That old 40 Willys gasser chassis that I bought a few months back has some good usable parts. I welded on the spring hangers from the chassis onto my 33 chassis. I think this is in the vicinity of the height that it will be, It looks too high to me.
It looks like I have about 4-5" of room in my rear fender well, so I guess I will narrow the rear end at about 4-1/2"
My 2 cents it's too high. Early gassers had a limit of 24" to the centerline of the crank. That was how high they were then. I think today people are getting a little carried away with the sky high gasser look. Pat
I guess I should decide tire and wheel combo first. The rear tires are just rollers for now and they're huge.
I welded most of the drivers quarter today, very excited. This ugly duckling will be beautiful someday but she has to go through a little pain first. I will revive this car come hell or high water.
I'm narrowing the rear end 4" on each side and running 10" wheels. I pulled the rear end out and it's off to Cook's Machine Shop in the morning.
More Inspiration my contribution rolling out (street) use i should DRAG-RACE it sorry for the fuzzie pic...
Ok, so the drip rail looks salvageable and the part with the "X" bead is a pretty hard to find part also. It would go across the back of the trunk to cover the spare tire bracket. The lid looks to also be salvageable and it does look like the car the roof came from was a rumble seat car. That latch thing is a bit hokey but at least the lock assembly is the correct unit although its mounted upside down. It goes on the lid not the body and screws into the wood. I can't tell from the first pic if the part with all the holes across it might be the edge that was cut off the lid. Pic is kinda dark. The next pic shows it a little better but I'd have to see another angle of it. I work late tonight but if I get a chance I'll see if I can post some pics tomorrow.
I wonder if I can just cut the latch off and move it down to work with the trunk lid since I'm getting 33 hinges also.
the first pic of the part with all the holes across it, either came off of the edge of the lid or was attached to the back section of the spare tire area. I think if I would have to take the one side of my trunk lid and weld it to the other side since I'll need to flip everything from rumble to deck lid.
It's getting late here and I need to get up early but here's a couple pics I found tonight. This wood set up is a trunk not rumble seat lid. This shows the top edge on the ground and the lock side up. Notice the curve of the edge.The top edge is pretty much straight across. They are not parallel and the lid only goes on one way. Same skin for either variation you don't flip the edges around. The piece with all the holes you have is the bottom edge of the lid. If I can get to my car tomorrow I'll try to get a pic of that edge. Here's what the lock looks like screwed to the wood. John did not make this wood but if you look at the pic he sent you he's pretty much right on.
Mine definitely does not have the compound curves. I think since it was a custom/race car, they must have trimmed that metal off. When I got the roof, it came with 2 doors with matching paint it has a lot of lead work. The body lines were modified with lead and the bottom 6" of the doors were cut out and re-shaped. I'm still not understanding why the latch lock assembly is mounted upside down.
What is the purpose of the rear edge with screw holes? I'm assuming that I need to flip the screw hole piece from the bottom of my rumble to the top so it converts to a trunk? It seems like it would interfere with the upper rain gutter.
Nope, that is the bottom of the lid. The lid is the same for either the trunk or rumble seat. You don't change anything. The rain gutter sits low and doesn't contact. This one is a rumble seat drip rail. The straight edge with the compound curves on the front is the top of the lid. The curve has to be there so the lid won't hit the body when it opens.
Makes sense now, thank you! The part that has the screw holes, is there an exact replica of that piece mounted to the tail spare tire area? Or is it a totally different shape?
Follows the curve of the bottom edge of the trunk lid, rumble seat car doesn't have a drip rail on the spare tire panel.
That panel at the rear (with the crossed beads): Does anyone make a repo of this part? If not, could someone sell me a paper pattern of it. And a few more pictures? Norm
Christmas here today!!! John Buchanan has got to be the most amazing wood worker that I have ever met! I couldn't resist, so I installed both window wood as soon as I opened the box, FIT LIKE A GLOVE!!!! I can't wait for my trunk hinges to arrive. It is