Projects 1934 3 window HighBoy Build Begins

The body came out looking really good. Just wait till the primer is on there!

 

I went to school with Rex at McPherson College, auto restoration program, really a great guy. Sounds like you've been experiencing the same with him. I've been following this thread as I'm searching for my first '34 right now. Many great ideas with this car! So is the interior / seat still a surprise, thinking with that blue on the outside a nice oxblood leather for the seat would look great.


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Eric, The exposed metal is worrying me to death. I just want it coated FAST. smile.

Jason,
First of all,...Rex is great to deal with. I also enjoy seeing what a great dad he is with his son. They are working a project together and Rex has been letting his boy get some grease under his nails.
The entire interior excluding the seat and arm rests is in brushed aluminum. Rather than you digging through the previous posts, I have added some pictures for you. The seat and arm rests are in a heavily textured black leather.... think of a very old library chair with thick, soft leather on it. I bought the seat from WISE GUYS last December when they were having a year end sale. The sale discount helped off set the up charge for picking an over the top premium cow hide. They did a very nice job on the seat and sent the left over pieces of leather for us to have the arm rests covered.
Best Regards,
George

 

Looks great, keep it up...

 

Poor Dustin has wet sanded and wet sanded and wet sanded some more.

The chassis has now been rolled over to the paint booth and will be shot with color on Monday.


Regards,
George

 

He still has all the louvers on the body to start on next week to sand around.

 

Rex,
Please tell Dustin I am doing a little to help out . smile. See the attached pictures of the polished, painted, drilled and breathers added MT valve covers. I have over 2 days labor in these things. geeze. But...I like the way they turned out better than the previous pair that I had wrinkle powder coated.

I understand Josh's fingers were raw and bleeding from detail work on the interior panels Friday. Sorry Josh!

Regards,
George



my part for the

 

Your "attention to details" is what is making this hot rod one step above the rest.

 

Thank you...Here is some attention to detail from Dustin, A.K.A. Dexter at Custom Auto. Dustin was concerned that the pictures do not really show well as the blue is very very nice and just hard to see here. We will get some more pictures in the sunshine when we can. Fred is working on sanding the body while the suspension, steering etc. etc. is due up next. Nice job Dustin. Thank you.

Regards,
George

 

Tire update:
As part of the overall design, the tires will be smoothed and 5/16ths Red Lines added to them. The attached picture is from Diamond Back's founder "Bill Chapman". The rear tire has been chucked up and a chalk line added for our discussion of the new red line sidewall placement.
The two green vertical laser lines towards the upper left quadrant are for centering the grinding wheel for part of the prepping process. The new red line will be 1/2 inch further to the outside than this photo shows. (Just personal choice and no other particular reason). The backside of all four tires will also be smoothed as I am looking for a clean look.

Bill started in the retread tire business and all of his equipment is re purposed, customized equipment. The red rubber is applied in a 3/4" strip and after bonding/ heat it stretches out to approximately 1 inch. The newly bonded line is then laser trimmed to your desired width. I chose 5/16" as a compromise. The front tire sidewalls would have been great at 1/4" but the rears would have swallowed the 1/4" up. Since I wanted front and rear red lines to be the same, I bumped the front up a little.

Regards,
George

 

As promised...frame in the sunshine pictures.

regards,
George

 

I trust you guys don't mind more pictures... additional frame shots PLUS the body prep begins.
regards,
George[/QUOTE]

 

Rex is being the prolific photographer today. NO COMPLAINTS FROM ME!
Here's the rear end and other parts being readied for paint round two. Please note that the rear end cover fins had to be polished first. After priming and paint,...the fins will be cleaned with laquer thinner to expose the polishing effort.

regards,
George

[/QUOTE]

 

Fodder for us photo junkies.

 

.......just for your David! smile.

Dustin has painted all of yesterdays part's more of the same blue. The key is to get enough of them done to allow drying time so that Josh can begin re-assembly. Everyone is working on something. Whether it is the body, chassis paint, chassis assembly or outside tires. We have also received our Kinmont STYLED brakes from Johnson's Hot Rod Shop. We will polish the ribs while painting the backing plates to go with the over all polished fins theme.

The front suspension parts will also be matching Pozzi Blue with the exception of radius rods, front axle and shocks that are currently planned to be shiny.

The drive train will be basic black. As a side note to the picture below, there are two different gears in the quick change. Pending which one is upper and which one is lower, the ratio choice for my gear set was either 3.94 or 3.62. I went with the 3.62 as I already have plenty of go.

regards,
George

 

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Dustin has been busy buffing on the frame. If you look carefully , you will notice that this is not a picture of the shop, but a reflection of the shop via the frame rail mirror quality paint. Look a little more and you will see Rex holding the camera.

Nice picture Rex! Thanks.

Regards,
George

 

Josh spent the morning working on fabricating the drivers side door sill plate. Please find the attached pictures from paper template to finished fabrication and first install. If you are interested, the large upper bead with step was run on the Pullmax. You can tell the speed by the track marks on top.( made by the upper dies stroke as the panel was pushed through) The smaller ribs on the face were done by first laying out with a divider and then being run through the bead roller. The final fabrication step was to use the shrinker along the inner leg to pull the sill plate in to match the floors radius.
Next,... Josh will flip the pattern over and fab a passenger side. After he completes the fabrication, he will work on the details of sharp edges , surface finish etc. etc. Great work Josh!

Regards,
George

 

Great work on the door sill plate! Looking good!

 

Hello Eric,
Here's the final look of the door sill plate after scotch brite to match the interior panels. Additionally, here's a first sharing with the H.A.M.B of my Kinmont styled backing plate. Josh has polished the fins so that he can turn it over to Dustin for body color. IE: Pozzi Blue.
Regards,
George

 

Crap! That is going to be one gorgeous car

 

I have been thinking about either clear alodine or clear anodizing the aluminum panels and called Josh to discuss this afternoon. One thing led to another and a decision has been made to use a local anodizing house and have all the panels clear HARD coat anodized.

Anodizing is an electrochemical process that converts surface aluminum to aluminum-oxide. Anodizing improves the metals resistance to corrosion, wear and increases durability. Hard coat anodizing further enhances these properties.

The investment in the effort NOW will greatly improve the interiors long term durability. Additionally, I will not be trying to clean black finger prints off FOREVER> smile.

Just a damp cloth for dusting and the finish should last.
Regards,
George

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/facts_6730872_hard-coat-anodizing_.html#ixzz2iljw7Ktv

 

OK, Last pictures for the week.... Josh has been able to start putting her back together. I must say that I am jealous and really wish I was able to be there to participate. Josh has labored 11 months to get to this point and has earned the right to enjoy the resuluts of his labor. This is an appropriate time to steal words from Dan Shady... "HOW FUN!"
Regards,
George

 

Josh is going at a great pace! Kudos to him.

 

Eric,
The entire front suspension has been completed at the plating shop and in route back to Custom Auto. Josh is trying to stay on top of everything to keep the process moving forward. After everything is hung on the chassis, it will go a little slower with the brake and fuel line plumbing. (We will use "Cunifer" Copper/ Nickle alloy.)

Regards,
George

 

I was sifting through some pictures while trying to find one that I liked to put on the 33-34 Model 40 thread. I ending up posting this one and realized that I should have put it here. See if you can imagine this rendition with the Pozzi Blue , red line tires and a red pin stripe of some fashion down the belt line?

....and polished rather than as cast wheels! The windshield frame is currently being painted body color and I may need to consider plating it instead???hmmmm???

regards,
George

 

If you are seeking input, I vote for the plated windshield frame. One would really compliment the grille.

 

I think you're absolutely right...

I better get on it in the morning.

Take care,
George

 

Personally I vote for painted body color. With plated you eye starts looking at the front and with that much change in contrast it stops WHAM right at the windshield fighting with the red stripe that is trying to pull your eye down the body.

 

Updates:
Well, It is looking like we had progressed along a path of body color for the windshield frame and changing now would be additional grief as well as money that I prefer NOT to spend at this time. If it becomes a big preference for me later,...I will have to ask Josh to make another one. yikes! , grin.

Josh spent much of his day yesterday chasing down "stuff". IE: Stainless steel hardware (as I have continued to push for) and plumbing parts. He ended up buying Advanced Auto's brand of Cunifer called "NiCopp" for plumbing lines. This is what I used on my 48 coupe and was very satisfied with the ease of use as well as the ability to get good looking finished product results.

The plated parts have arrived and Josh is excited to have more clean "bling" to put together.

The body shell has a little more skim coating on it and I have attached pictures of it.

Bill chapman at Diamond Back Tires has promised to start my red lines and he has agreed to provide a few pictures to share. I am looking forward to seeing them myself.

Regards,
George