History The Jimmy Summers 1936 full fadeaway custom rescue and resurrection

Looks like there must have been stuff/accumulation of something holding moisture between the x frame and floor pan on the first one. Before I expanded the pic on my phone it looked like a bunch of bolt holes!

 

Loving what I've seen so far, I hope the whole restoration was documented to this detail.

 

Wow, great save Jon and Jim. I wonder how many people walked away from it sitting in the field thinking this car will never be restored.

 

Its like you are Indiana Jones and the temple of rust.

 

Those lines of rust are where the wood braces bolted to the underside, same on the trunk floor; the X frame bolt holes are further out.

 

This is a wonderful thread.

I'm really impressed by the quality of the workmanship, especially in an era that wasn't exactly known for impeccable coachwork. Keep up the good work

 

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Jimmy_Summers

...he was quite a high bar coachworker and more...at the link above are a comprehensive record of his greatness in Hotrod and Custom...

 

For those who would like to know a bit more about the history of this car, HERE is an article I did on the history of this Jimmy Summers 1936 Ford. Showing most of the historic photos that are known.

 

I’ll be darn, I’ve never had 35-40 cars, just pickups. Only wood underneath was for cab mounts along the top of the frame.
Thanks for the info

 

Thanks for the link

 

https://www.customcarchronicle.com/early-custom-cars/summers-merc-part1/

https://www.customcarchronicle.com/early-custom-cars/summers-merc-2/

https://www.customcarchronicle.com/custom-cars/summers-merc-3/

...Your welcome Chipper, here's a few more links from @Rikster'a site with pics, history and a more comprehensive history of Jimmy's Custom Merc...

This man was an incredible influence in the big picture...and also drove what he built...

 

Great story. Thanks for the link. Snowman ⛄️

 

From Jim...

OK, with the sub rails and floor handled, it was time to start fixing the cowl.

We took the bottom 6 inches from the crushed donor body and grafted them to our cowl.
Jon then made some very basic angle brackets that were exactly like the ones Jimmy Summers used in 1940.
This is a place where a lot of builders try to get crafty and show off their fabrication skills and over engineer things.

Our goal here was to put the car back exactly as it was.
Nothing better, nothing worse.

 

Nothing short of an amazing save! Loved seeing the car at the GNRS. Fantastic in person!

 

another one saved, looks terrific ! my hats of the crew that brought it back.. well done !

 

The way it should be, too, with a historical car like this. To try to "improve" it would only serve to spoil it.

 

I'm sure glad I didn't find the car. If I had, the thread would have been titled "Watch me take all this extra stuff (crap) off a beautifully chopped 3 window"...and I'd have totally f@#ked up a historical custom with cool history.

Great thread to watch.

 

These are a couple of my favorite vintage photos of the car.

 

VERY cool coupe. Are there any updates? Someday, I'd like to put full fade-aways on my 41 Pontiac Streamliner.

 

The completed restoration was displayed at the Grand National Roadster Show in January.

https://www.customcarchronicle.com/...um/72821/eov9y085dwlo8n8q27ba04temihqt6bd.jpg

 

Is there more restoration photos of this car? I was really enjoying following along with the work that had been done. I know it's finished now but I would really love to see more of the details of how it was repaired, have been hoping to see this get updated for months.

 

There are more updates and photos on the following thread:
https://www.customcarchronicle.com/forums/topic/where-is-the-jimmy-summers-36-fadeaway-coupe/

If you just want the short answer, it is now fully restored and made it's debut at the 2022 GNRS:


~Peter

 

A little bit more info here:
https://www.customcarchronicle.com/...mers-customs/bob-fairman-36-ford-restoration/

 

What a great looking piece of history and a great comeback story.

 

The CustomCarChronicle page shows a few more rebuild pics, which are great, but I was really hoping to see more step by step restoration photos of this car's rebuild, considering how incredibly rough it was as a starting point, I'd like to see how it was done and how much they were able to save. The handful of bare metal pics on the CCC site sure makes it look like they were able to save a surprisingly large amount of the original car.

 

Just going to copy and paste my previous comment, if there are more in-depth restoration photos from this car I'd really love to see them. I love the finished product but I'd really like to see more of the build pics.

 

I finally got to see the car since I posted it ,Wonderful restore turned out so NICE wish I could get my 36 done

 

Love the fadeaways. That’s a cool car.