I'm sorry about the quality of my crappy Polaroid camera. Here's a picture of the 3 piece '56 Chevy wagon bumper welded into a one piece.
Here's how it looked originally. I ditched the '49n Chevy bumper guard, it makes the car look wider without it.
I also molded in some exhaust cutouts in the bumper. Ignore the misalignment of the pipes, they're damaged and tweaked from my getting out of my driveway.
Here's a kinda overall view of where I'm at with the old girl. I'm excrutiatingly close to having her in paint. The bumper molding was a bear of a job, I had to cut out the left side leading lip to fit the countours of the tailights. Ain't no way this bumper will fit anything other than my car. Until the bumper's plated I won't be able to tell if I did a good job. We'll wait and see.
Nads, Nice looking work so far. I'm new here and taking notes on all the '54 chops. How many inches were taken out of the windshield posts, and is your hood pancaked? Thanks, Bob
Nice detail on the exhaust cutout. Is there a piece welded on to get it to flare out like that? I imagine it would be hard to hammer that thick bumper material out like that.
Looks good Nads. I've always dug that car & I've been wondering how things have been progressing. Thanks for the update. Billy
Looks good, the new rear window fits better, how long before paint? and whatcha gonna do with the 49 plate guard?
I have been waiting to see how your bumper looks, after looking at the photos, I think you need a better camera or how about looking at a photo tech I like the Ex cutouts, now get back to the sanding.
Wow, the 56 bumper looks so much better without the guards! You´ve done a hell of a job! I wish I could weld like that...
Thanks for the input guys. 37kid, the front was chopped 3 1/2", the rear 4 1/2". The cutouts were formed by chopping a semi circle out of the bumper. Then a piece of 1/2" strap was welded proud of the bumper metal by 1/4" or so. After that a wide bead was welded all around using a mig welder. After grinding the weld carefully with a 60 grit flap wheel you get that nice flowing radius. It looks much better than a plain flat hole. Mike the '49 license plate guard will be for sale on the classifieds, do you need one? Evel, thanks for the comments about our retarded band. I destroyed my stand up bass last Friday, my left shin too. The bass is repairable, the back split from the sides due to me getting just a bit too carried away. We're looking at getting the POS painted in about 4 more weekends of work, hopefully.
Bob, the hood's not pancaked, but the thought did cross my mind. All the front sheet metal's been welded and molded into one piece. The hood's been welded into a one piece, but I wish I'd have peaked it. The corners are radiused. I did not weld the fender bottoms to the sills even though it would've looked good. The thought of doing major mechanical work, like putting in Mustang 11 suspension, without being able to remove the front clip would be impossible. One thing I've never been able to figure out is how folks took the engine out of a car with a pancaked hood.
Nads, Thanks for the info. A friend has a '54 with a Mustang II front clip but wishes he'd moved it forward an inch or so. Guess the stock wheel to wheel well opening is not centered to start with and could have been corrected early in the chassis build. He also said stock hood fit was never good when they were new. Should have my project here in a week or two.
Wow Nads!!.........there's a ton of work in that beast of yours brother.........really taking shape, the bumper is a nice touch.........ya can't have any finger prints left after all that sanding!! ...........sweet ride!!
THANK YOU for fuckin off that square assed rear window. She looks killer. PS. Your old boy, D.J. Zor is one of "US" now. After a few weeks with us, he opens doors for ladys and says please and thank you. You wouldn't belive it. Oh, Hell, I don't belive it either. He's still a dirt bag..just now, he's OUR dirtbag. The Chev looks killer, -Abone.
Hey flamedabone, you should ass rape that little Navy bitch Zor. He like it, the scrawny shitbag that he is. He like it when you dress up in a gorilla costume and chase him up a tree whilst he's wearing his Fay Wray disguise. Naw don't do that, he's a good kid and damn helpful too, his tiny fingers can reach nuts that others struggle with. He called me as he was touching those Ardun heads y'all have up there, he was on the verge of creaming his man panties. I love that guy, I miss him a lot.
Yep, rear window looks MUCH better. Get that sucker done so we can see some pics of the overall scheme of things. Sam.
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