1952-59 Ford my 4.6 dohc powered 57 Custom, aka, doing it the easy way

Funny...no, I don't think so. That car wasn't built for cruisin'. At least I don't think so...do you build a 700hp car for cruising? Engine aside, it looks like it would make a good cruiser and maybe actually is. Did you notice at the end of the video after he "drove it away"....they loaded it up on a trailer. Not to put down the car by any means, maybe just harrasing the owner a bit.
LOL...he's got a trailer, I have lots of bugs on my windshield.

 

Mine is a bit over 400 HP and with the cam it might be a handful in slow traffic. This is why I went with the extra low 1st gear (2.56:1) and it has a 3.56:1 rear. Eventually I'll have a 3.91 or 4.10 rear in it. I feel it was a good trade-off between performance and cruising.

 

After a few road trips, I'm finally getting something done on the '57. Went back and did some more work on the front fender, and got all the pancaking, dents and creases out of the door. I've got the epoxy primer and first coats of 2k on the fender and door and have them pretty much blocked out. One more application of highbuild on the door will get it where it needs to be. Tommorrow I should be ready for the epoxy and 2K primer on the back quarter panel.

 

The football was used between the inner and outer door panels to push the pancaking out. I put a row of studs just below the hard crease and used a slide hammer and hammer to work the dents out while the football was pushing from the inside...worked pretty cool. That was a tip I got on the '57 forum. After the door was stripped, I applied a thin coat of Rage Gold Filler. The thickest the filler is on one spot I couldn't work from behind at all was .028, the other thicker areas are .022-.024. I can live with that, being as it's less than 1/2 the recommended max. How do I know that? I actually dug little holes in 3 areas I suspected the filler was getting thick and checked it with a depth micrometer.

 

Just noticed my build (and REbuild, lol) thread here crept over 10,000 reads recently.....cool, thanks for the interest guys.
Tonight was kinda cool...spent a few hours in a parking lot on the old historic rt66 just 3 or 4 blocks from my house with 8 or 10 local hotrodders just hanging out. A few of them are rat rodders, so I didn't feel bad about all the primer on my car.

 

Ingenious!

 

Man, I sure got the above pics out of sequence...sorry about that. Today I'm spraying the first primers on the rear quarter. The reworked areas will get epoxy, then the rest will get a few coats of 2k in all the areas, with some extra in the reworked areas. I'm also applying some more of the 2k on the door and front fender where I went back and did a little more work.
The rear quarter had a bit of hidden damage from the trim piece being forced into the metal. I was able to work the crease out far enough that a very thin coat of filler finished it off, but I also found a crack in the area where I had no-seamed the taillight housing. The crack was caused by the sheetmetal being distorted and was a few inches above and below the trim.
Waiting a few months to repair the back quarter helped tremendously as most of the ripples and waves that were present after the accident came out on their own. Note the rear quarter is 80% just blocked on the original clearcoat and cleaned up really well

 

Laying the trim back on is a good progress check. It looks like you got most of it ironed out.

 

"It looks like you got most of it ironed out."....eventually hope to have it ALL ironed out. Did get the primers on this morning, and tonight I started working on a few problem areas. The lower quarters on both sides were replaced when I rebuilt the body years ago. Unfortunatly I wasn't aware of EMS when I bought them. The flare that is behind the wheelwell is practically non existant on these, and it is also an area that was damaged in the accident. Anyway, I decided I could do a better job of forming an acceptable (not oem correct, but acceptable) concave flare if I filled that area in, primed it, then went back and sanded a smooth flowing flare back into it. That's what I was working on tonight....laid out some lines with tape and started sanding it out until I started hitting metal in spots. I think it's gonna work out pretty well, and also match the other side pretty close as well.
Sometimes a guy just has to be clever enough to understand his ignorance or shortcomings and work around it.

 

Left side I think is ready for it's final block. Working on front right fender and starting to block the clearcoat on the undamaged areas getting the whole lower part of the car ready for repaint.

I love stormy nights.
I am trying to get as much done as posible before I start dis***embling it for paint...gotta keep the cruising going as much as posible!

 

Nice, Tex. Like it never even happened!

 

For those following my progress on this...there is none, lol. I just haven't been able to get myself to tear this thing down for repaint. I'm really enjoying driving the hell out of it.....thinking of a 600 mile trip for a show in Santa Fe, NM July 4. As I've said, once I get it torn down for proper prepping, it's going to be 6 weeks or so of downtime. I'm just not ready for that yet, so, as I said NO PROGRESS. But for me, for now, that's a good thing.
All the bodywork/repair has been done and everything there is in primer, so other than being a little ratrodish for the time being, not so bad.

 

I don't blame you for not wanting to take the car apart for paint.

Too much fun in enjoying the car! HRP

 

For some reason I have always liked cars with some primered areas. Don't really know why, maybe it indicates progress. If it were mine it would have to wait for winter for paint.

 

also, you have a story to go with the primer.

 

Unfortunately not a good one though, lol.
Took it for another long drive Sunday and Monday. Entered a car show in the old downtown area (the square) of Santa Fe. Absolutely the most enjoyable car show I've been to, entrant or spectator. Not a particularly big one, but the setting couldn't be better, and the spectaors were great, both quan***y and quality. I was parked between a big bucks 55 chev 2 dr htp, and a 47 Packard owned by a Santa Fe establishment type. I think the Chevy guy was a little annoyed I had people all day long asking me about my car. Of course, what's to ask about when your looking at a tri-five Chevy that everybody doesn't already know. It was totally fun watching groups of people looking at my engine in great detail, but with quizacle looks on their faces. Enevitably they'd be two or more studying it and you could read the lips..."what is it?" followed by a shoulder shrug by the other person. I had one guy come up to me with a straight face and said "I don't like your car"..............."I LOOOOOOVE your car".
We had to be in line to be parked at 5AM as crowds were coming in at 7 for the huge pancake breakfast and crafts fair, and by 7 it was pretty busy. By 10 my voice was getting raspy from answering questions. The show was over at 1, and I was one of the last to leave.
NO ratrods in the show at all (except mine, lol), and I don't think it was because of restrictions.
Anyways, 600 miles, no issues. Gas mileage dropped to 24 on this trip, I think because I was driving into the wind all the way there, and was running the A/C 100% of the time. Pics to follow later...gotta go flip the chops on the grille.

 

What a great spot for a car show. We, along with two other couples, drove our hot rods along rt 66 last fall. We spent a couple of nights in Santa Fe. One of the nicest compliments I have received about my 40 occurred there. We had just parked in the square area for dinner and an elderly (when one is 71 as I am, elderly is 80 and up) couple walking by stopped and looked my 40 over. As they walked off the lady said to her husband " That is one handsome car". I thought that was such a nice compliment.

 

Some pics. Some are of ot cars because they've got some neat Santa Fe architecture behind them.
First two pics were shortly before 6 am. last two were of the crowds that were there from about 9 to 1.
I have no clue where all these people parked. Santa Fe is old with narrow streets and no big parking lots anywhere near the square that I saw.
Not alot of early 50's stuff. There were two other '57's there.
I was having a problem with my camera lens sun shield...sorry for the dark corners.

 

Pretty cool. Love that your car got the attention over a tri five chevy.

 

He was getting lots of well deserved attention also...New Mexico is definetly Chevy territory. I think the difference was most people just looked at his, thru him a thumbs up, but mine was different in many peoples' eyes. Many weren't sure what the car was to begin with, and almost all had no clue what the engine was. I was also getting lots of compliments on the interior/exterior color combination (even the 55 owner came over to tell me he really liked the paint), but that's what made it neat for me, because, for me, that's what I strived for....to be different from the crowd.

 

Cool to see someone going the route less travelled. Don't see a lot of cars getting the mod motors swapped in. Nice car and I ***ume you have been out driving it since there haven't been any updates for a while

 

That's what it's all about for me...having something different.
I have not worked on it for a month or so...just driving the hell out of it. 1/3 the car is in primer waiting for me to tire of driving it!
I'm leaving Amarillo after lunch for Colorado. I registered the car in a Saturday only car show up in the mountains at Green Mountain Falls. It's just west of Colorado Springs on highway 24, and just 10 miles or so from where I lived for 23 years. The show is in a park along side a small lake amoung the trees and mountains...lol...couldn't resist. I really miss Colorado.
Some guys have trailers....I have lots of bugs.

 

You need to bring it out for the Hot Rod Hundred.

 

If I don't have it apart for repaint I may just do that! Do you get "credit" for actually making it to the beginning of the hot rod 100"? lol....that would be 280 miles for me.
Tentively, I may start taking it apart next week with a sometime-in-September goal 'cause the Goodguys in FW is Sept 30.

 

Actually we have a long distance award!

 

lol...just got back from a GREAT show in Colorado....missed the long distance award by 6 miles! They googled the addresses of anyone in contention for the award, and some guy from Kansas won it. I'll do a posting with pics on the show in the next few days.....not alot of mid 50's Fords in it though.

 

Finally getting back to the bodywork. Yesterday and today was spent doing another blocking of the driver's side. I made a few subtle tweeks that I think now have the side up to snuff. Tonight I pulled the grille and headlights out so I could do some tweeking of the nosepiece that was never quite right. That stuff had to come off anyway for final sanding.
That "easy sanding" high build primer isn't so easy to sand if left to sit for a few months! At least for an almost 70 year old.
I may or may not do a partial re***embly of anything needed to make the car legal for driving as the annual Polk Street Cruise is next weekend.....we'll see, but I was sure looking forward to that cruise....it's a big event in Amarillo...downtown closed off, thousands of spectators line the streets.
My target date for completion is in time to make the September 17 100 mile reliability run in Oklahoma that Roothaug has been posting about. I found out today the route they did in the '14 first run was pretty close to what I did last month. The route their taking this year heads it up towards Tulsa, so that 100 mile run will end up for me being about 800 at least.

 

Edit....the date for the Polk Street Cruise is Aug 6
After a few days spent in Albuquerque, I'm back to sanding, sanding, sanding

 

I regress....................sure seems like it anyway. Taking my car apart for paint prep makes me feel like it was 3 years ago. I've got about a day of blocking left, then getting all the edges prepped. Then I'll be ready for cleaning and masking. Then it's sealer and a surfacing primer coat, then, after curing for a week, lots more blocking, cleaning, remasking and finally basecoat/clearcoat. Then color sanding and buffing and cleaning.

 

Yikes... no idea the whole car was being painted. You did get some driving done at least and debugged it quite a bit, quite an accomplishment.