Hi Mark, I know they where done on the sides and the tops... there are plenty of sample of them. But Personally I just don't think they belong on a custom.. no matter what. The side like on the John Fisher Coupe (ex Pierson Coupe) are still looking good. But on the hood tops they really take away the beautiful lines of the hood design in my eyes. But like I said... its just a personal opinion. And I was a bit disappointed to see them on this particular 36 Ford.
I understand...personal opinion. If I was starting one from scratch I wouldn't louver the hood tops either. I will, however, be putting the louvered tops back on my grandfathers '36 3 window that we still have(second picture) becasue that's the way it was orginally built.
Definitely examples of the sides being done but, the top is really not supported. I'm sure since you've shown a great amount of competence through out this build thus far, you probably are going to make us drool in the end. Isn't this sort of a amalgamation of hot rod and custom like Calorie's and Pierson?
I like the louvers and you can't argue that they don't belong with so many pics of cars back in the day with them. As an aside, someone should offer the guy that owns the Pierson Bros '36 a boat load of money and restore it back to the era of that photograph. It looks like a nice rod until you know what car it is.
Car is looking great! I don't mind the louvers so much. When I was thinking about venting the engine I was considering using chevy hood sides like this car (photo from rikster).
On it's way to being done see here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=517378&page=27 I like the louvers on the hood sides not so much on the hood itself. Like Rik I think it takes away from the sleek look of a custom.
Here's a couple of the photoshops of this car that were mentioned earlier in this thread. Rikster did these for me. He actually helped with the ideas also. There's a whole bunch of different versions if your interested. The first one is basically the finial version and what I was going to do. The only things I was still thinking about was the side trim on the running boards and running the correct 37 desoto bumper guards with the tail lights in the rear ones. The next one were earlier when I was thinking about narrowing the stock grill and running boards. Also using a lincoln front bumper. The next one was a quick shot from the rear rikster did showing the narrowed running boards. If you notice all these were based on the Jon Fisher car. Also notice the chop is the same because Scott Guildner was nice enough to share with me how it was chopped. I miss the car alot!! I think what your doing with it looks great!
Hi Mike, Glad to see you finally chime in on this thread. The photoshops look great. I would love to see more of them if you have them. The top one with the Packard grille is my favourite, especially as I have the same grille and De soto bumpers stored away for a rainy day. I was racing at Bonneville this year. I was standing right next to you outside the Nugget! I wanted to say hi but you was busy at the the time and then I never saw you again.
Blue50-F1 got me thinking (And Searching) that I hadn't updated this thread since July! Alot has happened since and the car has been on the road for 6 months now! The original thrash was to get the car ready for the Hot Rod Hayride on the first weekend of August, which I made it to. Loads of new car problems like alternators not charging and pieceing together parts like the dash that were left in the thrash to get on the road for August. One of biggest problems I battled was brakes. The story is too long to repeat here but the full story can be seen on the Ford Barn. http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13609 One of the few events I did make it to this year was racing at the Historic Prescott Hillclimb. We have a new fledgling Flathead class formed thats really starting to take off now with more cars entering. Putting the car through this sort of drving really highlights the short falls especially with the suspension! This is a video of the cars competing in the Flathead class. I'm 1.14 in with the '36. Doing this event led me onto the next chain of events which is how the car sits now. When I'm done I put another update on.
Ha you should have said hi. Looks like your having fun with it too! Here's a couple more photoshops that rikster did while we were working on ideas. Just say uncle if you get tired of them....theres a bunch. How bout burgandy? Cadillac bumpers and running board trim Lyons wheel covers and shaved running boards with trim Desoto bumper with guards and 39 tail lights. How about wing windows?
Desoto bumpers would be a very classic touch in my mind....-Weeks Desoto bumper with guards and 39 tail lights. How about wing windows? [/QUOTE]
Also if your interested engine I was putting together was a 59a flathead with polished canadian heads, early weiand high rise 2 x 2, and a converted zephyr v12 distributor. Column shift and a columbia rear. I was keeping the wide 5's because that's what my flipper caps fit. For the interior going to use a modified seat frame out of a 37 zephyr and the car was going to be black with a forest green interior.
Enb, thanks for the update! Love the vid. Really makes me wish my grandfather's films had sound, but all his films are from 50-53. Glad to see you haven't given up on her!
A few months back I got bored and started playing around with a different set of wheels. The story starts years ago back on another forum. One day an advert appears for a pair of 18" Ford wide 5's, Divco's, milk truck, high clearance wheels, whatever you want to call them. I got beaten to the punch and a friend got them first. The story was that they had come fitted to a '38 Coupe that had been imported from South Africa. Makes sense as they were a Kelsey made dealer accessory for cars that would benefit from the extra ground clearance gained by the taller wheels in rural areas. The next question is what happened to the other pair? The rumour was that someone else had them to fit to a trailer they were building. A real shame that such a rare set of wheels got split up. Fast forward a few years later and the friend is having a clear out and not one to forget I manage to him convince to sell, even better now as I actually have a wide 5 shod car! So now I've got one pair what about the others? After chasing some dead ends. I found the guy who had the other pair of wheels. Much to my surprise he also decides to sell, where before he was adamant he was going to build that trailer. Well I had to fit them up for a mock up shot didn't I! This is with just 18's on the rear. You can see the difference is size with the 16's still fitted to the front. The nice thing about them is they take a stock Ford cap. The extra size being added to the spokes at the outer edge of the wheel center. Of course if a Ford cap works then so does the Flippers. Not feeling this look though. Workable with the drop... just... I like them. I don't think their better looking than the 16's just different. They do have a certain novelty value when fitted. Just wanted to try them on for size before I stripped the bald Funza remoulds off the rims. I also needed an extra normal sized 16" wide 5 for a spare. What comes up for sale but one lone skinny wide 5 fitted to the V8-60 cars. Perfect! I like to think of it as a space saver. Looks like any wide 5. Width... 3.5" compared to the stock 4. The wheel in front is the skinny wide 5 and the larger wheel in rear is the 18"
I may be crazy but I don't like 18" wheels on anything that doesn't require them for the extra gearing on the salt. Most of the time they look exaggerated really. On your car they don't look bad as they are tucked under fenders and such. If I were you I would benefit from the extra cash and sell them. The 16's look better and while I don't think most would notice I like the tire options on 16's as well. On my '35 I am running two V8-60 wide five wheels up front. They look rad!!!
Love the 16s, 18s make the car look a little cartoonish. I dig those flipper caps though! Car looks great
With the car back at home I have been able to plug away at all the jobs that needed starting and finishing. THAT bonnet which caused such a stir previous, with opinion divided straight down the middle to either love it or hate it is now on. I still had reservations myself and spent ages just staring at them wondering wether I'd done the right thing as the bonnet was mint and looked pretty good as it sat before. Now I have them fitted I think they're great. Doesn't detract from the car overal but adds something to an otherwise bland (With the solid sides) front end. More importantly its cured the excessive heat issue I was struggling with. Fitted bumpers front and back. I went with stock '36. Looking at all the options I think its hard to beat stock. I love the way the centre dip of the bumpers mirror the grille on the front and bodyline on the rear. A day after getting these re-chromed at great expense I got offered a set of ribbed Desotos. Doh! Oh well, another time! Wipers were finally fitted and wired. Not attractive but a necessary evil living in Britain. I used a modified Lucas system using Flat Ernies Tech thread. By turning one wheel box over has given me 'clap hands' wipers and also using the wiring diagram I have got 2-speed and self park! Mmmm.. Fancy. Heater is plumbed and wired. This will all be hidden by the LZ centre console. I've left this is out for the moment as with well over 20 screws and bolts holding it in is a complete pain in the backside. When it finally goes in it can stay in! After hillclimbing the car back in October. It raised a few problems. First problem was dropping fuel. The car has the classic Early V8 problem of when you go round a sharp right hander with a tank of fuel it spills out the fuel filler and down the fender. Livable, if a little annoying and potentionaly expensive on the road. On the track it was causing me to get red flagged and creating a hazard for other racers. I came across an idea that seemed pretty cool that basically consisted of grinding down an aftermarket fuel cap that allows you to fill up without removing the cap itself by means of a trap door in the centre of the cap. I won't go into too much detail here as the full article can be found here... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=521081 Simply ground down and wedged in place. Its not a perfect seal, can't be otherwise the tank would pressurise. If it stops 70/80/90% of the spill, which it does easily then its got to be a good thing. Another problem that arose was cronic body roll, a problem that even frugel Ford was aware of as the same chassis eventually gained an anti-roll bar in '40. I looked at adapting a '40 system but trying to find a complete set-up, rebuilding the parts, changing the front suspension to fit said set-up and only being left with quite a small anti-roll bar at the end of it I decided to take the easy option and order a Chassis Engineering bolt on kit! I have to say the Chassis Engineering kit is spot on for both quality and fitment. The roll bar has killed a lot of the body roll, not all, but a noticable amount. The biggest change which I didn't expect was to the handling. Its really neutralised the handling. Turning what was a very back endy car into a car that digs in and goes round now. I would like to fit the rear roll bar as well, but with the Columbia rear, change over valve, shock placement, fuel pump its really tight for space under there to fit a roll bar. I always said I wasn't going to modify the engine. I wanted a nice sensible stocker! Well I kinda broke that rule but only buy a little bit! Previously I had a Speedway Eddie Meyer high rise on the car. I was never that impressed by it for various reasons so changed over to a Edelbrock Super Dual. Changing to the Super Dual meant moving the alternator to a side mount. I would have to pull the head to change the studs to fit the side mount bracket so pulled both heads for good measure and had them skimmed 40 thou to bump the compression up to around 7.5:1. While I had the inlet and heads off I used the oppotunity to lap the valves in to get back the proper valve clearances as I had started to notice that the engine was tapperty. It took me forever to do these simple jobs as it clashed with severe cold weather, snow, christmas and New years! I had problems mounting the offset alternator. Due to the small size of the '36 engine bay and the increased size over stock of a Powergen alternator. I tried both left and right handed brackets neither one fitting. The RH hit the water pipe and rad inlet and LH hit the bodywork and bonnet catch. What I eventually did was reduce the height of the LH bracket to get it closer to the head and then cut a new groove in the bracket to allow the alternator to sit more upright. I'm hopefully booked in to get the seat covered which will be the start of the interior and also something I hadn't planned for this quick but may well be going ahead in the next couple of weeks.... Paint...
Enbloc, this is one of my favorite cars on the HAMB! I love the louvers in the Bonnet/Hood and think they came out great. All of the other additions are smart and well planned. I love your work and car man. It's awesome!
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