Looking for a Painter

2-20-2016  The latest set of pictures... Primer is finished... Block Sanding is Done... Looking for a painter.

 

... To be continued...

Proper Care

10-23-2014 When I visited the shop this week, Dan was at a metal-working "school" in Shelbyville, Tennessee.  He and his metal craftsman buddies (all of whom are tied together on the Internet) periodically assemble at someone's shop where one individual will hold classes on some special technique.  This week, a group was assembling at Street Rods by Michael, a rod-building shop about thirty miles north of my home.  The instructor is a metalworker from Australia, Peter Tommasini.  Peter, a classic car restorer, is conducting a series of classes across the USA.  In the meantime, Dan was concerned that my car, now almost completely block sanded and ready for paint, might get dirty.  He made sure that wouldn't happen:

 

Isn't it nice to work with a shop that takes such good care of your property?

While I was there, Deron and I discussed the process that he will start soon on the chassis -- modifying the front tubular axle to accommodate '40 Ford backing plates and hubs, installing one of the Mustang rear ends that he acquired, fabricating and installing gas lines and brake lines, etc., etc.

We still have a fair amount of work to complete...

Another Transformation

9-27-2014  I visited the shop yesterday.  Dan had finished masking off the main part of the body in preparation for its final black epoxy primer.  The hammer and dolly work is now completed along with all but the last sanding before the final red primer.  He is very meticulous in applying the masking tape, as he says the black epoxy primer is really difficult to remove if you need to do so.  And in the last picture below, he has moved the body outside for spraying.

  

 

... and transformed the car!

A Bumper Option

8-24-2014 - One idea I'm considering is using a non-stock front bumper.  As a tribute to Del Wilson's '32 Plymouth Model PB roadster that placed third in the "C" class open division of the 1954 Hot Rod Hill Climb in Georgetown, Colorado, I've thought about using a 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr bumper.  Here's the only picture of Del's car that I'm aware of:

The '41 Lincoln bumper is very hard to acquire.  It was constructed of several pieces and the center portion is both vulnerable and delicate -- a bad combination.  I'm trying to track one down that includes all the pieces, but it may be too expensive to include in this build.  Time will tell.  Here's a good picture of the '41 bumper on its original car:

More Fender Work

15 August, 2014 -- Today, when I arrived at the shop, Dan was outside sanding the underside of the right front fender (the one with the most pitting).  He applies two or three coats of high-build primer, then sands by hand until eventually the pits are filled in.  If you look on the second picture, a close-up of the fender brace, you can see some of the pits that are still visible.  It's a slow process, but we want to do the car correctly to a very high standard.

  

  

Front Axle

7-26-2014  Deron and I have often talked about the options we might have for the front axle.  Because I would like self-activating drum brakes on the front and have already purchased finned Buick drums, a relatively simple option might be to install a 1940 Ford front axle on the car.  Parts are readily available and this is a commonly-used hot rod option.  There is a fundamental difference in the design of the 1932 Plymouth axle that prevents me from simply adapting Ford brake drums and hubs to the 

stock axle.  The king pin joint in a 1930's car consists of a central bushing surrounded on each end by the "knuckles" of the opposing part.  The king pin connects the whole assembly.  In the Ford axles of the period, the knuckles are part of the wheel hub assembly as shown here:

Note that the knuckles rotate and the central bushing remains stationary as the wheel is turned by the steering mechanism.   In the 1932 Chrysler products, the design was the reverse, as shown in this photograph of a Model PB Plymouth steering joint:

On this joint, the central bushing rotates with the hub and wheel, while the knuckles remain stationary with the axle -- the exact opposite of the Ford design in 1940.  (Interestingly, the Model T Ford was designed like the 1932 Plymouth in this respect,  Go figure...)

One surprising drawback I have learned is that the Ford axle, while 8 years newer than the car, is about 4 inches narrower in the track (the distance between the hubs).  Another option is to substitute a tubular, rather than a forged, axle.  These are common in 1950's era hotrods, so it would be authentic to the period I'm trying to achieve.  In fact, the 1933 and '34 Plymouths used a tubular front axle that had a design similar to the 1940 Ford axle.  I have looked for one of these tubular axles for several years, to no avail.  Until today...

I saw the following ad on eBay:

The Tubular Axle as shown on eBay

“FOR SALE.........VINTAGE...... TUBULAR DOUBLE DIP  FRONT AXLE......1933 PLYMOUTH ( CHECK AND MAKE SURE)....WITH RIGHT AND LEFT FRONT SPINDLES........NO HARDWARE FOR THE SPINDLES....NO BUSHINGS,KING PINS OR GREASE FITTINGS........MY FATHER USED THESE FRONT AXLES ON HIS 1933 WILLYS   A/GASSER.........AXLE IS IN GOOD CONDITION......SOLD AS IS.................AXLE IS 50 INCHES FROM, SPINDLE HOLE TO SPINDLE HOLE.....WILL SHIP GROUND FREIGHT.......PLEASE ASK ANY QUESTIONS.;.........GREAT AXLE FOR A/GASSER........HOT ROD OR RAT ROD.”  The pictures that accompanied the ad were promising.  It should arrive late this week.  Unfortunately, I'll be out of town on business, but as soon as I return, the "new" axle shall be delivered to the Shady shop.

Thoughts of Final Paint

19 July, 2014 - Even more progress was evident when I went out to visit the shop today!  Notwithstanding that it was Saturday, I found all three of the "boys" at the shop.  They immediately began showing me what's been taking place.  First of all, I saw that the body is now off of the frame and resting on the platform that Dan had built when we removed the body in 2011.  

As I looked at the body perched on its stand, I couldn't miss 3 test panels of paint that I had asked Deron to get.  As I have seen certain paint colors that I've liked and thought might be usable on this car, I've determined the paint sources and passed these to Deron.  Here were three of them in "living Color."  I brought them home today to show Mary Ann to see if she particularly cared for any of them.

As I moved toward the rear of the shop, I spotted lots of parts -- doors, hood parts, and others -- in their final primer coats.  What a beautiful sight!

And then I walked over to the chassis, now exposed in all it's Chrysler-engineered glory, and saw the front fenders lying on the chassis and an adjacent table.  During my last visit, these fenders were at the bead blaster's shop.  Now they were in primer.  Dan said they were in remarkably good shape.  He had observed one interesting fact.  The right (passenger side) fender had substantially more pitting on the underside than the left fender.  We could only speculate why this might be the case.  Perhaps the left fender had been replaced at some point, or maybe the salt on the Ohio roads where this car was driven tends to concentrate nearer the edges of the roads.  Who knows???