New build thread; 48 Plymouth

[falconvan]

Thanks, Dave. I moved the car to the other side of the garage today to make it easier to get my 51 in and out. Here's a trial fit on the hood; it's close but will need some work for a better fit in the front. This is actually the hood off the 47 parts car; the 48 hood was ate up.

[40FordDeluxe]

Wow, nice work! You definitely have your hands full right now. Keep at it!

[123pugsy]

Sweet. She's coming together nicely.

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[Dave Severson]

Yeah, I see a gap or two on the front end Falcon, gonna take some tweakin'!!!

[falconvan]

The hood was almost 1/4" too long in the front. I cant figure out how it was that far off but after we trimmed the back of the hood it finally started fitting right. We also re-primed and blocked the passenger door and decklid so it's finally starting to get really close to painting the front clip and doors.

[Dave Severson]

Not unusual for the older cars to be that far off, body fit wasn't exactly a priority back then! Seems like the tolerance must have been about + or - .500". I've measured up a lot of frames before turning then into Hot Rods and found measurements from side to side to be off by as much as .750"!!!!

[falconvan]

The guys who worked the assembly lines in those days must have really had a tough time putting these together with the stampings being so far off!

[34_40]

They just had to get it close. By the 60's everyone said buy a german (european) car if you want quality! In the early 70's an american car would just rot away in 3 or 4 years here in New England! By the 80's no-one wanted an american car because the lack of quality was so well known..

You may disagree but remember slogans like Ford's "quality is job 1"? This was in response to the above scenario!

Americans could spit out a car every couple minutes, but the quality was awful! Cheap, but the whole concept of quality was almost non-existant.

[falconvan]

Been waiting a long time to see this! Now just the hood and gravel pans left to paint and it's all reassembly from there. all I need is lots of $$$$!

[stovens]

Looking very smooth, nice body work!

[34_40]

I agree. Very sleek looking. What's that color?

[falconvan]

Thanks! It's Grand Prix White; it's out of the late 90's Porshe color chart.

[34_40]

Thanks for the info.. vewy intewesting......

[Dave Severson]

Looking good Falcon, just throw a few more $$$$$ at it and it will be ready for cruizin'!!

[falconvan]

Yeah, first order of business will be to finish up the drivetrain and wire it. Still havent heard the motor run! It'll be cool to have it freed up to where I can work on it. Hopefully another couple of summers and it will be road ready. You start adding up in your head how much $$ you need to finish and it gets overwhelming so I'll just pick at it one piece at a time.