Hot Rods I just bought a La Dawri California

it’s an upside down ‘55-‘59 Chevy/GMC pickup truck windshield. The trim, rubber and glass are all widely available, they’re popular.

 

Well hot damn, it’s a beauty!!
A little long in the nose but so was my Kellison, just the style at the time. I’m jealous, I’d love to be tooling around our countryside in that thing! So glad you got it and put it back together, who knows what might have become of it in other hands. Congrats.

 

First gas stop, she’s running great, I still gotta adjust the transmission linkage for the right spot for drive

 

Those head light areas sorta look like XKE Series 1 Jaguar covers might fit. But more up right, Jag is more laid down.

 

Very interesting car. Headlight covers look too new, I might consider mesh. Great to see it out on the road!

Devin

 

What a cool little sports car! Reminds me of a cross between something you'd see in a James Bond film and Speed Racer.

 

Lookin good on that u-haul trailer. Don't paint it, as you said "The hard work is done."

 

Now to make 4 chrome bumperets, that would just finish her right off.

 

Be careful with that steering wheel!! After it sits in the sun for a short bit the chrome band between the wood becomes a branding iron as well as the rivets. I had one once.... For about 3 days!

 

The seats already get searing hot as I found out yesterday

 

Geoff Hacker, fiberglass sports car guru, was coincidentally in town yesterday, he took some pics of me with the car. We went to see his Fiberglass Farms and one of the shops where his cars are restored.
I got all the gauges in and working except the fuel gauge which I gotta diagnose.

 

DUDE....THAT IS SO SICK!!!! I'D ROLL IT ALL DAY LONG....

 

@Nads - great job getting that on the road so quickly. You've got yourself a nice car there.

What's next?

 

Getting my son’s ‘57 Ford convertible on the road.

 

What a neat car man! I’m hecka jelly!!!

 

Fantastic!

Are you planning on wheel covers/caps?

 

Oh yeah, way cool spinners, they are off being rechromed.

 

Took it out for another shakedown, she’s running well but that piddling radiator isn’t gonna cut it. A mid 60s Chevy C-10 looks like a perfect fit.

I found the Cragar dot and spoke steering wheel that was as on it when I bought it.

 

You need to make a hinge for that really cool hood prop!

 

Got an early Corvette prop coming in and the crutch will be retired.

 

"Honey, guess who I saw at the Seven-Eleven coming home from work just now? Lighting McQueen was in there getting gas. I swear to God."

 

Lookin' great bud!

 

I’ve been driving it, it’s overheating a little when idling, I built a fan shroud, hopefully that’ll fix it. I still have a lot of things to do, the rear end is very stiff, almost no travel. I think I’ll have to remove some leaves.

This car is an absolute blast.

 

I completely missed this build thread, Nads. You always do great builds and this is no exception. Don't know where you get your energy with all the other things you do. Wore me out just reading up to this point. Subscribed to the thread for the rest of the ride.

 

Is this the first time in it's long build life that it's able to be driven?

 

That's a good question. Do you think this car was fully built and had a bunch of miles piled onto it, then fell into disrepair and was later getting worked on, or was it an abandoned project 60 years ago that got picked back up and was making it's way back to the road when you got it?

Doesn't seem like whoever did the body repairs and red paint job ever got to drive it, but it was clearly (at least, mostly) built long before then, I wonder if it ever saw any road time back in the day?

 

The rats are big down there! Don’t hit one or you’ll crack the ‘glass.

 

No, it was without a doubt a driver back in the day. It was really in bad shape when sold in 2014 but the pictures indicate that it was a complete car.
It hasn’t been driven since it was rebuilt with all new steel substructure. I have no idea who did the work, I’d love to find out.
The car was painted and got an expensive leather interior but there were no electrics, no transmission linkage and it was far from functional, but the really hard work was done.

 

I put on a smaller bore dual master cylinder, it works great, the old one had no pedal travel and it was rock hard. This works great, the big Pontiac drums stop this light car on a dime.

The crutch hood prop is gone, I scratch made one out for of junk laying around.

The radiator sprang a leak and I had to stop before I overheated badly.

The turn signal pods are finished and look great, in my opinion. They break up the huge Cheshire Cat grin.

 

Also, the early Corvette hood prop didn’t have enough extension to work for the hood but was perfect for the trunk.