Customs The Mild Custom Transformation, mama's 55

Nothing major to report. I pulled the dash apart and blasted everything. Going to weld up a few holes and then I’ll put everything in epoxy primer and then paint. It will probably live in the spare bedroom on mama’s antique bed. Don’t tell her....

 

I did also play around with the paint I picked for the accent colors.

Paint a couple of the wheels to see if I liked it and to see if I solved my fisheye problem, after changing the air compressor out. I think I won.

 

Not a ton of progress, but since the Okie Apache is gone, it frees up my evenings and weekends.

I started frenching in a set of 1941 Lincoln door buttons rather than shaving the handles.

I also sprayed some dash pieces and the other 2 wheels.

 

Color combo sure photographs together nicely.

 

I dig man!

 

It's way better in person. Hard to see in pics.

 

Did you by the Lincoln door button french kit or make one yourself?

 

I bought it from the same guy that builds the buttons. Logictech. He's a hamber BTW. The only problem is the space inside the door. I ended up welding the nut to the frenching panel. I will have to screw the button into the door. Not a big deal when everything is new, but if I ever have to remove it, it may be an issue if any corrosion ever sets up. I'll use anti-seize when I assemble. I modified the stock latch, but I may buy new ones and modify them to increase their expected life.

 

Not much progress to note. Been filling holes in the driver side now.. Mama has been Captain of the blast cabinet for the garnish moldings. White metal is good.

 

Not a ton to report. We filled the rest of the trim holes on the driver side.

Then we started playing around with scrapers. I was gonna just DA the whole car, but the paint that is on it, is probably 20-25 years old. That means it’s brittle. I would hate to spend all of this time and effort on bodywork, to have it let go at the car wash.

This is about 4 hours work with the wife on one side and me in the other with putty scrapers. Saves on sandpaper, anyway.

All of the previous owners bodywork on display. Nothing terrible to speak of.

we may take off a couple weeks and thrash on it around Memorial Day, since the COVID 19 crap screwed up my vacation plans.

This was a running, driving car. I'm an idiot.

 

Amy always says to me "you just can't leave anything alone, can you"

 

I can relate to the idiot comment.

Cars coming along nicely


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Yep. I feel your pain.

 

It's called mission creep my friend. You do one thing, now this other thing looks bad, so let's redo that, now something else needs to change......

Been there, done that! Makes for good stories after the paint goes on and all the little bits are bolted back down.

 

June, 2016

 

But you will get it put back together.

 

Thanks for that boss....

 

I’m the King of mission creep. Ask anyone.

 

I’m gonna have to go back and read this whole thread. Like what I’ve seen.

 

On Customers projects we call it "while your at it". Or the comment "I was just thinking". These are cenerally followed by another 12 plus months of Cash Flow.

 

I’ll be glad to see it going again. And, this is why I don’t take mine apart... I’m not sure I will know where to stop. But, I am thinking it will only limp along a little longer before I actually have to at least put a transmission in it.

 

The good thing about this project is Mama is helping out. A little sweat equity is always good. Involved since inception. She is even keeping up with this thread.

 

Ok, mid week progress report. Been working after we get off in the evenings. We try and put in 2-3 hours a night. Some days we can, some we don’t. Everything we get done during the week, makes less we have to do come Saturday.

Mama has been scraping like a mad woman. It saves sandpaper and speeds things up. We plan on thrashing for 2 weeks over Memorial Day. Fun vacation, huh?

I pulled the rear glass, grill and front bumper. I only dorked up one piece of trim. I’ll try and straighten it. Pisses me off. The rear glass had never been out. I found the original headliner trapped in there. Apparently this car had blue interior from Ford.

I did mount the tires. I hadn’t planned on running this tire, but back when I was building the Okie Apache, I ordered too big of a tire and it rubbed hard on the fender. I didn’t have the heart to tell my sister that she needed to spend another $1200 on tires, so I bought he next set and kept these. They do look good though. I hate to put a full cap over them.

Anyway, pics from this week.

 

Looking good. I have a soft spot for ‘55s.

 

Me too. I had a '55 Fairlane Club Sedan back in the 80s.

 

I used to really think the 55-59 Chevys were the ticket, but now my tastes have evolved into the 55-60 Fords. I wished I would have held out for a Crown Vic. Oh well, there’s always next year...

 

Today was day 1 of the Memorial Day Thrash. We are dumb this way. We will put self imposed deadlines on ourselves for no real reason. I’ll try and post the daily progress, if I don’t lose interest.

We probably got about half of the car down to bare metal. It appears the previous owner put a skin coat of the old pink, polyester body filler, over the entire car! We have been taking it down to the metal and have only found one or two actual dents. The rest is just for blocking I guess.

We started at 8 and worked til 5:30. Took and hour for lunch. Treating it like a job, so we don’t burn out.

Anyway, here ya go.

 

Looks like good progress to me.
I see by the thermometer you don't have A/C in the shop. I'm afraid I would be done by noon.

 

It was nice today. We are trying to do the dirty work before the Oklahoma heat hits. It will be melt your face hot by July. We are shooting to have all the body work done before then.