in, I'll post the next set of pics later today (Making new inner wheel wells, and adapting a 50 Caddy front bumper to the rear).

 

It's nice to see a custom still being built. It seems that fewer and fewer bother to post,
due in some measure to lack of response, and also to the tight strictures imposed upon "Traditional" customizing.
Ironically, many of those same builders fail to lend their encouragement to those that do contribute.
It seems that the Custom "Community" is shooting itself in the foot.

That's a great build you've got going. The Chrysler grille will really set it apart! Thanks for posting.

 

Wow that is a wild engine compartment.

 

Great work Chopolds! Cool to see you're going to use inline power. So many guys just yank 'em out and throw in a small block. Love the sound of a six with headers or a split manifold. Something about that sound that adds to the old time appeal of a kustom..........E

 

yep please keeping posting. you're one of the folks i hate seeing not post as much any more. i've never been a big poster but miss the older hamb as there were more folks around with GOOD fun to follow post and it seems as you say the focus on customs seems to have lessened lately...ken...

 

I really like detailing out engines, and showing them off...even though most of the time my hood will be shut at shows. Teddy Prada and I first talked about and designed most of this build way back in the 90's. My shop buddy Ron and I have refined a lot of the ideas and came up with some new ones. I have had to redo some of my original work to fit better with the overall "theme", as it has progressed. The Zebra pattern on the firewall is a tribute to the old hotrodders doing a black and white checkerboard on their hotrods, taken to a new level. The interior will be all white vinyl, with small Zebra inserts in the seats. The exterior of the car was originally supposed to be Jet Black, so I wanted a lot of "flash" in the engine compartment, and a little in the interior. I still haven't finalized the paint color scheme, though. Might still be black, but with small-ish Candy Red outline scallops, like the Fabian Continental, but without the lines going through the body, just outlining. Or might go with Candy Red. Black is more trad, but I think no one will notice the car, except painters, and lunatic bodymen. Black will also give less notice to all the body lines we are carefully sculpting, and changing.
Thanks for the encouragement, guys, I'll bring this up to the present soon!

 

The car's inner wheel wells were pretty beat up, adn the addition of the Camaro sub pretty much changes the shapes and sizing of the openings in them, so I decided to make them from scratch. Again, 18 ga. steel sheet...make cardboard pattern, cut out the steel. Design a pattern to break up the flatness of the steel, add a decorative touch. Both beads, and offsets were used for the patterns. I didn't want any sharp right angles in the bends, so 2 in. tubing was used to make the bends.
On the drivers side, I had to make clearance for the steering shaft, and box. Luckily some mandrel bends were laying around, so they got cut up to make nice curved cutouts in the wells. 5/16 steel brake tubing was used to edge the panels, so there weren't any sharp edges.

 

A 50 Caddy front bumper was used on the rear. I like the shape, and the reliefs at the sides. But I had to fill them with something. I bought up a bunch of extra door extensions, and cut them up to extend the quarters to fit inside the Caddy bumper ends. Visually it makes the car a bit longer, and adds more taper to the side profile. According to plan, keep that "heaviness", while adding a bit more streamlining.
Had to shorten the bumper quite a bit, and also make a new splash pan to fit between the bumper and the body. I made a template of the shape, transferred it to 2 pieces of plywood, and also to a piece of steel, though oversized it about 1/2" all around. Clamped the steel between the wood and hammered out a new pan!
The last picture shows another modification that had to be made. The trunk lid would not clear the Caddy bumper guards, that I absolutely HAD to run, so I cut the trunk lid short, and made a new piece, including the inner trunk channel, and welded it to the bottoms of the rear quarters.

 

Wow now I am really excited to see what the car is like today. Some great modifications so far.

 

Wow chopolds, seeing masters like you work make me feel like a caveman beating on a rock with another rock when I work on my cars. Wonderful to watch talented people work.

Great build pics--I'm really enjoying this thread! E

 

Thanks for the lessons.
I love the fender extension. Is the vertical seam to be lapped or butt welded?

 

Mo, If I remember, originally I left them flanged...as the fender to quarter was. But in a later modification, I cut them back out, and made some new ones from scratch, all butt welded. I try to do everything like that now, so I can hammer and dolly afterwards.
OG lil E, I just work in a shop in my backyard, part time. I'm just serious about this "hobby", and continue to try to do things better all the time. Always watching videos, and reading, to learn new techniques, better ways to work, etc. Not a master, still a student!
K13..still waiting for results of your paint trials!

 

Tail lights are going in the Caddy bumper guards. They are cut down 53 Buick lenses.
Sh ort thread today, gotta go out to the shop and work!