Projects A late introduction-Junior Conway coupe build

The upper mldgs are 54 Dodge. In the eighties and nineties I would think about the parts gathering part of this build and when it came to these mldgs it would be how in the world am I going to find these?. I learned to look on Ebay for anything 54 dodge that dealt with body parts. I would then ask about these mldgs. The wonder/power of the internet!

These rear bulky parts are thicker than the 55 Ford lower mldgs. They had to be squished to conform and be attached to the lower Ford mldgs. They lap over the Ford mldgs at the upper half.

 

Jerry...

Here are a few photos of the "trombone pipe" we spoke of. This one is on a '52 Victoria, and won't fit your car exactly, but the idea is the same.

Hopefully these will help in some way.




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Well...we may be finding out why wev'e not seen any pics of the engine except the one. I think I need to send a pic to Jr and ask him about this.

 

The vast majority of the pics of this car don't originate with Jr.. Rik Hoving has been working overtime lately rounding them up and putting them on his site. In looking through the ones from Jr's stash I picked out the ones that would help me the most.
There's a lot going on in this one. I think that George (Barris) took this. You see him in the reflection on the bumper. He has on that beatnik/surfer outfit (hat-shorts-wacky shoes) that he wore at one of the outdoor shows.
The thing that impacted me the most was the look at the insert between the mldgs. The blowup revealed that it was perforated brass sheet with round holes. That enabled me to find it (out there).
Of course there's also the hub cap (that's for you Gregg), the functional exhaust, and the pin striping. This is the early version of Jr's car. The later version had the chrome reverse wheels (some say the first ones), and the ripple pipes (lakers) that were not functional.

 

Really enjoying this, Jerry. Fantastic!

 

Jerry, just a thought on the exhaust system....on Watsons' Grapevine which was the same time as Jrs' Ford...Larry told me the exhaust went back to the axle, made a U bend and came up through a muffler and on to the side pipe and hooked in..... may have been the local muffler guys way of doing it..just looking at Jrs' picture

 

I appreciate your input Randy. Because Jr is as much the focus as the car, his favorite version is as important as anything else. Therefore I'm focusing on the last and final evolution of his dream for his car. Oh oh, there iv'e said it. So the side pipes shown in the pic are very interesting but not part of this exercise.

 

Nice to see you've got Rikster on your team! Progress looks great! I'll be really excited when I see it go in the paintbooth!

 

I think Rik comes as a H.A.M.B. perk for every purist build. He's just not advertised as such.

 

He really is such a incredible resourse on all things custom and is always so willing to help and add input when asked. A truely great guy that loves customs! We are lucky to have him as a member of this board.

 

Sooner or later you become impacted by the fact that doing a clone emmerses you into the particular culture and thinking that represents its time period and location.

You become surprised by the unexpected. There are things that you would never think of. I always assumed that those cool door opener buttons that were located in the most obscure imaginative places that you could think of were part of the lore of custom cars. They were until the lore wore off because of thieves that discovered how to get into your car. So when Jr told me that he had 49-50 Ford glove box door locks in the side trim I was shocked. What right does he have to mess with my custom car assumptions? With a button that has an ugly slot in it! The more I thought about it the more I realized how brilliant it was. You could have shaved door handles and have keyed locks on your car.
So iv'e said all that to bring us to the door popper technology. We start with this little item.

 

While Barris wasn't the only shop using these locks Jr says that it pretty much was a "Barris thing" back in the day. Jr did mention that the Buster Litton Ford had em'.

Andreas, this means you. I'll try to find out exactly where they were located.

 

Intresting, i have not seen any buttons in any pic of Busters car...or Juniors but i have to check again!
im sure the small glove box locks will do the job just fine so thats a great idea

Your doing a great work building Juniors car.... and by having Junior involved in the project im sure it will be just the way it was

 

This shows a mock up using a portion of a rusty door from my parts car. The upper part of the lock lever is removed. There is enough movement at the back of the lock to activate a sensor.

 

My stainless guy is struggling to come up to speed (down to speed?). This first pic shows examples of what he thought could be used for the door actuator opening in the lower door mldg. This a surplus piece of mldg. The consideration that constantly hangs over this build is that this is recreating what a 16 y.o. had done in 1955/56. The opening selected is the most simple of the three. The second pic shows the actual mldg that we will use. It has a hole for the 54 Dodge sweep in front of it.

 

This will finish up the door popper tech. Here are various looks at the glove box door lock with the sensor attached. There is a bracket that comes with it that we used. I also included the instruction page that shows the I.D. of this sensor. This allows me to fit the stainless trim even though its still pretty rough. It goes back to the stainless shop while we move forward with the last item before paint.

 

pretty high tech stuff for most of us guys across the country in the 50s....BUT the southern California boys had the aircraft industry at their back door and all the cool parts that were being used like MICRO SWITCHES while we were using big old honkin' starter buttons and the like....very cool JR !! and locking, even...thanks for sharing, Jerry

 

The last item that must be dealt with before paint are the skirts. Since the focus of this build is the 17 y.o. Jr I asked him what his favorite version was. His reply was, the last one (of course). This represents the final destination of his ;custom dream for his car.

I got a real nice set of 57 Merc Turnpike Cruiser skirts from 40StudeDude. Thanks Roger, this is where they ended up. They are long and straight. So I hold em up in place to check out the fit. For some reason I'm thinking they might bolt on (?).Noooooooo of course not.

The pics show the start of the mods that were needed to get these things to fit. The skirts are straight (not anymore). The car has a bulbous shape.

 

Ahhhhhhhhh, I was wondering when those would show up on here...those are going to make that Ford look oh-so-cool...

Have you seen what I ended up with for skirts...???

Go here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329070&highlight=the+best+55+caddy+build

R-

 

i was wondering if you were going to run the cruiser skirts or the 51 merc skirts, now i know, i like it with both sets, but i like how the scoops in the cruiser skirts follow the line of the sidetrim.

 

Randy I need to reply to your post. The micro switch that is used here is a modern day item. Whats interesting is that these door poppers were always a problem as the car aged because of reliability. They would get wet and would eventually become an all around pain in the ass. They were one of the big reasons that these cars lost favor and dissapeared.

 

I mentioned that because the original Grapevine had micro switches which were activated by pressing on the lower 55 Buick mldg behind the door so I was assuming JRs had them also...altho probably different than todays switches, still way beyond what we were using as kids....I agree about the pain in the ass and to even make matters worse some of them had electric buttons on the inside also making it a real problem when they didn't work...ask me how i know.....

 

More onward.

 

These pics show the curvature that was needed at the back of the skirts.And some prep work while waiting fo the mldgs to arrive for a fit.

 

The custom stuff.

 

I love this build !!!!

 

1. Old news 2. Thanks Joe 3. Uh oh

 

Just for the record. Clear and catylist $358.00. PPG w (price code) base coat $220.00 a quart.

 

This was a 15 hour marathon.

 

Thanks you many times to keep feeding us with these great progress photos of your fantastic project.
Must be so exciting to have it ready for paint....
I cant wait for the next set of photos.