home again for the weekend and did more work, stripped both fenders inside and out with some help from my female companion the bottom of the fender and the front were both shot. so I repaired that. replaced the bottom outer and inner welded up the trim holes and the antenna hole and laid some DP90 epoxy primer
More metal work. Repaired the other fender which has nearly identical damage to the drives fender the bottom half was replaced along with the front part behind the grille epoxied now for the stone guard, it was pretty straight but the ends were rotted Sand blasted the bottom but unfortunately ran out of media, but i was able to get most of the rust off, I treated the rest with SEM rust-mort yeah.... after some TLC no before on this side but it was pretty shot as well. ran out of DP90 so i used DP40
Didn't have too much time to work on the car this weekend so I decided to clean up the grille and see what I needed to make it complete. the start the chrome cleaned up nice after some elbow grease. I was able to get everything minus a center tooth, Id also like to find a passenger side parking housing/grille end. so if anyone has a nice original PM please. So basically the front clip is all done now, I'm gonna turn the car around and start on the rest.
I was real happy, I want to try to keep it as much original 54 parts as possible and not repo. Now I have to find a clean one piece 54 front bumper haha
Had some semi decent weather this week so I decided to clean up the back room before the snow hits. I turned the car around so I can start on the rockers, 1/4s, and back end. what was the old floors now to address this mess.
Nice big update. I found some rust free 2 door 150 quarters on ebay, so I hit buy it now and made the 1,000 mile trip to Ohio. I also got a pair of inner rockers and a rust free trunk too. the inside quarters was really impressive, zero rot and only mild surface rust. Most of the original primer was still intact. the outsides were nice too, some dents and dings but to be expected for the age. I also welded up the trim holes for the gravel shield and shaved the gas door. I also stripped the trunk. and welded up the emblem holes I will be cutting the old stuff off this car this week and start doing the replacement parts.
got the new inner rocker on tonight. I gotta say even with just this the car is SOLID. This car is gonna be a tank! I also cut off the old quarter. Ill start trimming up the new one tomorrow or friday.
Got the quarter fitted and started welding it on but the welder ran out of gas so Ill have to pick more up tomorrow morning.
got it all finished up today. very happy with the result. I cant wait to do the otherside. and even bought a new tool box as a christmas present to myself. Merry Christmas everyone!
got work done on the other side. the crusty bondo stuffed old one. off and the new one fitted, still need to do some final trimming before welding it final.
more updates from the past few days, drivers quarter is finished. with that done it was time to address the trunk floor or lack there of. The guy I got the car from decided to cut it out to make it a "Pro street" car. So over to death row I went to cannibalize the parts car some more. after the damage was done. I cut out the trunk floor/trunk pan and taillight housings (more on that later) Since I want to lay frame the spare tire well had to go, So I fabbed up a patch panel to cover the hole. Once that was done I scraped off the undercoating, wire wheeled the rust and sealed it in epoxy primer. Ignore the rot on the sides, Im gonna replace it along with cutting out the old filler tube hole which will no longer be needed. close up of the tire tub block off. Now to some custom stuff. I wanted to do something subtle, I really like the stock 54 housings, I have lee bubble lenses in a box somewhere to go in eventually. So I extended the quarter panel about an inch to give the car more of a fin as well as making it look longer. I plan on running a 55 rear bumper which will accent it nice I think. Ive never seen it done so itll be interesting. stock and modified. with the housing, the new one piece lenses dont stick out as much which should make it look sleeker.
thank you, I have the trunk fitted I need to do some patchwork tonight and hopefully get it all welded in tomorrow as well as finish the tailights.
Looks great definitely subscribing ... I'm going to look at a 54 this weekend if the price and car are right it may happen. Gotta finish the 32 first but hey it never hurts to carry a spare project! Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
21 yrs young, Huh? Admiring your work, UR Very fortunate to have the talent to do what your doing. Nice Build ! I started out with a 99.5 % rust free '53, So, I've been very facinated by your's. Keep us Posted, and Thanks Smoke'
Great thread. I just read it up to this point. You said earlier you wanted a custom taillight kind of like jesse james car. I did a build pretty close to that look and have a build thread of how I did it. Maybe itll give you some ideas. Hope it helps out in some way. Keep up the progress! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697768
Im 22, ill be 23 in may. I could have started out with a more solid car but the main reason I took on the project was to better myself as a fabricator. Plus I didnt have 3-5k to drop on a solid car. I agree, Im looking to do a 53-55 ford F100 or a 59 2 Door biscayne next. neat write up! I wanted to do something different however. after staring at the taillight housing I decided to change the angle and make the bezel at more of a vertical angle. It looked like it was sagging to me. with both sides done I decided to swap out the lenses for some one piece ones. They are shallower and flow better. and all done. I also got the trunk and tailpan fitted. Ill do the necessary patching tomorrow and weld it up.
I spent the better part of the weekend finishing up the back half of the car, the final work on the quarters, inner rockers, and the trunk floor. The bodymounts and edges of the trunk were rotted so I made new ones out of some rectangular steel and some sheet metal. I also cut out the fuel filler neck hole in the floor and made a patch for that, tailpan/quater joint. and all expoxied. The only thing left to do is the outer rockers and the body is done. I also got a center grille tooth and finished the grille. All original 54 chrome, no repop stuff here.
Thank you, I gotta decide what to do for the rear bumper, I did some mock ups so Ill post some pictures later and get some input from you all.
ok so I need some input on the rear bumper. I have a couple options and I figured id see what you guys think. I am gonna run the exhaust out the bumper like in picture 2. OPTION 1 bare 54 rear bumper. OPTION 2 54 bumper with 54 trim. now for the rest I have a 55 rear bumper, I think it would accent the extended taillights better than a stock 54 bumper would. Obviously I would modify the stone guard to get rid of the gap. also keep in mind this is a crude mock up so the fitment isnt perfect. OPTION 3 bare 55 rear bumper. OPTION 4 55 rear bumper with 55 bumperettes OPTION 5- this is the one Im leaning towards the most. again keep in mind its jsut crudely mocked up. 55 bumper with 54 trim
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