Thread: '37 Oze build

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Originally Posted by rspears

.....................so I'm going to back away and wish you the best on your build. I'll not bother you further.

I had it right back several pages in this thread, but didn't resist the temptation to reply. I'll try my best to do better, I promise.

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Filler is for repairing small imperfections, not building panels........

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I figured out why there's an interference problem between my tires and the headlight buckets. The headlights sit much lower and closer to the tire than a "real" '37 Ford. I went to the NSRA meet in Oklahoma City and saw two '37 Oze 3-window cars, like mine. I was shocked, since far more of the hard-top models are sold.

Here's a picture of a car owned by Morris Schweickhardt of Prosper Texas. He put a lot of work into the hood hinges, so the hood opens in the normal fashion, rather than sideways, like most Oze cars. He says that he used the hinge from the '40 Ford variation of the Oze car. The rear half of the '40 car is the same as the '37. Just to the right, you can see the headlight of a real '37 Ford. It sits a lot higher, relative to the lower edge of the fender. Also notice the beautiful polished stainless steel grille that Oze in Canada used to sell. The workmanship is outstanding.



I'm trying to decide whether to go this route, or use the side opening hinge provided by Oze. I'm still trying to find a decent hood latch. I bought a latch and hinge kit from Smooth Parts that has two nice looking 5/8" pins that drop into the 1" square steel tube hidden under the side of the hood, but I was sent a kit with the pins spaced too far apart. They sell a kit with 7" closer spacing (17-1/4") that would work, but it would still require machining an adapter plate for each latch pin, to provide some adjustment of the pin position. The hinges in their kit will work with cars that have thin metal hood sides, and use a 1" square steel tube support for the hood side, but they won't work with the Oze body.

Here's a picture of picture of the standard Oze hood hinge, with latch pins that were offered by Oze, a long time ago. There's still no adjustment for the latch pins, as far as I can see. If there is, it would have to by means of a floating nut plate, between the inner and outer skins of the hood. Mounting the hood appears to be a 3-person job - two to hold the hood in position and a third to put the bolts into the hood.



Here's another example of a 3-window Oze from the Oklahoma meet. It was also made in Canada, with the same fine grille work.

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