Hot Rods What have I started!!!! 31 Coupe...

Looks and sounds like its cleaning up real nice!
I dont feel you can go wrong with an A coupe!

 

Ok so moving forward....
Lucky picked up my coupe body today and took it to his shop to massage and repair the necessary issues with the body. Horray for Lucky's Hot Rod Shop!!!
He started by grinding off multiple places where the car had bondo just slathered over the body lines. Really odd. After cleaning some of the worst offending areas we found that the body was actually better in some spots than expected. He lined up the drivers side door and clearanced the inner lower door to be able to close fully and properly. He fabricated a piece to replace the drivers side door handle mount so that it will actually hold onto the body now. He also welded in the drivers side rear wheel well sheet metal and now it actually looks like a coupe without a big chunk of metal missing.
The roof panel was some late model ribbed piece that had sunken in to actually droop into the cab area. Lucky had an insert and the roof piece will be cut out and replaced with a proper panel that will fit properly.
I ordered two front rims and I'm going to run the reversed chrome steelies on the rear with 700 15s and 560 15s in the front. Got my tires and they sent 700 16s by accident. Oh well. Fixing that and little heres and theres. Progress.....









Sorry some of the pics suck.

 

looks like its coming together great! keep it up

 

Nice..

 

Today Lucky and I ran down to CW Moss to pick up a bunch of needed parts for the coupe. Also stopped by Performance Plus tire in Long Beach to get the right tires.

The right side well is installed and he also removed the old rear lower trunk panel and replaced it with an actual proper piece. It was just flat metal and it was bastarded in there. In front of the lower right well area there was up to half an inch of bondo put on to cover the mangled area. Removed that and is making a piece to make that more manageable. The panel behind the dash was badly mutilated and had been cut out before and partially welded back in. ???? I'd love to know why people do some things to cars. He removed that and put in a replacement one that he had. He reinforced the windshield hinge area with a metal piece that way the windshield would actually have some support to hold on to. He also did some more shaping on the right rear panel to help line it up. Under the rear window Stevie Wonder did some work and he's going to try to clean that up a bit. The metal underneath the trunk lid hinges is all tweaked because the guy who built the car had NO support from the whole rear section of the car from just ahead of the rear wheel wells back!! The whole rear end of the body moving just pretzled the metal up. Sheesh...... Every step forward reveals a few more steps as usual but it is going forward.
Should have the rear tires mounted tomorrow and then on to measuring the rear shock upper mounts and making a reinforcement plate for the rear crossmember.

 

Looking good. Any more pics of that extreme chopped coupe in the background?

 

Nicee! Goodluck

 

There yous go. All I got lol

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=319345

 

Great thread...

 

That poor car! I'm glad to see it is finally getting some love.

 

Cool build...you are definately improving that little hot rod.

Is that Weez's Model A roadster in the background getting fixed up?

 

Maaaaaaaybe.

 

Loookin' good, you had a nice start there and it's good to see you taking it to the next level and doing it right.

 

It look's like it's coming right along. Keep up the good work!!!

 

Spent the day at the shop with Lucky working on the coupe. Still every move in uncovers more headaches. Today I started taking some of the bondo off the left rear quarter. Jesus. I looked like a goddamn snowman after grinding a bunch off and the size of the bondo in spots where we broke it off amazed me. Especially with tthe fact that after five minutes with a body hammer the bondo needed to fill the gap was more than half fixed. Oh well. Guess the guy that did the body work didnt own a hammer. Lucky Also cleaned up the spot below the rear window the best he could without recutting the whole panel.
Got the windshield properly fixed today. Adjusted the mount and installed a panel we fabricated a few days ago. Now it swings open and adjust as it should. Much better than the sheet metal screws that were holding it in before.
In the pictures it may be hard to see but someone had installed a ribbed roof panel from some astrovan or something like that. The ribs dont bother me but the fact that the roof sagged down so badly did. Lucky cut out the old panel and trimmed a 50's wagon roof panel he had to fit and its almost ready to weld in and it looks much better. Things are going forward still thank god but still more to go.
Still looking for a decent and not top dollar expensive body guy in so cal that wants some work!

 

im liking this alot too.. keep ot ropckin, cant wait to see it at the Round Up

 

Man thats alot of fixin, I'll keep watching.

 

Top Shelf body guy without the top shelf price here. PM sent.

 

Wow I'm glad your saving that A bone. It looked descent in the original pics, but damn when you started tearing into that thing it really showed how the original builder was more of a rat rodder than hot rodder.

 

Wow, in the first pictures that car didn't look that bad.

 

Wow what a time crunch looking forward to seeing it at round up. Keep it coming!

 

Best of luck to you guys!

 

It's looking good man.
Great progress.
I think the one pic will get you into the bondo abuse thread.

 

We're trying hard to get it done.
FORD!!!!! I got nothing on your coupe but maybe you'll let me park next to you for five minutes so my car can see what its supposed to look like.
I promise I'll bring you some WD40.

 

Looking good. Its funny how much can be hidden with plastic

 

Awesome Joe! I'm sure between the two of you it's gonna rule!

 

This is a timeless pic. Throw this sucker into black and white and you would think it was from the 40's or 50's.

Great work bringing that thing back together properly.

Nice!!



BloodyKnuckles

 

Just noticing the joints in the wheel well and roof repair, real sharp body may you have working on the car, myst be a cousin to Steve Wonder.
One look at that body in my neck of the woods and it would be classified "FUBAR". You Cal guy are amazing.
For the unknowing, F__ked Up Beyond All Repair.

 

Um. . .



. . . WOW!



Holy shit, that's amazing. . . and not for good reasons, ha. Glad to see you guys are bringing this thing back to life.