I went looking for the rear hood brace and found it was missing; bummer! After checking around one of the HAMB members came up with one for a Desoto. The curve was right but the end where it bolted to the hinges was different so after welding on some short tabs I think we're good. Got a coat of etching primer on and hopefully we'll get a trial fit with the hinges bolted on done this week.
I moved the car to the other side of the garage today to make it easier to get my 51 in and out. Here's a trial fit on the hood; it's close but will need some work for a better fit in the front. This is actually the hood off the 47 parts car; the 48 hood was ate up.
Not too far off though...Ive always been suprised how porly the hoods fit on these cars to begin with! Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
No kidding; the hood was almost 1/4" too long in the front. I cant figure out how it was that far off but after we trimmed the back of the hood it finally started fitting right. We also re-primed and blocked the passenger door and decklid so it's finally starting to get really close to painting the front clip and doors.
Been waiting a long time to see this! Now just the hood and gravel pans left to paint and it's all reassembly from there. all I need is lots of $$$$!
That's great! I wish I was making progress as good as you. I think you might be close enough now to see the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.
Thanks, although "progress as good as me" is a pretty relative term. I've already got 5 years in it and probably at least two more to go.
You are still moving fast. I still have my first car I started in '84 and it's still not done....along with a 10 year plus '49 Chevy build. Life happens.
You got that right; maybe if I stopped building other cars until this one is finished..........Nah, where's the fun it that?
LOL I've been accused of having project ADD. I had my eyes on another one a couple of months ago and my wife strongly suggested against it asking if I shouldn't finish something...anything...before buying another one. I told her it wasn't actually about finishing cars, it's about the fun of the process. She didn't bite and no new project arrived. LOL
Im the same way; i've got this car, a 51 Plymouth sedan, and a drivetrain and wiring harness from a Taurus SHO that is going to become some kind of project. I've built and sold a car every year for the past 5 years; the building process is definitely the best part.
Happy 4th! I got to spend several hours this morning on the 48; seems like it's been a while since I touched it. Nothing major, just vacuumed out all the dust out of the inside, cleaned up and painted several small parts, and bolted in the dash and brake pedal assembly. But progress is progress. Now its off to eat some BBQ at the inlaws.
Definitely; I showed Mike some pictures of it last week and he was pretty stoked about seeing it all one color.
Here's the steering column I put together a while back; this was out of a 1 1/2 ton Checy truck. I cut it down 8", installed a bottom bearing, put on a weld on joint to connect to the steering shaft, and built the mount. Also been cruizing my busy coupe around. I went and picked up a 5 speed trans for it yesterday; it'll be getting a Mopar small block over the winter.
Yeah, somewhere around the beginning of this thread I said I thought i'd have the car done in a year and a half. That was five years ago.
Finally got some primer and guidecoat on the hood and gravelpans. They should be getting some paint in a week or so and then after 5 years of bodywork and paint; it'll all be one color.
I'm trying to get my hood springs back on the hinges, does anyone know how to do this and possibly have a picture of how they go on? I'm trying to hook the bottom into the tab on the side of the firewall and stretch them up to hook on the notch in the hinge but it seems like they are too short to reach? Am I missing something????
There's an art to that. I made a curved piece of pipe that I could hook the spring over, hook the pipe through a notch onto the hinge hook for the spring, stretch the spring with the pipe so the spring will slide down the pipe over the hook. Don't do something like this without full protective gear on, it's a jab and flinch type job.
I just put the hood springs back on my '46, having to use a broomstick as a prop rod was getting old. What I did was hook the spring onto my floor jack to stretch it out, while it was stretched out on the jack I slipped about 12 washers between the coils, release the jack and now the washers make the spring long enough to put onto the hood hinges without any prying and without any worry of a spring or prying tool going flying. Put both springs on the car and close the hood then reach up the backside of the fender and retrieve the washers out of the spring, and done. I found that the forward notch on the lower bracket give a little less spring tension on the hood, on my car it holds the hood open but not all the way against the up-stops on the hinges.
Now that sound like a great idea. Thanks! So the bottom hook on the spring just hooks on the firewall bracket and the top hook goes into the notch on the hinge? I was starting to wonder if I was missing another piece. The car was apart when I got it.
Hey Falconvan Sarge here. Dropped by to see how your project is moving along. Sorry that I have not been on lately but had to get a new laptop while my old laptop lost everything including my favorite sites and this was one of them. Hope all is going well with the vehicle. Hope to see some new pics soon. Sarge!!!
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