Well now you're just rubbing it in! People up here in seem to think old Ford bodies are gold dipped...
Its been awhile and I almost forgot about this thread. I spent the last few weeks trying to get the body in shape. While its not all done its certainly 100x better than it was when I started. First thing on my list was to get the door bottoms close to the quarter panels also keep the doors shut while driving. The best way I knew of to do that was to repair the large amount of rot/ repairs on the top of the quarters. Before cutting anything I ratchet strapped the body together. This brought the door bottoms right back to where they SHOULD be. The nasty before... Turns out the substructure in the quarter was cracked. That was what caused most of my door problems. Welded that up and already it was better than before. Then a piece of 16 gauge on top looked much better than all the bronze. And all done, I'm starting to get the hang of TIG on sheetmetal and I really like it. So much easier to get good results than MIG. I actually did a few pieces on the piece below the trunk and on the rear of the drivers quarter too but I guess I didn't take pictures. Well that stuff is all boring anyway... A few month's ago I decided this car NEEDED Guide 903 J lights. The more I looked at the larger Guide lights I had both with and without marker lights the more I hated them. They were just so huge on the front of the car. Especially because the commercial grill is already huge I didn't want the front to be weighed down... So I finally got a pair for a fair price last week and they are just what I had in mind. I wanted to make headlight stands that weren't going to be amazing but weren't going to be total cobble jobs because while I wanted the headlights to look right, I still wanted them to feel quirky at the same time. To be honest, building these is the highlight of the build for me. If the headlights don't look right, it throws off the whole car. So I had a pretty cool idea in my head so that I can easily remove the headlights and not have to re adjust them when I put them back on. I'm sure its not an original idea either but anyway. I had early model A fender braces that had seen better days as well as a really mangled headlight bar from the 34 truck that has donated so much to this build. I just made sure to clean up both pieces really good where I was going to weld and then welded a root pass with TIG. I did a few more passes with the TIG before switching to MIG to build up a lot of metal. Then tried to shape them to look like it was one piece the whole time. They are still pretty rough but I plan on smoothing them out much more once I finish bending them up. Pretty happy with the results thus far, going to knock them out tomorrow and check them out mounted.
Thanks Matt!! I prefer using the TIG for everything now but it took a real long time to get used to. The only thing I regret is we didn't get a bigger machine. It really has its limits
Finished up the stands, pretty happy with the outcome. They ended up almost exactly where I mocked them up on the jack stands. I need to adjust the passengers side one about 1/2 an inch lower but not bad for never doing it before. Now I just need to get a better grill and modify it to sit right and add a hood, then it should be time to paint it.
Dido on that color choice. Here's mine, Kona Brown rustoleom, not the more readily available burgundy. I wanted that dark factory look but on the cheap and not black. I painted cars for years but get a kick out of using spray paint when I can. This wheel is just for mock up, still have to prep, smooth, and shoot four shiners. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Thanks man! The main goal was to easily remove the headlights without having to re adjust them every time. Just wondering, any chance you guys will be covering late 40s in the Period Correct Hot Rods group? I have to say that group is amazing, some really good stuff gets posted on there. I don't have much to add but I just love reading all the posts
Yeah, my plan is to go all the way until '49...work and family commitments have kept me from updating it as much as I would like, but eventually we'll get there! In the mean time, keep building that roadster; I'm really enjoying following along!! I may have to send you a set of fender braces & a headlight bar to "rework" in similar fashion for my build
Awesome! I can't wait!! I've got some downtime on the build until my grill gets here and find a 28-29 hood. If you have fender braces and would like me to whip up a pair for you I'd be happy to. Shoot me a pm
The other roadster turned out to be a real basket case. Pretty much the only things worth saving are the wood, passenger quarter, and the cowl. Everything else is pretty much toast. All and all I still made out good on it I guess. I may end up having to part with the good stuff to keep funding this project, hopefully not.
Hey, Ford Mike, you are doing just what so many of us old farts did, or wanted to do in the '60s, but didn't have the bucks until decades later. I really admire your grit in these times of mega-buck showmmobiles. You are going to feel so freaking proud at get-togethers when you tell the onlookers that YOU built this "mochine". Keep the flame burning. You are a true credit to this disease we call rodding.
It's been a while since I have checked in and was blown away with your vision of what a hot rod should be. HRP
Not really anything going on with the car but my buddy Chris dropped off this hood. Its in near perfect shape, just what I was looking for! Now if my grill shell would show up some day I could get this thing looking the way it should. Took a few shots of it out side and I think it's getting the late 40s early 50s street roadster feel... Trying to think of some ideas for things to add while the grill is MIA. Either make a really quirky front bumper or a dash. I am sort of at a loss on the dash ideas as I don't have any gauges for my cluster.
A little progress on a dash. I have made more progress since this photo was taken but I am still wondering how I should go about punching the holes out for the gauges. I also have a new column drop in the works. The insert is from Grace&Co. Chris makes absolutely killer gauge panels and I am so glad to have one for my car. I'll most likely wrap this up by tonight and post another pic of the finished product. **Edit, I tried to link the Grace&Co name to the SCSS site but the site seems to be down
It's a flat dash. Just get a hole saw and go at it! Make sure you carefully trace your gauge openings first. If you need to enlarge a hole bigger than your hole saw, use a carbide bit in a die grinder to carefully open it up.
That seems to be a good idea but I don't have any fine tooth hole saws handy. I tried one of our hole saws when I was cutting the holes for the taillights and it really screwed it up. Right as the saw was nearly through it caught and mangled the piece up. I probably have 20 or more hours in the last two days building this thing and I don't want to wreck it!! haha. I'll see what I can come up with tomorrow. It doesn't really matter I guess, I have no gauges to put in the dash anyway! Also as promised, here is the column drop. It was confirmed that this was a 32 column drop after I finished. Oh well, I didn't have any use for it otherwise, turned out to be a perfect fit for the dash.
Cut a hole with the holesaw in 3/4 inch thick mdf piece and use it as a guide on the metal Clamp it down with vise grips . Will cut clean holes in the dash
so glad you went with the 903J's...they are the perfect size for the 28/29 A's. Now if I could just convince you to run a 28/29 grille shell...
Thanks man! and thanks for the hood! That thing is perfect! I have always been fond of those lights, the larger lights looked crappy on this car so it needed 903Js. And don't loose too much sleep wishing I'll swap the grill for a 28/29 shell, not gonna happen!! Theres a better chance this car will get wire wheels before a stock grille You got that right!! Well I got the new grille finally, but um, it looks like photobucket doesn't want to host my photos anymore. Sorry about that guys.... On the bright side, I'll have more done to update by the time the photos are back.
You're part of a young technically savvy generation. Just link your instagram photos like the rest of us. haha
I have it linked to my profile but don't know how to link the pics onto this thread Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
In the reply box, just above where you type, you'll see the buttons for Bold, Italics, Underline, etc. You'll see one that looks like the Instagram logo. That's the one you want to link your pictures.
The Jalopy Journal
