Cloning the "Pioneering Plymouth" ...a Barris Kustom 1953 Plymouth

I have done some work....but a emergency came up and I need to step back for a bit. Will back shortly. Don't lose faith...this car will be built.

 

Makes me miss my 54 plymouth wagon...keep us posted on your progress

 

I have the stock 53/54 bench seats if your interested. I also have the back seats as well (out of a 4 door)

 

Finally got into the garage since the move to the new house. So here are some pictures of where I am at. Only help I have in the garage is my dog right now and he isn't much help except the make me happy when something isn't going my way.

Anyway, this is what I am working with. Floors are pretty solid except for some rot behind the driver. And there is some around the front floor/frame mounts. Hard to believe its a Northeast car!! Ripped everything out today except for the steering wheel. I took my time to bag and label everything while photographing how things went. I am almost restoring this car, so I need things to be correct as stock while customizing.

Only messed up one thing. I broke my temp gauge while stripping my dash. Not too worried as its just a stock gauge.

And I didn't find anything but mouse poop and an acorn.

So here are the pictures....promise to update more often as I can.

 

some more...also started a chrome pile. Lots to chrome.

 

Nice!! Almost time to choppy choppy!!!! Can't wait to get back up there and help!

 

Mikey,
'Glad to see you're back on the project. I have stuff to do on the '39 but it's just too damn cold to work in the garage. Maybe I should move to Texas where it's warm..... oh, and we have lots more snow than we need.

 

I'm super stoked for this car to be worked on let alone finished. It's one of the coolest if not THEE coolest customs from back in the day. I was just reading a Car Craft (I think) and it was in there. Love it....hurry hurry!!

 

Ill have Teresa make dinner again!

Well we are getting an ice storm tonight and it is going to drop into the single digits. So it is getting cold for me to work in the garage too.

Going as fast as I can minus cash flow right now. Im lucky as most of the stuff needed to do right now involves taking apart stuff. And cleaning up crap. Wait till you see what Pete and I found under the paint. You are going to love it. **sarcasm**

 

Great project, I look forward to seeing it progress. Looks like a good solid base to work with although it sounds like you may have found something bad from that last comment!
All the best.
Andy.

 

Those floors are in pretty good shape! Im going to have to replace all 4 pans and that access cover on the drivers side. Cant wait to see you start the chop! Dont keep us waiting...whats under the paint??

 

Botched body work on the quarters. That is whats under the paint

 

Don't be afraid to cut it.I'm sure you have looked at every picture available and many Hamb'rs have helped you with info on how to go about it....now go ahead and CHOP IT already!

 

Story of our lives huh?

 

Oh I am not afraid, I just am still working on scaling a photo to the measurements i took on my car. I have gotten two different stories out of two little books when the car was shown. One says the car was chopped 3" in the front and 5" in the back. The other says 4" in front and 6" in back. I want to make sure its spot on. Some people may not notice but it will drive me up a wall if not done correct. But I assure you...Very Very Soon!!

Get this, the guy who sold me this car ripped me a new asshole because I sprayed it flatblack. Told me the car was a survivor and it had a perfect body? Guess he didn't know about the quarters. He is going to have kittens when he sees it chopped. hah

 

Great looking project, waiting for more progress pics! Keep up the good work!

 

Glad to see you're back at it. Love your rug, might as well feel cozy under there.

 

Ehh so I am looking at my roof and then looking at the Sloan roof and I can not for the life of me figure out how they did the chop.

Anyone want to help figure this out?

Here is a side view of my roof and the Sloan car. I put some measurments on the photo to figure height out.

I am open to suggestions.

 

Looks to me like they cut the rear right at the beltline, took the height out there and moved the roof forward to mate the windshield pillars together. I have a hard time believing that it's chopped 4 and 6, it doesn't look that radical, it doesn't even look that sloped for being 2 inches shorter in the rear.

 

^ beat me to it....

 

I don't think they moved it forward from looking at other views of the car. I think they dropped the back down and added a section in the middle of the roof. But then again I sure ain't no expert


BB

 

i agree, look at where the drip rail meets the quarter

 

With all due respect to Rik, you don't have to be a "master of custom history and style" to see the decisions made in the car above were foolish....

 

Ok I did some more measuring.

The stock height from the top of the door to the roof is about 14". It looks like 8.5" in the picture.

Also where the back part of the stock rear pillar meets the belt line to the area where the quarter dips down to the taillight is around 38". A ruff measurment says the rear pillar never moved. I mean look where it sits above the rear wheel compared to the barris car. Almost identical.

Maybe they did add meat to the center?

 

Maybe it`s just my eyes or angle the original photo was taken but is there a notch right above the rear window?If so,it could be eliminated by moving the frame forward some,right?Then again,it wouldn`t be an exact clone...

 

It looks like a pretty simple chop, I'm doubting it was cut as much as claimed and also doubting the rear was chopped more than the front. There's not much lean to the roof front to rear. I'd do some playing around with photoshop or MS paint or something to try and do some scaling before cutting into the metal.

The front vent windows on Sloan's car look longer than yours do. Also the body flare at the front of the rear quarters is more rounded than yours. Those two things might throw off your visual differences between the two cars.

I'm betting it was cut, moved forward to match the lower A-pillars, and then the C-pillars were relocated and trimmed to match the new curves of the upper window channels. Judging by the length & slope of the rear window, the package tray was kept in the stock location and only the C-pillars were moved forward to match the new roof position. Also note the rear edge of the rear quarter windows is not as angled as it was stock, so that is also throwing off your eyes looking at the two cars side by side.

As I mentioned before, using something like photoshop/paint can help you see where you need to cut your metal before you actually put a blade to it. Try to get a more matched profile picture of your car that's closer to the Sloan car and zoom into each section, scaling everything you can until you see what changes need to be made.

 

As you take height out of the B pillar, the pillar becomes narrower, since it's wider at the bottom than it is 6 inches up. So if the forward edge of the pillar is in the same place after the chop vs. before the chop, that implies that the roof moved forward.

Does that make sense? Makes sense in my head. Also wanted to add that I love the fact that this car is being built. Great custom.

 

You are absolutely correct. Total brain fart on my end

 

Thanks to Geiser on here I was able to get some measurements of the car....

Check them out.....

 

Very impressive....I will be watching.