I don't usually do blog posts on my projects...I usually leave that to my facebook page however, I've had several messages asking how the "T" is coming along. At one point I was going to do a complete build photo series, but I have over 200 photos of this project. I may do another on how the body was chopped and shortened. Anyway...I will start with a photo of where the body was found. The one with primer on the right is the one I chose, but had to buy two bodies to get the four doors the seller had plus other parts.
As I always say in these posts...be sure to click on all the photos at least once and if you get a + sign click again for super large.
This is how the body looked in June and early July of this year(2015). I had some health issues and had actually started to lose interest in the project somewhat. As I was contemplating this, I decided I would actually have to hire someone to help me with some of the body work, in particular adding a bondo skin to the whole car to get it ultra straight.
This is the rear 3/4 shot.....most of the difficult metal work was done, but it needed the bondo skin which I could not do due to the back issues I was having.
Here's how we got a huge number of the small dents out....using a pin welder and pulling them out...What a great tool for doing this...I had done the same on my model "A" project about 10 years ago.
As luck would have it....I met Kristofer Reiner, as I had known his father Kevin from local cruises. Kristofer is a young and very talented apprentice body man who has great hands on experience working in a local body shop and doing rust work...and not just gluing panels on like so many shops do today. Kristofer and I hit it off quite well, so I hired him to help with the project. Kristofer not only helped me with the block sanding and skinning, but gave me the incentive to finish this project to the end and not give up on it....I owe him a huge bout of gratitude for that alone.
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| Here's Christofer looking quite happy that he took on this project! |
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| Here he is again checking on some of "my" work. |
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| The body is starting to look pretty good here........ |
....and here too...... ......NEXT...Primer!! |
| Here it is after a coat of Epoxy primer and three coats of high build primer....... |
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| ...and now the doors and dash.... |
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| doors and dash |
Here's Kristofer looking pretty proud of himself after the job was finished...and so well deserved. From raw metal to this in about 5 weeks part time. Great job Kristofer.
Having our beer toast now that all the "HARD" work is finished. Thank You....
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| Coincidentally we both had Canada Day shirts on....☺ |
....Now with the doors on........
I don't do any garage work in the winter months anymore for health reasons...so getting it this far was more than I had hoped for this year. My fabulous painter Shaun Hopkins suggested that I paint the firewall my colour and put the body back on the chassis in primer, as he will paint the body on the chassis after all the block sanding is done next spring.
I completed all the undercarriage including brake lines, fuel lines and the exhaust system before we put the body back on the chassis as well. So here is the custom colour....it's called "Thai Teal", and very similar...well maybe a bit richer than the '55 to '57 Chevy colour "Sea Foam Green"
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| The Chassis ready for the body. |
Here is my favourite view of the car. There will be no red wheels in the end...they will be painted the body colour, or maybe Chrome Reverse will be added later.
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| Nerf Bar and twin tailpipes... |
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| Passenger's side.... |
Now...the best story is here at the end of this post.
I built the custom dash from a 1941 Chevrolet dash......cutting an molding it to fit....however in January of 2014 my friend Dennis Winko and I attended the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona California....which had been #1 on my bucket list for years. Very talented guys were pin-striping panels to auction off and raise funds for Ronald McDonald House in Cali. They also said you could bring a panel of your own and make a donation....so I had Shaun Hopkins quickly paint the glove box door gloss black so I could take it with me. As you can see in these next two pictures that the glove box door is pin-striped and also autographed by none other than "George Barris" (RIP) George just passed away early last week.....and another famous hot rod and custom car builder Gene Winfield. We also documented the autographing and so glad we did as you will see.......
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| The '41 Chevy Dash narrowed 7" and shortened 8" front to back. That's not the final steering wheel....it will be a two tone black and teal Corvair wheel. |
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| Closeup |
The first picture here is Rick Malicoat who did the beautiful striping job. Thank you Rick.
Here is Gene Winfield signing the glove box door at his booth at the GNRS in Pomona, 2014...with some very interested onlookers.
Thank you Gene........what a great guy!!
Dennis and I found George Barris and his grandson out judging cars and I cornered him to sign the dash piece.....he was very gracious about it. Thank you George.
Finally....Dennis and I spent part of a day after the GNRS was over back at George Barris' shop for a tour. We enjoyed being there very much and meeting George for the 4th time for me was quite a pleasure. We'll miss you George....RIP.
NOTE: thanks for watching HR&J....the next post will be more CLE racing in Fort William, Ontario
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