heres a way to do the headlights if you don't like the tunneled look. sorry i don't have a photobucket account so pics will be at the end. first i recessed the original headlight bezel into the fender 2 inches. this in the end will put my headlight back in the same location. once i did this i realized i needed to relief cut my fender back towards the back of the fender. then i cut and moved the front of the fender closer to the original headlight bezel. i had to move it about an inch. i then had to cut the original mounting surface for the headlight bucket and attach it to the new mounting location. then finished it all off with 52 buick bezels. what do you guys think? the last pic is the first pic. oops.
quite a few more hrs on this one. with all the time it took to move all the pieces to fit and look like i want it to. it took me about 12hrs of metal work and ten mins of mudwork w a da (i didnt have any blocks at my house) i like the look of a traditional style french on these. more opinions?
Nice work and looks great ,but i dont understand about why you had to recess the bezels back to get the same location .I frenched the ones on my 50 truck recently the same way i have many times and they set about the same depth as before.Cut the bevel off the front of the bucket ,reverse the mounting clips for the bucket screws ,weld the rings to the fender ,follow that with a fiberglass band around the seam (helps smooth the seam transition and gaurantes no moisture gets through a weld pinhole) ,skim coat of filler ,mount the buckets from underneith and your done .I did the ones om my 54 Chevy car years ago the same way and it worked well .I dont like the tunneled look either BTW ...
take a look at stock bezels on a 54 car. completely different then most. the ones i have done on others are similar to yours. those ones are a piece of cake. i basically had to shrink the headlight mounting area down. looked way easier in my head. but it always does onto shaving the hood seam and peaking today. ***** and the stock bezels already have a slight tunneled look. i love the body lines on these but the face of them kills me. completely changing up everything. anyone looking for grill parts hit me up. not great but they are just sitting behind the garage now.
i can do cell phone only pics right now. got a friend over thats a girl that wants to learn how. figured i can let her do it. i have to strip first... the hood that is
ok, hood is all welded up and peaked. unfortunately my phone died. so ill post pics for you guys tomorrow. she did a really good job. super stoked. and ill give everyone directions on how to do it too.
Your right they are slightly recessed from the factory .I remember them now .I also dont like the face of a 54 Chevy or the wrap around grill.I changed mine up radically way back when .55 Chevy headlights ,53 Chevy grill opening ,52 Plymouth grill bar.I dig the 1/4's and roofline on these cars ,but the rest is lacking IMO. Cant wait to see what you do to change yours ...
Well I really dig where this is heading and regardless if this is the build thread or not, I've subscribed to it. Please keep the updates coming!
also contemplating bringing the fender side peaks into the front doors, ending about 8" from the back of the door.[/QUOTE] That would be cool!
ok. sorry it took so long to post this up. had to figure out how to get my pics from my phone to the computer. here you go. peaking and filling the seam on my 54 chevy bel-air: first i started with the peak. i bought some 1/16' rod to weld into the already existing peak. i do tacks every inch then go back and put another tack in between them. then i alternate welding on each side of the rod. i weld up every 8th gap first. keeping each welded area about 2" apart. this is how i do all my welding on seams. then i go back and and start welding it up by every 8th one until it is all welded up.
then, just to show that anyone can do this i had my friend jessica weld up the seam. she has never welded in her life. i put down some anti heat gel that i got off of a tool truck but you can get it at a local hardware store that sells welding equipment. i basically make a barrier along both sides of my welding area. then weld it up using the same technique as i did when i welded up the seam. we took a ten min break between each pass. it took us about an 1.5 hrs to weld it up but we had no warpage. i think it turned out pretty good for someone that has never welded before. **** jessica wanted me to make sure to put that she is wearing bad clothes over her good clothes because it makes her look fat.... so i am
ha ha, she is camera shy. actually got mad at me taking pics w her in them. and just a heads up, the louver punching of this hood is going to be in an upcoming issue of hot rod deluxe. there's a 138 louvers on there, any misfits fans?
I like what you're doing. In fact, I see on the tops of my rear fender where I'll probably eliminate the seam and peak them as you've done on the hood. Ask Jessica if she wants some more practice. Mike
The Jalopy Journal
