Running Boards

8-29-2013  Dan has started working on the running boards.  On the original parts, the rubber was vulcanized directly onto the steel using heat and pressure.  The underlying steel panels were perforated with dozens of tiny holes to allow the air to escape and some excess rubber to flow out as the pattern was pressed into the heated rubber.  After 80+ years, it takes a lot of manual effort to remove the brittle hardened rubber.  I was fortunate a few years ago to find out that the Canadian Plymouth 4-Cylinder Owners Club had reproduced the running board rubber and I was able to buy one of the last available sets.  After the steel is cleaned up and sandblasted and primed, we'll fasten the new tread using a superstrong contact cement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How the car looked today (8-29-13): 

Blisters VI

8-29-2013  And as of today, the left side hood panel is pretty close to being finished:

                                                                                                              

BTW, sometimes it's fun to just stand back and appreciate how far we've come on this project...

Blisters V

8-22-2013  As of today, Dan is working on the left side hood blister.  If you're a close observer, you might notice that the left side blister is placed slightly forward of the right side (Count the fins forward of the blister.).  It's because of the slight offset in the banks of cylinders in a V-8 engine, which places one rocker arm cover slightly forward of the other.  The goal here was to place the center of the blister (the point of highest clearance) Directly over the highest point on the rocker arm cover.

A Gift of Great Savings -- Bumper Bracket

10 August 2013   I looked high and low and couldn't find the front bumper bracket.  Then one day the latest issue of The Plymouth Bulletin arrived in the mail (the quarterly magazine of the Plymouth Owners Club).  In the classified ads was a listing for a huge variety of Model PB Plymouth parts, including bumper brackets!  I called the seller immediately and acquired the front one, which had already been completely restored.  It arrived 8-8-2013.  Here it is right after we had the "unveiling" at the Shady shop:

                           

Blisters IV

8-2-2013  Dan has gotten back to the blisters and here is the result:

  

Notice how Dan is welding the cut ends of the louvers back into the side of the hood in such a way that the contour of the louver ends follows the upper curve of the blister itself.  I think the effect will be that this is the way the hood side was originally crafted.  What an artist in metal!