Thread: Un-streetrodding a 34 tudor

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

the grille isn't touching the spreader bar, is it?

No Dave it isn't. I have about 1-1/4" between them. I wanted to leave a little space just in case I have to lean the grille back a bit. Tough to mock something like this up without the body and hood to see where I am but I'm sure it will be fine. Thanks for the compliments. I too am tired of the cookie cutter cars out there. I think if I have to look at one more red Deuce with tan interior I'm gonna puke!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I think the spreader bar looks great there. Nice work on the rest. It really sounds like you have gotten a lot done on it! Congrats!

Thanks man! I have been bustin my butt on this car. It's been about 14 years since I've had a rod to drive and it's just about killing me that it is right there and I still can't drive it. I'm hoping to have the chassis done over the winter and have the body back on permanently in the spring. Then comes the fun part; putting it all back together for the last time. Like I tell everyone; she isn't gonna be a show stopper just a driver. So there isn't gonna be 400 hours of blocking and priming. Maybe 10...LOL Then all anyone is gonna see are my tail lights..that is unless I'm commin at ya in the rear view.

What you just said sounds like where I'm at with my 40. I hope to be able to drive it this summer. I have said that for 2 now.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

What you just said sounds like where I'm at with my 40. I hope to be able to drive it this summer. I have said that for 2 now.

I've been sayin it for a year now as well. Crap! That means I'm a year behind you!

Well here we are another Sunday in the history books. This one was a productive one for sure. I drilled holes thru my motor mounts for brake and gas lines, holes thru the frame for the "Thru the frame" brake fittings, welded in my front spreader bar & ground all the welds smooth. I welded up a couple of unwanted holes at the rear of the frame; seems the previous owner couldn't decide where to drill the holes for the gas tank. I decided to go without the rear gas tank cover and use the matching nerf bars on the rear. I think nerf bars are kool but I don't like seeing them mounted on the outside of the frame. So in order to run them inside the frame I had to modify the rear spreader bar. I narrowed it 5/8th of an inch and cut off the bumper mounts. I also had to slot the holes on the berf bars in order to fit the bolt spacing. In the end it's going to look great. I have about a half an hours work left on it and it's off to powder-coating. That'll set me back about a g-note. I'm getting it all done at once (frame, bones, axle, trans mount, rear spreader bar, rear 4 bar set-up, drag link, and tie rod. All in gloss black. I'll have it all back for Christmas shut down so I can put it all together. While it's gone I can do some much needed cleaning. The place is a F---ing shit hole!

Looks great Jim, should really look good when it gets back from powder coating!!

Yep all that prep will payoff once the powder coat is done.

Looking Great !

Very nice work, and not to rain on your parade but are you sure you want to powder coat the frame? If it's to be a driver there are some big negatives with powder coating, in my book, especially in cold climate states and it looks like you're in Connecticut? One of the big ones is if you ever have to make a modification by welding after the coating is done you're pretty much screwed - powder doesn't "patch", and paint doesn't stick that well to powder so to make it look right again means stripping and re-coating. As much work as you've put into it I'd opt for a solid epoxy prime and single stage paint every time, but that's just me.

Thanks Roger. Yes I'm in CT. Thats one of the reasons for PC. With the winters here and all the salt that is still on the roads in the spring. PC will hold up better. I have mocked this thing up so many times I can't see me missing anything. That was the reason for mocking everything thing up to make sure it was all welded on and done before paint or PC. I do know I'm going to have to drill a couple of holes to mount the brake and gas lines because I didn't make them yet but I good with that. Thanks for the compliments guy's.

Originally Posted by BIG-JIM

Thanks Roger. Yes I'm in CT. Thats one of the reasons for PC. With the winters here and all the salt that is still on the roads in the spring. PC will hold up better.

We all have our opinions, but my experiences with PC have not shown that it holds up well at all in the harsh winter chemical environment. Any little flaw, including cracks at sharp angled joints with any flex, will allow moisture to wick underneath the PC layer and the surface will rust at an accelerated rate, but you never know until it shows at the crack and you peel large layers of PC off to reveal nasty rust that's much worse than it would be with no coating at all. On my Jeep every piece of PC metal is rusting, and the gas tank skid had the PC come off in large pieces. As I said, I will always choose epoxy and paint over PC for anything but a trailer queen that won't ever see wet roads. As for your comment about drilling holes, you are going to expose a PC/raw metal edge at any place you drill, and that will establish capillary action to start the corrosion process which will be invisible for a year or two.

I'll drop the subject, because you seem to be sold on powder, and wish you best of luck with it in the future.

Happy New Year everyone! My New Years resolution is to finish this car. Actually by this time next year I'm hoping to have it at the upholsterer so we can hit the road in the spring of 2016. If it happens sooner all the better. So on to the update...The frame is at the powdercoater and should be back in about a week. In the mean time I have broken everything down and I've been painting and detailing like crazy. The rear end is all stripped, cleaned, & repainted as well as the split bones, steering arms, front axle, trans cross-member, steering box, and the brake brackets. The coilover shocks were fun. They were new (still had the tags on them) but they were all rusty and crusty from sitting there. The tops were just aluminum castings that had undercoating, paint over spray, and were all oxidized from sitting so I polished these and the bottom locking spanner nut (also aluminum). The coils will be blasted and painted tomorrow (Black) and the bodies were stripped of all their paint and repainted red. But before I could do that I had to fix the oil leaks at the adjustment screws at the bottom. Some new o-rings, crush washers, and refilling the shock with oil and some bleeding and we are good to go (Big thanks to the Mrs. for the help). That one saved me about $300. I have my fingers crossed they work okay and stay working for years to come. Santa got me a pertronix upgrade for my points distributor so I installed that. The transmission is at the the shop getting a makeover and I've been wrestling with colors. I've got it down to Dearborn blue or Washington blue (leaning towards the Washington blue). Whelp, that's it in a nutshell.

Jim, sounds like you're making great progress! Happy new year to you as well!

Well the frame is back and I have been starting the final assembly process. The front end is almost all in and back down on the wheels. The transmission is back, I cleaned it and painted it. I installed the shifter as well. I have the rear-end and the 4 bar suspension all done and installed. I got the coil-over shocks all painted and polished and put back together (I'm waiting on a new set of bushings then those will go in). I put all 4 nerf bars on just to get them out of the way. I'm going with all stainless hardware with lock nuts (yes I'm using loctite, grease, and anti-seize where needed). I've been painting my ass off. Once I get the coil-overs in the engine and tranny get mated together and they go in. It's going pretty fast (especially for me). I'm a slowpoke. By spring I'm hoping to be able to send it out for exhaust and work on the underside of the body while it's gone. The more parts I get put on this car the more room I have in the garage. Funny how a completed car takes up less space than one all exploded. Lets see what else did I do? The intake is painted and the carbs and fill tube are installed, the brake booster, master cylinder, pedal assembly, tranny mount, water pump, pulley's are all painted and ready to go on.

Very nice build U got going there.