Did anyone happen to see this months Hemmings Classic car? There is a Buick in there that the guy restored and he pretty much replaced the whole lower portion of the car. Check it out.
on the 37 ford I showed picks of the hole bottom of the car was replaced. The doors have 7" cut of the bottom to get rid of rust. Rockers were built from the outer sides of the tops from the two other donner cars. The rest of the floors were hand made. We did not use any after markit patchs on this build. We did go through 4 4x8 and 4 4x10 sheets of metal fabbing floors, fire wall, inner rockers, hood and all the other things that had to be rebuilt. O yea the rear tail pan is the front part off one of the tops
I think it is appropriate to post a link to this thread regarding an old hot rod (similar to mine by coincidence) in the woods: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154322
Okay, Ill play. heres a few of the hulks Ive wacked. Ive posted them before, but hey its not very often a post comes up that caters so well to a butcher like me. The first one took a week. The second took 2 and the last one took 3 months
Thanks, this is a good thread isn't it? Keep 'em coming, lets see all the cars that nobody thought could be brought back to life! Ah, and I see we've all earned a five star rating.
i was hoping you would post on here, you were the first person i thought of when i saw this thread, what you did with that model A coupe in a week is nothing short of inspiring.
Mart, glad you posted. Your build of his 31 Roadster was something I saw before I even got to the HAMB. That build really steered me from being into Street Rods to being into Hot Rods. That was a killer build and thanks for documenting it so well. John this is a fun post, thanks.
As someone in both camps, I'm a both restorer and a rodder, it is my point of view that rodders are saving these cars from the restorers...contrary to what many restorers state about rodders. Many of the cars/bodies that rodders use would otherwise be left to rot away. You'd be amazed at some of the things rotting away in the restorers' junk piles as "unusable", not to mention the things already sent to the dump/crusher by restorers. For example, I got the cutoff back half of a T touring that had absolutely no rust and an NOS T frame with only surface rust and a little pitting from a restorer's junk pile. These were considered "unusable" by the restorer. I then bought a nice cutoff front half of a touring from another restorer's junk pile. Surface rust, but no rust through. Again, considered unusable by the restorer. I haven't done it yet, but about 6 inches of welding to connect the subframes will give me one very nice T touring body that would never have been brought back by these two restorers. I won't even have to patch any panel on it...in fact, I won't even have to media blast! Total investment, including the NOS frame...less than $100. It amazes me what many restorers consider junk! Rod 'em...don't junk 'em!
Have a friend that had a nice 32 roadster resto rod built from 7 or 8 piles of stuff. A restorer jumped all ofer him about ruining it by making a hot rod out of it. H e told the guy that he bought it off of the original owner's wife and drove it home and started to cut it up. Should have seen the restorer's face!!
I often hear restorers comment that some car has been "ruined" by a hotrodder. Funny thing is that a well done rod usually sells for more than a well restored version of the same car. I sometimes ask in reply, "If its ruined, why is it worth more than if it were restored?" That usually shuts 'em up real fast. And what really cracks me up is when I hear them say this about a fiberglass bodied car on a built from scratch frame!
Here in the when guys take say a rodded A to a classic show all the owners club guys start moaning about destroying an old car etc, but those same guys at the same show are tripping over and dismissing as junk part rusted original sheet metal that us rodders use, trouble is the pubicity of the rat rod thing has got to them and they are starting to ask silly prices for what they used to throw away. Rich
Well as soon as I get through with my shop truck my next goal is to find something to build. Something like a 27-32 model A, T or coupe and I won't be to picky on what I can find due to my budget. These are right up my alley. It's like you are giving them a second change. Bringing them back from the dead.
I am another one that found Mart's site before I found the HAMB. I saw what he did and thought maybe I could. This: plus this: equals this:
Here's my dad's 32 project went from this... To This... Also can be seen in Rodder's Journal #34. Amazing what some dedication will do. Thanks for the great Thread!
Now THAT is a race car!.. Which club do you race with? I'm hoping to make at two Midstate Vintage shows in western NY this summer. Jan
Damn- a color pic? Hmmm- is that an oil stain in the driveway...? As soon as Tuck sees this maybe he will put up some pics of his model 40. Or Jeff's '32 in Omaha.
I started this sometime in September '06, my first hot rod build. From this... To this. Getting close.
This Model A sat for decades in the Georgia woods, and was covered in vines. My son and I are just getting started on it... just wait!
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