I have been waiting to do this part of my car for 2 years now, but it needed to be media blasted before I did it. Ive been working for a few weeks on molding in one fender, as well as adding a Gene Winfield running board eliminating kit (basicly extends the rear quarters and door bottoms in place of the running boards). I welded the fender on soid, and then made 1.25" strips of 18 guage sheet metal, hammered them into a radius, and the borrowed a friends shrinker/stretcher, and formed them to make the valley between the body and the fender. I welded the filler pieces solid, and this weekend I sanded my ass off doing the rough bodywork. The lower portion of the quarter pannel is also a replacement patch pannel. I also have decided to re-install the stainless trim, so I re-drilled those holes (I'm glad I kept the trim!). This pic is just in a few coats of Slick-n-Sand, there is still a lot of fine tuning that will need to be done. There seems to be a huge difference between almost there, ans there, when it comes to bodywork. Heres where I was last summer: And as of a few hours ago:
Very smooth, looks nice. I checked it out last year at the greaseball and jalopyrama and was amazed by it. Glad to see its only improving. Can't wait to see more of it.
Thanks! I liked the old idea at first, but in favor of a more traditional approach to fit my early 5-'s Barris style theme, Im going with bumper guard mounted tail lights.
dig it. I have seen some early kustoms that had the stock lights moved down to align with the rear fender reveal.. which I like alot.. but bumper guard lights will be cool.. sawzall
really nice job,,,,adds a lot to the look of that car...it's got that early 50s barris look you are after..
Thanks, A guide coat (love the 3M dry guide coat) and some block sanding of the Slick-n-Sand, it revealed just how good that Viking sander is at rounghing out bodywork. It took very little hand blocking off the skim coat to get it striaight. If I didnt buy the 2 air sanders you reccomended, I would have never gotten that far in a day and a halfs time.
That is a major improvement to the looks of that car! I've been wanting to do the same to my '48 Ford for years too. Nice to see it in progress. DO you have any shots of welding up the seam with the filler pieces?
I have thaught about it, and I have been on and off regarding it, but I guess I have no choice. I'll weld it shut. I know it will look good. I can add modifying the gas tank filler to the year+ long list of work before the car is back on the road, but its all for the good. I want this car to be dead on.
Hey Chad, Your Ford looks killer, Sam would be proud! "in the good-old-days", as my old man liked to say, we'd take a piece of EMT 3/4'' o.d. and bend it to the shape of the radius betwe- en the quarter and the fender, than take a felt pen and mark off all of the emt not needed, just leaving the radius. Next we'd cut off any extra material that wasn't the radius and braze (pre mig days) the piece onto the quarter/fender. We'd grind and mud to suit the project. Glad the Viking sander worked out for ya. Swankey Devils C.C.
Thanks! You know, I thaught about that tubing idea a while back, but besides the fact that I had no way to bend the tubing, and I also didnt know if it would work out in the end or not. I wound up putting the 1.25" strips of 18 guage against a jack handle tube, in a vice, and hammered the metal aroud the tubing to get the radius. I worked with 1 foot down to 3" pieces at a time depending on how thight the bend was. The shrinker/stretcher worked exactly as I hoped it would, and now I know I that the job was done right, and it wont ever crack. I have seen several cars with molded in fenders, with lots of cracks, and I know the radius just had to be globs of bondo. I wound up hitting my skim coat lightly with the 6" DA (I got both the National Detroit DAQ6, and the Viking 8"), to get rid of any of the ridges from my poor spreading technique, and then hit it with the 8" with 40 grit. After very little hand blocking, I was amazed at how straight the Viking got me, and it was QUICK! I'll still probably add an in-line Hutchins to my tool box eventualy.
IMO, that's one of the most SMOKIN '47s around....nice job man. i've been watchin this one verrrrry closely
another great job, keep screwing around and your going to end up with one of the greatest 47's built I did mine many years ago and widened them 2 inches at the same time. always thought that it was my favorite mods. it does take some time to do them right
Wow guys, Im flattered. Its all good to hear though, as I lose sleep over this car. I have a picture in my mind of how the final result should be, and I want all of the little details to be dead on, and the end of the road seems like its really far away. But finishing a mod like this has made me so happy with the results, that I cant wait to move onto the next thing, Im truly having a blast building this car.
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