So fresh and so clean. Still waiting on engine parts. I decided I’m not going to bug the shop about it until the chassis was ready so that I stay focused on one thing at a time. Well, that got me motivated. I’ll be calling the engine shop tomorrow, ready to move on and start putting that together! But still plenty of work to be done on the frame (fuel lines, brakes, suspension etc).
If you intend to do body work, your frame will get overspray all over it. Before you mount the body, lay down a big sheet of Visqueen on top of the frame, then install the body. Tape the Visqueen to the floor and do your body work, and paint. When you are all done, razor blade off the Visqueen, and your fame will still look like new...I use that commercial grade black Visqueen that comes in a roll. Home Depot has it.
Frame is mostly done. I’ll probably redo the front hard brake lines. I got all of my engine parts back from the machine shop but want to get the body back on the chassis before I dig into it. So next up, gettin tipsy with it to work on the bottom of the body. Trunk has a little rust. I’ll probably end up replacing the trunk. Anyway, here’s where I’m at. Oh, and new tires and I painted the rims. Wanted a deep red/black so I painted black first and then red on top.
wow, great progress. I had seen your post when you were first cleaning and tearing it down, I had downloaded alot of your pics for reference on my own Coupe. Eager to see more.
thanks! I’m quite happy with them though I may have to redo them. For some reason the paint is chipping really easy and it’s like it’s not sticking to the 2k primer. But, the color is exactly what I wanted and I achieved it by painting them black first then with a red I found. I experimented painting the red on top of black and light primers and the black won out. Love the color myself! those were the days! Hopefully I don’t need to have you build me a Flathead after the engine I build fails 100 miles after passing the auto shop run test (hey, I got an A and it got me home!) like 25 years ago. If I remember correctly you built my small block that I ran in that chevelle until I sold it (after my shop project failed not long after getting it home). update - body has been remounted. Sandblasted the full interior and bottom and painted. Up next is painting insides of fenders and inner fenders (front and back) and then I’m moving onto the engine! Fenders just temporarily mounted to give me some motivation. Same with the unpainted dash. Going to need to figure out how to lower the back more. It’s about 4-5” too high for my liking. May hack rear crossmember (sorry).
Been a while and while it doesn’t look like much, it’s moving along. I had the Flathead basically back together and rebuilt when I realized I screwed something up so now it’s all apart again. Oh well. Learning. In the photo below parts are just mocked up for inspiration (again) before I started putting the engine together. I’ve been working on repairing the grill. Also rebuilt the headlight buckets. The grill is about half way home to being repaired but I needed some inspiration while I wait for more muggy weld so I installed it in place. Looking good! here’s the before of the grill. It had several broken slats and the left side where it attaches to the fender was completely broken off. I purchased a used center section
I’ve heard about muggy weld but never used it. How’d it do? When I built my sedan I also had a broken grille but I was able to find a nice one to replace it with.
Hey Dan, the muggy weld works pretty good. Definitely has a learning curve but I’m getting it figured out. I started off using a regular torch head and yellow propane bottle (think plumbing torch) but found the flame is too big. I bought a fine tip torch that uses the same bottles and that allows me to concentrate the heat much better. With the big flame I was having issues of parts I had already fixed coming apart as I heated other parts. But, overall reall happy with it. Especially considering how many told me it wasn’t repairable. Forming the metal with files when done is super easy too. It’s pretty soft.
Id love to see a few pics. I bought a really 'nice' deluxe grille, both halve were joined to each other when I bought them. Got it home, looked closer, all the lugs in the center of one half had been snapped off, useless! Ive done alot of silver soldering so have a small torch I could use, this maybe be my salvation!!
Looking good! A little advice, take an exacto knife and trim that superfluent gasket material away from the intake while you can still get to it. Or not. Love a detailed flat V8.
Update time. Engine is in. Started up and did cam break in. It runs great and I can’t wait to drive it! The next step is to get it moving on its own so I got the shift linkage all hooked up and worked out. Started hanging fenders back on for some motivation. Next is to get brakes working and then maybe see if it will move out of the garage. From there, onto wiring. Once driveable, I’ll work on fine tuning and getting everything where I want it and start to look at interior options. Hoping to be driving by summer.
Best way to get the front end fitting right is to install hood first, get it aligned to the cowl and then fit the fenders and grille to the hood. Works well...
I wasn’t going to post again until it was moving under its own power but I decided since the grille is the center piece of the car (to my eye) I had to post a photo! Please note, everything is just loose and nothing is final tightened yet so it probably is a little crooked in places. I ended up buying a good used driver grill half as mine ended up being too far gone. I took the muggy weld too far and screwed it up. Next up dash and wiring and then I’ll try and drive it around the block!
Decided to set the hood on too. Why not!? I will take y’all’s advice and start with the hood when I do my final instal on it all.
The Jalopy Journal
