Projects 39 Pontiac Coupe (series 25 small body) build

Should be a cool project. Whatever you do don't go a sbc like all the other unimaginative, boring, budget street rods. It may take a little more effort and cost to find and build a good dependable pontiac engine. But you will way more cool to your car than a regular belly button sbc.

 

Round tube always looks nicer.

 

Why not get a t-700 o/d auto. That will save the 4:11 issue.

 

Cleco’s are my best friend.

 

I picked up a 700r4. Now I just need to figure out the TV cable. I’m thinking a constant pressure valve body should fix that. Also, the whole locking torque converter thing has me baffled, but once I find time to research it, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

 

Yeah, don't put one of those "belly button" SBC engines like I did. People will laugh at you when they see your car, and poke fun at you when you're sitting at stop lights too.

 

I’ll just paint my SBC green..then no one will know…lol

 

The 421 Pontiac fit Just fine in my 40!

 

Did mine in red, but people still noticed it! Guess I should have done one of them big fancy covers like the LS guys use to hide the ugly?

 

Well…the hole in the floor keeps getting bigger.. I wanted to try and salvage the upper deck with the hump for the differential, but also, no joy.
The upper deck had a support beam across the back created from the floor steel bent into a u channel and had body mounts tacked inside it. Once removed it created a lot of flex in the rear body. I decided to make a new one from angle iron. It came out pretty good and gives me a good hard point to attach the floor.
The right fender well was missing the bottom couple of inches. I patterned a repair piece and butt welded in place to give me something to attach the new side pieces to.
All in all, I’m kind of happy with it so far. Next up is fabbing the big pieces and see if I can get them to mate up.

 

Let’s see, a good bath, a little polishing, you’ll be fine. Lol

 

You're making it better than new with the extra bracing!
Have you removed the rear fenders yet? Once I finished floors, rockers, and many other areas on mine, I pulled the rear fenders to do my radiuses, and discovered the bolt flange on the body was Swiss cheese too! I had to cut it out in strips about 8" long and trace on sheet metal. Then mark and drill holes for the capture nuts and tack weld those to the patch strips. Only way I could keep the inner fenders, and body in place was doing small sections at a time, or it would have just fallen apart.

 

I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about.. I’ve done the preliminary repairs the same as you did, by cutting strips of 18 gauge and filling the blanks… I still need to do a second lap for the remaining bad spots, but this whole RR corner was sagging due to loss of structure.

 

Had a little delay in progress on the Poncho. I lifted the body off the frame to gain access to the floor, and bloosh! The lift blew a seal and shot oil halfway across the shop. The locks held the body up, but there she hung for a week or two, until I could pull the lift cylinders and repack them. I did what I could but when I needed it lowered, I learned all about patience.
Back in business now. The main part of the rear floor is cleco’ed in place. The dimensions from my cardboard template for the upper deck are transferred to a piece of 18 gauge. Time to start cutting a plywood form board to try and recreate the hump over the differential. Have I mentioned that I have no clue what I’m doing…lol.

 

Making progress. I had to remake the curved fender well closure pieces. Plan A fell through, on to plan B. Almost ready to con the neighbor into helping me bead roll the main floor.

 

Looking really nice! You do good work!

 

Final fit and trim are done. Bead rolls are in. Just need to climb underneath and fit the support ribs before I start welding.

 

Lookin great!

 

Today, I figured I’d spend a little time ( all damn day…lol) working on the RR fender well. She was pretty roached. I’ve previously scabbed in new metal at the top of the arch so a majority of my fender mounting holes went away with the crusty metal. I used the fender to find center on the missing holes, then made a simple locator tool to transfer the holes to accept the new nut plates.
Now working on the front lower…or where the front lower used to be. I’m all about repurposing so I cannabalized a piece of metal from a donor car to form the new lower section which will tie to the new RR quarter behind the door once I make it. Still a work in progress.

 

Looks so much like what my '39 looked like, except you've still got some rocker material left! Nice work!

 

Baby getting a new butt.

 

Looks familiar! Is that an EMS panel?

 

Yep. EMS panel. And I'll have to admit it is very well made. Heavy steel.

 

I also made an angle iron support which picks up the body mount holes and gives me an attach point for the sheet metal "tool box" area inside the new rear panel. The support also gives me an attach point for the new trunk floor.

 

My trunk floor was surprisingly the only good metal anywhere in the lower 6" of my body. But the tail panel was gone, as was the tool drop. I replaced my tail panel with a NOS 70's EMS panel I found locally. The fit was better than any of the sheet metal I got for the whole car.
I redesigned my tool drop to make it smaller, and easier to replace. I angled the bottom metal from the trunk floor to the bottom of the EMS panel. So it's about half as big, but was easier to make.

 

Nice work!
I am beginning to think I was smoking crack when I initially brought this one home and thought it was “ pretty solid”.

 

I had no illusions about mine! Knew it was garbage, and everyone who saw it reminded me how bad it was. Got where I didn't want anyone to see it as they kept telling me how rotted it was!

 

I started working the “tool box” area today by making a cardboard template for the main area of the box. I also jacked and leveled the frame to ensure when I start rebuilding the ass end, it will hopefully be semi square…

 

Well, the "toolbox" area fabrication is mostly completed and should go in this week with any luck at all. I'm pretty happy with it. This whole project has been an experience in learning better fab skills.

 

Nice work on the tool box drop!