Customs Time to make the 51 mine sorta build thread....

As most of you know I swapped the old Dodge kustom with Leadhead51 for his driver 51Chevy , I wasnt sure if I was gonna keep the hardtop style or try and put door tops etc back on. It rains a fair amount here and although JamesD did an awesome photoshop of it for me with Hirohata style windows I couldnt see an easy or most importantly ,a quick way to clean things up and make it water proof. The whole reason for the trade was to get a roadworthy cool car and drive it , not make another project out of it. The decision to do something else was made easier by the offer of a friend to steal the doors and upper b pillars from a Pontiac Fleetline parts car he had sitting in the yard....

Heres the car the day after I got it home...







Heres a couple of pics with my "new" home made white walls and some 58 Olds hubcaps I had in stock...





And here is the photoshop JamesD did....I love the lines but at this point and time it wasnt a feasible option.....

 

Oh yeah I did a quickie on a 59 Impala wheel and stuck that on...Aaron if you want I can send the trophy winning wheel that was on the car back to you

 

pretty cool looking!! dig the shoebox tail lights!!!

What's the plans??

 

So after I got the Fleetline parts I booked an extra day off work to make last weekends long weekend into a 4 day one and I put in about 50 hrs over those 4 days.....

A few before pics...







Tin foil is a great protector for sparks and slag, plus it keeps the aleins from getting into my brain

Door top and vent window removed...



Door top cut up...past the point of no return now!!

 

I love the tail lights and Caddy bumper, I have wanted to build one of these cars just to do that tail light swap lol. Keep watching !

If you dont know these cars the fleetlines are different beasts compared to the reg sedans I wasnt sure exactly what was different but I knew it had to do with windshield height or angle so that added some extra work....

first piece of the puzzle tacked in place after tons of measuring and trimming, i used the beltline on the out side and the stampings on the inside of the doors to align the "new" pieces up..



I sandblasted all the donor parts before I welded them on as well..



I then decided to do the B pillar so I could line the door up with it.

 

Haha it looks like it was so easy in these pics !

 

heres a couple of inner shots with every thing all welded solid...I dont have any of the guts for the back windows so the will just get glued in , but that may change in the future







Figured I would round the door tops while I was at it, I was pretty close to doing slanted pillars but that would have added more time to this and I would have had to get new door glass as well, for now I will use the stock glass, remember I dont want the car off the road for more than a couple of weekends



I wasnt gonna do anything about driprails but the roof looked kinda big without them so I had some 1/4" rod in stock and tacked it on, I really like the look and to me it makes the roof seem a bit lower.

These are all the pics I got up on photobucket but I have a bunch more to add hopefully by tomorrow night...unless I am in the shop too long !

 

Looks good

 

Wow what a difference, looks really good.

 

Looks much better with the door top..

 

Nice work so far.

 

Yes you are right way better

 

just what this car needed.

 

You're a hero, man!
Wonderfull to see that stuff fixed up right!

 

Thanks guys I will add afew more pics when I get in tonight...I hope to have it in primer before the end of the weekend! I am pretty happy with how its gone so far and glad I made the decision to go ahead and do it.

 

Lookin good. I think you made a good decision. Lookin forward to more pics!

 

looks great!!!!

 

Thats the proper thing steve . Looks good my friend !! Andy

 

wow nice job on the doors , makes the car look much better ,

 

Thanks again guys the positive comments make it all the more worthwhile !

Got it outside on the morning of the 3rd day to clean up some of the mess in the shop and turn it around to start on the pass side..





And now to do it all over again on the pass side...





First piece tacked in..



Everything blasted before it gets welded in



Started on the B pillar

 

I didnt take as many pics of this side, I was going pretty quick till it came to fitting the vent window and I pissed away alot of time with it but it was worth it and I am very happy with the fit






I have about 2 hrs of metalwork left then I can get some mud on this side and start sanding...I hope to get some primer on it before the end of the weekend !

 

100% better...great job.

 

Looks great! BIG improvement.

 

Nice, for some reason I like straight up and down B pillers as opposed to leaned forward ones. You are rockin this one.

 

Man How did I miss this!!! That is nice work Steve. I knew you come around with the drip rails.lol

 

Thanks Fitzee I got all the welding and grinding finished , including the garnish moldings (that was a chore with what I had to work with) and got a coat of mud on most of it before my back said Enough ! Do you think buddy is gonna take yer offer on that Pontiac?

 

you been busy!! No the guy won`t let it go for no less then 2 grand.cool car but the frame is ruff. Looking at something else now for the nats runner.If the weather was going to be good I try taken the bucket!!I`m too old for getting caught in rain storms any more. been there done that tooooo many times!!

 

Oh Steve what is your plan for paint?? Just the roof or a quick all over??

 

looks real good... wish i was that motovated to get back to work on mine.

 

Awesome.