Projects My 51 Shoebox build thread

Thanks Andrew!
Feels like a 16 old mind is trapped in the 60 yrs old body again
When i got home,there was a birthday present waiting,right on time.
The mailman delivered a package and these were inside:



These are '51 Mercury accessory bumper guards.These babies are huge,bigger than i expected.I put that cigaret box in the pic just to show the scale.
Since i bought the Merc' grille surround,i've been thinking about to make a floating grille.The plan is to use the guards in the grille as side pieces,just have to figure out what to use as a center piece.
Those guards are not perfect,few dings here and there.But i think they are good enought for sacrifacing them for kustom gods.

 

Those are the best parts. Nice enough to want to put them on your car... not too nice to cut up!

 

That will be cool. That shell is a big space to fill. I still feel like my kaiser bar is too thin for the large space.

 

Wow! lots of good progress.I think you made it through the hard part, all the rust repair is when most projects are given up on.

 

Im am curious how you finish your grill.. Looks good so far !!

 

Thanks guys!
Well,i think that the grille building is not going to happend soon.Just gathering parts for that phase.I am still thinking what to use on the center.I guess some of the '51 grille parts could be useful,but i have to do some measuring..
Too bad that weather got cold suddenly,so i have to take a little break with the build.

 

Hey Antti,
Has the weather warmed up yet?
Just checking in on your build.

 

Hi Kevin,

Yeah,the weather has warmed and i've been tinkering smaller spots,that needs some finishing touch before the sandblasting.Most of them are not worth to post,but i guess there is something what is barely worth of posting.
Last couple weekends i've had some distractions,so i havent done much for the project.Last weekends distraction was like this:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=866986

 

Well,i guess i am not smarter than you.I made an exact copies of the original quarter braces.Ofcourse they didnt fit,because the trunk floors are far from originals.The quarter looked like shit with oem style bracing,so i had to make an another pair of them.
Luckily the sheetmetal is cheap and i dont charge anything from my own time

 

Very true


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My bro talked about taking some car/bike parts for his friends home for sandblasting.
I said that i got some stuff too and throw the inner fenders on my bros part pile.



They doesnt look bad,but i am glad i got them sandblasted.The blasting revealed few spots that need some work.I didnt even notice them before.



The fresh air tunnel needs some fresh steel...



And the battery tray area,what a surprise...

 

I got the battery tray area done and there was a stress crack on the factory "press wrinkle",i fixed it too.Its pretty much done,but i have to fabricate new battery tray mounting bracket.



Some fresh steel in the tunnel



And back area of the outer side needed some new steel too.



Luckily the passenger sides inner fender is a bit easier to do..

 

nice work

 

It's always more work more work with everything one touches it seems. I don't think i had a single part that didn't need something. But keep on chuggin. It's all looking good.

 

Looking good.

 

Thank you guys!

 

wow what a project. and what an amazing skill in metalwork you have.
thats really impressive old henry,s fors is hardly in there anymore.
it took me a day to read everything. wel work. break. read. work.
something like that. i hope to see you one day on the power big meet.
atleast im gonna follow you progress on here. greetings from holland

 

Thanks man!

I dont know about my skills,i guess i can do something but there are on hamb a lot more talented guys with amazing skills than i am.I think this is just an amateur build and done by shitty & cheap tools.
Well,i am glad you enjoyed reading this thread.
I was once in Powermeet,cool event but i think its just too crowded.And murder for your cars cylinderhead gaskets,if you got heating problems in your ride.
I saw a lot of overheated rides there because of traffic jams.And that was in 2005,ive heard that event got even bigger than it was then.
Never been there,but i really like to go to A-bombers old style weekend.Maybe at some day..

 

Pinholes,pinholes...



...and more pinholes



And done





I also found few homemade 7/16 bungs from my stash,so i used them on the battery tray mounting.I think they are beefier than the originals were,but i guess they wont break so easily than the oem's..



I think the inner fenders are ready for the sandblasting now.
Yes,you did read right.My plan is to get them powdercoated at some point and the inner fenders needs some sandblasting again before the powdercoating.

 

Wow, your inner fenders are going to be nicer than my whole car

 

Nah,just gave some finishing touch because of the powdercoating.The fillers are out of question with that stuff.
I think they are not perfect,but good enought as inner fenders.
I guess they werent high quality pieces even from the factory,lot of press wrinkles on the curves etc.
These cars aint no damn Rolls Royces

 

Nice work!!!

Speedy


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You got that right.

 

So, I am curious Antti, you must have easy access to a powder coater and oven, yes? You may have mentioned this and I forgot. Who wouldn't like to have their inner fenders powder coated? Cool . . .

 

Thanks man!

Yeah,there is a company in the neighbortown that i've used before.I have powdercoated my shovelheads frame there and a lot of other parts too.
They do a top notch job there.There is a rival company in my hometown,but they are far away from the top quality work.
My bro took his shovelhead (yes,that disease runs in the family)rims there at last summer.They didnt bother to do a proper sandblasting and the coating chips fall off from the rims after 2 weeks of the coating operation.
My bro was pretty pissed off because of that,so i guess it was the first and last time that he used their so called services.
Anyway,i am going to gather more parts before i am ready for the powdercoater.

 

Here is a little update.So far i've done pretty much everything by myself,but there are few things that you just need to hire a pro.I needed a louvered panels,but i couldnt find anyone who punches louvers in here.I guess there are few guys who punch them,but instead of hunting the louverguy,i sent a PM to marioD from Germany.After few PM's and emails i received these panels:



Thanks Mario,the quality was great with the louvers!
Too bad that the 3d studio that runs inside of my head doesnt always meet the reality on the paper.I am still shitty doing blueprints,but those panels were really close what i wanted.
Well,i guess some guys are wondering that what the hell he is doing with the louvered panels in a kustom project?
There are factory louvers on the inner fenders,so i thought its not a big sin to fabricate a louvered battery box:



And the battery fits inside of the box too,i did some test fitting with a junk battery that was lying in the garage.



I think there is room for bigger battery than the crappy testbattery,so i am not going to use that size(and brand)of battery.

 

Wow! that box is sweet and the battery hold down looks pretty heavy duty.
Nice work as usual.

 

Nice touch !

 

Hey Antti

That box looks great! I like the indented holes in the topcover.
Was a pleasure to deal with you!

Mario

 

Thanks guys!
Yeah,the hold down bar is pretty beefy.My plan was to made it from thinner material,but i had to make the threads on the bar for the lid studs.I think those threads are the only reason for the thickness of the bar.
After i made the threads,i thought that few speedholes could be a nice.Just for shits and giggles..
And thanks again Mario,its always pleasure to do business with the German people.
So far i havent got disapointed with you guys!