Projects 1934 3 window HighBoy Build Begins

IMHO I feel it would be best as per your 3rd photo, under the spreader bar, just neatly sunk into the pan in front of the coilovers. Have seen it done both ways, and can find examples that 'work', however, on average, under the body is subtle, flowing and less in your face.





Cheers,

Drewfus

 

Drewfus,
I made a decision: smile.
Definitely going with 1937-38 Chrysler "Rilite 1904" tail lamp without the risers. We will mount under the spreader bar as in both your examples above.
Regards,
George

 

Taillights under, ala' Jacobs coupe.

 

s w e e t

 

Even sweeter is that Josh has the entire roof chop rework completed. The Walden insert is ready to be laid out for louvers and HOPEFULLY we will get to go see Bob Padilla in Pueblo to have the louvers punched in both the insert as well as the deck lid soon.

I have 1937 Chrysler tail housings and NOS lenses and reflectors on the way. Kentucky, British Columbia and Finland were all co conspirators in helping me with enough piece parts to yield the needed assemblies. My guess is that I will have to re chrome the bezels and doors upon receipt. Not to worry,... just happy to have found them. The lenses are pn RILITE 1904 and were not hard to find NOS and not expensive at 25 dollars. The center reflectors took a little more effort to find nice ones and were VERY UGLY when it came to the price. I am glad i only needed 2 of them. grin.

Best regards,
George

 

Josh has the windshield frame chopped and looking like it will fit. smile

We are definitely scheduled for Bob's louvering press Saturday morning in Pueblo.
Regards,
George

 

Good Morning,
The fuel cap ( pictured above in the post from Rex) is 4 7/16 inches diameter with a 3/8ths inch flange height. I would like to sink this flange into the upper quarter panel rather than to flush mount it.

In an effort to make the recess required , Nick "Fatkoop" and I played tool and die/ machinist's last night. Nick dropped in a little after 6pm and we spent 5 hours machining upper and lower dies that are male and female to emboss a circle into a panel which will be inserted by Josh into the Coupes Quarter.

We chucked up, 6 inch diameter round stock blanks that I had on hand for hammer forms on the 48 coupe head light buckets. The steel was very good quality and machined nicely. I had made up a drawing for a 4 5/8 DIA male die and a 4 3/4 female DIE to sandwich a blank in. We decided to form the blank by putting the stack into my press brake and squeezing the sandwhich together.

We checked out dimensions, fiddled around and adjusted here and there. We added a half inch bolt in one side with a clearance fit on the opposite side to keep everything all centered up and we were ready to make the part.

We lowered the press brake a little at a time and carefully got the stack fully pressed together.
All smiles...ummmm???? UNTIL ,...it would not come apart???? A long story short , lot's of RUBE GOLDBERG effort, heating , banging , prying etc. etc until we finally got one side of the sandwhich off and then had to pry the part off the other side.

Pictures attached.

The blank needs to be either circular or much larger to prevent uneven pulling of the material as it is pressed into the dies. If you look at the last picture, it shows the part has 8 distinct inner surfaces. ( 4 round and 4 slightly straight) The picture from the edge shows how perpendicular the sides are and why we need to add a couple of degrees of draft angle to get the part out of the tool. Last but not least, I need to use a different steel. I will get some draw quality 19 guage for the effort. The 18 guage is just a little too much, PLUS, it is very stiff to work with after the forming. Nick and I are planning on getting back together tonight for cleaning up the dies before doing a little more developement on them. It was a super fun effort and I really enjoyed the fun of making a one off part with my friend. Thank you Nick.
I will post a few more pictures after we wind up the effort.

BTW, the part in the last picture WAS, repeat WAS really beautiful until we had to beat the heck out of it to get it out of the DIE. smile.

Regards,
George

 

George,
Wouldn't it be easier to form the recess out of the existing quarter panel sheet metal? I'd be concerned about trying to get the plane of the stamped piece's edges to match the plane (slight curve?) of the quarter panel when welding it in place.

 

There is just enough of a flat plane to get it to work this way. The other considerations are project time and quality.
It is much faster to press this in my shop and let Josh put it in the flat spot than trying to hand form this detail. The stamping will be deep. Symmetrical and extremely nice. While Josh could get there , it is a high quality approach that will free his time up to work the many other facets of the build. The shop is loaded and balancing work load only allows one man on my car. I am very hands on and enjoy taking on some of the load myself. Engine/ tranny , EFI , chasing parts, working with an outside supplier for a seat. Etc. keeps me involved and participating. So that's why this approach. It may be better for Rex and Josh for another reason as well......it keeps me out of their hair !

Trust the 32 is progressing well!

Best regards,
George


[/B]UOTE=ezdusit;8795484]George,
Wouldn't it be easier to form the recess out of the existing quarter panel sheet metal? I'd be concerned about trying to get the plane of the stamped piece's edges to match the plane (slight curve?) of the quarter panel when welding it in place.[/QUOTE]

 

No problem reworking the dies tonight and trying a square. ( NOPE!) and then a circle. NICE.
Now all I have to do is wait on the AK Steel that is on its way from the TIN MAN that had a little extra. smile. ( Thanks Dan!) The AK should eliminate the need for me to flatten tucks around the flange.
regards,
George

 

Saturday was louver day for Rex, Pete, Nick and I. We all drove down to Pueblo to see friends for breakfast before going with Bob to his garage to press some louvers. The deck lid has 145, roof panel 150 and tail pan 29 for a total of 324 louvers.Wait! ..we did the tail pan twice for IN and Outs so add 29 again.
353 Louvers!
No one was injured in the wreck on the deck lid. smile . We somehow got off the line after pressing 4 of 5 rows. Rex (or Josh) is going to cut out the mistake and replace with a new section of metal that will allow us to redo/finish the last row.
Please find pictures of the tail pan with "in and out" louvers. Rex will put the parts back on the coupe and send pictures.
It was a very long and slow process and we didn't get finished until 7pm. The effort required multiple sets of hands to support each panel , center align and then pull the hydraulic lever for a resounding shot gun BLAST noise as each louver was punched. It was a bit un-nerving at first and after a while we just got used to it and carried on without jumping each time.

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the roof panel as it came out very nice!

A huge thank you to Bob for hosting us and letting us use his louver press.

regards,
George

 

This is going to be a damn nice car. I'm kinda a fan of these thing. Check my Book of Face page below.

 

Curbspeed,
I enjoyed all the Model 40's on your page.... nice! smile.

Rex couldn't wait until tomorrow and dropped into the shop this morning to lay the louvered panels on the car. He snapped a few pictures to include the prototype gas filler insert I provided him yesterday. You might also notice in the first picture, that Josh has started installing the new wood.

Rex, thanks for the good company and your help with the project.
Regards,
George

 

more pics...
I think we need to add a few more rows along the bottom of the deck lid. We will use a 1937 Ford deck lid handle.
Regards,
George

 

I am ready to start building linkage and bought a few pieces from Kinsler to get started with. I haven't found anyone for advice with the TV cable so I will round up a few friends and we will go after it!
Regards,
George

 

That engine is looking simply awesome. Clean and black, just great!

 

Here are some pictures from this weeks progress after the louver party. Roof is welded in , deck lid is patched and ready for more louvers. The radiator has a first pass "idea" from Rex. I like it a lot , but might suggest we rotate the louvers 90 degrees. Headlights need to go on to get a good visual on the grill shell chin to be fabricated and added. The guys at Custom Auto metal finished the grill bars and it is about ready to be sent to the chrome plating shop.

I am still waiting on receiving my 37 Chrysler tail lights and AK steel for the gas cap insert. The project is moving forward nicely and I am enjoying the process.
Regards,
George

 

...yes, some more pictures. Blue dye chem for a guide coat that Josh is using to get his finish as nice as possible. Josh has the roof panel starting to look like it was always there. smile. The grill side filler panel will NOT be louvered, but have a reveal rolled in with the bead roller. (Something close to the marked line, Rex is playing with this and will make a finished panel for both sides once he gets a set of lines that he likes)

Looking good guys. Thank you!

I am going to take the Hemi up to Loveland this weekend and pick up the deck lid so I can head back to Bob's in Pueblo to redo the last row of louvers.

Regards,
George

 

Just gone throu the thread, that is a great looking 34...

 

last two pics from Josh for today... louvered roof panel install complete!

I just can not quit staring at the car. smile

 

Pete and I drove up to Loveland Friday afternoon to drop off the Hemi for Josh to mock up the headers. We picked up the deck lid and this morning we made the trip back with Nick to see the Pueblo guys and then Bob hosted for a redo on the last column of louvers on the deck lid. We added an additional row across the bottom to equal out the perimeter measurements.

In the attached picture , Bob also showed off his latest louver die results. It's old school stretched to 4 inches. The round profile louvers are a lot easier to punch than my square profiled louvers.

If I can find someone from Custom Auto to open up for a 2 minute drop off, my wife and I will drive up to Loveland tomorrow to drop off the deck lid, 37 Chrysler tail light buckets and another gas filler recess stamping. I worked on the tail light reflectors some tonight and have an issue with the glass reflectors having light scratches from years of storage in an apparent BUCKET!. LOL . I tried buffing without any success and may need to buy some glass polishing compound. I think it's "cesium".

Regards,
George

 

My wife and I made the run up to Loveland to drop off the parts discussed above. Dave Crouse was nice enough to drop by and let me in to leave them.
We ate lunch at a restaurant named "The Next Door" ( casual great food) and made it home with plenty of time for me to play in the shop.

Several posts up the list somewhere, there is a picture of a small piece of paper with a "Crown" drawn on it. It was taped to a wheel center. I took the little drawing and my parts to a local hand engraver and left them. He made up a sample for approval and while the work was outstanding, the little circles at the top of each point were different shapes. IE: doing circles by hand is hard to do! Ahhh, good thing we tried a sample. The decision was made to leave points and that I would drill the circles at home.

The attached pictures are of the engraved knock off center. The first one is with engraved points. The second one is as "center punched" (sorry its blurry, but cant re take)and the third one is after drilling and the engraved lines scraped out with a dental tool.

I chose the Crown motif to go with my last name and it will be filled with one shot to go with the car color or pin stripe when those decisions are made.

regards,
George

 

A little more off the top please....

One of the things discussed early on was that the top chop needed a little more rake. The decision was made to leave it alone as there was a lot to do and re chopping the top was just going to take too much time. When Josh had to lift the right quarter up over a quarter inch as it didn't match, WHAT THE HECK! MIght as well lower the 'A' pillars a little to get a better look.

Ready for this.....ONE HALF INCH! smile

See if you can tell the difference?

Very nice work from Josh and a super quality attitude!!!

regards,
George

P.S. We are getting rid of the passenger side wiper and going to go with just one.

 

A lot of very nice work here!

 

Josh was able to swap the mock up motor for the real deal today. He is having to take a sheet metal break to mock up the headers and send them out to be manufactured in North Dakota. It is race season, so I am expecting a 6 week turn around.

Josh had been worried about space for the alternator and he was correct! See attached picture. A fancy bracket, but no room to hang it due to the tight space between the frame rail and the alternator. A pattern will be made and a new bracket water jet cut out of aluminum to hang it near where you see it in the picture. . Yes , I know this picture has the bracket upside down, grin. And the bright blue fan isn't going to stay either. LOL

A small matter, just a little more detail to be worked.

Regards,
George

 

Very nice coupe and great metal work.
Lynn

 

As Josh and Rex keep focussing on the sheetmetal work, I have been driving things that I can. Drivetrain, seat, wheels and tires, custom design and fab items etc. One of the things I found interesting was the ability to have custom headers made from PVC mock ups. The kit from the manufacturer came in last week and Josh swapped my motor out yesterday to begin the mock up. He had to go out locally and buy more PVC fittings/ pipe in order to get the look we all desire. "agressive".
Please see the first side mock up in pictures below. I am very appreciative of the great job from Josh.

Regards,
George

 

Yes indeed, very nice!

 

Nice job on the headers so far, yes very masculine - kinda broadens the shoulders a little....

 

Josh has been working to get the headers to have tighter bends and with smoother transitions. ( first two pictures)
This morning, Josh also mocked up a side pipe that showed us that we were not quite there yet. The after collector pipe had to have a jog to get the side pipe parallel to the chassis and just didn't flow as well as desired. A little more staring at it..... somethings not quite right????..
....Hmmmmm???....it really needs more scale. Josh is working to get the collector to a better straight shot location that will allow a good line with the side pipe that should be 3.5- 4 inches in diameter.