Projects 41 plymouth coupe 392 hemi build thread

He probably already knows that he's going to get wheel time in a few years from now. How cool would it be " I learned to drive in a 41 Plymouth". "Oh yeah, it had a 392 Hemi in it too".

 

No kidding! Beats the hell out of "my Moms station wagon".

 

You're right there Oahu Eli!

Btw everyone, I'm on holidays right now, so there will be no progress reports until the middle of august. But do have my laptop with me to check out the Hamb every now and then!

 

Sigh, I learned how to drive in my dad's '48 Studebaker Starlight coupe. Not too sexy with that 3 on the tree and humongous steering wheel. But I guess he thought if I could drive that I could drive anything! Later I graduated to driving his '50 Jaguar MkV drophead coupe...

 

Sounds like you had a very rough youth! and a great dad. I don't think my son would like his first driving lesson in a ricer, so I'm motivated to have the Plym done by the time he's old enough to drive.

 

Can I pretend to be your son? I wanna drive it!!!!!

 

I would LOVE to go back and relive parts of it! Other parts not so much...

I've learned to appreciate how fortunate I was to have the dad I did. Of course I didn't feel that way when I was a teenager. LOL!

 

Im diggin the new pics Eric, and the progress on your ride!! Your son will always remember building with you, lucky kid!

Enjoy your Holiday!!

 

Hello??? Anyone there?? I was serious!

 

Still here Rob! You're welcome to drive it when it's finished. I'll just introduce you to my friends as "Rob, my long lost son". This may require some convincing and beers if you're older than me!

 

I think thats gonna take a LOT of beer!

 

Well I'm back in town and ready to work on the car again! The holiday has done me good and will be working on the Plymouth again on monday. Stay tuned for the long awaited update.

 

Welcome back, now let's get her rollin...

 

It was time to get back working on the car, after a 10 day holiday. My son came with me to help out. He started sanding the dashboard and cutting out the necessary metal to fill in the remaining holes. I then welded them up and ground them smooth.

One of the last things left to fabricate on the body was something to cover part of the hinge system on the firewall. This was my task today.... After fabricating a piece for the drivers side, I made a mirror image for the other side. I was able to show my son how you can be busy with this for the good part of 5-6 hours. I still need to finish off grinding a few welds....unfortunately the sanding pad broke and was not able to find a replacement.

Here are a few pics from today.

 

And a few more pics of the "nearly" finished product.

 

Apart from the work done on the previous page, I couldn't resist taking these pics with my new Hipstamatic app.

 

Finished off the firewall today. It required a few more welds/grinding, but it's done now.

Increased size of the hole where the steering column goes through. Had to make a slightly oval to allow the column to be at an angle. Got the pedal assembly out and mocked that up too. I've decided to move it slightly to the left to allow a little more space for the gas pedal. I also shortened the assembly bracket on the bottom as it was too long. Sat on an empty plastic crate of Heineken to get a better feel for the correct driver postion. Felt pretty good!

Apart from all of the above, spent a good deal of the day sanding the body (together with my son Julian) and cleaning up some welds. Going to sandblast/primer the body at the end of this month. Can't wait! (but there are still quite a few things that need to be done....)

 

Also went ahead and loosely mounted the dash in order to make sure my brake booster would fit. Even the gauges will fit without intervering with the booster. The steering will need to come out further towards the driver, but that adjustment can be made later. I now only need to figure out how to mount a bracket holding the column drop.....I'll do that once the pedal assembly is welded in place. It's starting to look like a car again, don't you think?

 

Eric, it looks like a car for sure! No tilt on the column? The column drop should mount just like the stock one. How many inches did you drop, it is hard to tell from the photo? Good luck with the blasting, I have been hand grinding, and it is no fun, but great exercise.LOL We are still going to get it blasted, because like you said earlier in another thread, you can't see all of the potential problem areas.

 

Glenn thanks for the comments.

I decided against a drop column as I want a "clean" as possible interior. I feel that if the steering wheel is in the correct position to start with, there is no need to change the angle. The old column drop was removed from the car before I got it, so I could not tell you the exact drop. I've postioned the steering wheel/column so it is in a comfortable postion, while still being able to get on the bench seat without any problems.

Good thing you're getting it blasted, it will show you exactly what needs to be done! Whether it is good or not, you will at least not be surprised at a later stage.

 

Nearly forgot.....there was this rear engined Tatra in the workshop today. And yes, it had a Hemi in the back. Not the one we all know and love, but it was cool to see all the same!

 

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"The one we all know & love"...is the Orange/Black road racer?:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT3viZFg0_w

OR

Is there another highly-emulated example?

 

I never heard of a Tatra. Who made it and whats the displacement? Bet it'd be fun to drive!

 

I did a quick search on Google. It's a T603, made between 1955 and 1975. The displacement is about 2.5 liters and made between 95 and 105 hp. It's made by Tatra in the Csech Republic/Checoslovakia. The engine looks impressive, shame about the numbers.....

 

Back on topic now. Considering I'm on standby the next few days, I got started with the dashboard and gauges. After spending an hour of measuring, I went and bought a round 111mm saw and started cutting away. (with my son holding the dash in place and my youngest daughter pouring water on it to keep it cool) The back of the gauges are 109 mm in diameter, giving me 1mm play. Unfortunately, the saw is not really that accurate, so I had to hand vile/sand/dremel before I had the gauges lined up.(last pic) Couldn't resist mounting them in position and take a step back.....Life is good! (just curious what the missus is going to say when she finds a dash on the couch.....)

 

Nice job on the dash, I had mine weld shut also, nothing like a clean slate to start with.

 

Thanks Glenn. I still need to get some lead on the top of the dash to smooth it out completely, but then it will be ready for some minor sand blasting and epoxy primer. I'm toying with the idea to have the top covered in leather and the rest painted. But which color........still got some time to think about this one.

 

Those are some pretty cool looking gauges. Who makes them?

 

They are made by New Vintage USA. They even made the speedo in km/h for me!

 

Love the smoothness of the dash. Who needs a glovebox? Looking better all the time.