Customs 1952 pontiac the golden indian

Your doing some nice work there
Look forward to seeing it done

 

That poncho looks great, alot like what I am doing on my 51 chevy

 

alright, lets see here, i finally got back to work on this thing heres an update.

i will try and make all the future posts more like tech posts.

i got some new parts in the mail for the front of the car.

1/2 inch valves, slam specialties re7s and some dropped uprights from fatman.

 

so i had to figure a mount for the top, so i check the original coil spring locater, (originally the original spring sits flush on the upper cross member,with a small 3 1/2 inch spring center bracket that keeps the spring from moving around in the pocket, so i went to the local steel yard,(i say local but its really like 45 miles away,) and bought a 3 foot section of 3.5 ID pipe that has a .226 wall thickness. I also bought a piece of 1/2 ID .125 wall peice of seamless tubing. I had some upper circle brackets from suicide doors laying around for just such an occasion and also kept the old original shocks that came off the front, because i dont throw any thing away.

in the first pic youll see on the left the fisrt one i fabbed up. the second one i walk you through.

measuring the diameter of the plate minusing the 4 inches of the pipe i came up with a 5/8 lip around the pipe on the plate. i marked the 4 quadrants at 5/8 from the edge and used a brand new 4 inch cut off wheel to mark the circle as to where the pipe will be welded.


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so with the pipe beveled and tacked i had to test fite the hardware with the bag bolted up to make sure theres clearance to install and remove the bolts, it works perfect with the socket so no further modification to the pipe is needed.
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remember those old shocks? well i through them in the chop saw and cut the upper mount of the shock off as close to the dust shield as possible,(NOTE: notice i cut off the dust shield side being as you dont want to cut off the pressured side, even though these shocks are old junk they still have dangerous liquids that could ignite and explode if punctured with a hot blade of a chop saw.) I then took the 3/4 tubing and preped it like this.
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so i welded new tubing to the center of the cup, and welded the pipe up to the plate, notice i welded the under side also where the pipe overlaped the valve holes?
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so i then painted the brackets, then checked the mounting (notice i precut the frame for clearance) the idea is the cups sit flush against the crossmember like the coilspring the weight of the car with the cup in the locator keep the bag from shifting around, the tubing extended upward through the original shock mount mainly as a support to keep the cup from bouncing out of the locator, there is no wieght on this piece but the upper shock bushings are still used to dampen any vibration as well as offer a slight amount of flex if needed, (which it should not need,) it also allows for you jack the car up with out the bag falling out of the cup.

thats it for now, stay tuned.


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alright lower control arms, i forgot to take some begining pics but you get the just of it, i got one done today so the next one should go alot quicker, it was alot of mocking up to make sure it was all going to work correctly.

so i made 2 trapizoidial plates out of 1/4 and welded a 1 inch piece of the left over 3 1/2 inch ID pipe from the upper bags mounts.

i welded the pipe to the upper piece after drilling the bag mount holes i tacked the plate to the top (and after mocking up the plate and control arms numberous times to make sure my bolt holes would line up.) i cut out the original control arm coil section leaving the rivits in, the metal teft over was laped into the seam creating not only a boxed in effect but also the rivets still in place with the now new plates welded to the metal that they attach to makes these things brutish.


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so heres after all was tacked i checked one last time to make sure it all bolted up and worked correctly.and also found out i had to trim a bit more out of the lower part of the crossmember for clearence with it aired all out.
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so all worked and heres what they look like. im still gonna box the rear but the fronts will stay open so i can install the new bumpstops.
oh and the piece that is spot welded to the end is just to keep it from twisting when i welded the arms up

stay tuned.

 

Ummm...yeah...what he said....

Real nice work so far.

 

Thats gonna be a killer custom...........

 

subscribed. . . very cool thread.

 

Dude. You are definitely making chicken salad out of chicken doo! What a great job!

 

Great fabbing, that's impressive that you made your own control arms too.

 

Sweet! Another Poncho guy! Car looks awesome too!

The car in this picture is a '53 Chieftain. Not the same as your '52. Grille will not fit like the '52, I don't think. I know where there is a '51 grille that should bolt up though.

Are you getting rid of anything on the '53??? If so, please let me know! I would be interested!

 

no im keeping this car too , yead the 53 is pretty much totally different. i have a couple of grille ideas all kustom for the 52

 

What model of '53 Poncho is that? The trim level looks different than mine.

If you're interested in that '51 grille I could ask the guy for you. Just let me know and I'll find out for you or pass his info on to you. He's in Whittier area.

 

Great tech info on the front bags. I am just finishing the 4-link and bags in the rear of my 51, and should be starting the front bags in a week or so. Your project is looking really good.

 

its a 53 cheiftain standard, its so striped down i didnt even have a heater from the factory, interesting fact i bought this car in a package deal with my buddy both the same models but his had a heater and radio,
this car was the 187th car built in the southgate factory for 53 and his was the 225th.

not too interested in the 51 grille but what kind of price you think hed want for it?

 

Wow! That IS a fun fact! Were probably on the same line at the same time! Cool!

I know he wanted less than $200 for it, but it obviously would need rechroming, like pretty much every other POS chrome part done during the Korean war era.

 

ha we have another 53 4 door that were using for parts, a while back i sold it to before we got these cars it was the 65th car off the same factory line. i thought it was kind of interesting

 

Do you have a link to a website that will tell you this info? I would love to cross-ref my '53 VIN and see where it lands in relationship to yours.

 

check out this site.

breaks it down for you.

http://1952pontiac.com/index.php/decode-your-1949-1952-pontiac-serial-number/

 

so i had a short lapse and picked up a shoebox to push into mothballs until i get this thing out of the shop. so today was the first day ive worked on the car in 2 weeks.

so doesnt look like much but this took me all day, due to mocking up, taking back apart making small adjustments,mocking up taking back apart, i came up with how i was going to rebuild and strenghten up around the frame. heres what i camp up with.

still little more imma add to it, just for strength but tthis is the just of it.

 

very kool stuff you're doing with this car man... its gonna be SICK.

 

very nice.....

 

Your drawing is so neat! Is it your handy work?
It actually reminds me of a Chevy custom that Swanx used to have! possibly a real Barris one, does anyone know what im talkin about?
Bitchin project.

 

Way cool Poncho. Subscribed!