Projects Club Coupe+Business Coupe= 3 window :>)

Looks good so far...

 

MORE PAINT PICTURES......I haven't been holding out. These are from yesterday.
The dash, glove box door and gas filler door are the only three items left to paint.

For those of you that have been waiting on shiny....here it is!

Will wait a week to put the chassis underneath her.

Regards,
George

 

These are the pics I wanted to see!! Looking awesome!

 

N I C E george, keep up the great work! Subscribed!

 

Mounted the body today..
The roll back from Maaco ( my neighbor Brian) pulled into the driveway at 7 this morning. We loaded the chassis up and headed up to NorthGlen to Omeara Ford. Unloading the chassis was quicker than loading and took only a little bit of effort. Pete and Nick drove up seperately as we needed both my panel as well as Pete's to load parts into.

I was worried about the effort for just a few of us to pick up the body and get it onto the chassis. Have no fear. Dave from the body shop had done this before. We rolled the body over to the two post lift and literally swung the arms under the edges enough to catch all the weight while not blocking the mounting locations. Up she went. We rolled the chassis under and used a floor jack to get it centered just right. Slowly lowering with the pump proved a pain as it would go too fast. Back up...move a little ...down...over.OK THAT'S IT . Lower her the whole way. BINGO , get bolts in on the corners. All the mounts are now lined up and ready for washers and the rest of the bolts.
A fun lunch with the guys afterwards and then home to unload parts.
Dave will mount the doors and deck lid and I will bring EVERYTHING home next week. 120 hours of labor to paint her. She is very slick and I am thrilled.

Regards,
George

 

It's time to update your avatar George! It must be a great feeling to see the painted body back on the chassis. It looks like all the hard work has paid off. You're on the home stretch now! Very nice.

 

WOW! George, I like it. It looks good!

 

OK, avatar updated by your request! smile

 

Wow the car is looking great George !! Congrats!!

 

Good Deal, and a job well done!

 

I got home last night and the wife informed me the attick fan quit working.... Pulled the motor and put it on a piece of news paper in the kitchen for chasing down a replacement. Had dinner and then the obligitory walk through the neighborhood for exercise to make the Mrs. happy that I will try a little on my FAT issue. sigh.

I told her I needed to put my off topic car in the garage and unload the rusty bumper from it. Well as long as I am unloading this 1946 Ford rear bumper....I might as well see if the damage on each end will be removed by the effort to add the wings. I will just lay a wing up in front before locking up for the night. I know this hasn't happened to any of you! smile. 2 hours later and a lot of great progress and the Mrs. is already in bed. " and where have you been, the shop?" OOPS. LOL
See the attached picture of a the 3rd bumper end. I will try to get the 4th done tonight. Pending getting a kitchen pass. I am spending way too much time in the shop vs spending time with the wife. With the holiday weekend coming up...I should have lots of shop time. argh...better think twice about that!

Trust I am not boring you guys with more bumper pictures. I just love making things fit well. The two bolt holes showing will be filled as the guards will require new location holes to use 47/48 bumper locations.

 

Trying to get the dash "design" sorted out. In the attached picture the after market chrome pieces have me concerned that there will be too much glitter. Note the tach has been silk screen to match the guages.
I am "considering" making the speaker grill into a tach mount and then wood vaneering all three pieces. This would help cover the tachometer mounting surgery as well as cut down on the bling of a chrome dash.
Any ideas or constructive feedback would be appreciated.Note the bronze look in the picture is just reflection in the chrome. IT IS VERY SHINEY and therein lies the issue. It is too much.

 

Coupe made it home from the paint shop this afternoon. I cant wait to roll her in and start putting her back together.

 

Sunday's progress: I spent time finishing the bumpers which entailed heating one weld seam up to cherry red while snugging the outside bolt up tight to pull the radius into line with the curve of the rest of the bumper. I just let it cool down on its own and the bumpers are good to go to the chrome plater now. I moved on to reversing the disty to make more room for the wire loom. This meant pulling the cap and then easing to disty up until I could rotate the rotor 180 degrees and slip the disty back down. I then rotated the disty around to eye ball the approximate position. I WILL NEED TO RESET THE TIMING NOW. I decided to install some trim and began an "easy project" that turned into a big fight as the trim clips would not slide into the trim. The grooves were rusty and dirty and I had to make a tool to scrape them out. Once scraped , I washed out with some rags and WD-40. It was not hard , but slow and took me over on hour of fun. smile. Once done with cleaning them out, I was able to get the fender spears mounted on the rear fenders. I moved on to get the quarter panel trim mounted after the same scrape and wash treatment. Nick helped me to hold it in place while I pulled the clips from inside the car to enable safely installing without bending the trim by pounding it in. Thanks Nick.
I moved on to glue fender welt on the right rear and get it loosely mounted before calling it quits for dinner. The below picture is as I called it a day.

 

A little less work today as I was hot and just moving slowly. Please see attached picture of the glue and clamping process for the fender welt. After it dried , I used a utility knife blade to trim out the oval holes for the mounting bolts to go through. After getting the fender finished I called a friend "Rody" the pin stripe artist for help. You really need two people to mount the fenders in order to have enough hands to get it done carefully.
While we were sitting there admiring our work, we decided to cut the exhaust tips parallel with the floor and I used my portable band saw to cut them off before smoothing up with a body grinder.

We were sitting there telling stories and decided to mount the tail light housings. I thought the studs were a little long but chose to just use as is. Thank goodness! I was cleaning up the shop after Rody left and found the Ginormous backing plates we left out. OOPS. LOL what the heck....I climbed back under there and removed both housings and then put it back together..AGAIN using the parts we left out. AH, now it's right and I QUIT! smile

 

looking good. mine has set in the back corner of the shop so long. I'm getting close on my GMC project and the 3 window is next in line.
Had a friend just did a photoshop of mine. thought it might work for you too! I started with a business coupe and added sedan doors, took the front of the right door to the back of the left. also widened and moved the rear fenders up on the body. had a 354 Hemi now a 317 Lincoln

 

Looking good! Is it black or dark grey?.....hard to tell.. What's the color code? Keep up the awesomeness!

 

Well It isn't black or grey.... The actual name from Chrysler/DODGE is:
"Black Gray" The paint code is attached in a Sikkens Formula Print out.

My friends have been busting my ----- and calling it shiny primer. LOL They like to vote on my choices and voted black. I vetoed and chose this one.
2004 -2011 big dodge trucks and Mercedes. I do not have the Mercedes Name.
I sure hope it's better than "Black Gray". Something like "Midnight Black' would sound so much better. smile
You can look it up at as for a Sprinter. code 103 / PO6 the O is the letter O not the number 0. BTW, A liter was not enough. Try 1.5 liters! So many parts.

 

Looking great!

As for the dash, woodgraining that trim could be an interesting option. We've had them with that chrome trim and I never really thought it was too much at the time. These days though if I had another '47, I would want it to be the plastic or something that at least looked like it "could" have been factory.

Nice touch on the tach.

 

Taking a chance that the wood will look great???? I met with Matt from http://mainstreetcustomfinishing.com/ and handed over the chromed die cast parts to be done in walnut vaneer to include putting the tach into the speaker grill. If It doesn't turn out, I can always go back and spend the low dollars to put the chrome or plastic in. At this point, it just seems wrong to have worked so hard on details to come up a little short on the dash effort. On the other hand, it might just simply look out of place. Matt said it will take 4-6 weeks, so my guess is 8 weeks if I am lucky. I can decide to make garage art out of it if it doesn't show well. Tough call with out being able to see it.

This gives me time to do a lot of work, if I don't burn out. I find if I spend too many hours that the fun stops and the quality of my effort suffers. After all these years, I don't want to rush into a bad ending. We shall see. I will put pictures up and see what the consensus is from the H.A.M.B?

I think the next project will be buying one that is finished or near finished and making small changes to it. Wheels and tires...ride height etc. I am getting the satisfaction out of knowing this is "My Car" and being able to bring it to a successful completion. This has been the driving force behind getting over the hurdles. Building a complete car is a big job and my hat is off to the guys that do this day in and day out. It is sometimes a pain in the back side.

 

I really appreciate the work done on your car. Great job! Looking forward to see it finished. Do you have any plans for the grille?

 

George,

I should call you and tell you that we have all the glass bead and whisker strips etc. in our warehouse in Denver. But, since I am reading the HAMB instead of working I'll just add to your post. BTW I called Randy Chevy for you and he said "Show Time Glass" was the company in Denver that did a large amount of custom glass installation. YMMV Your car looks great.

Dave

 

I am using the factory set up for the grill. I purchased truss head stainless steel sheet metal screws to attach the bars as neatly as possible.
Regards,
George

 

FRUSTRATION! I spent about 4 hours trying to get two simple tasks done on the coupe. I wanted to get the L.E.D. tail lights installed and the trunk handle and base installed.
1. The re-pop tail light assemblies were easy to take apart to remove the bulb base. check.
Time to slide them into the re pop housings. NO GO! I had to sand the inside opening the full 360 degrees to get the drawn housing to just barely press in.
So, sand and sand until it's a reasonable fit. ok. Now just bolt the thing in place with these two 1/4 -20 bolts. wrong size. they are 12-24's. Go to Lowe's NOTHING . I don't want to wait so I decide to tap to 1/4 -28 . I run the tap through all four holes...quick and easy. I am on my way to wind this task up. Put the LED assembly on the top and start to use the retaining clamps. geeze...I have screwed the pooch as the heads on the bolts are too tall and they keep the LED lights from going flush to the gasket. Time to walk away as it isn't working. IE: MY BRAIN! smile I will come back to this later with fresh thinking.

2.NO issue, not to be deterred...I decide to mount the trunk latch , handle base and handle. It will not latch no matter how hard I try. hmmmm. Just not my day. I go open up Pete's 47 coupe deck lid and he has a slot cut under the latch bolt to allow the lower latch clearance. Well ...DARN IT. I just painted this darn thing and do not want to cut a hole that I AM NOT SURE IS FACTORY OR NOT?

I call it a night and come in the house in an ill mood and to make matters worse, I am in the dog house for spending too much time in the shop. rhut rhro! Sunday morning, I know the Mrs. will go to church and I can go fix the two issues. NOT. We are going to a gathering up in Evergreen and she decides to stay home and bake for the pot luck. I manage to stay in the house reading, cooling my jets and worrying about the silly deck lid latch. HMMMMM, I bet there will be a least one more coupe at the gathering. I cant wait to get there to do some investigative work. READY FOR THIS..... 2 more coupes that have the same relief slot cut under the latch area. I did not have it in mine and just don't get it????? I take measurements and come home determined to fix after work tonight. I can't bring myself to cut the slot as I do not understand it and I have shiny new paint that is on a non modified deck lid. What the heck? I talk the wife into coming out to the shop and push the deck lid down after I climb into the trunk with a flash light. The hook is too low by 3/8ths and not far enough to the rear to work by 1/8 inch.

I cut a spacer to raise the hook 3/8ths but can't understand why all the way to one end of the adjustment isn't enough? I take it over to the belt sander and cut 1/8th inch off the back and bolt it up.

I crawl back into the trunk with the handle in my hand and have my wife push hard enough to compress the new gasket. . WAIT ..NEW GASKET???
LIGHT ON, BELL RINGS.... duh! I rotate the handle and ask her to push harder. I have the room to release the handle and a perfect fit!

My guess is that after the gasket settles in , I will have to reduce the spacer thickness. In the mean time..it is properly closed without having to cut the hole. WHY? I look closely at Pete's and then mine...The 48 deck lid is different underneath!

In the picture you will see that the left tail light is in. I ground one bolt head down to see if it would work ? YES! I have ordered a box of ultra low profile headed 1/4 20 so I can just screw them in. Ill have issues with the re tap but easy to overcome.
A lot of time for a couple of simple tasks! Still not finished but the riddles are solved. whewie.

 

I bolted the deck lid base assembly on to the deck lid and could not get the handle to close straight up and down. (Picture 1) Hmmm, maybe the spacers I made are not the right height? I took the latch out and the handle still stays at an angle to the right of center. Bummer, it will bug me forever if I can't get it fixed! Ahh, I will just loosen a bolt and rotate the whole thing. NOPE, now the top is crooked. hmmmm?

I took the whole thing apart and then disassembled the handle to see what makes this tick? (picture 2)

Study a little and find that the die casting has a relief to stop the handle in the up as well as closed position.There is too much material here and I need to grind out about .100 ( picture 3)( see screw driver point)to allow the handle to rotate all the way back to up and down. (picture 4)

Not how I was planning on spending time in the shop tonight. But completed successfully.As this issue is in the casting, everyone that buys this part has the same issue. geeze,a simple fix to the tool would make these parts better. Oh well.
smile, George

 

Well here's a list of items I wanted to accomplish over the weekend.
1. Install deck lid bumpers..... completed
2. Install all remaining body bolts.... completed. ( more later)
3.Replace upper drivers door seal... almost completed AGAIN as the first one shrunk over 1/2 inch on each side. I have left it long and will trim after it sits a few days
4. Use a carriage bolt to attatch fuel filler tube from the inside of the trunk. Took a trip to a "Guy's House" to find a stainless steel carriage bolt. Not required but anal. oh well. + spent 2.5 hours "bench racing" . I had fun but did nothing but talk a lot. smile completed.
5.Rework aftermarket electric door window switches to use OEM 1947 window crank. They both have 3/8ths square shafts but do not fit? It required disassembly and chucking up the 3/8ths square shaft in the lathe to turn .045 radius's off the four corners to allow the crank handle to slip on. I also had to set up the milling machine to use a center drill to start the hole and then complete to enable using the push in pin for handle retention on the shaft. I can't imagine this unit being sold "as is" to someone without equipment. While it was an easy task, it took an hour of effort with the right equipment . geezem pete!
6. glue running boards covers on...A HUGE DISSASTER. Nick and I took an hour to get one on and another hour to get it back off and clean the contact cement OFF. It looks easy, but trying to line up over a distance and glue just right , a strip at a time is a PITA. We figured out that clamping the cover to the board in every direction for a perfect fit to start with MIGHT work. I will try it again this week with the intention to only remove the clamps where and as I add the contact cement. I will post a entire progress of the second time around effort with pictures. I am happy it was a pretty day and the Xylene worked so well to remove the cement.. OUTSIDE with lots of fresh air. WHEWIE
7. Install rear valance panel. It took three times to to get this done. The first time was with tape on the body to protect the paint and get all three pieces bolted together in the correct arc to fit the rear of the car. The second time was with welting and it worked great. I only re did this because the 3/4 inch bolts were just too long and looked like I did not care about detail. A trip to Lowes for 1/2 inch bolts and the third time made for a perfect finish. completed
8. Window Channel / Felt...Parts did not arrive so no chance to try it.

OMG... I just realized what a dummy I am. I have put the body on with ALL the bolts and there are 2 that have to go through the running boards AFTER I GET THE COVERS ON. ARRRRRGGGHHH! boo hoo and kick the floor. I have to undo lots of work to get the runnings boards in after I learn to get the covers on.

Please learn from my screw up. Running boards go on the body BEFORE the body goes on the chassis.
Regards,
George

 

Damn nice talking with you the other day, your progress has got me fired up on my long term storage problem. I actually dug it out for the first time in several years. I still have to get my GMC SHOP TRUCK done first but I have that dead line set for thanksgiving this year.
I was nice to see my whole car I have most of the parts jammed inside so I can't even sit in it and make vroom vroom sounds yet.