It's all in the details...gotta say, this thread is a big factor in why I trusted Josh with my vintage goodies...
Final copper buffed finish ready for nickel. /\ This thing spent a lot of time in the acid copper to get it this nice. I used silver rod with Oxy-Ac torch to keep the warpage down (it melts lower than brass rod) then used silver-bearing lead-free solder (the big globs on th etop-side) to fill in all the gaps. Keith said he wanted a lot of photos, so there they are, lol. Unfortunatly, Dad nickel/chromed and Christy wrapped it up before I could get a chromed pic. I think it may be worth unwrapping and rewrapping for a finishing pic. BTW the bumpers are done (again.) Pics coming soon...
Are you planning on keeping the Thunderbird logo between the back seats? If so it would be rather out of place; I vote instead for a raised "K" to match the logo on the steering wheel. I haven't seen pics of that part for a while so you may have already thought of that. GREAT build.
Why does it seem like the closer they get to completion the slower they go... or am i just being too needy?
I just got back from another Winfield trip (this makes four trips now). This should be the last trip until paint. I met Gene at LAX this time, he had just arrived from Australia, and we rode back to the shop in his Caddy. I found out during the drive that it's actually Syd Mead's old Cadillac. When we pulled up to the shop I could see that the car was completely primered. It was nice to see the car all in one color for the first time. I looked over the work that had been done while I was away and determined what I needed to get done. The first thing I did was finish welding all the pinholes on the driver's side of the firewall. While I worked on the firewall a couple of the guys put the trunk on so we could see how it fit. Gene had just flown over 13 hours, ran a bunch of errands for the shop, and then came back to the shop to work. At one point Gene looked at his watch and said that it was only 5:00, but that was 5:00 AM Australia time. I told him it was midnight, so we called it a night. Gene had to go to a TV shoot the next day so I had a full day to get some work done on the car by myself. The first thing I did was put the fenders and hood back on. Next I test-fit some of the headlight rings that Gene had left for me. Luckily one of them fit like a glove. Unluckily, it's the Holden ring that he only has one of, so we need to find a second. Once I had selected the lucky headlight ring I worked on modifying the sheetmetal on the front fenders. I like these rings because the peaks match the other peaks on the hood, windshield, etc. The angled top edge also matches the hood, grille bars and flipped front bumper.
The next day I put some kitty hair over the welds on the fenders and shaped it a bit with the cheese grater. I also took the dents and creases out of the front apron and welded up the pinholes. During a break I took a few shots of the car in the shop. I love that my car is coincidentally parked in the "More" bay. On our last trip we worked on the hacked rear package tray that I had made in a hurry before bringing the car to Winfield's. I wasn't very happy with it and neither was Gene so we made a new one out of 16g. Here's the original package tray. It is part T-bird, part 20g sheetmetal. You can see the big dip running down the center of it, due to a combination of thin material and vents that don't provide any structure for the part. We started with a rough cutout of the part. Next we rolled it in the english wheel to give it a compound curve. Unfortunately it was just me and Gene, so not too many pics. All of this work took place late at night once everyone had left. It's the only time that we can focus on a part like this. We used the beadroller to make the flange on the back edge, then used the shrinker/stretcher to get the right curve. This took a bit of fine-tuning to get the right shape. We talked about forming the front half of the panel too, but decided against it since it needs to fit perfectly up to the seats and there is also a chrome strip that attaches to the front edge. Without these parts on hand it was a gamble, so we cut the front of the old panel off and welded it to the new. This involved some trickery that I unfortunately was too tired and absorbed in the work to photograph. We basically clamped the two parts together, cut through both of them, then snuck the old part out before welding the two halves together. Here's a parting shot of something that caught my eye.
Right on thanks for the photo fix!! Cant wait to see the paint going on, Gene will be here to do a metal and a paint workshop in about a month cant wait!!
It's about damn time! Looks damn good though, the headlight rings really change it, well from what i can tell haha the pics are taking forever for some reason.
Bad news: this thread has forced the addition of a Kaiser to my already long and unfulfilled list of "must have" cars. Let us have a moment of silence for my future pocket book.
Just read through all the pages and can't wait to see more!! Great job on all the work you have done and then to top it off with a Winfield paint job.... looking forward to every update!
Alex, I posted these up quick just for you. I got home last night and put them up today at work. I also took lots of pics since I skimped last time. Do you have a build thread or some pics of your car?
Haha thanks Keith i appreciate it!!! No i've been out of the garage for the past 2 months (cold ass weather and the heater motor broke) haven't had a moment to work on her. Plus trying to plan a move out west. I have a few pics but i don't wanna hijack your thread i'll send you a pm with my photobucket account
The headlight rings look great, they are from the Zodiac, an English ford similar to my avatar. It's funny as I am looking to put something else in there place eventually and they look right at home on your cool custom.
Thanks for the tip! If Gene can't find the second ring at his shop you might be hearing from me. How about a trade for some Kaiser headlight rings?
If you don't like the plain ones from the 51 i've got a set of the 53's with the wings in decent condition i'll toss out for keith
Great car. Makes me wish I didn't pass the last two time I could have bought one. Love how nice the speedo turned out after polishing and loosing the numbers. I like the idea of the "floating" needle or using the original one. Keep the Autometer logo (cool sponsors) but lose the extra tick marks. Have you thought about painting the needles body color? Might look really cool, especially if you did the fade from light at the base to dark at the tips. Really dig the pedal too. Any more neat little parts or details for us to see?
Great idea on the speedo needle. I'm going to pick a shade of blue from the paint and use it for some interior trim, so that would be perfect on the needle!
I asked Gene when he was here a few weeks ago about the car....should be painted very soon according to him he even told me the color but I wont spoil the surprise
The Jalopy Journal
