Projects Recreating the jesse lopez coupe

We are now in real time and, I haven't got the hood on it.

 

Man, that green is beautiful...

 

WOW ! It's real ! I love it. We all do.

 

Here's a look at the harness.

 

I'm so wired for more updates... LOL

 

Well, as some of you know, we have had a nice little ice storm here in Texas. It's meant that the parts that are needed to keep going on the wiring are stuck "out there". I'm going to see Mike tomorrow, so we'll have some pic's and an update.

 

Well, this looks pretty serious. A look at a harness component.

 

Well, there's not much on the wiring because it doesn't lend itself very well to pics. I'm waiting on a plastic saw blade to work on the dash and knobs. I may have met my match with the garnish mldgs. I've gone through two sets and I MIGHT have some door's that can work. I'm waiting on another set of ¼'s to arrive. I'm learning what not to do. After a while you arrive at what TO DO, right? I don't have the car.

So let's look at the process of color selection. It's one of the most critically important details when you're doing something like this. We'll compare Junior's '50 cpe to Jesse's cpe. Junior's is first. We'll do Jesse's tomorrow.

Where Jesse's car was only black and white pics, Jr's car had many color pics, too many. After getting a bunch together we (son Dan and I) couldn't figure out why there were so many different colors on the same car. We thought that pic #2 must be correct because it was so different than the others. A dirty pink?? At first Jr would only say that it was a copperish maroon. When I had the dash ready to paint I convinced him that it was time to get serious about giving me more info.

He said that Dick Jackson had cloned his famous '57 Bird Kustom awhile back and it was the same Sam Bronze color. Jr and Dick had looked and looked at many colors and had decided that this was as close as anybody was gonna get. Its a 70s GM color. He said Dick had the PPG formula # and gave me his phone #. Well how cool is this?

I was taken aback at seeing the mica (pearl) in the color when we did a spray out card of it. I asked Dan if we could replace the mica with metallic in the formula. He said sure. I'm very happy to have had Jr and Dick's help with this and I'm convinced that this is as accurate as we're gonna' get.

At the 2011 GNRS we were next to Dick's bird and you could see the difference.

 

Gnrs 2011.

 

With Jr's car we had too many color pic's and, with Jesse's we have none. What we do have is a known color-1947-1951 Chrysler Andante green. The same color was used on other Chrysler Corp. margue's under different names. Having a known was comforting compared to the mysterious Sam Bronze.

Jesse say's that he didn't do anything to the color except add some sparkle to it so that you could see it (the sparkle) under lights at night.

I asked my PPG store if they could help me with this color. They found an old R-M formula that they could translate into a modern one. I got some TCP Global flake (the smallest they had) and I figured I was in business. With all this info I thought I just needed to spray out 3 cards with gradually more flake in each one and send them to Jesse. These were eurethane base/clear that were shiny and smooth. You can imagine how shocked I was when Jesse said nope, this isn't the color.

When Jesse modified this color he sprayed it on a bike gas tank that he had. It showed the color and sparkle on the contours. This was to make things difficult during this process of trying to navigate through all the greens that were sent at about $70.00 a pop. Jesse didn't want to commit without that gas tank spray out. I did find a '50 Ford upper grille bar that I cut up into pieces that I could send. These were contoured. This becomes a frustrating period of back and forth w/Jesse that has him saying I've seen some colors on some late model cars in the area that look close. How absolutely wonderful.

To the rescue comes John Meyer (Clean Cut Creations) of Saint Louis Mo.. He PM'd me saying that his shop had done a high end resto on a '51 Chrysler convertible awhile back (post # 1009). The customer was very picky about everything, especially the color. They did over 15 spray out cards for him before he was satisfied with the color. He still had all those cards and wanted to know if I would like to see them. WOULD I LIKE TO SEE THEM??, YOU BET I WOULD.

I sent these cards to Jesse and, he said yup, that's the color. I asked him to mark the closest 3 cards that he liked and send them all back to me. I had my PPG store look at that color with their prophet. A device that "reads" the color and creates a formula to duplicate it. I had them make up a gallon of that in eurethane and put it in 2 gallon cans. I'm in business now.

On this journey I've made several friends. One of them is David Zivot (Michelleys husband). As we've talked, he's mentioned that he's going to use lacquer on the meticulous Matranga clone he's creating. I wasn't even aware that lacquer was available. As David revealed his source for this I became very interested in doing Jesse's car in the original material. It's been many, many years since I've shot lacquer and I have fond memories of it.

David's source was unable to get this color for me in anything but acrylic enamel. That won't do. I went online and found Hibernia auto restoration in N.J.. They're a high end resto shop that originally only did Packards. They work on anything these days and make all their own paint. Adam explained to me that the nitro lacquer they make now won't work for this because to get this color he needs lead that is no longer available. The only lacquer that he would have for this would be acrylic, would that do? It would. I sent Adam a spray out card of what I had and he sent me back one in acrylic lacquer that was dead on. I'm in business again.

We all now know how it looks rubbed and, it's everything that is said about it, especially the shine.

ONWARD!

 

A lot of detective work. Well done sir!

 

Well, I've been layin' low while the cars gone. There's still plenty of this to do. I'm going to have Mike do the rest of the stuff (as we wait for parts)to get this thing made into a car. Maybe take it around the block. We'll see. Here's some more wiring stuff.

 

I was able to get the original radiator rodded out and reconditioned. I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see it installed with the crank mounted fan. All circa 1949.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody! Wishing all the good stuff to you and yours.

 

Same to you Jer!
Torchie.

 

Season's Greetings to you Jer & everyone here on TJJ ! CHEERS !!!

 

Absolutely!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Dave

 

Same to you Jer.

 

I paid a visit today to Mike's shop and, things are gettin' close.

 

It's getting exciting now Jer.

BB

 

very nice Jer, can't wait more updates

 

With the car away I have to keep moving forward. The garnish mldgs are an agonizing process. I have found a solution that should work. Here's some looks.

 

You're probably already done with the garnish moldings, and you certainly don't need my amateurish nose poking in here, but if it's any inspiration check post 613 on this page: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=814716&page=31

A young builder, talented like you, with vision and taste to rival yours!

 

Thanks Eric for pointing me to Kip's '36 build. I have been passively following it. I hadn't seen the garnish molding fab work, so that was good.

I need to say that this level of expertise and the focused determination wasn't seen in the custom shops of the '40s-'50s. Kip would be working in a fine coachbuilders' shop for wealthy customers.

As the completion of Jesse's car got near he could just about do everything. He mentions that he got really good at being able to build up the brass on the joints so that they could be filed down.

 

Happy to help when I can. Your builds always amaze me!

My '27 T Roadster build: www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t= 734383

 

Here's the door garnish at the polisher/plater's. They want me to see what it takes to prep these things for chrome.

If all goes well I'll pick up the car tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the kind word Jer and Eric! I have been fallowing your thread for a long time and draw inspiration from your commitment to the spot on correctness of your recreation.

 

I've got good news and bad news.

The good- I did pick up the car. Here's Mike getting ready to steer it into the trailer.

The bad- I had Mom take some video's of the car in front of the shop idleing. With the toe board installed the floor is now sealed up. The result is a really nasty idle with the megaphones and the turned down gate valves echoing off of the pavement underneath the car. This has produced a very pronounced shake. JESSE YOU WERE (ARE) AN ANIMAL. These video's will not upload. I will find a way.

 

Incredible.

 

nice...