Projects A thank you. And an introduction to The Butterscotch Coupe (w/build pics)

I really liked the look of the molded in gas cap, so I decided to do the same with the brake lights, license plate, and grille ornament. I ended up welding flat plates. Lead would have been the obvious choice to fill the gaps but I had no idea how to do it right. Slowly working the mig in small areas eventually did the trick.

 

More bodywork. I put this section off for a long time. At some point, the back half of the RR fender had been replaced. Bernie told me that again, without power tools, he used an axe to remove the old sheet metal. This was all buried under some impressive Bondo sculpturing.

No one makes a patch for the area so I had to figure out a way to make it out of flat sheet, including that belt line. By the second try, I had something really close. Some final hammer and dolly work came later.

 

Dude!!! Very nice!! Please more build pictures

 

WOW!! VERY impressive, great details. The over all look is perfect before you even notice all the details. I love the color too. We grew up in the same era and we seem the have similar taste in coupes. I just don't have the skills to build one

 

Thanks! I had heard before this this has an “east coast” thing going. I don’t know. It’s just what looks good to me.

 

Somewhere around this time I decided to tackle to roof. As I said, it had a steel insert already but it was riveted on and bondo’d over. I was starting to see these sliding ragtop kits and thought it was cool. It’s definitely a nice option and really helps to see those traffic lights. This top is from Legacy Products. It’s 40x40, which is slightly smaller than the original opening. I added strips of 1/16th steel to fill the gaps and to help keep the opening rigid.

The original visor had been welded on previously but it was crooked and beat up. After buying and returning a terrible looking repop, I scored a nice original on eBay. Everything is now welding up solid. I also welded up the rear roof seams.

 

I think I will just say Welcome and, WOW! Nice ride!

 

My engine mock-up told me that I was going to need a little more room for the distributor. Bernie ended up needing part of what was left of the old firewall. Luckily, the internet came though and I found a decent original. I really like the stock shape and never much cared for the flat or flipped look. So, I cut it right at the inverted “V” and set just that section back 1”.

 

A couple of mock-up shots. It really pays to almost completely build it while its in this stage. You can work and try things without worrying about dinging it up. This was also right around the time of the great header debate. I really liked those block huggers! I had seen too many sprints that hung out too far or down too low and I knew I didn’t want that. I bought these headers as a kit. That way, I was able to shorten all the tubes and tuck the pipes in real close. The side pipes at this point are 48”, as long as I could find with the turnout. I wanted them to come back farther (past the door) and end at the same point in front of the rear tires, so I eventually sectioned and lengthened them.

 

Beautiful, both in design & workmanship ! Love it.

 

Very nice creativity and vision.

 

I had some things in the works on the inside too. I know its been done before but it just had to have this vintage Ludwig “Speed King” bass drum pedal for the gas pedal. I ended up switching the arms to something a little better looking but this got the geometry working. I found a brake pedal that matched really well from Billet Specialties (I know, I know). A trip through the sand blaster gave it a cast look.

 

I'd say you knocked it out of the park. And thank's for sharing the build process.

 

I used a ‘32 style dash with cast aluminum gauge panel. I made this switch panel that mounts below the dash.

 

I like them, as I think they bring great balance to the over look.
Without them the tyres would look too big, against the wheel well , and if the tyres were smaller, they maybe wouldn’t match the motor size ? (Just my thoughts).

Great car, colour, just everything about it is perfect !
Thanks for showing us.
.

 

With that, the rough fab work was done enough for everything to come back apart. I had done bodywork and paint before. But I was getting to the point where I was willing to let a shop finish getting it straight and perfect and shooting it the three-stage color I liked. Regular body shops didn’t want to touch it. The highest “specialty shop” quote I got was 65K. This wasn’t to build the car, just bodywork and paint. Now, I don’t begrudge a shop that can get this kind of money. It just wasn’t in my “home build” budget. My mind was made up that I would finish it at home.

 

That shop gave me one very valuable piece of advice though. I told them that they could paint the chassis and body separately and I would mount the body back at home. He said that he never paints these bodies without having them mounted first. That way, all the shimming for the door alignment is locked in and you don’t have to worry about cracking the paint at the pillars. Made sense to me.

 

Great looking car and super clean fab work. You killed it!


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Thanks. I think they’re a much needed “squaring up” of the tapered rear these fenderless cars have. I’ve seen the massive aftermarket wide fenders but that wasn’t quite what I was going for. My all time favorite bobbed fenders seem to consistently show up on ‘33 Willys gassers. The scale and proportion just look cool to me. This is the car I couldn’t stop staring at. Perfect!

 

So, back to fab we go. As luck would have it, my son’s high school upgraded their tech shop wing, including a shiny new slip roll. I sent him to school with a couple sheets of 18 gauge and some 3/16 steel rod. He rolled everything into the rough diameter of the wheel well. I mocked up a basic shape in cardboard and kept trimming away until it looked right. I knew that if I kept it flat, it would just look like a mud flap. It needed some contour. I welded the steel in place an then used a buck I made from 2x2” oak to slowly hammer out a shape. Once I was happy, I welded the steel rod in place to make a little lip. I wanted to keep the lip small because the fenders themselves were so narrow. With everything welded up, these things are solid!

I forgot to get a picture when I was hammering with the buck. The picture below showing the buck is me just holding up afterwards to give you an idea.

 

Work on the body progressed at the usual snail’s pace. In the meantime, I finally settled on a color. The paint system is from Urekem and the color is Butterscotch Pearl. I added the .004 gold micro flake because... well... do I really have to explain it? This is a three-stage system: basecoat, pearl coat and the clear. A lot of painters will put the flake in an inter-coat clear layer(s). I like to put it in the pearl coats. As the flake gets buried under the layers of the semi-transparent pearl, they take on different shades, To me, this looks so much more dimensional than just having flake laying on top of the color.

The chassis was up first.

 

Wow...this is like local history to me. I have been a member of the Triple Cities Street Rods, (Binghamton NY) for over 45 years and knew "Wild Willy" Wyso from rod runs back in the 70s/80s. He always attended our "Hickories Rod Run" back then,and I'd see him at the Norsemen Run (Gloversville) and a Capital Area Rod Run (Albany). Same with Bernie...ran into him at our shows and the Capital Area Rods run...and I do remember when he replaced the coupe body with the sedan. I hadn't seen or heard anything from/about Bernie in years, and then 3 or 4 years ago, a buddy (and fellow Triple Cities club member) Doug Soden told me Bernie just dropped of his Sedan at his shop (Rome, Pa) for a complete, frame off rebuild, which he completed last year. It seems old hot rod never die...and I finally know where Bernie's coupe body went

That being said, you have done an amazing build, a nicely engineered, well thought out beautiful rod. And although not 100% HAMB friendly...myself being a rodder from the 70s/80s...it's right up MY alley. I LOVE IT

 

That’s really cool! I figured it was only a matter of time before someone from NY recognized the name or car. I remember the Norsemen shows too. This is me in ‘86 when I went for that fateful ride. Bill was swapping over to the slicks for that weekend’s Nostalgia Drags at Lebanon Valley. What a night!

 

With the body mounted, the last of the bodywork was completed.

 

I took a break from car itself at this point to build the 454 that I had been collecting parts for. It’s a tried and true recipe with modest boost and a hydraulic cam that should give me more than enough grunt to get moving. While my son was home for Thanksgiving break last year, we finally set it in place. (That’s the same kid from the disassembly pic!)

 

Final assembly. Sound deadener went down in every place I could stick it. Wiring came next. I used a universal kit from American Autowire. I made the dash and switch panel inlay from guitar pick guard material.

 

Getting there. One more trial fit of the lengthened side pipes before sending everything off the Jet Hot for coating. The sliding ragtop was going in for the last time at this point too.

 

Outstanding work. Wild guess,that strapping young lad is your assistant?


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Thanks to the pandemic, getting it to the upholstery shop is delayed until the fall. The seats and panels will be cream, with a darker shade of carpet. I put some cheapie black carpet down to get me through the summer.