History Anyone recognize this 60’s, Orange, Channeled ‘34 5 Window from New England?

Good find,time capsul!Pristine compared to the 34 I dragged home.....

 

Been doing a bunch of research, measuring and making a bunch of phone calls, but I finally settled on using a ‘37 Ford passenger car radiator. The sides of the core taper I , and it’s only 14” wide at the front.

Managed to find one in a friends attic, he had forgotten it was even up there. I tested it and found a couple small leaks, but I think it’ll be good enough to use.



Plan is to chop the core about 5”. The top tank is going to be modified as well.

 

Looks awesome.

Can't wait to see it rippin' around New Hampshire.

 

Just found this thread, excellent! Looks great with the 34 grille!

 

Played around with headlights and got them mounted. The chrome cleaned up decent. They’re made in France, and have separate parking lights built in. Thanks to rustnh for the extra set of headlights, had to use the lenses from the donors. They’re sealed into the tins behind them.



Working on the radiator as well. Finally wired a converter for a 3 phase vertical band saw I’ve had for a long time. Now I just need a new blade before cutting the core. I quickly soldered the 34 top bracket onto the 37 top tank to see how things will work out.

The nose looks a little stretched to me, but I don’t think I have any options left. Well aside from a 12” wide radiator, or cutting the firewall. The distance between firewall and top of grille is about 2.5” longer than stock.

 

Some more vintage shots for inspiration…

 

The distance from the grill to the firewall looks good, but the grill does look a bit to high. Mounting it lower with the channel job may not be so simple though.

 

Took the day off from work to mess with the radiator…. And took advantage of the nice weather to see how it looked outside. I think this is the first time since August, and first time with the 34 grill. I’ll post some more pics later.

 

Looks good. Yeah a guy needs to do that take a day off. Mock up the car with grill shell and push it outside stand back and look at it. Keeping the vision a live and for motivation !

 

Looking GOOD!

 

Cleaned up a couple of the pics…

 

I don’t really have any good pics right now, but I re-engineered the steering a little. Bought a new Made in USA Borgeson 525 Saginaw steering box, quick ratio, and added a u joint. The steering shaft straight off the box made the steering wheel offset too close to the door. So with the u joint, I was able to move the column 1 and 1/2” closer to the shifter. What a world of difference! Haven’t figured out what the column/box is out of, I think late 50’s GM. Did manage to find NOS turn signal switch

Also managed to figure out my shifter! Of course the best fit would be from the first year factory hurst pistol grip Dodge Chargers (with console)… but I found one on eBay that someone took a torch to many moons ago, and made the seller a ‘reasonable’ offer and he took it. Might have to make some real wood grips… the plastic repop ones ain’t cutting’ it

 

There was company selling a verify of different plastic and wood pistol grip handles called gun singer shifters. Brewer performance bought them, but it looks like the natural wood handles aren't offered any more.

 

Picked up a sandblaster that was a little big (300lb pot), and did the door bottoms as well as the headers. Found a couple surprises, hopefully Ray Prue at Father Rays Hot Rods can save em. Like to leave as much old paint as I can… Definitely found a lot of lead!

 

Man those headers are cool looking I love to recreate a pair for my car

 

I have the same headlights on my roadster, " Auto Route", made in France. Did you try to contact Lee Telke in Plantsville / Southington, Connecticut ? Lee had 2 service stations in The area in the late 1950-1960's. Lee was later the number 2 man in the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department. He has a lot of connections, and knows a lot of people.

 

Progress.

Ray Prue of Father Ray’s Hot Rods saved the doors. The pics don’t do justice, he’s a miracle worker!

 

Did some more sandblasting yesterday. Found that play sand works pretty good. Bought a sandblaster that was way too big though!

Whoever built this coupe spent some serious time on it!

 

Found this cool old 60’s helmet at the New England Dragway swap meet… couldn’t resist!!



Also found these babies on eBay… from 6 different sellers!

 

That floor work is impressive. It's wonderful that it survived.

Father Ray's work looks incredible. This car is really coming along.

 

Is your Father going to replace the rockers as well?

The hand beaded floor panels are amazing. I never would have thought that some hot rodder in the 60's would spend the extra time to hand form those beads.

 

They are cool! I’m not looking forward to cutting them apart to repair the rot, but it’ll be worth it to save em!

That’s neat, they are pretty cool old headlights. A friend of mine donated a pair to help repair these ones, I probably couldn’t have used them if he hadn’t. I haven’t tried to contact Lee yet, but thank you for the tip! I’ll see if I can get in touch with him.

It is impressive, they definitely had some talent to pull it off.

Nah I’ll probably end up doing the bottom panels. I’ve got new rockers and rear quarter pieces, and original Ford cowl pieces to graft in.

 

That floor is awesome. I was thinking about doing something similar for my roadster.

 

Anyone notice all that old time brazing held paint and withstood the test of time

 

Yup. I opened that can of worms.

I cut out the inner and outer panels. Tacking the outer panels where I want em, then I’ll make up some new inner pieces. Metal around the rot is still very solid.

Patch panels for these still suck. Rear quarter patches are like 1/4” narrow, and the rockers have almost no crown to the panel to match the door crown. I probably should have pie cut in more places…. Trying not to go too crazy with a brazed together 7” channel job car- I just want to drive it!!

 

It certainly looks a lot better now. Tedious work, you did a good job.

 

Thanks! Yes, definitely tedious… Been a few years since I’ve done much body work. I’m afraid the outside panels are the easy part- not looking forward to laying underneath and welding all the inner panels!

 

I like it!