I hope I am not TOO far behind...I have some mild body mods I want to do as well. Shooting for July paint. Keep on it brother! My daughter is 15 months, so not quite ready for the sanding block - but maybe the next time around
Really the only body mods I did was shave everything off haha I kept the rocker trim and the belt line trim, just to give me a place to split the 2-tone. I might go back and French the antenna in before the body gets painted. I have to pull the windshield, sand/prime the cowl and dashboard then the the dash and roof painted ASAP so I can put the glass back in. I don't have a garage so the car sits outside and even though it's been a dry one, it is still winter haha I've been waiting for my daughter to be old enough for this, it's half the reason I'm even doing this to the car right now. Your time will come
I am in the midst of finishing the shaving of the trunk/doors, nosing the hood, frenching the lights, and molding in lake pipes, and thinking about some double frenched antennas...and some bodywork...so I will be cramming just like you!!
Now that I have the exterior of the car to a good "stopping point" it's time to shift gears and focus on finishing the interior. As long as I've had this car I knew that I wanted to put bucket seats in the front with a center console. I've been looking for the right seats to come along that were ; 1: the right shape 2: the right price. A friend of mine pull these out of his 67 fairlane, so I made him a deal and they came home with me. Now I just have to get them mocked into the car, measure and cut my custom center console and then send them out to get re-upholstered. I also decided that since the roof is going to be painted white, I need to repaint all of the painted interior parts and the dashboard white as well. My interior will be white and brown, with the green and white car.
Great work, looking forward to watching your build. Here are a couple pics of my '52 Hardtop, the glass is supposed to go in mine this weekend, one piece Olds front windshield. Upholstery next month, recovering the stock bench in front, planning T-bird wrap around rear buckets but I'm not there yet, running out of time and cash for modifications. The stance needs to drop all the way around but that will also have to wait.
Nice car! That dash color is pretty damn close to mine haha I have an extra set of the t-bird back seat backs that I'm gonna be selling soon. I thought about putting them in this car, but with it being a 4-door it wouldn't really work.
Thanks, I picked the color a couple years ago, its a sherwin williams base/clear. A friend was using drums of it for repairs on a clients fleet of semi trucks. It seemed as cheap at the time, now I think ALL paint has gone through roof.
Ratrod, I noticed you didn't French your headlights either. I never came up with a good idea that would look right with how wide the front of these fenders are compared to a Chevy. Plus the oval-ish headlight rings are something different.
Mid-50's Chrysler headlight rims might be worth considering. As installed on this Chevy, only a minimum of build was required. They should fit the Poncho with no fender grafting. '54 Hudson might also work. Note: these are pot metal, and probably not suited for bonding, but needn't be frenched to look good. They can be used either painted (as on the Hudson) or chromed.
I was originally looking for a set of 55 Chevy fenders to steal the "eyebrows" and headlight area to graft into my front end. Or I was thinking about frenching in some 54 Buick headlight bezels I couldn't make up my mind or find parts so I got impatient and decided to just stick with what I have. Ultimately though I'm the type of person who will get the car painted and "done" and then decide I want to change it and start cutting again. Never know what will happen in the long run.
A buddy of mine has a pair of these: They're off of his 53 Kaiser, he's going to dig them out of his stash of parts this weekend so I can see how they look/fit. I'm hoping that the little wing on the bezel will tie into that fender body line and it'll look good.
I think you will find that those "little wings" aren't so little when they're on your car. A buddy has some, and I tried them on my Chevy. Still, they are worth a look. (Funny, I almost mentioned them earlier!!)
Built, Good thought, I had a gloss fridge white dash on my '50 AD, I kept a spare towel and couple magnets in the ashtray for the few times in 4 years the sun was low/bright enough to be annoying. I'll suffer through, I like the color.
I got a little work done on the interior, its starting to really shape up into what I envisioned. Out with the old. Completely gutted interior... there is so many little pieces and parts that need to be painted/polished... The new seats set roughly in place.
Now for my favorite part of the interior. I had an extra hood, complete with the center trim, and I had an idea. I want to make the hood trim into a center console. I pulled the trim off, cut 10" off of the back of it, and set it in place to see how it looked. Don't mind the mess haha The 10" piece that I cut off the end fits perfectly on the rear package tray. Obviously it needs some fine tuning and finishing, but it looks exactly as I pictured it. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
I also brought the car home from my buddies house. I don't have a garage, but I do have room for the tent style carport, so I got creative to make the best of the space I have. The view from the back, I call it my "Pontiac graveyard"
I had the same thoughts with the rear package tray, but rolling over the tray by grafting in a section of the T-bird split bucket rear deck. The console I hadn't thought of.
The car is still torn apart, actually now more than before haha but I'm almost ready to put the front bumper back on so I can finish the last little bit of welding it needs. As soon as that happens I will test fit that grill and post some pictures.
I'm glad to see that other people like the console idea to. I've wanted to do it as long as I've had the car, there's just something about making the trim travel all the way through the car, I love it.
I've gone as far as trying to get a waterfall piece shaped to fit on top of the speaker lump on the dash in an attempt to do the same for the front. It didn't go well and I scrapped the idea. If the dash unbolted I would carve it up and get the waterfall to roll over the dash. At that point I decided I should probably get my hardtop on the road and work on the "mild custom" once I didn't have to push it around.
Yeah, I had toyed with a way to bring the waterfall trim inside on my '47 to make a waterfall dash like a Lincoln Zephyr, but never came up with something that I thought would work. But I love it as a console. Reminds me of the early 60's Falcon consoles.
nice work--not something you see at every car show! reminds me of a song on the youngblood's "good & dusty" album, "pontiac blues"--"i found out/what my baby likes/she likes a whole lotta lovin' in my straight-eight pontiac..."
The Jalopy Journal
