Got to go to the shop today and work a little bit on my coupe. Was awesome to finally see the paint Chopolds laid down on the firewall and inner fenders.. absolutely what I wanted. Bolted up the inner fenders and it’s just amazing how far this car has come in less then 9 months.
You should see all the work at the shop Mike! Larry just put the new engine in Marks old shop truck, Mark’s olds engine is sitting in front of my shoebox all painted up and almost ready to put in his Oldsnomad.. Glenn’s car is running now and lighting all sorted out.. and Kenny’s car is so low it’s swimming on the concrete and he is making some floor panels for it! Now if only my engine was back from the shop!
Factory design core support isn't much of a support in stock form. It's just a week piece of light weight angle in an open top U. Ford thought the soldered on rad brackets would support the weight and leverage of the Fenders. The only help it had was the Air dam made out of 18 gauge with a dog leg pre formed in a place that eliminated any help from it at all. Then to make sure there was no chance at all to keep good gap and stop shake Henry mounted it with a single bolt dead center on the Bottom and no support rods from the firewall forward. If your going to spend time getting good fit and want it to stay I advise you do is 2 things. Change the single center bottom mount bolt on the core support to two mounts one each outboard end of core support and then tie the top corners of it together to take the load off the rad. In this photo I have a piece of 1" X 1/8 thick angle bolted under the top tank keeping it from spreading and totally out of sight.
P.S. This unwanted flex movement I believe is why it's well known these 49-51 Hoods are known to open on there own at speed. That is never a good thing.
Good idea thank you!! I need to go over that with Mark. We are planning to weld the front end all together and radius all the hood corners and the front of the doors, then do the merc grille surround, so the sturdier the better!
You mentioned this in another thread and I made the angle iron addition to my '51 two door sedan. I still have the hidden pin that you pull a keeper hair pin to secure the hood. Safe and secure IMO is better than a flying hood at speed.
I will be there this weekend.. Saturday for sure, possibly Sunday. Most weekends on Saturday with some sundays until the wife is fully recovered.
Progress! Mark, (Chopolds) made two more radiator support mounts ,at Pist-n-broke suggestion, should be nice and study now.. I was able to get a couple hours in at Customs by Flash today, and bolted up the steering upgrade kit, then Ron and I bolted on the fenders. The passenger side,may need a little tweaking but man, it’s starting to look like a whole car again!
I like it. Once you weld the fenders to the Cowel and rocker are you going to radieus the front bottom corner of the door also?
Now you're talking. I can't tell ya how many I've seen with all 4 hood corners rounded out and the top corner of the door done and both bottom corners of the doors not touched. That just gives me a rub.
ChopOlds really knows his stuff, and I don’t think he’d let me take my car out of his shop done half assed! I have told him what I envisioned and through this build,he has done it and more, and has given me great advice the whole time. It should definitely be a very period correct looking coupe done the right way.
Wow, just found this thread - those 14 pages were a good use of my lunch break.... and then some. Looks great.
More updates! Fell behind a little bit, but so far Mark welded the front fenders to the cowl and rockers , rounded the front corners of the doors, and rounded the back of the hood corners! Front ones will be done once the merc grille surround is on and we can get the hood lined up on the car. Waiting to go pick up the engine when they are done the machine work and get it put back together and installed. In the mean time, I was able to get a hold of an early 51 speedo cluster, with the red ring on the needle that was in a chrome bezel! Man this think pops against the gold dash! The dash screen insert has been a pain in my ass trying to figure out what to do and not make it so stock looking. I tried drum skin but it looked too translucent, was going to paint it, then one of the guys at the shop, Ron talked me into trying some chrome powder coating.. it looks great! Going to do the whole screen like it and have Polyking do all of the knobs.. hopefully the dash will be ready to install next month! Here’s some pics…
I did the chrome bezels in black along with the screen. And the Vintage Air control fits in the old heater control spot.
Throughout my build I kept thinking "what could I get done" when I was 17, then I did it. You never see the hidden tricks. I love the way it lights up when driving at night. It even has the stock Glove Box light, is that sick?
Tony, It's your car and your opinion is the only one that matters in the design and build. However, I have to agree with hotrod428, the scoops just don't work with the rest of the flow and style of the build. My 2 cents, and that's about how much it's worth Thor
spent my New Years eve messing with the dash.. we got the dash insert all done in the chrome powder coat, Ron is also doing a spare one in black for me to see how that looks.. extremely happy how this dash turned out.
The Jalopy Journal
