Gavin, 32 five window with hemi and cold weather approaching. I'm thinking you will not mind a long winter. Good Luck.
Wow. Congratulations. Judging by your sedan, your coupe is gonna be GREAT. And judging by the video, I guess it's true... you guys drive really really really fast! LOL Race truck!
I hear ya Jeff. I do like the 'baby' hemi but, given the way I use my cars, it may not have enough get up and go for me.
Usually I'd be sad to see another nice 32 project shipped overseas but clearly this one is in good hands! I can't wait to see what you do with it, maybe one of those NOS Dodge 3 deuce intakes is still available in the classifieds?
Well. I might take another approach here. You apparently always wanted 1, and now its yours. And it runs and drives.... ha.... Id be more into driving it, than taking apart right now. Get to know it for a bit. Find all the quirks, and just fix em as you go. At least till the winter shows up in full swing. Congrats on your find. Its badass.
Wow a 32 Five window blank canvas That still has some really nifty pieces. I'd have to keep it as a highboy as I just flat like that look. That and the simple fact that they are far more comfortable to drive than a channeled car the vast majority of the time. The best thing outside of it being a 32 5 window that runs is that no one on here is going to whine because you changed _______'s old deuce when you put your spin on it. Plus I'd have to think that is going to be a pretty nice spin when all is said and done as even with all the obvious scabs that make you think it was stuck together by a dirt tracker it has some very nifty pieces. .
I have to agree with @Mr48chev above, a blank canvas indeed. I, too, like the highboy look. The car has a good stance. Now after watching @Mart 's critique a couple of times ( ) there are some issues but it is a project. It is going to be a fine example when done.
Mart's video above does a pretty good job of highlighting the problem areas on the car but I thought I would throw up some detailed pictures. Whilst the car does run and I can pull it in and out of the garage it's by no means a driver. In an ideal world I would try and keep the car as together as possible and carry out the remedial work as I went along but I think there are too many engineering issues to sort and they will be easier to do with the body removed and if I'm going that far I may as well take it all the way so I can make everything more presentable and better protected from the elements. Add in the fact that I drive my cars hard and compete in hill climbs etc then I want to know it's built right. So the body and tin will need a lot of work but I'm not too bothered as this can be done over time. Good thing is the floor pans and rear wheel wells are new but everything is just tacked in. It was interesting to find that the body may have been heavily channelled along time ago and along with the fact that the cowl top and front 4 inches from another car have been grafted on it points to a possible interesting history of the body. Channelled, engine set back drag coupe? who knows. Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr Front and rear suspension all looks good apart from beefing up the front wishbone mounts and moving the rear shocks in at the top. Parallel rear leaf kit wouldn't be my first choice but it's growing on me and if it was good enough for the Jim Busby coupe then it will do me. Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr The 'middle' bit is what will need the most attention. The engine, if I keep it, and gearbox mounts will need replacing and some new top tubes will need to be fabricated for the centre member as they have been cut out. The pedals will need to be completely re worked and I'll run all new brake lines along with a new master cylinder. Untitled by Gavin Meanley, on Flickr As Mart said in the video you have to look at them as a kit of parts that may or may not need putting back together in the right order. Fundamentally it's all there and a great start to what will hopefully be a killer coupe.
Some tidying up to do but she looks pretty good all things considered. I bet she looks even better in real life than your dreams !!!!
Yep. It hung around a 1932-33-34 Ford facebook page for a few weeks at 26k It then got reduced below 20k so I jumped on it. Despite it's flaws I think I did ok.
Still not much progress but that should change now that my sedan has sold and released the space required to begin the tear down. I have a buyer for the baby hemi motor so I need to make my mind up about what will replace it. I'm still looking at options. I did have a rush of blood though and bought a set of ARE spindle mounts, they are just one of those things that I always wanted to run on a car.
In my humble opinion you'd have to go a long way to beat this overall configuration and stance. Slicing, dicing and re-stancifying doesn't always make for a better look...especially when your starting point is as pleasing as this. THIS is old school, the rest of it is just showin' off.
So the tear down and rebuild has begun. They sure come apart quick enough! The plan is to go through the front and rear suspension set ups while the engine and body are in place so the car remains at ride height. I decided to start at the front and address the issues there first. There was little to no clearance between the front spring and the chassis so I had to notch the rails. This was just a rough job until everything is apart and I can tidy it up and box it in. I also removed a piece of box section that was used on top of the spring pack to raise the frame. With that sorted the next job was to address the excessive castor the car had. I measured it at 10 degrees which is 2-3 more than the ideal figure. I undid the wishbone tie rods and moved the end of the bones to where it gave me 7-8 degrees with a view to remaking the mounts but they wanted to sit right in line with the bottom of the frame and the boxed frame had a tubular member fixed to the inside rail at that height too. I decided to pie cut the bones instead to get the desired angle while using the existing mounts. First try and I ended up with 7 degrees so I'm calling that good. The rear suspension all looks good but I will move the top shock mounts inwards. I'm sure they will work fine where they are but they will look better angled in. To do that though and to start sorting out the pedal set up and centre member I decided it will be easier with the body removed so cut out the sub rails. I have been thinking about channelling so I thought now would be an ideal opportunity to set the body down over the frame and see how it looks. I think I'm going to roll with it. Next step is to pull the body and carry on the chassis work...
As cool as the baby hemi is it was never going to have enough power for what I want so a buyer has been found for it and something popped up that I jumped on to replace it. It's a 68 396 Chevy big block. Having previously seen some race action it was pulled a few years ago, refreshed but then was never fitted to anything. Has some nice goodies inside like roller rockers etc but is really just a strong street motor rather than full race. Should be plenty for the coupe and will be backed up with a wide ratio muncie oh and lose the bling.
Wow, it's been a long time without an update! Let's address that. So the tear down continued to the point that I cut out what was left of the tubular centre member and I picked up a lovely pair of K member sections from Adrian at Buckland automotive with a view to grafting them in. It was at this point though, and after much measuring, that the realisation hit me that the chassis was out of spec by far more than I would have been capable of rectifying so the car was booked in with Kelvin at Flying A speed shop to get it onto the chassis table. A few progress pics. With the chassis fully welded and rolling again the next decision was the big one! To channel or not to channel. So I popped down to Kelvins this week and we played around with body height. It looked great as a highboy but when we gave it a frame height channel there was a collective agreement that it was where it needed to be. So that's where we are. Kelvin is going to fabricate the subrails and attach them to the body before my piggy bank runs dry then the car will be coming back to me to continue the build happy in the knowledge that I have a straight and strong chassis foundation to now work with.
Not sure why I have lost a few pictures from this thread. I will have to try and upload them again at some point. Anyway, I now have the coupe back from the chassis shop! Kelvin at flying A speedshop has done a great job and I am now safe in the knowledge that I have a straight, solid frame capable of handling the big block. He also fitted the subrails so the body can be lifted on and off easily as I continue the build. Lots to do!
The Jalopy Journal
