LOL it was like 7 or so on Friday night, and about 7 on Saturday. I think his name is Matt, was leaving when we stopped by Friday night in his Diesal Chevy pickup Chuck
ah yes. we wern't there that late this past weekend. Had a lot going on. Won't be there this weekend either :/. Yes Matt is another employee and a good friend
I have worked on a few of these in recent history, and have some suggestions for when it come time to make it stop ant turn: HAMB’er Scarebird, http://www.scarebird.com/ makes a nice set of brackets that allow you to use all off-the-shelf late-model components to upgrade the fronts to disc brakes. There are two models, one to replace 10” drums and the other for 11” ones. You will need to check which ones you have. The calipers clear stock 15” wheels after slight grinding of the caliper. Mounting a dual-circuit master can be a challenge, as the pedal pivot is built into the stock master cylinder. To get around this, I gut the stock cylinder, bore out the steel back-cap and use that as a building point for a new master cylinder bracket. A fabricated longer push rod spans the distance. I use a 1” Wilwood master cylinder, with remote reservoirs, which I put up by the battery. The stock pedal ratio is ~7.3:1. While this makes for great mechanical advantage over the brakes, it makes for too little push rod travel for the brakes to be full-on before the pedal hits the floor. The arm that actuates the push rod needs to be lengthened to correct the ratio to 6:1 (Note: in the picture below, the arm had NOT yet been lengthened). The stock anti-sway bar is not up to the task of handing on today’s roads, at today’s speeds, even with the 6-cylinder, let alone a V8. I have had 3 customers break them. My favored upgrade is a 1” bar from a Jeep Grand Cherokee, circa ’96. With the mounts as far forward on the frame horns as they can go, and the shortest end-links that Energy Suspension makes on the arms, it makes for some impressive handling. The front shocks are an issue, or at least how they are mounted is. While the suspension design is excellent, Chrysler missed-the-mark on how they mounted the shocks. For the uninitiated, on these, the shocks, rather than going from a control arm to the frame, they go from a control arm, to the other control arm. This allows a large amount of suspension travel, with very little shock travel. The shocks just can’t do their job like this. The upper mount needs to be relocated to the frame. The stock shocks (or at least what I have found in place of them) are too short to do this. The stock mount can be un-bolted from the control arm, and replaced with a plain bolt. Longer travel shocks are in order, and can be had at your favorite parts house. With these changes, I have been able to get some impressive ride quality out of this 60+ year-old chassis.
thanks! we have plenty of jeep parts laying around so that shouldnt be the problem. the f\car actually rides down the road pretty amazing!
If you do run the stock bar, inspect it well. Look for signs of metal fatigue, twisting or cracks. From experience, running without a properly functioning one will leave the car pretty squirrelly, especially on a Connecticut country road. I should know, that is where I'm from.
great; thanks for the heads up! we will keep an eye on it. The car only has 22,000 miles on it so there isn't much in the way for wear and tear. We did a thorough inspection of everything when we first brought it home. She hasn't been on the road since 1983ish so we wanted to make sure she was ready to go...safely. I got the chance to witness the car partially put back together last night. Both passenger doors are on and both quarter panels for that side are on it. It looks AMAZING!!! I'm SO ready to paint the last 3 parts and start wet sanding.
will try and get a few tonight. its hard to photograph in the garage; just not enough room t get good shots. by the time i get there its almost dark too. Aiming to finish paint tonight! YES! As for Betty; we had another 1950 plym 4 door stop in to visit today. turns out the owners friend saw her parked outside and told him to go check it out. Betty's new quality has also brought in some great new autobody work t the shop! Doesnt get much better
Here are two cell phone pictures from this evening. we are prepping for paint on the final 3 parts right now. we'll be here until midnight doing it but it needs to get done enjoy!
Good morning fellow HAMBers and Happy Cinco de Mayo! A little update this morning: We had some further paint issues last night and we are NOT happy. The last rear fender we had to do had the same chemical reaction issue that we had with the roof.One large splotch on the rear fender probably means we are going to have to strip it back down and re-do it. The body shell and the trunk lid have been sitting, curing, for well over a week in a dry, warm garage. We started wet sanding last night and went to buff it and found that the clear coat has not cured yet and it is now scratchy and crappy which means more wet sanding sometime. The body guys at the shop (who didnt even assist in this car) are beyond pissed off and called in the dupont people this morning and i hear theyre out for blood. We thought the roof reaction occured due the fact that we mightve put it on too heavy in the middle but now that the same exact thing happened in a big spot on the rear quarter; we are confident that it is most likely a paint issue. The rest of that quarter was fine and the rest of the panels we painted last night were fine when finished. we were ther euntil midnight last night and were expecting to leave happy and excited that our painting adventures were finished and we were ready to re-assemble. not so much now. We're just really frustrated right now since the most expensive part of finishing this car was the paint and the clear. we've seriously dumped a lot of money on the paint and now it's kicking us in the ass. On top of that; the parts we painted last night were supposed to be our last of the painting process. It's just very frustrating. the rest of the car; as you can see from the photos: looks KILLER and we are thrilled by the overall look and quality of the color in the big picture of it all. After spending months and months of hard work to prep it and get it perfect, and then dumping a bunch of cash on whats supposed to be high quality paint, and then discovering its ruining it all....just sucks. Well here's to hoping DuPont decides to help us and at least covers the cost of what paint we will need to fix it....not includnig the clear coat curing issues we are having. Anyone else have issues with dupont paint?
Not much to report back right now. We took a weekend hiatus away from the car and I think it was a wise move as frustrations were running high . The paint representative should be coming by the shop today or sometime this week to check the entire situation out. At this point we're on our hands and knees praying that we don't have to completely re-strip the entire car. if that becomes the case.....we will not be driving it this summer. we have over $1,000 in paint, prep supplies, and clear into the current paint job and to have this much of an issue is really bothersome. Hopefully it all works out in the end...i just want the damn clear to dry so we dont have to strip the entire car back down. The good news is there was no damage done with the paint on the last 2 doors (we're just hoping the clear cures properly now) so we will be puting the last 2 doors on the car. Hopefully we get some good news from Dupont and we can finish the car in a timely manner. Im ready to DRIVE IT already! If we get the doors on tomorrow night we will put it outside and take some photos.
aaaaand after letting it sit outside to bake in the sun all weekend...the clear coat is still soft enough to put a fingernail dent in.....this is beyond thrilling at this rate....i fee like its never going to be done. we were told the dupont rep will show up "sometime this week"...so that means whenever the guy feels like it. we can't even work on anything this week until the guy shows up. if the clear coat ain't dry...we can't wet sand anything. so here we sit.... maybe we'll throw the lowering blocks on it. our model A vintage guru friend wasn't too happy we finished it off with clear but we made our case stating that if, God forbid, ever had to fix something....its fixable with a clear on it. The great news is that everyone LOVES the color...
Oh boy, sux to hear about bad paint! That happened to us when laying primer on my buddies El-Camino with Providence Laquer products. Primer rolled right off of some dry spot putty. Wierd stuff, Good luck anyway. The nice sunny weather will dry that clear up in no time! Chuck
Hi chuck- Thanks for the encouraging words! We were hoping the days spent out in the sun the last 2 weeks would help the clear dry but it didnt do anything. I think we're just going to wet sand the entire car to get some of it off and then let it sit outside in the sun for awhile and pray it hardens. It wet sands fine but when you go to buff it it just swirls and scratches up the clear. 2 dupont people have already come by to look at it and they have a never ending list of excuses and situations as to why such things might've happened. I guess they then pulled the card that we couldnt use this product with that product and this and that .... when they were the ones who suggested all these products for the job when we started this whole process anyways. Its just rediculous. I told my boyfriend to put his foot down and stand his ground. We didnt rush through this entire process and we did everything by the book. The body shell alone took 13 hours just to prep and paint it that day. We have about 5 full days into the entire painting process of all the quarter panels and everything else so there was definately no rushing of the process that wouldve caused an issue. We want this car to exhbit hard work and we certainly wouldnt be jeopordizing that. Hopefully the big man on campus from dupont comes in today and we get some answers. I know the Prov. Laquer people are not really involved anymore and now its DuPonts issue since everything that was used on the car is their product brand I know the one rear quarter is going to have to be stripped back down to bare metal in order to fix the entire issue there. Fingers crossed this gets resolved and we can drive the car SOON. and its funny that you say that about the putty. we used that putty to fill in very minor issues on both that rear quarter panel and the roof and thats where both of the big major issues happened with the paint cracking and lifting. the primer went on it fine but apparently the paint isnt loving it.....thrilling....
Well I will tell you what, if you get no satisfaction from the Dupont "REP" do not hesitate to call the main company incessantly until you get satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is number one and you the customer should be made happy! Chuck
amen to that! My boyfriend tends to be a bit more on the passive side of things and when i get pissed off i tend to be the raging bull haha. We'll be making plenty of phone calls to compensate what damage has been done to all of the hard work
well we brought the car home last night for wet sanding. No sense in driving an hour just to wet sand the damn thing. We gave her a quick bath in the driveway and boy does she look good! I thoughti loved the car when we first bought it but now i know i'm in love with it. I tried to put a fingernail dent in the clear in an un-noticeable spot last night but couldnt do it so it is in fact pretty much hard now... THANK GOD! We're going to wet sand the entire thing and then let it sit out in the sun for a few days to ensure that it's dry and ready to buff. The issues with the paint lifting and crack still haven't been resolved. Maybe today they will come take a look at it. If i make it over to the car in time ill grab some photos of it out in the light. now that the doors are on....its really coming together!
Looks great! I love feeling like a powdered donut at the end of the day too! Yay, sanding primer and filler! Waiting to flash the lights to you guys in Canturbury somewhere....awesome when 2 old cars cross paths on a back road. Like old friends stepping back in time. '55 Imperial, '66 New Yorker, '72 El Camino, and a few others! Keep an eye out for Chuck's "Blue on Black" 1950 Buick too....debut soon!
It'll all be ok, no matter how it goes. Even when it goes wrong with an old car, at least your still working on and old car. It's a great story to tell and great experience....nothing like bragging rights! Chuck's got about 4 sheets of sand paper left of the 600 that he bought to strip the Buick a month ago....we'll be right over to help if need be!
well I don't have much for updates in terms of Betty other than we are wet sanding and buffing away. We are getting the products to fix the rear fender cost free ... thank God. Hoping to have it back on the road maybe next weekend if we can get all the wet sanding and buffing and assembly done in time! pray for nice weather! its been raining for 7 days straight
thanks for the encouraging words!! we're going to strip that problem fender back down to metal and start over on it on friday night. Once thats done we can wet sand it/buff it and assemble the car and drive it. The one thing thats nice about the car is that we did all the work on the car...just my boyfriend and I. We stripped it down, we did the body work repair, the door shaving, we did the floor repair, the sanding, the prep, disassembly and reassembly, mechanical work, the painting, the wet sanding and buffing and not many people can say they did it all themselves. We can stand tall when we take it places, whether the car is someone's cup of tea or not, knowing that we dedicated all the work and time to make the car what it is. Having the car in the garage has brought us closer to the neighbors too. Theyve been very tolerant of our antique tractor projects in the yard and the noise associated with working on such projects. The neighbors have been coming out of the woodwork to see it and have even lent a helping hand to sand and help with the heavy stuff. One of them has even started "shopping" around for an oldie It's been raining and disgusting for 7 days straight so i haven't been able to get the car out of the garage to get some photos. We haven't touched the car in the past few days since its been so miserable but we're getting back to it tonight. no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Like i said if we finish that fender without incident with the new round of paint and clear on friday/saturday and hammer down on the wet sanding/buffing...we could have the car driving around town next weekend. I can't wait for that day....
thanks! we soemtimes venture out that way since i have a few farming friends out that way who we like to visit here and there! Have you seen the little black roadster out in canterbury area? We saw it parked in a guys driveway on day on a backroad and i almost broke my neck trying to catcha glimpse you'll know its us on old betty....shes the only one around
also; we are currently on the hunt for 2 (both driver and passenger side) stone gaurds that go on the front of the rear fender panels. MUST BE IN GOOD SHAPE. Ours are cracks (they were hit), heavily pitted, and dented. looking for some decent ones to put on the car, TIA!
I was finally able to get some photos last night! It stopped raining for an entire half hour so we were able toput all the seats back in the car! we still need to put one door back on and both rear quarter panels but that will be this weekend's project. I hope you dont mind but we're in the middle of wet sanding and buffing right now so i apologize for the ppoor paint quality right now. Hope you like her!
no it's not fun. haha...at all. painting the last few parts today.praying that everything goes smoothly this time. we've been assembling everything this week and i've been hard at work polishing trim! At least this horrible weather doesnt give us the urge to drive it
everything is back on the car with the exception of 1 door as of today. I cant tell you how awsome it looks. Its all coming together now and we can't wait to see what it looks like with some trim back on it. After seeing one side of the car completed; we have a fire lit under our butts to get the thing going for memorial day weekend. We need tires for the old girl (shes still wearing her vintage 1950 ones!!!) so those will be ordered today. if the weather holds up i will get some bigger pictures of it all back together. theyre forcasting another entire week of clouds, rain, and thunderstorms...we might see the sun on sunday...cue the word MIGHT
The Jalopy Journal
