So back in December I shipped my 63 Hearse off to Norm Taylor (Chopped50ford here on the HAMB) to have some work done on the floors. It was a desperate call for help and Norm came recommended, but even so, you never know what to expect when you watch your pride and joy disappear over the horizon on a back of a transporter, and believe me, I have some horror stories that go along with the progress so far on my kustom koach. Work got kinda busy for me and I found myself out of the country a lot over the past few months and I finally decided to take a couple of days off to go and visit Norm and the guys at Vintage Metal to see how far they'd got and discuss some plans for whats next. Man, I was blown away! Norm has stayed in regular contact with me and has sent me a photo update almost every week but the i just wasn't prepared for the transformation i saw when I got there. I had a Christine moment.....it's like a whole section of the car has rolled back in time. Man I am stoked! of course we immediately got carried away with more plans including kustom upholstery and wheel and tyre choices, redoing the bag system, tubbing the rear etc etc but I now know I have found the guys to do the job (and at a great rate too). I couldn't recommend Norms(and his guys) skills enough. I had a blast up there with those guys. Norms friend came by with his killer 60 Caddy kustom to show me the recently installed interior that Norm and his crew had done and I spent a good hour drooling over Norms custom A roadster with hot banger motor. That car is featured in a vintagemetal thread on the forum and it's well worth checking out, it's just beautiful in a use it every day kinda way. On the way home My friend Bryan Moore who'd come along for the ride showed me the two Cadillacs he currently is acting custodian for and I could not believe one of them was a pristine 59 vert. (apparently owned by the guy who directed the shoreshank redemption) All in all a great day away from the office and some great new friends. Oh and check out the new filter i got on my iphone that makes photos look like they were taken back in the day.... Felix
here's the photo's, I included a couple of before's so you can tell just how excited i am by the transformation. F
Do you have any pics of yhe interior of the 60? I;m redoing mine and can;t decide what to do. THANKS Cad Chuck
do you have anymore pictures of the floor pan work? i have a 60 vert and it will need mucho floor pan work, i willl do most of it myself, i have access to aplasma cutter and some airtoools, so i would like so "guidance " pics
Here's a few more shots so you can se the level of fab that went in. The toughest part was the passenger A pillar, there's six layers of pressings that come together to form that section and it no longer existed. The guys rebuilt it all from scratch. Another thing to note is that the floors on a hearse are handbuilt from the coachbuilder and dont match the factory pressings so you cant get patch panels anywhere. With a factory car you should be able to get a set of new floors for a reasonable price which will make life easier in the longrun...... Here's the only photo i got of the interior on the 60. it's very subtle but way cool. Felix
thanks man, i had no idea about the a-pillar like that. before i start fabbing up, i plan to have the floors and firewall sandblasted so i can get a better look, is this the corrcet way to go?
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