Hot Rods I just bought a La Dawri California

I love the adjustable hood prop. It looks great!

 

ha ha

 

I was serious.

 

Is there any way you could dye the dash and the door panels white?, that would help a lot.

 

https://www.gullwingmotorcars.com/1959-la-dawri-daytona-c-1503.htm

I just came across this old listing, it’s obviously the same car but in sad shape. I think the car was stripped down again and then rebuilt with new steel inner structure instead of plywood and to a higher standard. I contacted Gullwing Motorcars to see if they had any history on it. I doubt they do but you never know.

 

If the Gullwing car is indeed the same car, someone put in an incredible amount of work between when that ad was made and when you got it, which is a very good thing. I like the steering wheel that used to be in there, but otherwise, wow what a mess. Will make a fantastic before-and-after comparison if you can prove it's the same car.

 

The steering wheel in the old ad is a Cragar slot and dot. It would be nice to see one put back in. Also had a Stewart Warner twin blue tach.

 

There is one (with the divided grille) that was built around 1960 with a 270hp 283. The engine was replaced with a 389 Tri-Power Pontiac in the mid-60's. It has had three owners, all within 10 miles of me.

 

Marty
About 1972(ish) Dave Snyder had one for a while, don't recall if it was his or he was going to do some work on it for someone else, I never saw it off the trailer.
Couldn't have been very many of them in this area.

 

Doug, this one was built about 1/2 mile down the road from me. It is metal flake green, as I remember.

 

I have the steering wheel, its gotta be rechromed.

 

That model’s called a Conquest

 

Thanks, I need to go and look at it again, haven't seen it in years.

 

If you've got the steering wheel in that picture, that's pretty hard evidence that it is the same car. I wonder how many hundreds of labor hours it took to get it from that point to where it is now. Looks like whoever did it, did a nice job, too. Would be pretty cool to re-use that wheel if it can be rechromed, just because it's a piece of the car's history, although finding a nice clean twin to it and hanging that one up on the wall would be another good way to go.

 

I got some Auburn bias ply look radials to put on the powder coated wheels. One of the tires had tiny holes in the sidewall that let the air escape, Diamond Back said they’d replace it
I modified a ‘57 Cadillac license plate surround to fit and I think it looks pretty good, just a tiny splash of chrome to break up the expanse is color.
I had to remake the hinge plate on the passenger side, as you can see the plywood was totally rotted. It was a pain in the ass to do but it’ll hopefully last forever. Amazingly the driver’s side was fine.

A half sheet of plywood fits in The Karachi Krusher. I only used about sq foot.

 

I bought that European Police Horn off HAMB. There’s nothing about the sound that’s European police though it is extremely loud.

 

Here’s that old Grant wooden steering wheel in place, I think it suits the car and my wife loves it.

 

I’m really looking forward to seeing the glamour shots of this thing when it’s done and running. It looks like someone did a nice job to start with and you’re doing a killer job of getting it back together and adding details. Love it.

 

The Cadillac license frame looks like it was made for that spot (or that spot was made for it), gives a bit of a bumperette look.

 

That's really all that matters

 

Just for shits and grins....here's one of those rare Pontiac dual quad intakes with a couple AFBs on it

 

Carter Aluminum Four Barrel very cool

 

Well kids, she’s running and driving. I’ve got to dial her in. The four barrel is sitting on a two barrel intake with an adapter. I can’t imagine this is optimal. I think I need to install a 4 barrel intake.
Plug #4 is sooty, I don’t think it’s firing, the others are a nice color.

 

Coming together quick! Looks good outside. Just for fun I wanted to see what it'd look like with covered headlights. This is a badly butchered photoshop but gives an idea, just for the heck of it.

 

I absolutely love it. How would I make them? I have to come up with a plan.

 

The ass end is definitely its best side

 

Not sure how to make them, but there's a fair amount of info out there about bending plexiglass/polycarbonate, I think you'd bend up some steel rod in the shape of the headlight opening, make one of those air pressure boxes with the plastic on top like how guys were making bubbles for bubbletop show rods, then bolt the wire frame to the top of that and heat/blow the bubble into it until it takes the shape of the wire frame. Cut it out and add some kind of flexible trim. Probably massively more complex than that, but I think that's also how guys are making tail light lenses custom to fit into cut up bumper guards for 40's/early 50's style cars, just on a smaller scale.

For the photoshop I robbed the headlights off of a Ferrari 250 GT replica picture and just stuck them on, the angles of the openings in the LaDawri are a little different but I'm not good enough at photoshop to make it perfect, they are pretty close though.

It shouldn't involve any cutting or painting on the original body though, the body looks like it was designed from the start to have them.

 

Love these 'glass V8 roadsters. Max Balchowski's "Ol' Yeller" captured me early on, so when I traded into a '54 'Vette with a 364 Buick in it... I thought I was in 'tall cotton'.
1968, assembled a 283 powered Austin Healy 100, got the car from former father-in-law. Installed 283 with '55 3 speed.
I had never heard of a La Dawri 'til a short time back, right here on the HAMB.
Yours is outstanding. (Where did the chrome surround on the windshield come from? Chevy pass car?)