Progress has been a little slow with lockdowns making it hard for me to even get to where my car is but there has been a little more work completed. The main focus is getting things functional, we have made a new cowl vent mechanism to suit the modified firewall/dash. Also completed under there is the heater mount and fabbed up some demister ducting from the heater and changed the wiper motor mount and throttle setup so everything under the dash works. Seatbelt mounts and rear seat mounts are next on the list so we can then throw some color inside. Hoping that our current lockdown ends soon so I can get back to it. At the moment I need a permit to go to work and can only travel 5km from my house for the bare essentials which sucks. Ideally we will get the fab side finished up so I can bring the car back to my place and keep working on it.
Glad to hear this project is still on going, really like were your going with it. You have saved this car from the life of a street rod.
A little more progress with the bumpers ready to go to the platers and we are mocking up the wiring to make sure we have all the brackets and clips we need in place before we prep the inside for paint. Hoping to have the bumpers and exterior trims ready before Christmas.
Well a bit more progress here, all my chrome is back besides the bumpers so I have started putting the dash centre together and fine tuning the push button auto selector with the aim of painting the dash before Christmas. Hopefully early in the new year all the wiring will be finished off and throw some color in the boot/trunk which is in primer. Otherwise we have finished off some brackets for the fuel block, trans dipstick, coil etc while the front is off the car.
I really love what you're doing here, and all of the changes you made so far from it's streetrod doom to it's current custom state are great, but is there any talking you out of those Hagan headlight bezels? They really look out of place on an otherwise very period-looking build. I've heard that '54 Ford car rings can be made to work in those headlight cans if you don't want to cut up the fenders again. Sorry to be that guy, overall I really like it a lot. The caps and whitewalls are a great choice, and the poly engine and pushbutton trans are really different but in the best kind of way.
Any plans to chop this?!? This car would look even more sinister chopped! Beautiful work so far, keep it coming, you are doing great!
You are 100% right about the headlight rings, they do need to be ditched, I might look into those '54 car rings!
There were some mockups done with a roof chop, I would love to lower the roof down the track. At this stage the exterior will stay bare metal while we get the bugs ironed out and drive it a bit, that way we don't need to strip paint when/if we chop it.
This is an old thread where it was discussed using the '54 Ford headlight rings but still being able to use the Hagan buckets if they're already welded in. Seems to work with some effort, gives a nice look. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-to-do-with-the-hagans….949666/
Righto I have sourced some 54 Ford rings so once they arrive we will mock those up and make them work then I will throw the Hagan rings as far as I can! Thanks for the info @Squablow
Trim rings have arrived and they fit exactly as previously mentioned, it's almost like the Hagan pots were designed for these Ford rings! Will sort out some fixing mechanism now and get them in properly. Also from prompts on here we started looking at the Chop situation too, stay tuned!
We have had a few distractions lately, work has been crazy, I've added another car to the collection, helped organise a local hot rod and custom event and had my wife's 40th Birthday, hopefully now we can get back onto the main project. My instrument cluster has just been completed with modern mechanicals fitted behind the 41 face. Below are a couple of before and afters. We chromed the outer as originally the cluster had a bakelite trim that covered the housing but these are impossible to find. If this doesn't look any good once fitted I will make a surround up. Next step is paint the dash and get this all fitted up. I've also included a couple of photos of the new addition to the garage.
Damn, that '57 Chrysler is sweet! One day I'm going to grow up and just buy cars that are already nice. That one doesn't need a thing!
The '41 face and cluster fits into the '40 Chrysler, or did you have to make some changes to the dash metal? I've been toying with the idea of 3d printing those soy-plastic pieces if I end up keeping mine stock. All the instruments work OK on mine; but I need to make new decals for the speedo. That is a gorgeous Chrysler...'58 New Yorker? where can I get one?
The dash has been made from scratch for the RHD conversion so we had a clean start. The New Yorker is a 57 and it was owned by a collector here in Australia.
Getting back into the 40 again, the past couple of weeks have been spent getting the dash finished ready for paint and yesterday we put the first coats of final color on the dash and steering column!
We have had a fair bit more progress, finishing off some wiring and fitting the dash, started putting in some sound deadening material and prepping to paint inside the doors, boot(trunk) and door jambs. Hoping in the next few weeks we will fire the car up.
A bit more progress with the doors and window garnishes all primed up ready for paint. The heater has been replated and assembled. Next on the agenda is primer and paint inside the trunk and door frames which will them allow the wiring to be fully completed .
The Jalopy Journal
