Projects Barrows Coupe aka “FIRST BORN” 1930 Model A (1970’s build )

Love this coupe!

 

Go Mike Go!!!

 

I’ve gone and gone ... the car is done. Lol.


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Go for a drive then......congrats can't wait to see it...don't tell me...you have a wild mid 60s theme going on now...pics please...

I suppose that's to be unveiled at an up and coming show perhaps...I'm good with that too.

 

After the body was off the chassis I was able to get a look at how things were done.

This was my first look at the chassis and mechanics.
Note the sheeting on top of the chassis.
That’s chrome plated steel.
Same chrome plated sheets Brad used for the construction of the fuel tank.

Unfortunately the entire frame was covered in ice and water rubber membrane.
Brad must have used this for vibration reduction and insulation. It caused me absolute nightmares.
I used razor blades and gasoline to remove it. It took countless hours over several day’s.
It had made its way onto almost every component on the frame including the brake components, fuel, cooling, suspension, exhaust and drivetrain.
The heat and just time in general caused it to fall off, settle and sag causing it to melt and attach itself to everything.


Underside of the body
Good view of the original color Brad painted it in 1978
Anything that looks like it’s falling off... it is. That’s ice and water shield, it was bad.






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Next was to remove the drivetrain.
It came out with no issues, it was good to get the frame stripped down.

I had previously rebuilt the suspension components and the brakes.
So it was nice to not have to tear the whole undercarriage of the car back apart.

After several days of scraping cleaning and rolling the chassis outside to power wash off the 40 years of dirt and grime

Got things completely cleaned sanded and ready for sealer


Sealed and painted single stage acrylic enamel black


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WOW! Just found this thread. Congrats on a great score - you obviously earned it. Looks like it landed with the right guy.

 

This is really great. So excited to see this getting saved first and loved and cared for second.

I can definitely see the snowball effect in full force, even though it seems your trying to minimize it.

By the way, I LOVE the old wood floor in your shop. Very timely. Although I've worked on a few and they can be a pain sometimes.

 

After the chassis was disassembled cleaned and painted, it was time to tear into the motor.
Mechanically there was nothing wrong with it.
To recap, it’s a 1976 Chevy 350 from the donor corvette that the full drivetrain was removed from.
I order to get it on the motor stand the trans had to come off.
The old TH400 served the coupe well ... but I’m a younger guy and I’m a firm believer that a hotrod should have 3 pedals ... The only question would be, how the hell am I going to fit 3 pedals in the car. It would prove to be an engineering feat.


I did not need to do a full rebuild, I did however want to go over it and freshen everything up.
Decided to go with a full Comp Cams kit with a nice lumpy cam, lifters, hardened pushrods, heavy valve springs, 1.6 roller rockers and all the gaskets and seals in the motor. Including a high volume oil pump and double roller timing chain

After everything was freshened up and ready to go I got the motor masked off and painted.

After that was all set I got things situated for the trans.
I ordered a new billet flywheel and a centerforce clutch.
Due to limited space I opted to use a hydraulic throwout bearing.
It’s got both a feed and bleed line as you can see in the pic.

The trans I opted for and was extremely fortunate to find is a 1970 aluminum super T-10 4 speed trans out of a big block chevelle.
It had been completely gone though and ready to go. So a quick trip to CT for that and I was good to go.

I had to modify the chassis by cutting the trans crossmember and moving it forwards 4” for the new 4 spd mount.
That in turn caused some additional work with the aux cooling lines. More on the later.

You can see in this pic the driveshaft is reinstalled. It amazed me that the driveshaft fit perfectly with the new transmission.
*** for those who do this swap in the future***
The yoke from the TH 400 trans mission is 32 spline, it is the exact yoke the Super T-10 trans used in the 70’s. It is a direct fit.
So if you’re in possession of a TH400. Keep the yoke or if you ever come across one. Snag it. They’re good for $60-$75 for resale as (Super T-10 yoke)on eBay in good condition.
I replaced the old water pump with a new pump. It was difficult finding the same pump, but after a lot of searching I was able to source one.
Started adding accessories on the motor.

Every single part has been cleaned, sanded and painted with single stage.
Every bit of aluminum had been cleaned, sanded and steel wooled for some shine.


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After the motor was in I had to get to work on the pedals.
I had picked up a set of early VW pedals on eBay for $20.
They had a nice look to them and were perfect for the job. They have a small metal waffle pad on them and would give me extra room for the clutch pedal

I must have spent a week on and off working on getting pedals to work properly. here you can see the pedals. I purposely straightened them. It would make fitting the body on a lot easier. Other wise I would not have been able to lower the body over the pedals and chassis.
I would heat and bend the pedals for final fit after the body was on.

I fabricated up a mount for the
Southwest speed master cylinder for the throwout bearing.
You can see in this picture the 3/4” round rod to the right of the master.
That is the push rod for the booster and master sup for the brakes.
I had to completely reengineer the brake rod mount and linkage for the new pedals. It took some time to fit everything, only to have it be in the same place as the exhaust once that was bolted back on.
So I eventually had to reengineer it again.
Good times.

In this picture you can see the new Hurst 4 speed shifter.
I had to fabricate the mount and make my own shift linkage for the trans.
I was fortunate to have purchased 7 hurst/IRC shifters from a junkyard in the previous months to flip for parts money.
I pillaged a lot of the rods in order to make my linkage.
Some things just work out like that.


This is the Auxiliary coolant radiator for the heating and cooling system.
It was orig from an MG. Brad modified it by eliminating the filler and adding 3/4” copper elbows for necks. That’s what the hoses from the copper coolant lines attach to.
I sent it out and had it re-cored.
The radiator company owner had never seen anything like it. I had to show the pictures of the car and how it was used. He was amazed.
I promised him a visit in the spring.

This is the fan and shroud that was also pillaged from the MG.

I disassembled it and sandblasted and painted the metal pieces and painted the fan blade with red spray paint


It was starting to come together.
At this point I was 5weeks into the project... I had been held up by my own lack of knowledge regarding GM transmissions.
I had ordered the wrong clutch due to my first attempt and using a free flywheel from a friend. I had it resurfaced at a local machine shop and ordered a clutch to fit the flywheel. Which was an 11” flywheel. Unknown to me that would turn out to be a 1986 and up flywheel.
That whole mess and having to purchase a new flywheel and clutch set me back over a week.
But at 5 weeks (roughly) I was doing good.


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In the midst of the chassis and motor I wanted to get a jump on the interior.
The seat and interior panels had served brad well. But they were worn and torn and in need of a freshening up.
Karen at Cape Cod Upholstery in Middleboro Mass. 5 minutes from me.
Was up for the task ... I brought everything over to her. Told her what I wanted and she set out to find the closest materials to recreate what brad had done 40 years ago.
It proved to be a struggle.
I had to make some new panels for the interior due to the orig pieces being cracked and broken.
She found a Naugahyde material close to the color but after a lot of calls she found it was discontinued and no longer available.
Unavailable Material

It had been weeks since I had heard from her so I touched base.
She had found a similar color and needed my approval.
It turned out to be a teal Naugahyde used in GM cars in 1961 primarily a Chevy Impala.
I didn’t like it at first, but my options were limited.
1961 Impala
If you look close you can see it’s metallic teal.
Really cool
So I chose to move forward with it. Along with the ivory for the replacement of the dyed Naugahyde previously in the coupe.

This was the first piece to the interior she told me to come pick up ... I was pretty excited to see the finished product.
I was blown away to say the least.

Unannounced to me she added a cool little touch, some chrome piping on the seats to match the stainless trim pieces on the doors that brad scavenged from an 53 Chevy.
She knocked it out of the park

It would be months before I received the rest of the pieces ... it was fine though. I was getting ready to start the body work process.
That would last 6-7 weeks.
“Can of worms” as they say


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Man you have been busy! Looks way better now than it did.

 

Your seat's givin me a Roth/Outlaw flashback..in a really good way!

 

GO Mike GO!!...I'm pretending......things are getting Spiffy in a Big way...

Thank for sharing the rebirthing...

 

What a great story! It’s a testament to your
Boundless energy, and enthusiasm for a great
Hot Rod that you’re making your own!
Congrats! Rich

 

I use a product called Sharkhide to paint on with a brush ,all stainless,and alloy parts that aren't getting painted,bell housings ,gearbox,heads of bolts intake manifold etc,seems to work fine

 

I’ve heard of it. Never used it tho. Maybe I’ll buy a gallon to have on hand in the future. There’s not much that isn’t painted on the car I don’t mind it if it gains some new patina moving forward.
Thanks for sharing


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Glad to see you having so much fun with it. Great job. Cleaned up real nice. Happy to see you keeping with the original build. Sweet!

 

Once I had the chassis and drivetrain situated I got to work on the body.

A big part of me wanted to keep the body color the same. Flat black, just for the sake of keeping the car as it were when I bought it.
The “paint” on the car wasn’t paint. It was 30 year old primer. It had really seen better day’s, it had become very cloudy and chalky over time. I could have just masked things off and resprayed it flat black.
But I’m not a flat black kinda guy ...
so the sanding blocks came out and I started the process.
This is the fuel tank. It was welded together by using several pieces and I wanted to finish it off by body working it. It’s what you see when the decklid is open and I wanted it to look nice

Building up the filler

Filler primer

Getting to work on the front fenders and the decklid at the same time



Decklid in filler primer after epoxy and body work,


Good stuff


On to the body next ...


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Started sanding do the 30 year old primer and exposing what lies beneath ... things are never what they appear.







Seam sealed everything I could inside the body and in the decklid channels

Blue tape to keep things clean



Brad has notched the firewall to accommodate the TH 400 filler/ dipstick tube.

I recreated the filler the same way brad had fabricated it back in the day


Hammer and dollied the new metal to the wire edge. Finish welded it and filled it when the time came

Drivers rear quarter behind the wheel ...

What’s left of the rear subrail


Templating






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Pics certainly do not show the amount of work needed to get the body straight.
I spent 5 weeks repairing, sanding and working the body to get it as straight as I could.
I’ve never done anything like this, it was a massive learning curve.
Every time I thought I had the body good... I found more issues
Finally after all the time spent I got the body work sealed in epoxy.



As soon as it was sealed and flashed I was able to get the body in Poly filler primer.
I loaded it on !




It was nice to be able to roll the body out on the dolly.
Let the block sanding begin ...



After the body was moving forward I was able to get the firewall ready for sealer and finish paint.
I used a ford color called Alaska White.
It is almost spot on to Wimbledon White.
(I just happened to have it already) I’ve used it on wheels and other things in the past.





Next it was time to get the body finalized and in epoxy and final paint.




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Looking good!

 

Final color selection was a tough time ... I begged moose here on the H.A.M.B. via private message. Asked him as a favor to photoshop the coupe in several colors to help me maybe help slow down my brain.

Thought process behind the color selection was to go off the color of the interior.
With a teal green inside, I was limited to an exterior color on the body.

My thoughts were
Shiny Black
White
Off white
Gray
Teal

Every time I thought I had picked a color I’d ask moose to do a rendition for me.

Here are a few he did







None of these did it for me ... but because I’m impatient I went and bought a gallon of shiny black and off white when I thought that would be the route I would go.

I kept looking and thinking about my options and came up with a color that would go with the teal and ivory interior.

But was a little different than what most guys do.
I purchased a gallon of a green from Napa.
I then took a paint cup and with thw black and off white I mixed my own custom color.


I dummied down the green because I’m not a huge fan of green, I did a few test pieces and came up with a ratio of each color.
Then I took the plunge.
Orig color

Orig color with the seat ... not liking it. Too green

Here is a test piece after mixing my own color. You can see the orig color next to it on the left as comparison


Next was to put color on metal.


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I ended up with 2 gallons of color once everything was mixed up
Everything got 5 coats of single stage acrylic enamel.





Unmasked the chassis and got to see the final look the day after.

Once the fenders we’re sprayed, I was able to roll the chassis outside.
Loved seeing the color outside in the natural light for the first time.

I covered the chassis with plastic so I had some extra room to be able to finish the body and get the final epoxy coat and finish sprayed

Finish paint




The following day I peeled the masking to see how I did on my first paint job.
I was very happy with the results.

Also, as always a huge thank you to Joe 51Box for all the help. Joe was a wealth of knowledge when it came to everything regarding the paint.


For the next week I was able to roll the body outside in the 80 plus degree weather to bake the paint in.


Threw the seat in the body so I could see how it looked.

 

The following week it was time to mount the body back on the chassis







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There was still so mush to do but I felt like a huge hurdle had been accomplished.
I still had to paint the headlights grill shell and doors.
Plus a slew of other pieces including the windshield frame and interior pieces
Headlights and other pieces

Door tops

Seat back, door pulls and dash rail.
Painted to match the new ivory Naugahyde.

Column to match the interior also

Interior side of the windshield to match the Naugahyde and the grill shell insert to match the firewall





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It started coming together before the hot summer weather came.
I had a summer kickoff get together at my house the end of June.
Brad Barrows was able to come to the house to see first hand the progress of the coupe.
He loved the color and everything that had been done to the car.
He was happy to see the car getting overhauled and he loved the color I mixed up.



This is about where things stopped for the summer.
It was hot this summer and I really wasn’t up to doing body work on the doors.
Those were the two major pieces left to paint.
I spent the summer camping with my kids and just enjoying not being in the garage every day.
Unfortunately I didn’t have a running driving hotrod for the summer, I just kept telling myself it would be worth the effort

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After the hot sticky weather passed I got back onto the doors.

While the coupe was on hold for the summer, I had the great idea of putting up a new shop in the back yard.
It wasn’t planned, just like the overhaul of the coupe. However it needed to happen.
Working on the coupe with limited space in my small shop, I was frustrated and needed additional storage and a place to keep the overflow and ever expanding fleet of hotrods.




Once the building was done and the summer heat started dying down I got back in the garage.
Earlier in the spring joe and I had started digging into the the doors.
We found several areas that needed some attention. There were areas of rot on the door bottoms and needed to be cut out and patch Panels welded in.







After that I started body working the doors



Doors finally in filler primer




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Next was to paint the doors and get them mounted on the body


I masked the car off and dyed the white Naugahyde roof insert.
The white just didn’t look right.



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