Projects Coupe to truck to tub build thread

Ok I'm still committed to not letting this thread die and it's been a bit since I posted anything so although there's no progress on the tub, there is progress towards getting time to work on the tub. David's convertible I was working on got finished and sent back home a few weeks ago. It definitely turned out to be a way bigger project than I intended on taking on but he's happy, I sleep good at night knowing I didn't just spray it and send him a disappointing job and I'm flush again. Of course just like the big kid I am I could leave that cash sitting burning a hole in my pocket so some of went to a opportunely posted ad on marketplace so I'm now the owner of a 52" shear/brake/slip roll to help with the fab of the tub. I don't expect much work on the tub until the fall as it's crop season and I'm also doing some much needed maintenance on my other cars. Here's a few pictures to color up the post.

 

Nice work on the convertible, Ed...and that slip roller/brake/shear will help on your tub project, so that's indirect progress.

 

Good job bud! Hope to see pics of the Plymouth when reassembled..

 

Thanks guys. Fortunately I don't have to do that part. Lol.

 

Alrighty, I'm back! I had a much longer hiatus from this project than I had anticipated but I'm refusing to let this project and build thread die. It's taking me a bit to get familiar with what I was doing and so to get my feet wet I started working on the other half of the cowl (driver's side) and door. I made templates of the dash top when I made the passenger side so it was quite easy to get both halves to match.



I cut the top corner of the cowl out because I wanted to curve it more to blend it into the door top better because I felt like the passenger side looked like it had really high "cheekbones" and my thought was if i fixed it on the drivers side I could redo the passenger side with what I learnt. The shape of a '27 cowl is so curvy that anything I tried still looked off and after many attempts and trips to the scrap bin to throw out more mangled sheet metal I decided to see if a windshield post would hide the sharpness of the cowl top. The Chrysler cowl is similar to an early model A cowl and I could have maybe tried to follow what Ford did but I like the windshield stanchions on the 32's better so I decided to work on making a windshield stanchion that was reminiscent of of the 32 to see if it hid the high cheekbone appearance before having another go at the driver's side.

First mock up was some sheet metal and round rod to see if it would make the cowl top less noticeable.

So far from the front I'm liking it.

The rear view wasn't so bad either maybe just needing a few tweaks to design. Now my curiosity being piqued I decided to work on the windshield stanchion.

 

I am watching your pro'-gress with interest. As I am currently "stuck" on the header pro'-jek, I fantasize on what I'd like to do an the Tudor. Always felt that the chop that came with the car was pretty rough and would take a lotta work and skill to clean it up. Soooo,...I'm thinkin, why not a tub? Like you, just whacking the top off a sedan wouldn't get it. I would only attempt that if I also committed to fabricating door tops and the cowl transition such as you are executing. Gives me a goal and a reference. Good job Bud!

 

I It looks really good there.

 

Nice job Ed! Great to see you're at it again. That's an area that most creators of "coupsters" and "tubs" don't invest the necessary time and effort to get right.

 

Man great thread! Thanks for the continued updates

 

I had another go at the tub this weekend, this time jumping back and forth between building the start of a windshield stanchion and the driver's side of the dash and cowl.

This is the modified dash extension tacked in place. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do here to make up the shape but you got to start somewhere and since I had the template from the other side it seemed like a reasonable place to start.


This is where I got distracted and decided to switch to starting to build the windshield stanchion, my thoughts being with the passenger side made and dialed in then I'd have more reference for making what is needed to fill the missing parts of the driver's cowl.

I started by carving a piece of 1/2" aluminum plate into a shape I liked and then trimming a hole in the cowl to fit it. I wanted to have some thickness to the base and be able to shape it to the cowl so that's why a thicker piece of aluminum instead of a thinner piece bent to the shape of the cowl.

I made a little bucket to hold the aluminum base and weld into the cowl that way the stanchion base is flat and I can shape the top of the aluminum stanchion base to the shape of the cowl.

Here it is fitted and ready to be tacked in place. then the next step is to cut it down and weld it in and smooth the welds.

That done I rough shaped the aluminum base.

That's all for now.

 

good job!

 

Cool project !

 

Nice solution to the stanchion mounting. I have a Roadster and the stock mounting is just bolted thru the cowl sheet metal. The mounting pocket yuv created will certainly yield a more robust mounting. Good job!