Projects My '51 Shoebox build

I picked up the car about June last year, and I've been working on it on and off since then. I was told an older fellow was in the middle of rebuilding the car years back, and ran into some health issues and passed away, so the car was put up for sale. It's got a 351W and C4 trans installed, but not hooked up. The plan is to strip down the multiple paintjobs to bare metal, and put it in epoxy primer for the time being. It will eventually get a maroon bc/cc paintjob once all the drivetrain and suspension work is complete.



Sitting in it's new home


Starting the teardown


Threw this together to remove the door hinge screws thanks to the HAMB. It worked great






Chopped off the old rusted rocker and found some previous body repair


Fitting up the new rocker




Stripped all the paint down, welded up the side molding holes and put it in primer

 

Getting the wheels ready for paint. This will hopefully be the color I'll paint the car.






Next, I started working on the drivers side.






My 2 year old checking out the car

 

That's a good start to a fine build.

 

Shaving the license plate indention on the trunk


My original plan was to run an airbag suspension, but I've changed my mind and plan on lowering it about 6 or 7". I read up a little on re-arching leaf springs, and decided to dearch mine about 4". I'll most likely run a 2 or 3" lowering block also.





That's where I'm at right now. I'll keep this thread updated, but progress is going slow. Nothing real exciting about sanding old paint

 

Great start... Subscribed !

 

Kool! scrub all of the blue coating off whitewalls. will stain if left on too long.

 

Looking good!

 

Subscribed. Stupid question #1; how did you get it stripped so fast?

 

Great bones! Can't wait to see your progress!

 

subscribed ! great progress !

 

Thanks for that bit of info. I was hoping the blue coating would help keep them from getting dirty, but looks like I'll go clean it off now so they won't be stained blue

Definately wasn't anything fast about stripping it. lol. I used a 7" 60 grit sanding disc on my buffer to strip the top layers of paint off, then used 80 grit to finish bringing it down to metal. I used a 3m clean and strip disc on all the tight areas to strip them

 

Looking good. Hey on your new rockers. At the front mine where a bit to long and had to modify them so i could get a decent gap. Other wise i would have had a very wide gap at the fender. Your looks long to but hard to tell in the pic.You may want to check your gap at this point.

 

Moving rite along! Looks like a pretty good car to start with as well. Keep up the good work.

 

Looks like you're off to a great start. Subscribed.

 

My first thought was WTF when i saw this thread.
That headline of this thread got me confused,because my build thread got almost same.
Anyway,thats a nice start for your project,Keep it up!

 

You are correct. I didn't get a picture of it, but I reworked the front to make it line up better. I wasn't too impressed with the EMS panels. The entire top of the rocker was curved down about an inch, and I had to make some relief cuts to bend it back flat.

 

Lookin good! Can't wait to see how it sits.

 

Hitchin' a ride... looks great so far!

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Looks like it's in good hands.

That crying baby doll leaning on the driver's side is more life-like than most.

 

Those are the best helpers!

 

Got the motor pulled the other day, and leveled out the car to get it ready for the S10 frame clip. I used a plumb bob to transfer some reference points from the frame onto the concrete. I then lined up the S10 frame under the car, and found the best place to make my cuts. Once I get it welded in place, I'll go through the front suspension and replace all of the worn out parts.

 

whats going on man... this is low88 from the FSC days. nice to see you've made it over here. Shoebox looking good!

 

Thanks man. How've you been? Badass '30 build you've got going on!

 

Hey man, before you cut the chassis and S10 clip it.....

Oh, never mind.

 

I used HAMB member the-rodster's s10 clip pictures as a reference, which made it super easy(Thanks BTW). The outer width of the S10 clip was the exact same as the shoebox frame. The inner, however, was 2.5" narrower on the S10 clip, so I pie cut and removed a 1.25" wide slice on each frame rail. The frame height was pretty much exact between the frames. I still need to make some fish plates and weld them in, but I'm done for the day

 

Go man go!

Rich

 

looking good dude!

 

I got the front clip most of the way finished. All the front suspension is new(control arm bushings, balljoints, 2" drop spindles, brake rotors, tierods, drag link, etc). I cut the coils down some to lower the ride height, and I'll proabably need to cut some more once I get the car back together sitting at full weight. I'm shooting for about 4-5" of ground clearance under the frame rails. Still need to add a front crossmember and bumper brackets, but I'm going to do that later down the road once I fit up the sheetmetal and line it all up. Rolled the car out of the shop and hosed it down since it had accumulated soo much dust.

 

looking real nice

 

Looking Good. Nice Work. Nice Car. Summer is coming.

VR&C.