A simple fix for a stupid mistake

Thought I would ressurect this post and give an update on my 47. We finally got around to blending the p***. side rail. We are working on the drivers side.

It's been a slow and tedious process with all that has had to be done to get this thing finished, but I am really pleased with the results. It's obvious that I have come a long way since the last time I posted in this thread. We had to take a big detour from the drip rails to get the drive train wrapped up, and to put the body back on the ch***is. The car is running, and driving and stopping all on its own now, so we are just now finally getting back to the drip rails. Once again, thanks HRP for all the input you gave me through this post, it really helped make things go much quicker, cuz I didn't have to re-invent the wheel.

Here are a few photos.

 

I took one more shot today so I thought I would post it...

 

Looks great Mike,,,,The 40 ford I posted is now painted and and will be in Daves shop in a couple of weeks for upholstry,,,I will post a photo of the end result soon,,,HRP

 

I just ran into an old friend at Jefferson swap meet that wanted to know if I had work for him. He said he just finished replacing drip rails last week on a car by using brake lines. I wasn't really paying attention to him, I just wanted to get my parts out to the truck. steve

 

I'd love to see the photos... Yes, please post them.

Thanks HRP.

 

I was able to take a few photos of the 40 that we made the drip rails to replace the shaved rain gutters ,,,If you didn't know you would have thought Henry himself built them this way,,,

I think they turned out nice,,,,,HRP

 

Damn nice job looks good!

 

Very informative post. Now everyone will be cutting off the drip rails and building custom round rod body lines. Seriously, the work looks nice.

 

HRP --
AWESOME. Thanks for posting the pics. I will be saving those over to my hard drive for future reference. They are excellent, and the car looks awesome. Especially now that is blue and not white.

Once again, you are the man. Thanks for the post, and all the help.

Sure wish I could get mine further along faster. I need to take a 2 week vacation and just get the darn thing finished up and painted.

 

The last two photos of the 40,,,

And to answer the color question,,,Washington Blue,,,original color for 1940,,HRP

 

Hey, thanks for these photos. I was going to ask if you had any overall photos.

 

Thanks for the nice tip re the drip rails fellas. Nice to see a 40 in Washington blue too, it's a colour I have been considering for my 40.
Mart.

 

Boy you don't want much do you Isn't this place great!!

 

LOL
Yeah Rich, it is a great place. HRP was a godsend a few months ago when Jim and I were pondering the drip rails.

 

That 40 Standard Tudor doesn't have Washington Blue paint on it by my experience or color chips. Washington Blue is a deep dark blue.

It is a beautiful car and a beautiful color, don't get me wrong, but Washington Blue...I don't think so.

 

Wasn't there two Washington Blues? One for Model A's and a later one or were they the same shade? Either way I'd like to know what kind of paint and what the paint codes are......I want to paint my 35 Washington blue.

 

Excuse the HELL OUTTA ME!,,

I repeated what the owner and the painter told me,,,,Washington blue

Had you taken the time to read the post from the start you would have figured out that the entire post was about repairing a problem instead of a tutoral on painting or color codes from 1940,,,

I don't profess to know everything about 40 Fords nor do I look for fault in any give post,,,,HRP

 

Did the same deal on my '39 Coupe. I was worried about rust blowing out of the factory panel seam so I welded that fully before I welded on the rod. As my dad said "shaving the drip rails on a '40 coupe is like shaving off your eyebrows, makes ya look like a giant mellon" Nuff said.

 

Got any pics born2late?

I'll have some updated photos of mine soon. The drip rails are all done, but I have some work to do on the roof yet. I hope to have everything but the front clip painted in the next month or so. It's getting closed.

 

Nice work on the drip rails guys. I have been thinking about doing this to mine but did not know how it would look(46 sedan 4 dr). I also need to use this to adjust the gap at the top of the doors. I have a 3 inch chop and the gap at the top is much larger then at the sides. Will I be able to fill the gap under the rod or will I need to fill it with steel to prevent it from popping back out in a year or two.

 

I used tiger hair to fill it on mine. IMHO, as long as the metal is good and clean, and you are not trying to use it for any kind of structural integrity, it should be fine. In other words, bondo over metal is fine, bondo over a hole is a no-no. HRP has done this more than I have, so I would be curious for his input.

 

Wow... same as a 46 sedan. Cut mine off 10 years ago and now its time to fix it. Hind site is 20/20.
47 Tudor Guy, I'm just trying to get it to look good again and keep the rain out. I have the seem welded up and I will grind the duragl*** back to weld it on. Like I said the 1/8" +/- of gl*** was my main worry. We formed up a "Z" shaped channel on Tue. and my buddy took it to work to see if he could make up a longer piece in a lighter gauge to use as another option. The other side of the car does not have any duragl*** on it. I was checking to see how bad it looked without the rail and gl***ed in.

 

The ones on my sedan were rusted thru in places but still intact,one side had been replaced prior to me. I just cleaned em up good and pookied em top and bottom. Look good I think.

 

Dyno gl*** and tiger hair/kitty hair is the same thing it's strong and I believe it will last for many years,,,HRP

 

I actually use 3 different fibergl*** products. Bondo gl*** is LONG strand stuff, hard to work with, but VERY strong. Tigerhair is a medium strand product that is a little easier to work with, and Evergl*** is a very fine strand product that is very easy to work with. I try to use the strongest stuff possible, while still keeping the application as easy as possible. In other words, I did NOT use Bondo gl*** under my drip rails because it is like trying to spread a hairball the cat puked up . The Tigerhair (like Dyno gl***) worked well under the drip rail because it spread in to the groove easier. I will sometimes go over the Tigerhair with evergl*** to fill in the "rough spots" as a second coat.

I'm not saying this is "right" the way to do it, I'm just saying this is how I have used these products with success over the years.

Thanks for the input HRP.

Hope that helps 416Ford. The method that HRP described here looks nearly factory when it is done. My buddies 35 Chevy has this style drip rail from the factory, and I believe the 37 Ford did also, so it really fits the era as far as I am concerned. As far as keeping out the rain... well, so far so good, but that's only because my car has not been out of the shop since we installed them! But from a practical stand point, the round drip rail should accomplish that because it makes the roof line wider than the door top. If you come up with a different solution, I'd like to see what you did. I am always filing things away for future reference in my mind.

rstanberry, I wish I could have saved mine like you did, but they were too far gone.

 

ok... I like the look, awesome on those coupes, but my question is... do they work?

if it's pourin down rain, how do they do to keep the rain from coming in at the top of the doors? I mean, those cars don't look like they spend much time in the rain, but just in case....

I'm used to drip rails/rain gutters whatever you wanna call em, stickin out a good 1/8 to 1/4 inch, and being slathered in chrome (can you tell I'm used to caddies). The drip rails on my sedan will stop water from the garden hose from gettin on the windows, and are covered with chrome strips... no such thing on these oldies.... so do they work?

 

I drive mine in the rain all the time, doesn't leak at the top. Other places ,well thats a different story.

 

I found this really awesome 47 on the web, and really liked the way they finished the drip rail in the front. Thought I would throw a shot of it in here since it was on topic.

 

I will report in that Steves 40 sedan has weathered the rain very well....

It is a thousand times better at keepin' the rain out than no rail at all,,,,remember ,,,the original gutters were shaved off for some unknown reason before Steve got the car.

This was the easiest way of making a repair and 99% of the people that have seen the car never noticed the difference until pointed out.

Hopefully you can see the amount of over hang in this photo,,,HRP

 

Hotrod, I think both 47 and I were looking for a photo showing how this was blended in from the bottom side in the door opening. Any photos of this?