Projects El Portal 36 Ford coupe

LONG OVER DUE UPDATE!!!

So its been a crazy last couple 6 months or so since I have updated this post. I am just now back to working on the car. I moved to a different house with a different shop that need to be completely redone for me to work in it which took sometime todo plus do the move into the new house and shop. Then had non HAMB friendly 70 chevy truck that I need to get on the road after selling my other truck so I had a shop truck. Then took the trip too Austin for the Round Up and beat the hell out of 32 coupe there and back then fixed everything that broke. Mind you all little stuff that happens when you drive your car about 80mph the whole time for over 1000 miles in one day.

Anyways back to the car. I had reset up the car after moving into the new garage and then spent some time looking at the right door which in the end did not turn out like the left so after sourcing some more doors to cut up, I redid the right door and now it look like the left so on too the roof. I used masking tape to make patterns of the left side and transferred them to the right side and made all the cuts and spot weld in place and this is where I am at so far. Its a holiday weekend so I am hopefully going to make some real progress this weekend. The summer is coming real soon and then its will be 115 degrees and work will stop to a crawl till the early fall starts up again. enjoy the pics and should have another update sometime later this holiday weekend.

 

great job, Ron

 

Nice to see some updates ! All the cool 36 threads have been pretty quite for a while now thanks for the fix! I am hopefully adding to my pile of 36 junk in the next 2 or 3 weeks, your thread is definately giving me some inspiration Ron !

 

Great shop! You have any maintenance books, data to help out?

 

Not sure what you are asking?

Thanks to the rest of you for the comments will have some more updates at the end of the holiday.

 

Ron, you're nuttier than a payday bar! That's why I like you. We are going to have an impromptu dune buggy first fire off on Sunday, before the HEAT! Come by, if your not otherwise straight-jacketed, errr tied up!

 

That would be cool too see if fire off. Just what we need a bunch of us trying too relive our youth with when we were all building vw's.

 

So a small update. Got the right side of the roof ruffed in and now worked on the back window. First I cut the belt line off the window section and cut 1 inch out between the lower part of the back window and belt line to help section down the back window and still keep the stock height of the window for visibility. Then welded the belt line section to the car where the back deck was filled in. Now will have to get started on the fitting the back window and welding it in. Might even get to start on the roof skin before the weekend is over. Here are some pics.

 

Fantastic work Ron....I really love three windas, I`ve owned two in the past...the only thing that I never liked on mine was the side on view..the measurement from the back of the roof where it met the rear deck to the edge of the trunk opening..it looks too long imo and made the cars look stub nosed...but thats me being picky I guess.

get an air con unit rigged up in that workshop and get that thing finished...I cant get over that you can leave sand blasted metal uncovered and it does`nt turn to rust before your eyes....I`ve had bare metal panels develop a rusty handprint virtually before my eyes.Looking forward to seeing progress on this car, thanks for posting.

 

Lookin good Ron!

 

lookin good.. one of my favorite threads

 

So I started today by looking at the right side of the roof along the top of door and did not like the line the small rain gutter/body line was making. So I made some relief cuts and redid that body line and used a portapower to help push the roof down to make sure it was flat with just a little crown. Then having that done I could start on the back window section. I mocked it up and decide to build a jig inside of the car going thought the back window where I could get alot of cross measurements and vertical and horizontal measurements to make sure the window was in square and centered. Started by welding in most of the bottom part of the window and then made relief cuts on the right side till it fell in place with the right side of the roof/side of the car. As of now its mostly welded in on the right side and I can now go back to finishing the right side of the car top portion and then start on in the inner structrer with making new door frames and getting ready for skin on the roof. More updates coming your way.

 

Ron it is starting to looking good.

 

Some serious progress there!


Back window is too big, looks funny.

 

before you go any further, go back and start again. its all wrong. dont wreck a great car. get someone who knows what theyre doing to help you and watch and learn. all the best with your build.

 

Looks good, can't wait to see it done.

 

Nice intro. Lets see some of your work.

 

The voodoo Kreeper has been around hotrodding a long time, and has built some pretty cool cars, including one that earned praise from Gene Winfield. I think he's qualified to express an opinion.
As a matter of fact, I think he's right.

 

very cool car man, i dig it!

 

You have put some great work into that project but, the roof just doesn't look right. The door top as shown in the last pic is all wrong. Check the rear window and the roof length.

Sorry, but I have to agree with the Voodoo Kreeper. Stop now and have another look. Roll it outside and stand back and have a real good look. With all the effort you have gone to it would be a shame to not get it right now.

Read Voodoo Kreepers post again. He offered his opinion and wished you well with the build. But, because he didn't agree with everyone else you call him a clown.

Good luck with the build.

 

I can call him a clown when he just shows up on this site with no intro. I looked at his post and he never did a intro. He should start with that before throwing his weight around.


You guys need to read a little closer. I said it was all ruffed in and there is alot of fine tuneing that will need to be done including the final alignment of the doors and gaps. go back to the begining of the thread and you can see the car was on its roof and was rolled down side of a gully. there is so much yet to be done. the pics make the top of the door look like its not right but trust me its close and once the gaps are set and everything is aligned it should be fine.

 

LOL, great car. You made me smile this morning. Surely you're kidding.

I tried to convince Ron to turn this into a roadster instead of a three window. I think it would have been much easier to pull off, and I have a fetish for 36 roadsters. So it would have satisfied my idea of what I wanted him to do.

But at the end of the day, all we can do is be critical and wield advice. It's up to the end user of that advice to make of it as he will. Glad you could put in such usefulness in your diatribe.

 

Well, I like it and can see Ron's vision here. That one pic does make the rear window look a little big, but roll it outside and see how it looks.

 

um, well i know im not particularly they best with words at all times. i just say pretty much what i say and it gets taken how it gets taken. always a mission to make a written message sound right anyways.

i joined fricken years and years ago and basically dont come on here often. your car was pointed out to me by friends as they have followed it with intrest and i checked it out. was just commenting that you should check your lines out before going much further is all. youve done a great job saving it from being thrown out, its just i see the amount of work youre putting in, may as well take more time, nail it and blow everyone away with it

as far as cars ive built, i built this

http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169560

its the blue chopped and dropped 54 desoto (i think they were plymouth branded in usa). it was beyond a junk heap when i got it. like, a complete right off, it should have just been thrown in the rubbish dump, but i saw a bigure picture for it. id never really built a car prior to this, not to this extent anyways, so i learned a lot as i went (as did my partner at the time, although we split up now and the car has been long gone and never seen since, no one has seen it or knows where it is. gutted, would love to get it back and finish it).

anyways, git'r'done

ricki

 

oh forgot to say, when you scroll down its in simon says 2 post of the thread and is on the bottom left in the line of pictures.

 

Looks like a cool car and you of all people should know that taking a car that was in the rubish pile and making something of it is whole different deal then starting with good solid car. Trust me the car will be rolled outside and checked from multiple angles before any finsh welding and body work starts to make sure " I like what I see".

Sorry ElP about not building the roadster you wanted. You could have helped in cutting off the roof of your chopped three window or trading bodies with me but alas you love to see other people go through hell to get something, that is just the sick indvidual you are.

Thanks to the rest of all the HAMB'ers for the comments and will put more updates soon. gotta go the boss is coming by my desk at work.

 

Since the boss is up, have him refill your coffee!