I traded a fellow HAMBer a Vette for this car last winter and have been working on it some. I scrounged a 392 block and put it together along with a T5. The picture outside was how I got it minus the motor. I am use to starting with a rust bucket and doing my own work, this car has been hard for me to claim ownership and hard to get motivated. The previous owner did an excellent job and he deserves the credit for the great stance and excellent work. So far I removed the body and painted the rolling chassis and firewall, added SS hairpins. Built the hemi and installed it with the tranny. I am moving the gas tank and making a new one, installing a new wiring harness and took the screws out of the jamb and welding the holes shut. Not much to show you but hopefully I can make more progress and show more.
Keep motivated! I've seen your work before and I know this will turn out bad-ass 'cause it's lookin' pretty darn good so far.......Don.
Just give credit where due and use your talent and skill to build upon it. If you 30 Model A is any indication of the level of build you can do, I cant wait to see a finished project. Good Luck and thanks for sharing.
Looks really good. Chop is nice. Post real pictures over on my Model 40 appreciation page. See link below.
Your #1 pic is this car, I got a rollin chassis and little else with the deal. Kinda depressed now, started to work on the body and get it ready to paint, when I sanded through I noticed rust spots in the metal, every where I tried a spot the same thing. I guess I will have to take the body back off and sandblast or strip with the DA and coat the metal with something, anyone have any ideas? Any good metal neutralizers? I don't want to take the body off.
If there's rust spots on the top of the body, what is underneath? You don't want rust in the jambs, under the rockers, in the trunk troughs, underside of the floor, etc. All those places might have rust creeping through soon. Take if off and sandblast it.
Nice looking chop. What's not to like about a 34 5 window with a Hemi! Keep at it ,that will be a nice car.
Well I stripped the body and as you can see the metal work is excellent, very little mud. For some reason he did body work over rust and primered over rust. The primer coat was not adhearing well either. I have the doors and trunk lid to do yet and I welded in the top, I think a solid top looks better than a cloth top on 34's. The top that was in it was a bolt in one and there would be leakage problems in the future. I will sand blast everything and DP it before I do any bodywork. It was a lot of work and I was slow to get started but I am glad I did it, now I will feel comfortable with the paint job.
"Another 34 Ford coupe build, ho hum". a chopped 34 with a hemi? wish my life were so boring! Pardon me whilst I live vicariously through you. Awesome ride- gonna be watching this one.
Nice ride. A solid top on a chopped 34 looks better than a soft top. On a non-chopped 34 I like the unfilled look. And a solid top looks better than "bolted in top" even with your eyes closed. And it definitely doesn't get any better than a hemi in a 34 five window.
I needed something to do on Easter Day so I decided to tackle the tacking strip on the headliner. No one repops these and a fellow Hamber or Ford Barner sent me some pictures of theirs so follow along as I show you how I made mine. This will work for any car and there may be an easier way but this was how I did it. My break was not long enough so I had to make it in two pieces, I started with a 3" wide strip and bent the sides at 3/4" and then used my shrinker/stretcher to bend it. I used the corner of the turret for the radius. I welded a nut on the back so I could mount it to the 1/4 window frame like the original. Welded together. Next I cut 1/4" luan strips, I needed 3 because they are not 1/4". I laid them in the trough and started from the center and clamped it in the vice and bent the sides over working along to the end. You can use C-clamps to hold it in place. One thing with the luan is it will not take the sharp bend and sometimes break but it will stay in place when it is all done. I suppose you could use other material but that was what I had. All done and in place, about 3 hrs. @ $2.00 an hr. and $4.00 for material, $10.00, you can't buy an original for that if you can find one. I have one more to do. Bending the sides over has a tendincy to curve the ends towards themselves so lay the flat part on the floor and evenly press down on the ends, it will come back into the original shape. Hammering everything together straightens out the kinks in the metal because the wood inside tends to act as a pattern.
Ok, I haven't had time to work on this in a while so it's time for an update. I sandblasted it on Saturday, upper 80's and it took me 8 hrs but its done. The metal work that he did is excellent but the primer had rust under it, not sure why. The body I thought was stripped with a DA but the jambs would have had paint in the tight spots if that was the case, I kinda think it sat before it was primed. Any wayit's done and treated so time to move on. I also had to take the trunk skin off apparantly he just primered a deck lid and didn't check any farther, masive ammounts of puddy in it, seems someone took a hatched or ballpeen to it and mudded it up. I took the skin off straightened it up, this deck lid had very little rust in it. The door bottoms were rusted thru so I took the inner panel out and made a new outer bottom and ordered an inner. Here are some pics and more will follow as I do the doors.
The Jalopy Journal
