On a late style 40’s 1932 5W chopped coupe fenderless in black. A qestion on chromed parts or black or the best combo. Build-up in general ; Henry body chopped 3.5”. Henry frame. Ford 1940 16” wheels ( front 4 and rear 5 ) Fireston tires, 4.50 and 7.50. 1936 rearend/bones. Halibrand CQ. 1934 TQ tube. Lincoln Z 39 transmission. 1934 dropped axle. 1932 spindles. 1932 wishbones not splitted. A-Ford front and rear cross. Std Ford springs. 1932 steering box and pedals. 1940 brakes. Flathead 59A. Ardun heads ( std or new ) no SC. Steel 2 pc oilpan Scintilla magnet in a angle drive adapter. Chromed headers with 36 driveshaft pipes. Ok, over to details - the question. -How much is classic chrome or just black ? Allot of chrome is nice, allot of black is also nice but what will the best combination be here on brake shields, front parts, rear parts. A friend of mine has a very nice 50’s style custom 31 roadster with a 392 Hemi, and he has all chromed in front and rear bones, springs etc. I might look for a ’combination’ so ideas ! ; -)
I like black with nice cad plated or s/s hardware, bolts , nuts , washers etc. too much chrome just does not say old style hot rod to me. JMO. Good luck with the build.
Look into Nickel plating as an alternative to chrome. Has a warmer color to it and if you let it go, the finish tarnishes into a beautiful almost copper color. If you're dead set on chromed headers, then do chromed ardun valve covers as well. But leave the engine and drivetrain painted either body color or a subtle contrast. Sounds like you want a somewhat period build, and too much bling draws the eye to the wrong areas. Oh, and split the wishbones. ~Peter
Yes a brushed nickel can be nice. I dont get into all chrome or just black, or black but all bolts etc in chrome. Some days I’m into chromed axle, black bones or revesed...
I love chrome but you say its a 40s style build. Did they really use all that much chrome back then? The 1960s saw the highly chromed builds but I think mostly detailed accents of chrome would be more of a 40s style. But....thats just my opinion.
I'd go with no chrome on suspension. Dress the engine up SPARINGLY. If you must, chrome the drum backing plates.
In my totally unqualified opinion, a 40's build should have little chrome. That's not saying that everything should be black either. Visual interest can be added using as cast, brushed or polished aluminum finishes.
That's a great example of a 50's style Hot Rod, dripping in chrome. The plate is a '56, is that when it was built? Nevermind, I just saw caprockfabshop's post. Awesome photos BTW
On chrome on the late 40’s. Shore most hot-rods was no chrome and maybe ruff. The Specters roadster was all chrome and I think that was late 40’s or maybe early 50’s. My build up in parts as showed is late 40’s style parts but I will has a nice paint on the coupe. But I’m not into all chrome ( shore its nice but can be a overkill ) and on this style it might be wrong. Era correct should be all black Still I like parts be chromed. But its hard decide what a nice combo will be ( as said and vs my thread of ideas. I has a chrome shop close bye and knew owners but its not really about save money as even a wishbone takes time to pain it nice. I’m not there for a ’long time’ but plans are free ( and important !
Yes, what can beat black and chrome. I’m into chromed brake shields and fully polished and chromed axle, but that lead me chrome the bones to, well if one like the bolts etc chromed then its just spring left... The 33-36 axles ( as I see it ) get very slick polished out and chromed. One way is paint some parts of brake shield black and has bones black and spring black and bolts etc chromed. -Could that be a good combo ?
Ond told me chrome was not that common in the end of 40’s but it came more on the 50’s. But he mean guys that did chrome might has the resr all black and focus to chrome front axle, brake shields - bling for eyes. I might fill chromed brake shields in part black. Bolts etc chromed but rest black.
I has order a dropped semi polished 34 axle from Anson, ready for chrome shop here in Sweden. But after look more on the McGee roadster I would say a chromed axle should been nicer....but....the more I did look the black axle/springs and the nickel plated drum shields and a chromed bone, shocks, draglink and ends is a very neat combo !
The McGee polished but black painted front axle changed me from a chrome one. See that car got me into nickel even if it had chromed parts. The cad plated parts is really cool but some of my parts is rust pitted ( its not bad parts but pitted ) The tone of nickel is really nice even if it was not really late 40’s. I had been into chromed springs but I like Henry parts and I’m into my second A-spring now and today I will look in a T-spring. They get carved out in the end. So if I had them black I could sand them of. But yesterday I might saw a game changer ! No news on black & some chrome is one way ( as not a full chromed front/rearend ) See this racing build-up model A has allot of black, even brake shields but allot of parts is nickel, and its really tasty. It gets me paint parts instead of chrome it ( less work, or more easy work ) but it get me back to chrome springs and a polished QC ( and the Ardun heads ) ——-/——-/— A note. This 28 roadster is build by pro and paint and chrome is done for win LA roadster show !
Ewell, Stecker, Kamboor FED Hello, Jack Ewell gave us some great advice, like the words of wisdom that Joe Reath and Joe Mailliard used to give us teenagers when we went into their shops to get the next thing in hot rod parts. Since he was the manager of Mickey Thompson’s Shop, it was closer to our house, so it was a natural. The old days of drag racing at Lion’s Dragstrip was the thing that brought us all of those great inspirational talks and advice for a couple of young kids. There were three versions of the shop on the Westside of Long Beach during those times. Jack Ewell is well represented in a HAMB search and there will be some very early history from coupes to dragsters in his repertoire during the very early days of drag racing. old Friday Art Jnaki In our later days at Lion’s and Long Beach, we almost detailed the 58 Impala engine compartment to all black highlights and chrome. The block was going to be black, as were the heads. But everything else was going to be chrome. Valve covers got the chrome treatment, the Moon Breathers got the high polished look and the top of the triple air cleaner also got the shiny chrome appearance. This was in between doing some work on our SBC Willys Coupe after school. So, we had to divide our time doing enhancements or doing some heavy duty building aspects. It was not going to be an overnight job doing the detailing. 1957-60 We realized that more effort was necessary for the Willys Coupe and that the black 58 Impala was going to be as fast as it was, unless we spent more time doing further speed enhancements. So, it was currently, a surf transportation for my brother, a parts runner and a tow vehicle for our Willys Coupe when we needed something done that we could not get in our own backyard garage. So, detailing enhancements for the Impala were put on hold. Once our days at our small backyard speed shop had turned into a surf shop, a desert racing motorcycle shop, remains of our dad's fishing poles, reels and general fishing equipment got enlarged, we looked forward at the detailing that was to come, with more time on our hands. 1961-62 Inspiration came from a highly detailed Hemi motor on the Jack Ewell, Bill Stecker, Jim Kamboor FED, as well as the overall black on black on black look. The detailing went from: thanks, @themoose and finally, a great goodbye with this final look in 1964:
The Jalopy Journal
