Will I get to see the coupe in Bowling Green in June? I had a knee replacement in December and am still not able to get out in the garage yet but soon
Im planning on being there. We are moving at a good pace. By the end of next week the funny car cage will be in along with the rest of the rear suspention. Im stopping by monday to get the seats fit into the car. I hope you feel better soon. My lt. knee is still messed up. Better than before at least i can move around.
it is getting better everyday therapy 4 times a day. I can get about 80 degrees of bend on my own a little more if it is being pushed.
i don't care if I'm limping I'm making that show with my hot rod. lets plan on having a beer when we meet up. I'm looking forward to it.
Not to start an argument, but just to inform....that body in primer with no doors is NOT a 1930 Dodge coupe body. That is a 1928 Series 128 Dodge body. Here is what the 1930 Dodge coupe looks like....notice the belt molding and the "side of the cowl" vent door....
i will take your word for it. i didn't ask dick what is was. i just used my best guess. mopar made so many bodies then its hard for me to keep them all straight.
As planned i was able to get to the shop today. While the pics dont look like alot was done there actually was alot of progress. First up was determening the seat position. The thin tape line represents the window opening. I hopped in the car and we slid the seat around to get a good feel. the seats will work. I have to say it felt cool sitting in my car again. Next up was removing the entire drive train. I needed to get the crank in the engine. Before the front end can be built we need to know where the front of the engine will be. we need to know were the moon tank will go. I put on the blower pulley; balancer; crank trigger and the crank pulley for the alternator. Then put just the engine back in the chassis. It is here were i got the feel of how easy it was to pull the engine. The mounts make it dream to work on. The axle studs and bearings were removed to be reused. The brackets on the dana did not work out the way jim wanted. They were removed and new ones put on to get the proper geometry. To save some more weight the steel plates used with the suicide doors were replaced with aluminium plates. Lastly the housing ends were finish welded. I stopped at my paint supplier and got a paint chip. Its bright and crazy. Its a pearl with glass chips. I got sticker shock very expensive. I took the paint chip to my pinstriper to go over accenting paint colors and gold leaf options. Lastly after having hot rod mags latest issue on the kitchen table for the last week i noticed my chevelle in the upper left corner. A very small pic but still cool.
Wild color! I was going to ask if you saw your car on the cover of Hot Rod....I'm glad you finally did...isn't that neat!
thanks jim. i just saw it this morning while eating breakfast. it some how caught my eye. the pic is so small i used the magnifying glass ap on my phone to check the front plate. lol. sure enough myfirst was there. more of the coupe will be appearing in mags soon. i was contacted by a national company to use a image of the car in their advertising. they are sending me the release forms. its crazy how much media attention the car has gotten after it crashed. were was all of that when it was all together running.
I guess I'm lucky, mine showed up in three different mags in the past month or two, and it's still in one piece
I just consider myself lucky to be alive. I have been following all that coverage. I think our coverage is somewhat due to subscribers getting tired of ls engines. This old stuff is a welcome change. Its never too early to start saving for drag week. I went into the shop and brought my piggy bank in the house. How fitting its a mini nitro drum.
I was pollishing all the engine parts. Its -5 degrees right now. I dont feel like going outside. Besides pollishing i got the other head assembled.
I have not decided on this color yet. still looking at all of my options. I do like black cars the only problem with them for me is they don't photograph well on the track. thanks for the positive comments. I need some of that nitro beer. does it get you buzzed faster. everything goes faster with nitro.
Don't do black... Even on the Greatest builds it's amazing how many are walked by... It's a car for the track... Go bold on the flake and gold leaf!
I love the green but then again, i'm a little biased. Great build. One of my favorite threads in a long time.
Been following along since the beginning. Lots of good information. Gold, think the Hurst golden shifter....with green lettering
im not a paint guy. I know very little about my options. the paint chip is a ppg product. the guy in the paint shop says the high cost 3000.00 for materials is due to the pearl. the pearl is 1000.00 of the price. that price includes the good primer and clear also the reducers and hardeners. does this sound right? is there some thing out there that provides the same pop? he also said if its applied using a water technique it will pop more. the paint will be cheaper because you use less but the labor costs are higher. I need some opinions before I decide what way to go. thanks
The price of pearls and such has really gone up over the years, and the price of materials. Good quality paint is by no means cheap anymore. From what I have been hearing from guys getting paint, that price is probably right in line. The water tech in my opinion does produce some fantastic results, I have seen some cars at shows with this applied. Very nice, and great pop factor in day light.
$3000 sounds about rite on materials. The color u picked looks like it's out of PPG's vibrance line and they are really expensive. You could check out some of house of colors stuff they have some flashy stuff and it is usually less expensive. As far as water looking different than urithane if both are applied proper they should not look any different. Most new cars now days are water based and I repair new cars daily using urithane paint and they look just like they do when they come out of the factory.
Looking good! I like the green. But when I was racing roundy round. I was always told green was bad luck on a race car. Can't say purple was too lucky either though.
good advice tonight on the paint. thanks to all. it sounds like the water is not the way to go then. this build is getting costly so i need to keep a eye on the cash going out. i don't want to get ripped off or make the wrong choices on the paint.
I stopped by the body shop to check on the bodies progress. the a-pillars were welded back together. I wanted all the holes on the fire wall filled exept a few. When i first put the car together there were no holes. Then i started to add things that called for a few holes. Then i upgraded to efi. This added a few more. I had some rf interferance that required the coil to be moved. The holes got out of hand. I hated the look. Now everything will be mounted in a way to have a clean fire wall. The only things mounted to it will be the vin tag; fuel tegulator and coil post. I told dick about the paint costs. Before i left he gave me a paint chip book. He said chrysler had a green similiar to what i was looking for. I checked it out tonight. There are two i like. I will have him mix up a few samples. He says they should be cheaper. I will pay the money if i have to if thats what i need to do for the look i want.
The Jalopy Journal
