The final touch for my 47 Ford Kustom!!

Just started working on it so no pics just yet. But the plan is for frenched headlights/tailights, shaved door handles, frenched antenna, rounded trunk corners, and a 50 Plymouth grill. I'll post some pics when the work gets moving.

Nice idea on the tailights, I love that look.

 

That's awesome!
My stock bodied 46 coupe is pretty damn boring.
Giving me something to consider for next years major rebuild.

Looking forward to some more pix.
Cheers!!

 

Chad,

Nice work!

Looking forward to seeing it done.

Take care,

 

Now that is one bad *** taildragging mother.

 

I like the plaque...and would like to see what it's on.....

OKAY! Didn't see the second pic,DUH!!! Looks awesome Chad...What color are you plannin on?

 

I honestly havnt been able to find any 47-48 guards to know what they look like. I have a set of front and rear guards that I like, and they dont really fit the 47 bumpers I have perfectly, so I thought that they must be 46's. They do look like the matranga guards though. I'll post a pic of what I have in a bit, and maybe you can help me ID them.

AOL ****s, it seems the uploaded pic comes and goes.

The car will be a shade of maroon, full gloss. I dont have an exact shade picked out, I'll probably go to the paint shop, and sit outside with the color chip book for a while when the time comes. I'm leaning towards a darker maroon, maybe towards an eggplant color maybe.

The interior vinyls are already picked out (I had started to have a shop start the interior before I decided to strip the car, and do it 100% before messing with the interior, so I already have the vinyl), and they are a slightly off white and deep maroon, the tuck and roll will be white, the surrounds maroon, ala Matranga Merc.

 

Here's a nice color...

 

I like this shade of purple too...

 

In case they disapear again.... Here are the photos Chad posted but now linked from my site.


The Br*** plaque




And the rear view...




And here is another view of te wonderful round corners on the doors and the shaved drip rails.
Fantastic work Chad.




And to see some more photos of Chads '47 Coupe... check out the folder on my site.

Chad's 47 Ford Coupe Custom

 

Looking at the back side view, makes me wonder why more people are not
into Kustoms. Beautiful body lines!!

Great job and keep up the good work.

Happy Trails,

Mick

 

Man that looks great!! What kind of grill do you plan on using? Slow and Low is working on mine. I like the idea for the tailights also.

 

Great work, I love all the progress on this car, its come a long way. It's gonna look great rolling down the road. Keep us posted man.

 

Looking good. Nice flow.

 

lookin good!

whats the running gear?

Zach

 

Thanks! The running gear is not that traditional. Its a late 70's 302/C4 combo. MII front end, 9" rear on a 4 link, and air ride all around. If I did it again, I'd go with a traditional dropped suspension, but I did the air ride over 2 years ago, and spent a lot more money than was necessary. I never plan to have the car sit "air ride low", it will always sit at a very traditional drop.

I'm not as worried about whats under the hood and frame, but more with what can be seen from the outside, and in the interior. The interior will be VERY traditional, with bone white and maroon tuck and roll, chromed garnish moldings, 49 merc accessory wheel, 51 merc steering column with column auto shift (chromed most likely), tuck and roll.

The grill will be a 48 cadillac. I have it, I just havnt started working on the front sheet metal yet.

 

Wow love the car. I saw it on Rik's site before seeing it here... Didn't realize it was your's.

Hope I get a chance to see it creeping around Maryland...

 

Thanks! Do you remember it indoors at last years Jalopyrama? I guess it looks a bit different now!

 

Cl***ic choice. The running gear and bags is nothing to be ashamed of, from the outside no one will be the wiser. I'd like to do a '39 or '40 Merc someday with alot of the same touches your using. The underbody would be almost identical.

 

39/40 merc is awesome, and definately on my "some day" list!

I think I could have saved a bunch of money by not going with the air ride, but in the end, I'm sure I'll be glad I did it for driving quality. I want a car that 100% looks the part of a late 40's/early 50's custom from the outside and interior, no one has to see whats under the hood!

 

Chad, are you going to post a tech piece on rounding the corners?

 

I didnt take any pictures of the process.

I did do a tech on molding in the rear fenders though:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=215686&highlight=molding

Rounding the door corners isnt too hard. make sure your door is hung perfectly before starting this, all gaps should be right first. The hardest part is deciding on the cut. I have seen so many cars, with rounded door corners that just dont look right. In such cases, people rounded the corners, just because your "supposed to", and paid little attention to the radius that they made. In my opinion, the radius should follow the radius of the inner window opening. This is pretty easy to lay out. I took a caliper, and measured the width of the top of the door window opening, and then ran the caliper along with window opening, scratching a line into the epoxy sealer that followed the shape of the window opening, keeping a constant width.

I ended up with a radius that makes sense with the rest of the door, and isnt just rounded for the sake of rounding things.

Next I used a small pneumatic recipricating saw (you really need this, or a hack saw with a narrow blade to cut the radius, and not damage the negative radius are of the door) to cut along the line. You need to save the excess you saw off, that will be the start of the radiused door frame.

Clean up that excess you cut off, and coat the square door frame, and the back of the excess door skin you cut off of the door with weld through primer. Now close the door, and use a set of magnets, to hold the excess door skin in place, keeping a nice even gap around the door's new rounded corner. You will need to add strips of metal to the outer square edges of the negative radius piece, which will be the width of your original door gap. Tack in that negative radius piece. then make some filler strips to fill in the gaps, and final weld and dress that. Now you will have to make a strip to fill the gap between the old square door frame, and the new rounded one.

Finally, you will need to weld all around the door skin edge on the door where you cut the radius into, as you cut away the folded over skin. I used a Mig to build it up, ground it close with a die grinder, and then fine tuned it by hand with a file.

If any of the above doesnt make sense, I'll be glad to clarify. I wish I had taken pics!

 

Hi Chad,

I'm sure many knows a lot more about this, but this is what I know. The rear
bumper on the '47-'48 ones has the bumper guards further apart (like Lopez
'41 and Matranga's '40 Merc) .. Here comes some pics to show the
differences. You also seee the difference between the bumper guards.

1947-48 bumper:


1946 bumper:


Jesse Lopez and Nick Matranga used both 1947-48 bumpers with cut up 1946
bumper guards. The taillight idea was said to be from Jesse, who also helped
Nick to do his.



Here's mine. 1946 bumper AND bumper guards.

 

I thought you meant the guards themselves were different. I did know that the bumper had the inner mounting holes closer together. That is one of the big factors in using the 46, it definately works much better with the license plate! The 47 bumper brackets are different than a 46, and the 46 brackets wont work with my rear gravel guard, so I will be extending the 47 brackets to reach the closer holes on the 46 bumper.

 

Yes, that was what I meant. Look at the guards in the 1947-48 pic on top.
They are totally different than the 1946 ones.

1947-48


1946

 

Ok, I have never seen the 47 bumper guards. No question about it, 46 are the way to go, those are the ones I have. Thanks!

 

I really like the chop. It's hard to get the proportions right without making the back windows look like portholes! nice car!

 

Not to highjack your thread Chad, but I need some insight. We we're going over front bumper treatments today and really liked this one which even has the grill we're using. It looks like a factory 46 piece and a factory 46 splash pan to me. Experts?

 

Chad, Your coupe is sure looking real sweet ! I need to get my chopped '41 business coupe on the road !

41 Dave

 

I dont see any pic.

 

What do you mean? You need a pic to tell me which bumper is on the car I'm looking at? And you call yourselves experts...