This car came from a barn, where it sat since the mid 50’s. Plans are to chop and lay back the roof about 8", channel the body over the frame rockers flush to the frame bottom, put it on air with a 4 bar & watts link rear suspension, and put a 4BT under the hood!
It was covered up to the doors in mud from the hurricane Irene this past summer. We scraped and shop vac’d a few hundred pounds of clay out of the car! Unfortunately, the interior and the fenders were loose in the car and are now somewhere at the bottom of the Hudson river! So we had to source out tins for the body. Last one is coming from Canada in 2 weeks actually.
Minus the mud, this car is 90% rust free, and VERY straight, dent and ding free. No body rust, just seam rust inside the car we can easily fix.
One of the rear fenders came in so it was stripped and welded to the body. Then stretched 2 inches in the rear, to get rid of the taper’d shape when you look down the side of the car. Then the body work was started on the 1/4 and the fender as well as the Caddy tails.
Should prolly update this a little. Finally got a second so I figired I would get going in finishing the back metal work on the car. Cut all the rust out of my fender I found in Canada. Built a new piece on the shrinker and stretcher and molded in the fender same as the other side with a two inch taper to widen the back and allow more tire/wheel clearnce. Finished builing the roll pan to smooth out the bottom and give it some new lines and welded up all the chrome trim holes on the passenger side to start shaving all the moldings. I will take some more pics when I get some more welded up on the front end. So for now just a teaser.
Patch panel on the rear fender made by hand and tacked into place, and the frame for the running boards started. When the chassis and suspension is done, the car will lay right on the running boards.
Lots of progress has been made since last posted. Got the front fenders straight and dollied the dents out of each. Was able to build buckets for the headlights to be frenched and started to smooth out the nose of unwanted holes and mounts. Also built a support to hold the nose straight and true so the grill could be removed out off some round bar curved up out of sight. The plans are to build a nice recessed grill shell to hose a vertical billet grill. The grill will be the same layout as the grill for bigred’s eleanor project that we built for him, but turned vertical and flushed out will the leading edge of the grill cutout. Also got the driverside running board framed and sheeted. Started on some rust repair for the floor as well. The driverside rocker, inner rocker, leading edge of the front quarter panel, and about 3 inches in along the length of the door had some rot which was removed and replaced. No parts are available in the way of patch panels for the car and the rocker panel kits are simply straight pieces of 18 gauge so all of which was hand built in house on our brake and slip roll. Also bought a donor car for the interior and began to cut up what I wanted out of it for the Plymouth. All I am going to say is the Plymouth will have front and back seats, and will have heated leather. Well Long explanation is long so now for some pictures.
Fender showing some of the dents that were still there as I was removing them.
/\ If you would like to help put in some of the 250+ body hours left to get this thing in paint, then another 1000hrs to get on the chassis, suspension, air ride, engine, wiring, plumbing, brakes, exhaust, fuel system, interior, … by all means come grab a hammer and dolly! LOL
Hopefully by march the body will come off and be in primer for the body to be sent out and have the interior started. That means not only all the exterior metal work to be done but also the custom sheet metal work done to inlay the back seat, the front seat brackets done, and the dash re-hung to build the sheet metal center console. Thats the plans now. If that works out the frame gets media blasted and can be started. Frames getting z’d, boxed, notched, and 2 linked with a watts link. Should be straight foward for air from that point just simple bag on axle and cups up front on custom control arms. Shooting for adk nationals to have it driving.
