Projects A late introduction-Junior Conway coupe build

Onward again.

 

Oh great!Now the seat won't fit.

If you look closely you'll see that the front hoop on the seat frame fits the d/shaft tunnel too tightly. There will need to be room for carpet and upholstry. I'll fix this after this post.

 

Happy new year everybody!

 

Lookin' for somthin'.

 

hey what color is that kind looks like root beer ..any paint code ??

 

It's '52 Pontiac Saturn gold. The "kid" felt that thats what was needed to brightin up the under hood area. As time progressed he added another color on the top of the firewall and under the hood. I'll get the code for ya. I need to add that this color was just "blown down" on the frame rails. To keep this authentic these type of things are important.

 

Nason code#5211

 

I also need to say that the aprons, firewall and underside of the hood were just "sprayed out" in enamel. These areas recieved no cut and rub like we would do today. The cars were sprayed in an area much like our garage/shops. The exteriors of course were mostly done in lacquer.

 

A sweet runnin 8BA with Offy 4 barrel and heads gets the correct Fenton intake and heads.

 

The dash is next on the agenda as we work our way from the inside (and underside) to the out side mods. This car was a business coupe without a back seat, tilt out 1/4 glass and dash trim. So the dash had to be shaved. I was told (by this teenager that is now in his 70's) that the dash was painted inside the car with EVERYTHING being masked. At the time that I got this info the dash had already been torn down and removed from the car. Thank God.
We're moving toward a critical element, the correct color.

 

I'm just now realizing that Lone Star Roundup is comin (new Texan). Could/should be able to make it. But, just to many ifs to justify registration/reservation. NUTS!

 

The first color on the dash was an ivory. This matched ivory/red interior that had been installed.
There was a pivitol event that influenced the dash colors and began a process that shaped the future of this legendary shoebox. It had the front end knocked off in an accident. This began the decisions that were made regarding the colors and body mods that resulted in this show winner. It started its new life in late'56 when it was introduced as the newest addition to this shops stable of customs. The main color was a copperish/maroon that was a popular custom mix metallic that this shop
offered. This was the pre candy/pearl/metalflake era. It had its own name (Sam Bronze). The owner of the shop wanted the copperish/maroon on the dash to tie everything together.
With the dash now the ivory color the next post will deal with nailing down the problem solving regarding this main color

 

The custom painting during this period all consisted of the different colors that were used being (gulp) hard lined. The paint was applied and the masking tape was removed and the hard line (edge) was striped. Today these colors would be buried in clear, wet sanded flat and buffed to a flawless finish. This color was sprayed (lacquer) and was unmasked in about an hour to let the edge settle down. After the paint had cured it was hand rubbed and striped. We are trying to duplicate this in urethane.

The kid has a buddy (Dick "peep" Jackson) that actually was the person that originally got him the job at the body shop. This buddy built a famous 57 t-bird back in the day that was painted this same custom color. He re-created that car about 10 years ago and had to solve this color problem. I was given his phone number and got the color code that he used. A late 70s GM copperish maroon. I was very disappointed to see the mica in it when son Dan did a spray out card. He is a painter for Service King, a mega shop in DFW. In talking it over with the two of them they had earlier concluded that this is the closest that anybody is going to get. One of the things that just drives me crazy are the old original customs painted these modern colors. Just ask Rick Hoving. In the back and forth discussions I kept saying that if the mica in the formula could be replaced with metallic we might have something a lot closer. Son Dan said that he could do that and the result was this color that everyone agrees is very close. Whew! There are some things that are not negotiable and the correct color is one of them. This is the first major clue to the identity of this person/car.
Unfortunately these pictures do not do justice to this color. I tried to get some outside pictures in the sun but was not very successful. It does have a pearl-type glow in the correct light. The white border is to be striped in a yellow that will match the yellow and white teardrop knobs that will be added.

 

The dash, the car, the kid. Back in the day. This is the second major clue to the identity of this person/car.

 

To continue this narrative we must start with this car. This is the coupe before the accident. A very mild custom, severely lowered, with the most radical feature being frenched tail lights using 51 lenses. They were cut down with a hacksaw (glass). They had small polished brass straps covering the cuts. I dont have a pic of these lights. It also had a cheaper version of the famous color. It was enamel that later was sealed off in primer and painted with lacquer. If you look closely you'll see the Kustoms of L.A. club plaque on the front bumper. This is a major clue in the identity of this car. This club had alot of cars out of the "kids" shop in it. The picture shown shows the stock frenched openings in the recreation. The taillights were significantly modified again in the redo after the accident. Having shown this we'll move to the front end and the mods that were done after the accident to keep everything in order.
The custom interior is in the car at this point. If you look carefully you'll see the distinctive headliner with the piping going the wrong way. I will need to make some bows from the w/shield to the b/glass to make that reverse piping work. The magic (?) continues. The kid did not have the money to put a tuck and roll interior in the car. It was smooth shiny leatherette. The next posts will show front end mods. The third major clue.

 

looking good, thanks for the paint code.

 

Your welcome.

 

To be able to understand how this car came to be it will be helpful to understand the environment that it was built in. All this happened in the area that is now called Kustomland. It had Lynwood (S. Cal) at the upper boundary (this car was built in Lynwood) and Long Beach at the lower boundary. This area became known as the hot bed of hot rodding and custom cars. There were areas in N.Cal, the Midwest and the east coast, but Kustomland was the breeding ground that fueled all the other parts of the country. It was the little mags, Rod&Custom, Custom Cars,Hot Rod, Motor Trend etc. that told the Kustomland story.This car shared the same grass (outdoor car shows) with the Aztec, the Grapevine, the Kopper Kart, Bugarins Merc, Bettancoarts Merc, Zupans Merc. etc. As well as the pages (and the covers) of the aforementioned magazines. The fourth clue.

 

It's been awful quiet out there.

 

Hey jivin jer,

It's been quiet because we're waiting for the next twice-weekly post about your wonderful vintage rebuild. I'm working on a similar type of build with my own 1950 Custom Deluxe coupe, so I've been soaking up all your pix and prose with much anticipation and interest. By any chance is your car the one that recently was for sale up in Washington state? I called this car's former owner to go up from Portland to look at it, only to find that he had just sold or traded it off to a guy from Olympia, Wash. earlier that same day!! If this is the same car, I see it went to a good home. Please continue to keep us informed of your progress. It's quite an inspiration.

mr50s

 

Well... what was the time frame for all this? After moving to Texas from Seattle I found this car on the net. It was in Kelso (Wa.). I bought it last year around April.

Thanks for the reply.There's some one out there. -Jerry

 

JER...that's 1 hell of a car to cutup, it's your business for sure, but damn what a waste. man there are plenty of people who would have paid plenty for that beautiful 50 ford. and believe me you'll have more money in it than you can sale it for! let me just say GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!...POP.

 

Stay tuned Pop.

 

Were going to start out with the hood. The coupe was a 50 that had a 51 hood. A very popular way to change the look of the front end. Because of the scarcity of 51 hoods these days I had to take a damaged 51( at the hinges) and graft the front portion to the 50. This included the inner structure. This turned out to be a fairly straight forward solution to this problem. Not bad at all. The hood corners were rounded for correctness using a 9" grinding disc for the radius.
The kid had left the body shop to work for another shop for almost a year (and then returned). It was during this time that the accident happened and most of the front end mods were done. The hood received some cool little scoops after he returned (done by the owner of the shop). We'll cover them with the redone tail lights. Things are going to start coming together rapidly now. I sure hope I don't have to keep calling him the kid, much longer. The fifth clue.

 

The marbles are going to start dropping into the holes and your going to "get it".

 

As we move to the head lights we need to understand that the kid was immersed in a world of frenched stock rims and Merc rims etc.(1956). With this build he was consumed by the need to have something different and modern, a word that has been used more than once in our conversations. In my parts gathering I was so sure that he had grafted '55 Chev fenders on that I bought one. When it came time to talk about those head lights his reply was NO! THEY'RE TOO BULKY. He wanted me to understand that he wanted those bulky hoods over those lights to be delicate. So ¼" rod was used to recreate the look, that makes this custom so appealing. It was (and is) a look at the passion thats still there about this car and about his work that is ongoing. With this post I'm showing the difference between the Chev fender (its for sale) and the stock Ford fender with the ¼" rod hoods. The next post will compare the original custom treatment with the recreation.
I would love to show everything in bare steel. However I have encountered a problem that I am (a new Texan) unfamiliar with. The basic body mods were done during the most humid part of last year. I discovered that I cannot leave anything in bare steel for very long because it will begin to rust. You will see this when I post the rear portion of the car. These fenders were only stripped in the areas to be reworked and primed immediately. The fenders were later completely stripped for paint prep. The sixth clue.

 

The fender in primer, with the light installed and our destination. Sorry about the quality of some of these pics. I'll try to watch this better in the future. The seventh clue.

 

One of the great things that has happened to this thing that we do is Rik Hoving. Without his passion thats manifested in his picture gathering and cataloging we wouldnt be able to see these cars as they were. I know that I wouldnt be able to attempt to build a clone of this car without them. These pics revealed that this car had an inner grille. The kid (you know his name) has simply said that his employer (you know his name) always had this material around in various forms to use in the styling of various projects. Mesh, perforated, expanded, sheet etc. in brass, stainless, aluminum etc.. I'm trying to make sure that no one can say hey, that aint right, look at this. Thank you Rik! The eigth clue. Their startin to pile up.

 

"They" say a picture is worth a thousand words. I was able to get a really nice merc grille shell from Kustom 7777. Thanks Jim.

 

I'm going to step up the frequency of these posts. We've got places to go and things to do.