2 steps forward one step back. At least you are making progress!! Keep at it, the finish line is within sight
I finished my "A" the way I visioned it in my late 60's with a "Rockabilly" flair. I'm Still adding and tinkering with my present 34 and some friends, who are not into cars, ask me since your a widower why not settle down again and marry. I said marriage is a commitment and I'm not ready to be committed. Keep up your good work.
I have a friend who did the opposite. In his 70's, has had the same girlfriend for 10 years and then they got married. People asked him why he decided to remarry after all that time. He replied, "I was tired of making my own decisions."
Tired of making decisions? Today is not much at all like the "good old days". My grandma was born in the 1890s and her husband died in the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928. (That particular William Mulholland fuggup killed 400 people and ended his career.) Grandma never remarried; she even left one fella at the courthouse steps. Said she didn't need another man telling her what to do. BAM! Was enjoying reading this thread in small bits over the last few weeks, that is until I caught up to the present day. Dammit, was hoping you'd have her whooped VT. Good on ya, keep at it. Thanks for sharing the (sometimes agonizing) details. Dig riding along from the other side of the country.
Roger that A is absolutely gorgeous! If mine turns out half as nice I will be very pleased! Paul, you know how it goes, a little back and forth then keep moving forward. And wheeldog I don't know yet where that elusive finish line is yet but it is out there somewhere. Today I shaved a bit off the top of the ps door to get a better line with the drip rail and then shimmed the lower hinge between the door and the hinge. (I had previously drilled out the three rivets and replaced them with counter sunk machine screws) That moved the door back for a tight fit without any hinge bind. Belt line lines up perfectly so I am done for now on this side. The other side is yet another story! The leading edge of the door is way to tight with the cowl near the bottom. I also noticed someone in the past had beat the lower hinge area of the door in by a strong 1/4 of an inch obviously to solve a door bind issue. I shaved a little off the edge and dressed that up, hammered the door back out straight which of course put the door in a serious hinge bind. Running out of options so I sat back and looked at the problem and concluded that the only thing I haven't done before is to cut the hinge. Took the lower hinge from the A pillar and cut a groove in it right where the bend starts, hit it with a BFH and altered the angle just a small amount, put it back on for a test fit and was amazed that all the bind in that lower hinge was gone. Now I will weld the groove up in the hinge, finish it off and as they say move on. These doors were a real PIA! Stopped by NAPA, got a price for the paint etc. Came home and had two stiff drinks. More to come on that subject later...
Your "A" will be just fine when done. It will be just as imagined by you, safe as can be, while still terrorizing your neighborhoods and taunting any slammed boom box import. On a different note, anyone's build when completed is really a reflection and extension of their personality and character. I enjoy seeing all the builds here and craftsmanship from all of you. I'm pleased I fit in somehow.
Been doing a lot of thinking about this paint subject. Prices are just out of sight everywhere even with my "garage" discount. Advanced has ceased selling paint leaving Orielly who does not have a paint guy but will sell you PPG if you know what you want and then there is NAPA who just had there paint guy retire. Would have used Napa's Crossfire product but they are stumbling when it comes to answering any of my questions. So, I took a long shot and ordered all my paint product from .......wait for it......Summit in Ohio. I suppose there are risks but frankly there pricing was very attractive and it appears that quite a few users had decent reviews about the product. My ace in the hole is my buddy who has been painting for 50 years. Says he can make it work so we are now waiting for UPS to deliver. In the meantime we are going to spray the firewall in Polar white for a little contrast with the jet black body color.
Got some color on the firewall, finally. Went with Wimbledon white instead of Polar white. Not a big difference really but it still feels good to have some color on the project. May get to put the black on next week. Some hurdles to jump first though, always lots of hurdles! Had one spot the size of a nickle lift a bit. Will let it dry and scuff the firewall and reshoot it in the hope that it will lay down. If not I will mount my HAMB tag over it!
2nd time around on the firewall covered most of the issues. Looks presentable. Yesterday I cleaned the interior and blew out all of those hidden spots that hold dust and debris. Pulled it back into the booth and shot red oxide in the interior. We have been having some lifting issues near the belt line of the high build. We have sanded those areas back down to shiny steel and recovered them. Then about a week later more lifting. You all know, I am certain, that this is not a good thing. Oddly the other coupe in the shop does not show this at all. Needed to do some research on this so I called the paint rep for the primer at Sherwin Williams only to find out that the guys at Advanced had given me a lacquer based high build that is not DTM. In addition to this the primer on the other coupe is not from the same company but came from Advanced. Go figure! Didn't know that either which might explain why I am only seeing the problem. The short side of this dilemma is that the primer has to come off wherever it was applied over steel then etched and recoated. We will be switching over to the High Tech primer then in hopes that this problem will be solved. So the traditional back and forth process in building hot rods prevails. Can't really blame anyone nor am I looking to. Just didn't know about the DTM crap. So much to learn about paint and body work.
i sprayed the inside of my project as light a color as i could, makes seeing what you are doing easier...
Ha! lately seeing what I am doing is really questionable Smitty. I saw that you were doing that and point well taken as the eyes just don't focus as clearly as they used to but then nothing seems to function like it used to, ah the golden years!
spent two days stripping all the primer off the coupe except that covering patch areas. Sanded all of it with 180 and then blew it off followed by a wipe down with prepsol. Laid down two wet coats of etching primer as per specs from the manufacturer. Let it flash off and then followed with 2 coats High Teck Hi build. So far so good. The high build layed down perfect and looks very smooth. Today we will block it off with 600 and may get to paint early next week I hope. Will post a pic of the high build later today. Here is where we ended up prior to the etching.
Spent the day or most of it blocking the first two coats of hi build. Looks clear that we will need a couple more which we will shoot tomorrow. Hoping that will be enough. At the end of the day it looks like this.
got our booster shots and of course that kicked my but for a bit but I did get back to the shop yesterday pm. We shot 2 more coats of high build on. Will go up tomorrow and start blocking it out again, hopefully for the last time. We will know after i get the guide coat on and off
It’s looking good Walt! Sorry to hear about your issues with the primer but you’re lucky it happened before you put the color on. I like the red oxide on the inside.
It appears now that I am caught up in the proverbial "paint jail" as it has been around ten days of trying to get paint supplies. Won"t bore you with the details but it has been a bitch. Using Summit Speed paint which is made by Kirker (standard national rule base coat) or Sherwin who makes the VOC line. The black has been on back order. Summit said it would be 2 weeks. Not good! Last night however I got an email from Summit stating the black base coat has been shipped from the manufacturer (SW) in KY. Should be here Friday. If so we will paint on Saturday/Sunday. Hoping that the planets stay aligned and the paint really shows up. Meanwhile, thought I would work on my wiring. Pulled a fuse panel from a Nova wiring harness I had and designed my own panel. This panel is small enough that I am going to be able to mount it in my glove box for easy access. Won't be a lot of wiring as there isn't a need for a lot of accessories. I am using wiring that is labeled that I purchased a while back. This should make it easy to keep track of all the wires now and in the future. Now I need to locate a Ford truck instrument panel and rob one of the movements as I need to convert from Amp to voltmeter in the existing instrument panel. Add a couple relays for the horn and lights and I should be on my way to roughing in the wiring.
Ditto on electrics shock... i was good at it 30 years ago... i am having a pro re-wire my coupe this winter, everything works great now but is pieced and patched and very ugly... he sent me the #s for the thing he uses... ebay, $39.00 ... looks just like what you have in the box... i fabbed up an offset bracket to bolt it to the A pillar to cowl support channel... screwed [4 each] hook-up ACC. and HOT neutral block on it for easy addition later... painted it white and made some rows to mark the new additions... this lets the wire run up the cowl side and across the cowl top... wire are also labeled every foot... 12 or less circuits ... a heater as an only accessory... go walt go !
Looks good Smitty. What are u using for directionals? More delays on the paint! got a ups email this morning stating delays may apply. Looks like the tracking number originated in CA so at a minimum we are 6 days out without delays.
have and will use the new signal stat [7 wire]... a couple older signal-stats [4+7 wire], and an arrow [4 wire] top pic... may use this one as it is thinner F-B...
What is the red jewel in the center for? I don't think mine has that. got an email from ups yesterday. Due to delays the paint has been moved to an eta of next Friday by 9pm. Who are they kidding? What a joke..this shipping crap.
while I am waiting for my BCCC to show up I figured I would finish the dash since it is a bolt in item. Blocked it out for one final time, wiped it down with prepsol and then tacked it off. I used Duplicolor black satin to avoid the blinding glare in the sun. Laid down two light coats waiting for a while between coats for it to flash off then one final wet coat. It laid down nice and smooth, looked really great. I let it set in the booth for 24 hours and went back yesterday to retrieve it only to find that the paint has not dried and there has been a reaction in several spots turning the final coat all wrinkles. I hope this is not an omen of what is to come with the body! So now it appears that I will have to strip this stuff off and start over which it seems I am doing a lot lately. What is a mystery once again is the fact that my buddy just did his dash with the same paint and it turned out fine. Go figure.
Stripped all the paint off the dash with lacquer thinner. What a dam mess! Tomorrow we are going to hit it with high build and will try again to paint it. In the mean time I worked on the instruments for the 50 dash cluster. The speedo would work but the odometer was not moving. Appears it's drive mechanism is just wore out. I picked up a 69 Ford truck instrument cluster last week in the hope that I can convert the gauges and perhaps the speedo to fit into the 50 housing. This is what I came home with from the yard The ammeter from the top right will be replaced with a new volt meter but the other gauges appear to be in good condition and I should be able to use them with some modification. Both speedos are driven by a king-seeley unit that is identical so my intent is to steal the gear drives (nylon pieces) from the 69 to work in the 50. I will roll that odometer back to zero for a fresh start. The newer gauges will require brackets to attach them to the back of the 50 housing. Started laying out one with the insulated grommets. Will bend that into a U shape and attach it to the back of the housing with small screws. This is the 50 housing with the old gauges that I am working with. I had originally thought that the gauges were in good shape and they may be but the 69 pieces are much nicer and the sending units are less money compared to the vintage ones I would need so I feel I am ahead of the game so to speak.
The Jalopy Journal
