Cloning the "Pioneering Plymouth" ...a Barris Kustom 1953 Plymouth

Rubens, lovely car.

 

Thanks Nads!

 

The car is from New Jersey not Texas. XXWelderXX is a Texas transplant all the way from the armpit of the USA! I don't hold it against him though! hahaha

 

Just so you all know...I have not stopped working on the car. I am still working on getting the body stripped(doing it by hand) and cutting out "surprise" repairs.

I will post photos when I get my wifes camera working. Don't lose hope!! I will finish this car!!!

 

Awsome projekt!

Keep it up. Will be à cool Custom projekt to follow. Cant wait to see it finished!!

 

You've got another enthusiastic supporter of this project! I own a '53 business coupe, and Ed's car has always caught my attention. I, like you, have wondered what happened to it... I'd like to think that it's tucked away in some E.LA garage somewhere.

I'm also thrilled that you're going to try and replicate it faithfully. I generally don't like tribute cars with obvious visual changes. On that note, if I were to "improve" anything on the car, I'd probably have the slope of the rear window match the slope of the roof better, and not have the Lincoln taillights extending past the lower part of the quarters. But then again, my name isn't Barris.

While slow, the flat 6's are completely doable for cruising and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. One thing you can do fairly easily is pull the head and have it milled down to increase compression. This would increase pep, and wouldn't look any different than stock if you were that committed under the hood.

Keep it going man, and post pics of your progress! The car will be tits!

 

Hi Welder !
Thanks for this thread , I have not read all but always inspiring to se someone else digging deap into the roots of customizing . I have done what your doing with the pictures of two topchops and I see a problem in your pictures , possibly pointed out already , the picture of your own car is not taken in the same angle and distance , ofcause its best to get a picture taken from a distans of 10yards with both bpillars lined up and bottom edge of sidewindow lined up , the reason for this is to minimize the warpage of the camera lens , in the old picture it seems its not taken that far off and the bottom edges or the B-pillars lined up but to take a picture of your car with the same disatnce and angle would help a bit . Calculating proportions I use the lenght of the door , not common to alter and more precise the the wheelbase in old pictures .
Believing car magazines for topchopping measurments are never reliable , seems to be always exadurating , for instanse a standard chop of a -49-51 Merc is 3" in the front and 5" in the rear vertical measurments but measureing it on the posts it will turn out to be 4" in the front and possibly 7" in the rear depending on the angle which one holds the measuring device , no one would cut 4x7 out of a merc roof , then it look like something ran over it but it sounds good , old pictures on the other hand dont lie (all that much) I would suggest that you do the best calculations , lower the suspension and cut the top , roll it out and take pictures in all the same angles you got original pictures in , then if possible overlay them in photoshop or atleast print in the same size , then you can see if it looks the same .
Best of luck , Wolf

 

Found this in a 2001 car magazine.

 

love this custom, well built and tastefully done!

 

very cool thread!

 

How's it going over there? Any updates? I've been thinking about your car lately!

 

Still working on it.

A co-worker got a 53 Plymouth parts car into my hands. I can get the sheet metal replaced on my car and start working on the custom aspects of the clone. It was nice to be at the LSRU to get a giddy up to get it done before next April.

Ill will post update pictures as soon as I can.

 

Awesome! Another Clone of a long lost custom. I'll be watching this, like so many others.

Klaus

 

Done before next april!? Looks like I'll be the one buying you a beer. I won't be anywhere near done by then! I better get going huh?

 

Anything new going on?

 

I am in the middle of a move to Dallas. Once my garage is set up then building will resume. Stay tuned.

 

Time to chop the top!!!! See you tomorrow!

 

She is coming down right now!!

 

Cool

 

Awesome!

 

Can't wait to actually SEE some progress on this one !

 

Ready to start.

 

All the bracing is in and finished welded. Mikey welding it all in.

 

A shot of the ass on this sexy beast!

 

More in a little while. We will be updating this in real time.

 

Good on ya" KID.

 

I say go for it and clone it. No one will see the disc brakes so go for it and keep us updated

 

Factory lead out in the C pillar. We now see the factory line where Barris decided to cut. Makes our job much easier. A total of 3 3/4 inches is coming out of the back.

 

Drums are good, but I'd still go power disc, and just call it a "tribute" car instead of a clone

 

Barris had claims of chopping the car 4 and in some places he claimed 5 inches. It now is very apparent that the top was brought down an equal amount of 3 3/4 inches all the way around. The A pillars are 4 7/8 but 3 3/4 vertical.