Projects Recreating the jesse lopez coupe

I think a status report is in order with all the things that have happened in the last few months.

The car is back from the trim shop and it now is obvious that we are entering into the last phases of this project. There was some damage that happened there that is now being dealt with. Not a big deal.
The things that I have put off can no longer be ignored. The big thing now is to get ALL the glass installed so as to keep the interior reasonably clean. I have done some of this in the distant foggy past so I remember just enough to wish I had someone to help me. I have not had good experiances so far with the local help in the area so I may be stuck. I have all the glass cut. The windshield gasket needs to be fitted to the glass and glued. I am doing OK so far with the back plexiglass and that should be pretty much regular old car glass stuff. The doors have me pretty intimidated but with a little hand holding I can probably get them done. I rubbed out the driver’s door glass opening in preparation for the anti rattler’s installation. The lacquer is going to look extraordinary good. I can hardly wait to get the car completely rubbed out. Mmm, mmm, mmm, it’s going to be nice.

The lower arm bone that was broken has healed, almost 100 %. The upper small bone was forced out of it’s socket the first week after surgery and has not done well. Even though I have about 50% usage of it I still can get most things done.It is the source of pain that radiates down from my shoulder to my hand. Today I went for an MRI on it so that what needs to be done can be seen clearly. The doc is saying he may saw off the end and screw on a new ball that would stay in that socket. If that happens then this project will continue to “dick” along.

 

Wow, interior looks great, the garnish moldings look great, the chrome looks fantastic.

Bummer about the arm, good luck with whatever you decide to do. Sounds like it's not slowing you down toooo much, but must be damn painful.

 

Paint looks great Jer.
Bummer about your arm Unfortunately many times a break is easier to repair and causes less pain then a dislocation. Good luck and take care of your self first.
Torchie.

 

Take a break,that car will have its day eventually...take care first..Jerry.

 

Well, clearly YOU ain't no sissy! Hope you heal up without issues. The car is coming out AMAZING, thanks for sharing the details along the way.

 

I appreciate all the comments and concern's, thank you.

Things may be looking up. The guy that did the glass in the JC coupe (Glenn Clark) did a good job. This was in 2010. My problem with him has been a nagging w/s leak that I couldn't get him to fix because of how busy he was. He is picky about what he takes in and, is usually busy. A one man operation. I thought I would check in on him last Friday. I found him with just his car in the shop. I showed him what my needs are and he was interested. He said he would come out tomorrow and check it out. This could be huge!

Think good thoughts.

 

Well, Glenn came by. He's needing some help getting his '47 Ford ready for some road trips this summer. If I were healthy I would have what he needs. He says that if I'm patient between the two us this glass deal can get done.

Thanks for those thoughts.

 

Oh yeah, that arm, it's gonna' get cut.

 

Sorry to here that! Hope recovery goes quick and smoothly!!!


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coming along nice Jer !

 

I have my first new message on this new board. However, I don't know how to get the correct administrative password to open it.

 

Shouldn't need a password.

 

Please Jer give us some news

 

I keep driving by this thread checking out who’s in the parking lot etc. as I cruise this board. It’s probably time to pull in and engage in a little back and forth. This has been prompted by the discovery that I have a new hurt. The loss of use (maybe 50%) of my left hand has meant that my right hand must pick up this slack. It just informed me that it’s not going to do this anymore without a steep price (pain) being demanded. OK,OK, I may be a little slow but, eventually I get it. The Kustom Car GOD now has my attention and I’m reluctantly willing to consider what’s going on. I did mention to my wife a month or so ago that I thought that HE had thought it was time for a “break”. She didn’t see the humor in that statement as I had. There definitely has been more overt activity in my life since the turn of the century by the Deity.

I’ve been ridiculously healthy all my life. When my little custom shop had finally grown up I was forced to work in the office after about 20 years out in the shop. I had to relearn that I was still working on cars (data) even though I wasn’t getting as dirty as I would have liked. I always had a personal project of some kind going on in a corner.

In the late ‘90s I started to watch more closely an older employee that was about my age. I did tell him how much I admired how he was still able to crawl around on the floor and still able to do all the contortions that’s neccessary to do auto body work.

So by the time that I retired and moved to Texas to start my new life as a custom car builder the demands that were going to be put on my body were not really thought about much. When I started on Jr’s clone in ’09 my body wanted to know WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? My reply was “shut up and get with the new normal”. This was mainly hip’s and knee’s. I’d had arthroscopic surgery on my R knee in ’02. All things considered I was in pretty good shape.

The strain that I had put on my lower body started showing up about three years ago. It was at first thought that what the doc’s wanted was to replace my hip joints (sure). After a lot of discovery I was correctly diagnosed with trochanteric bursitis in both hips. A lot better than the new hip deal. What’s needed is cortisone shots periodically, very doable.

My L knee has a torn meniscus and needs arthro surgery that I will have done. Now I’m thinking this year. So to change things drastically I bought a lift (last year) to be able to keep things at a comfortable level. A huge improvement.

The break to my L arm is called a Monteggia fracture. My new Veterenairen daughter- in law explained to us that this type of break doesn’t repair well. There usually are complications and that has definitely proved true in this case. My last talk with my orthopedic doctor was sobering. He was not happy with the MRI’s and wanted another set of eyes on it. That’s what I’m waiting for now.

The morning that I got the car back from the trim shop I had a sharp pain in my L hip area. I was able to beat on it and disperse the pain somewhat. When I got back with the car my wife said, “we are going to Care Now”. They gave me a shot and that helped a lot. The next morning I woke up to excruciating pain shooting down that L leg. Our daughter in law said that it’s not bursitis and to get me to the hospital E.R. as soon as possible. After an MRI it was discovered that I have a herniated disc on my L lower back. Hey, this is getting fun, eh?.

So it turns out that the therapy regimen is the same for the disc and the bursitis. Excirscise’s that loosen up all the tightness in my “core” area; hips and lower back. The problem now is that this area is so sore from all this new “intense” movement. So now I have a L arm that needs more surgery that hurt’s like hell, a L knee that hurts, hip’s that hurt and, now my only good hand is saying “uh,uh I’m through”. The only thing I got going for me is that everything DOES respond to pain killer at the same time.

I’m going to call Glen tomorrow about the car in his shop. He said he had a ’55 'Chev job that he could bring in. I told him to do it.
The back glass (plexiglass) turns out to be about ½” narrower than the stock curved glass. The stainless will work by putting pressure in the corner’s to make it at the tighter corner’s.

Other than these issue's everything is great.

 

Time to start looking for a young kid to be your apprentice. He will get to learn and you will get some well deserved down time.

 

Man you've had a rough trot lately. I'm hoping for the best for you though, because quite frankly, I want to see this car finished!!!!

 

I love your undying sunny optimism in the face of adversity! Bravo.

 

No chance of it not getting done at this point mate. If this where much earlier it might be considered but, not now. Like the chop "saga", I still think this is "on the way to the show" stuff.

 

Hang tough Jer.
I have just spent the last 3 days literaly barely being able to walk because I decided to push my project around in the shop. The pain is just starting to subside tonight.
On the bright side is the fact that when I make an appointment at my Dr's they put it into the computer as "Train wreck" vs using my name. Gives everyone a good laugh.
Torchie.

 

Sorry to hear about your rough time. Get better soon! Car looks great!


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The steering wheel is done. I want to wait till the front end is aligned before I install it.

 

Beeeeautiful!

 

That steering wheel is the all time era Custom piece and I am so happy I found one for my Mercury....very nice Jerry.

 

very nice

 

Texas baked.

 

looking really nice Jer !

 

That is one of my favorite Kustoms of all time. When I was a kid it inspired me to want to build cars. It inspired me to do research and ask questions on how it was built. It lead me to study any of the old Barris stuff I could get my hands on that might show just a glitch of the build.. I have some pictures in my storage of stuff that you might be interested in seeing......Brad Masterson and I use to sit around and drink beer when we were first building cars in our early 20's and we use to talk about that car for hours and the history behind that build........

This is the kind of shit that I enjoy....


Thanks.
germ

 

Well, Germ, you've brought a smile to my face and a warmth in my heart. What you've just said is exactly what I have felt about this stuff. I have the privilege to be able to be involved in this stuff at a level that I would never have dreamed possible. Why? I'm not sure but, I know that everything has a season and purpose and If doing this has stirred up your innards than I must say that it has mine as well. I'm sure we're not alone.

I need to add that everything that is beautiful and gives pleasure finds its origin in GOD. I'm sure we would all be interested in your pics.

 

Getting into the car is a struggle. I'm not comfortable about driving it scrunched up on this seat. We're going back to the trim shop for some adjustments.

 

I'm starting to get a thrill when I go out to the shop. I can see that this is starting to come together fast. This is my list of things to do. I'll always say "this isn't everything" but, this time it might be , or close.

The hand thing was a one day deal. It was a warning though, that I need to heed. I would like to have this car over to glenn's shop for the glass work when I have the two surgeries (arm,L knee). We'll see.