Art & Inspiration Filler , pop rivets , window screen and other acts of shoe makery!

Sorry to ruin your day.

What I find interesting is the many ways some have to fix something "The right way." which usually translates to "Cobble it up the way I think it should be done." They will rip out something that has passed the test of time and has no effect on safety or length of time it has survived, and do their own thing under the guise of it being correct.

So many like to judge past practices based on current opinions, most of which have little or no proven past, and are based on current guesses.

There is no doubt that somethings in the past just were not right, those failures are what many current processes are based, but make no mistake, most of the "current correct ways to do things" may well be proven to be cobbled junk in the future.

I can't wait until those "stack of dimes" welding beads are proven to be the cobbled mess most of them really are.

 

Hello,

When we towed our new purchase of an old 1940 Willys Coupe home from its canvas covered parking space in some overgrown weeds, the lady of the house was happy to see it removed. We were happy to get it at a good price and the tow home was the start of our next journey in drag racing and hot rods.

By time we got it home in 1959, we cleaned it up at the local power spray place down the street. when it was clean, then it was presentable to our mom in the backyard work area. We knew if it looked “ratty,” old, and rusty, it would not go over well. She liked clean things and this Willys Coupe, in its initial stage when we bought it, was not in that stage. It was in great condition for an old car, but not clean like our 58 Impala.

After the wash, it looked much better. Now, my brother’s first idea was to take everything apart and get the various rebuild stages set up for our long project. As we were inside the cab, we took off the door panels, the old headliner and seats. The initial stage was a stock look, but he had ideas of making it look racy, so we got the door panels off and put in some designed aluminum sheets made to fit. The look of aluminum made it look so much better than the stock. But, his goal was to machine turn, actually, teenage finger turn circles on the flat smooth aluminum door panels for the competition look.

As we installed the replacement door panels, we decided to hold off on the machine turned look on the aluminum and left it in its original polished state. It was enough to start off and create a custom interior.

Jnaki


Our next purchase was modifying a pair of sporty car bucket seats, moved way back in the interior space. We knew the engine set back we were going to create was going to move us backward in the cab. The small sporty car seats fit nicely and were adjustable. Once that was started, then the firewall and floorboard modifications could be done.

Note: We never got to the extra machine-turned (teenage finger turned door panels) for the final finished look. At least we cleaned off the funky purple lettering most sheets have imprinted on the large sheets we got from the local Douglas Aircraft Surplus Yard near Bixby Knolls.
Thanks, Bob…
1960

 

Yeah, Beaters are Neater. I've aways had a beater. It's not the kind of car the wife likes to ride in or you would want to drive to church on Sunday. I've had snow tires on it. Drove it on a frozen lake. Drove in the mud, and rain at the Jalopy Showdown. Drove it in all kinds of weather. Been having fun in this old beater for more than 40 plus years.

 

The same scab always gets picked on this subject no matter the context. Sometimes it's expressed in shade, sometimes shamelessly blunt, but that skank ass puss filled contempt for doing things right and maybe just plain nice. If you take the time from front to back and go down the road confident in that fact some will view you as an elitist pariah, a snob, an arrogant smug fucker who dares to dip a toe in your pond of lame excuses. I didn't get it as a kid and get it even less now. If you're guilty of that oh fuckin well. Me? My reasons go far beyond the tip of my nose. Here's one I did right in 1992. Yes, same restoration driven and enjoyed a lot in those years, not some wallflower squirreled away in a private seldom seen collection. The sales price alone is a good reason to do shit right, but the fact it still looks like this today is it's own reward. Only you can decide if you wanna be a sewer rat or majestic eagle. I like the view up there myself.

 

my first foray into bodywork was in high school on a car with a crushed quarter between the door and the wheelwell opening. got a drill and a slide hammer and a can of bondo. drilled some holes, ground down the paint pulled it with the slide hammer and bondoed the hell out of it. it was a 69 GTO Judge, the quarters are not flat in any direction like a Chevelle. it actually came out pretty good but the profile did not match the other side. sold it in 1982.

30 years later I saw the car for sale at Turlock still in black spray can primer no longer running but still pretty much like I sold it and that quarter panel had not failed. ..it was an inch thick or more in some spots.