So Cal Plating inspired 1936 Ford

My 37 ?







Thanks for your ideas?

 

this is so damn awesome! i've been hanging out for someone to do a tribute or recreation of this car. good work

 

Maroon is my favorite and it was my choice for a couple of years. I'm not familiar with the Willys maroon, how does it compare to say 40 ford maroon? I'm still thinking about the grill but maybe try to copy the original car. Not sure I could do that myself but have some ideas...

 

Lynn as far as the front end gos I would try brass, even make the bars out of wood and then have then cast in brass, use the wood for the molds. and if you need louvers I can help and would love to give you a hand, always been a fan of you work. mike

 

Thanks Mike. I read that Frank Kurtis made the bars from brass sheet stock. He was a metal genius. I was thinking of using a bead roller with a louver die essentially making long louvers then forming them to fit the grille.

 

The 1937 Ford styled Smoothster built by Boyds had a grille styled after the So Cal Plating comp truck.
The grille on the Smoothster was made from 66 beveled edge 3/4 x 3/8 solid brass bars, and hand formed by George Gould.

I guess one long pattern was made from wood, and those where cast in brass.

Dave Crook also used solid brass fro the trim pieces on his Harry Bradley designed Custom Cars. And Donn Lowe used the same technique on his recent built Custom Cars.

 

The only thing bad about bead rolling them is they better be ever so straight or you'll see every little dog leg in it!

I think the brass stock option would be the way to go. Might look at McMastercarr for some stock options. They have some cool half-round stainless that might look pretty stinkin' cool all polished up!

 

Lynn,
what about making a steel bar cut into the shape you want like this < but with the bottom flat.. but solid... shape to the curve of the grill bars.. then bend strips of brass, aluminum, steel or whatever into a V on a brake... then hammerform them over the steel bar.... would be some work to make the initial steel solid bar...

maybe you could even get strips of hardwood and use a router to make the shape... then soak and bend them to the curve... attach to a flat steel bar on the back to hold the shape..then hammer over that... just go easy so you dont end up with less shape in the form as you go...

keep up the good work!
Zach

 

By far my most favorite build on the HAMB...ever! This '36 is going to be one jaw dropping car when it's finished. My jaw is htting the floor just looking at what youve done so far! wow!

I love both of the ideas of maroon or the original seafoam green with a tan top. That seafoam would probably be quite eyepopping and different than what everyone else does!

Stick with doing the grill the way the original was. It's timeless and an intricate work of art. It would make your build that much better than it already is...even if it's really hard to do

Best of luck with the rest of the build. Truly an inspiration in these days where most customs and hot rods are overdone with the same ol' things done to them over and over again.

 

Cool! I have been talking about building a similar car out of my spare Zephyr sedan. I guess maybe I don't need to do it now. ha ha

 

For the grill bars consider using tubing material, maybe brass. Any open profile will be almost impossible to bend without deforming the profile cross section.

 

Wasn't someone else building a clone as well? I like the idea of building it to one of the original sketches. Then there can be 2 bad ass So-Cal Plating replicas!

 

GREAT JOB! Lokks very cool. Love the roof! Inspirational!

 

Maybe I'll go back to my original plan and use stainless Volvo 122 trim. It looks identical to the '32-'36 ford hood hinge shape.

 

There ya go! Remembering that interview I aluded to yesterday (and I'm not sure that it isn't the one that American Rodder did in '92 or so and not Pat's), Goerge described the grill as being made of brass bent to a "lazy Z shape, with the edges shrunk to shape it". My thought would be maybe towards using '38 Standard sheet metal as a base and possibly you Volvo trim to get close. But, I have to wonder how hard it would be to break a piece of say .045 brass into the shape described and shrink the edges until the shape happened. If you have access to a press break (and I happen to know a hot rod shop with such equipment...) it would be easy enough to create a temporary die from flat bar stock to make it repeteable... Just thinking aloud.

 

I was thinking that is what Winfield would still do; make a steel mandrel that is as long as the longest trim, then hammer form mild steel over it.

Not a pro at this stuff, but stainless is a pain to rework, and I wonder if brass would be a pain?


That pic of the Volvo trim; the tips look kinda not so nice? or uniform?

 

Having used the trick shinker stretcher stands over at ElPolacko's quite a bit for 18ga steel, I can imagine brass to be a bunch easier to move through. He's the one I'm refering to with the press break as well... A big four footer.

 

Cool build!

 

Hi Lynn, thanks for the pm. Glad to see you finally got a thread up on this one, not so happy to see that your making more progress on yours than I am. You have really kicked on with this one, car looks fantastic. Have to pull my finger out and race you to the finish ( wish I was retired). Great job, keep it up.

 

The front upper door jam was a little tricky but by making a wooden hammerform and using the shrinker/stretcher I was able to form those pieces. Not exactly like the original but close enough....

 

Wow, I'm getting visions a really Streamline Moderne concept. Hope you get to it Plowboy...

 

Lynn,
What a fantastic build, great fabrication and work. I love the long doors! Can't wait to see it completed.

Rex

 

Some guys were asking about the skirts. Here's the R&C article....
http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/techarticles/0604rc_fender_skirts/index.html

 

This is an assume build. Thanks for pictures

 

Great article on the skirts.
You are one of those guys, we look up to.
Awesome build.

 

Thanks Lynn for the pictures on the upper door jambs. That explains allot. I have always wanted to do a tudor pheaton, maybe some day I can.

 

I'm only 5'6" nobody looks up to me.....well maybe Theo....

 

Started fitting the '41 Ford dash. Had to narrow it about 2 inches in the middle and 1.5 inches on each end.

 

That's why I bought those drywall stilts.