Projects A late introduction-Junior Conway coupe build

The dash must be happy now. The mirror is '54 chev..

 

Jer,

Great job recreating an incredibly elusive car! You're doing an amazing job.

I have just a couple questions, as I'm doing an early-'50s-style shoebox myself. Mainly: how are you handling dash instrumentation? I know you're going 12-volt, but what are you doing for a headlight switch and an ignition switch?

I want to use my original switches 'cause I like the way they look--the ignition in particular--but I'm a little concerned about reliability. Just wondering how you're handling it.

Thanks!

Theo

 

Theo, these switch's were functioning when I got this car. I just hooked em back up with the new harness. I wish I could be more help than this. Sorry.

 

Everyone who's been tracking this build knows there has been a lot of interaction with Jr. He was guarded at first because of the many failed attempts at doing this car. Over these months its been relentless, focused questions and attention to detail that have convinced him that this going to happen. It's a tremendous privilege to be able to get to know Jr and do this car.

As iv'e gotten a look and understanding (we've talked about his work also) of what he does and how he does it I'm becoming more convinced than ever that Jr is not from this world. His clientele and the high dollar cars that he works on have conditioned him to develop a routine regarding bringing a bare metal surface to perfection before paint. If he's doing an occasional non classic it doesn't change. It's basically taking the steps that most of us are familiar with and multiplying them until the foundation for color is perfect. This means a minimum of 3 prime and block procedures (usually more). This is done on all painted/coated panels and surfaces. Including the chassis and all unseen inner panels. The color/finish is sprayed/blocked/color sanded until it is perfect. There is a buffer somewhere in the shop but it's not used. The final color sand is done in 3000 grit wet. Everything is hand rubbed. The final finish on the completed cars in his shop (under car covers) is amazing. You can feel around the inner doors/jambs/pinch welds/wheel openings/inner cowl areas and the finish is all the same. PERFECT! My first reaction to seeing this was do people appreciate this? his answer was , no! When the subject of American Hot Rod came up his reply was "doing my shop would be boring", every week the next program would feature sanding the same car.

I'm saying all this to give you an idea of the intimidation factor involved with paint and finish. I know that what he is now isn't what he was as a 17 y.o., but still, it's there. After the color sand and buff session awhile back, I was troubled with the finish. I know it looks good in pics but, this car will spend most of its life under lights. Upon very close inspection it was just too choppy under the shop neon tubes (check out the window reflection in l side of hood). So, as you can see, we're going to block (long thin flexible) with 1000 grit and finish up with 1500. Check out finished hood and redone trunk lid. It just has to be.

I'm showing pics from my visit to Jr's shop in Nov. and a portion of the new cut and buff. Oh, and the pic of me and Jr? I AM SMILING, just a little awestruck.

 

This is another pic that I should have posted with the rest. This shows the side of his shop that has the booth. These are the front end and interior parts of the 59 Cadillac sedan deville that we're standing in front of. This is the car that I examined the most. This would be an example of a non classic that I mentioned in the last post. If I have this story straight this car belongs to one of his classic car customers wives. This was her dads car that she ended up with. She remembers riding in the back seat. She wanted it restored , so Jr gets the job. Iv'e been told (not by Jr) that the bill on this car is multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is at $75.00 an hour and if you remove a fender its just as nice under it as the fender itself. So you see these components go from fenders (in this case) to works of art with many hours on each one. BE CAREFUL WITH THAT!!!

The old car in the pics is a 38 Mercedes Benz military (Nazi) command car. Jr is looking to win Pebble Beach with it. The other cars under the covers are Ferrari's and Porsche's etc.

 

Here's a couple shots of the block/rub process. Hard to see the difference. I can see it but I know what to look for. The paint is now hard as a rock. The bad? Difficult to make any progress with buffer. Takes a lot of time. The good? Hard to rub through and it's not going to change (shrink back).

 

Lookin damn good!!!! The harder the clear is, the better the outcome will be after you buff it. The suck part is it takes forever as I'm sure you know!!

 

Fantastic build, Jerry. Thanks for the insight into the inner workings of a paint master. You're putting your 40+ years' paint and bodywork experience to excellent work!

 

Hey! look what the mail man brought me. This is a nos dual exhaust conversion pipe out of a dealers inventory. What I been lookin for.

 

We sandblasted the surface rust off and put Eastwoods manifold dressing on it to match the manifolds that are supposed to be on the car. This is a great place to be in that we have the exhaust issue dealt with. The rest of the exhaust should be a piece of cake.

 

The more conversations I have with Jr the clearer the pic of this cars origins become. Because of this there needs to be an effort made to revise some of the earlier info. Jr's brother Herb was 3 years older and was the person that supplied the actual cars that Jr would first work on. Jr and Herb where tight and Herb was willing to include Jr in his money making activities (paper routes, ice cream vendor, etc.).

Herb also shared Jr's interest in custom cars. So the first car that became available to work on was Herb's first car, a 41 Ford club cpe. This was Dec 1952 in Cal.. This is right after they arrive in Cal. (native Kentuckians). Herb had just turned 16. Jr is 13. They lowered it (slight tail dragger), with skirts and Dad welded up the deck lid. With a blow torch! It was black and Jr painted the reworked area's with a vacuum cleaner(!). Jr's specialty became painting white walls on this and other cars.

Herb and Jr would cruise the burger joints in this car. This is Lynwood Cal.. The other locations that they were interested in cruising were used car lots as Herb's desire to trade up became an issue. They settled on a 50 Ford cpe because they liked the way they looked. The car that they found and traded for, (1953) was a repainted gold (not original color). It had primer on the reworked areas which included a shaved 51 hood, straight bar grille and a molded front gravel shield. It was lowered and already had the unique Gaylord headliner.

Now we must be able to picture it sitting on the used car lot (probably in the back row) with Herb and Hersch (he's not Jr yet) checking it out. Yeah that's the one.

We've never done anything like this right? Weren't the most interesting cars in the back row? Dad/Herb and Hersch weld up the deck lid and shave the doors (no ele. yet). All this is done with a blow torch (the one with the little pump on it). Jr didn't see himself owning this car at first (he's 15 y.o.). He came around to that a bit later. But, that's a whole nuther story.

 

I hope you'll continue to relate the personal side of the Hershel Conway story, Jer. He's about 5 years older than I am, but I can completely identify with cruising the back row of the local auto lots in search of interesting cars and using the crudest of tools to modify them - including the spray paint attachment to the vacuum cleaner.

For every "finished" California custom there were hundreds, if not thousands, of primered want-to-be customs which had been modified with a hammer and a brick, using coat hanger wire for welding rod and wheel weights for lead filler.

I'll bet painting whitewalls kept Hershel busy. Most of the "tire paint" in those days was the same stuff sold for house painting but with a different lable. Turned yellow almost immediately and flaked off within days, so the only way to keep the tires looking good was to recoat them often.

Decent late-model cars were cheap and plentiful in those days, so it was easy and common for teens to trade often. Vehicles were high-maintenance then, too, so it was not uncommon to find cars only a couple of years old which had been neglected to the point that they needed more repairs than they were worth - perfect subjects for budding "youts" and their hot rod and custom car projects.

So please, keep asking Junior the questions. We'll all be waiting for "the rest of his story."

 

I need to add that as Jr. became proficiant at painting ww's it was an indication of his attention to detail at his young age. My only attempt at it was a miserable failure. Just imagine going down the street with ww's that wern't exactly round to the wheel. It looked like an escapee from the circus.

 

OK, wer'e going to tackle these mldgs (or they're going to tackle us). The '54 Dodge mldgs are curved and need to be straightened to fit and the '55 Ford mldgs are straight and need to be curved. The first pic shows some of the mldgs. The next pic shows the brass sheet insert templates.

 

The various tasks that have to be done and the skills involved to do this continue to amaze. The brass sheet that I got is supposed to be the last on earth. When I took it out of the box it had some major (black) corrosion on the bottom where it had been sitting in a warehouse for (?). I had to become an expert on brass etch. The attempts to polish it worked great on the face but you could see all the polish in the holes when it was held vertically. Plus, its very stiff and resists attempts to lay it out flat. Fortunately the pic on post #275 gives a hint at how difficult it was/is to work with. The pic on post #153 shows that problem (looking down the side of the car). Eventually it was ketchup (a thin film) on both sides dried out in the sun that made it nice and bright (but it was blotchy). This was fixed by burnishing it with a cotton pad (nothing on it) on the buffer and clear lacquer to encapsulate it. Hey, aint this a hoot??? (um…not sure)

 

Jer,

Like you, I'm a late intro to this site ... just don't think anyone is interested in the frustrations of welding Chinese stamped floor pans
into my '67 Rustang rag top, nor painting my IH tractor. Last week
I stumbled onto this thread. AWESOME !!! That mildly describes my
reaction to it. When I took note of the attention to every little detail,
I knew you were colaborating with the real master on this one and
willing to do whatever to make it 100% correct. I appreciate the efforts
of you and your sons, Rik Hoving for his photo archive, Junior for the
original ideas, and George Barris for his bodywork, photos, and PR. I'm
the bozo laying on the trunk of the original car in HRC's #125 post. Oh
do I regret letting it slip through my fingers ( It wasn't simply "lost
interest" that caused me to sell it. I was on track to fully re-do the
car pretty much to Junior's original design (except I didn't care for the
finned fenders at the time). Exhaust and V-butted windsheild would
not make it through PA inspection, family garage space was an issue,
and I bought into a dirt track car which took care of my spare time
and money. Anyway, like too many things in life, I came to realize the
true significance of that moment after the opportunity was gone. My
thanks and best wishes for your completion of the project.

Please PM your snail mail address to me, I've got some misc. stuff
for you.

john

 

Thanks for checkin in John. You belong here. I'm sure you can add to this discussion.

 

Well guys, I bought a new camera and was planning on another post tonight but, I didn't calibrate it correctly and all the pics in it wont upload. I have to retake em . I will do that tomorrow.

John,can you give us some time lines and events associated with the demise of Jr's coupe?

 

The use of non stock mldgs translates into numerous trial fits that reveal what needs to be shaped, reshaped, etc..

Two years ago I went to my first Texas custom car show. There was a late model chev truck there that had cut down 57 chev side trim on it. I left a note with my phone # on it. This eventually led me to Classic Stainless in Fort Worth. It turns out that they're about 5 miles from where I live. They focus on the tri-five chevs. They fab mldgs and mldg retainers. They have a former jeweler on staff that helps with the welding/fabrication and detail work. I went over and talked to Ken Young that owns the shop. I brought all my car info to be able to show him what I was doing, and my area of need that potentially included him. After spending about a half hour laying out the what, why, and who with this project I asked this tri-five guy if he was my guy. He looked up with a look that said it all and replied yes. So, Classic Stainless has put the pieces together and we're in the fit process as far as contour goes. I'm glad that I'm able to go back and forth easily.
Along with the mldg pics I'm including some of the Classic Stainless team at work. The mldg in my hand is a formerly straight ford piece. That last pic has some mldgs that looks familiar.

 

Geo. helped Jr with the mldgs but Jr did the fitting/filing and attachment. There was no welding involved. Geo had worked out a way to cut the visible ends so that they could be shaped and folded into themselves. This gave a tapered end that would move into the door opening when the door was opened. If you looked closely you could see this. The ¼ mldgs (55 ford) were two sections mounted (butted up together) in such a way that they looked like one piece. The splices were where the factory designed ends were encountered. The two pieces were pushed/fitted together over a sleeve that was fabricated. The fender mldgs were left open as they extended over the door opening. This is one of the cases where this info was obtained late in the process and what we have will remain.

 

ahh yess moulding!!! I just started doing that this week on my shoebox...I had no idea that doors opened differenty on later fords til i tried on the moulding sooo i had to do alot of kustom jobs to make it work.

nice job!

 

Jer, To anwer your question about a timeline on the demise of Jr's coupe: I got it
in '63-'64. My first work on it was to change the engine. In the one photo,
you can tell that I had painted the engine compartment. Don't know who/when
got the radiator tank chromed (Larry had one top & one bottom opening
soldered closed to accomodate the Pontiac engine). I had the valve covers and
misc. other pieces chromed. It looked pretty good and ran like a bear up and
down the alley. The suspension was back to stock. In '64 the Ford Caravan of
Custom Cars came to the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. G. Barris was at the show
and I breifly spoke to him about the car. I don't think he believed that the car
could be in PA. Anyway, that fall I sold it. I'd guess that it made its way to
the junkyard between '65 - '69. I saw it once on a weekend visit from college:
no wheels, sitting in about 4" of mud. Benny, the owner of the yard, passed
away shortly after that. The new owner of the yard, I assume, "cleaned
house".

john

 

Thanks john, I guess what I'm wondering about is the "sitting in a field for years" part. See Larrys post #113. Also can you confirm the chrome dash, ele windows and the overall condition as you remember it? Also the story regarding the doors, who bought it from you, etc.. Did you redo the suspension?

 

OK, while wer'e waiting on some of the stainless trim lets do the scallops. They will have to be done before the upholstery because the rear lights will have to be in place before the trunk can be done. We'll start with the hood. Iv'e sanded (1500) around the areas that will get the scallops so that adhesion will not be a problem.

 

Base/Clear. This is original color on the lower portion of the car. Jr later added (this car was a constant work in process) the gold/bronze powder to the lower when he did the inner wheel wells (front) and the front suspension. The part that you could see at the front lower area (under the bumper).

 

Well John Soko has chosen to reply to my ?'s (post #388) by sending me a large envelope full of articles and pics (all copies) of Jr's car. Iv'e spread them out so you can get a look at them. There are some pics that I had not seen before. I vaguely recall the how to on the hood scoops. I didn't do them that way. John has included an original Nov. 57 Custom Cars mag that features Jr's coupe inside and on the cover. He has really told his story (answerd my ?'s) in the Dec. Rod and Custom mag. Iv'e included a pic of it that will let you read it. The extraordinary thing that was in this envelope was the vac advance line off of Jr's original car. It's been hanging in John's shop for years and he thought I should have it! It has the cable wrap that Jr used through out the engine compartment to dress everything up with. I'm going to send it to Jr. This will help I.D. the correct color, black & white. THANKS JOHN FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION. YOU DA MAN!

 

We move to the front fenders.

 

And we finish up with the rear.

 

Jerry and sons, JR, John, Larry...and everybody adding history to this build....GREAT STUFF !! Thanks, just lovin' what is coming out of the archives fellas

 

wow ! greatest thread on the HAMB right now !