figured I would post up what ive been working on. Ill update it with pictures as I do work. some past projects here : http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=649685 and on to my 54 210 the start
im gonna loosely base if off this car (another HAMB member) I really like the profile of his car, and the way the chop flows. back to mine, I rebuilt the carb, changed the fuel filter,and fuel pump and got it running. its been off the road/sitting in a field since 1996. video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPvlQPJDiog&feature=related and a couple weeks later decided to take it for a spin up the street, no brakes at all so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMOnCnb2L5M&feature=player_embedded
now that the car is in one of my bays at the shop I started digging into it, and boy is it a can of worms. First thing to do is the rust repair, over all the car isnt too bad, its not great but that is to be expected for a car that is almost 60 years old. today I pulled off the door to fix it, this fucker weighs a TON, almost fucked my back trying to get this thing in the stand. yea that's not good, the inner door had completely rotted out. So I cut out the old nastyness New inner door fitted and welded then I flipped the door over to replace the outer skin trimmed off the old. fitted and tacked the new flipped the door over again the hem the outer door skin over the edge of the inner. before I weld up the seam I decided to strip the old paint off, the smell of 60 year old paint burning is horrible.
I welded the rest of the door skin, welded up the trim holes along the top and middle of the door, and finished stripping the old paint with a DA. did a skim coat and blocked it. and laid down some DP90 epoxy primer.
went and bought a parts car today for $250, its a 54 bel air, which was the top trim line that year. its a 4 door that was rolled in 1970 and has been sitting in a barn ever since.The car is great shape minus a fucked roof and some rust on the rockers. The car is a 4 door so not all of it will get used. It does have just about everything that i need to make my car complete. I will be using the front grille, headlights, hood, trunk, and most importantly the floor braces are all still there. Plus I can sell some misc parts off it before scrapping whats left. So It will save me a ton of money on buying little parts. If you see apart that you want/ need feel free to PM me.
started ripping the parts car apart today, I have new floor pans, however the floorbraces/body mounts are completely rotted on the 2 door. So I had to cut them out of the parts car. Air chisel did WORK today. the floors are almost perfect, shame its all getting cut up. last oil change date 10/4/69 LOL a bit over due. couple hours later this is what I was after after all of the old crusty undercoating was scraped off., not perfect, but repairable. Ill sandblast the rust off tomorrow and patch up the holes. I also started pulling the front clip, pulled the fenders and the grille off. took some steel wool to the grille and i was amazed at how clean it was, ill have to find a couple used teeth to replaced the cracked/damaged ones. some comparisons
Good lookin project. I can only imagine how this will look based on what your Mustang transformation looked like. I have some extra grill teeth, Ill have to take a look at them and see how nice they are.
got quite a bit done in the past couple days, I pulled the seats out of the 2 door, cut out the old floor braces and part of the floor. I repaired the rot on the good floor braces and fitted it to 2 door. then sand blasted it and removed the broken body mount bolts with a torch. and epoxy primer.
nice shop to get to work in - yep, when you get to the chop making the roof flow properly is very important. had a chopped '54 that used the stock front and rear glass by lowering glass down into body. Thanks for post.
Im gonna cut the front windscreen, I know the stock rear glass can NOT be cut due to being tempered. However I've heard if you buy new glass from parts places( eckers..ext) it isn't tempered and CAN be cut. Anyone confirm this yet? I know I can make it look like this with just sinking the corners of rear window. ( I'm also goign to be doing something like that with my taillights)
started fitting the new floor pans in tonight after work, I still have to remove the rest of the old floor under it and do a lot of trimming but its a start.Im gonna try to get the rest of the new body mounts in and try to get at least the back floor welded tomorrow.
rear floor is all welded next is this uglyness also stripped the hood im going to use. and the underside
looks good man, nice progress, what part of upstate are you from? i have bought one of those dual laminate aftermarket rear windows and plan to cut it, hopefully it can be done successfully the first time cause they are close to $500. keep up the good work!
finished stripping the hood and removed the center trim piece revealing the hood which is made in 2 halves started welding it and the emblem holes, I built up the weld in front to leave a peak in the front of the hood all welded close up of the peak, I Still have to weld the hood latch bolts in it was getting late so ill do that tomorrow
A good model to use for sure! Its my buddy Vinces 54 from up on the Hill (SoCalChevy54). Its has great lines...good luck with yours, its looking good so far man!
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