Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

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Roger - I really am impressed with your upholstery job. I almost makes me want to pull mine apart and do it over - myself. It's the only part of the car I farmed out except the chassis powder coat. I do know that my carpet will soon be redone.

Again, great work

Looks great Roger. Do you have any sohots of the panel with just the foam on it?

Originally Posted by stovens

Looks great Roger. Do you have any sohots of the panel with just the foam on it?

Steve,
No, I did not do well with pictures during that process - I was too caught up in the glue/foam process, and wondering how much of a mess I was going to have if I got the foam stuck down in the wrong places I did get a few of the headliner, but as I look back not as many as I should have... One book that I got that really helped me a lot was Custom Auto Ineriors by Don Taylor and Ron "The Stitcher" Mangus. It doesn't give all of the secrets, but it opened my eyes on many of the processes and tips that make things easier to understand.

Here's a few of everything together, before I start tearing it apart to fix all of the mistakes I owe a lot to all of you for your thoughts and ideas, and especially for those who take time to post the neat features you do on your builds. That process keeps the ideas forming, and really adds a lot of fun to the process of building one of these beasts. Still need to cover my garnish moldings, but that may wait until the end of the summer

Now as Don is so fond of saying, time to DTPOOI!!
Interior Done.jpgInterior Shots 003.jpgInterior Shots 004.jpgInterior Shots 005.jpgAttachment 49525Interior Shots 006.jpg

And a few of the trunk...
Trunk & Lights 001.jpgTrunk & Lights 006.jpgTrunk & Lights 003.jpg
And one of my favorite features. Recall the earlier post on cutting apart sealed beams to get the lense, and grafting that onto a halogen lamp assembly, and that I added an LED for the parking lamp feature? My headlights look like normal sealed beams, using the lense from my old Jeep headlights, but here's one glowing with the parking lamp:
Trunk & Lights 010.jpg
And here it is with the turn signal lit:
Trunk & Lights 011.jpg

Here's a few shots of the headliner process, to show some of the steps. My headliner panel is a contoured piece that follows the shape of the top, front valance and has a lip at the back to join a wrap panel from door to door. I needed 1/4" foam on the sides, back and front to help fill gaps between panels, but I did not want to give up any headroom so I finally settled on a simple shaped insert that would have no foam above the seats. The center is tapered a bit from the radio console, getting a bit wider in back, and leaves about 4" at he back and sides for the foam. This meant that I was going to have to cut the foam in a rectangular shape, but also that it had to be aligned for symetry both side to side and front to back. I struggled with this for a bit, and finally cut a pattern from luan plywood of that shaped insert. After sanding the headliner to give it some tooth for glue and using my paper pattern I taped off the inserts to keep them free of glue, so that the foam would not stick in that area. Then using the luan pattern I aligned it on one side and drilled three 3/32" holes in a line, so that three common nails could be used for pattern alignment after the foam was in place. I inverted the pattern for the other side, aligned it carefully and used the holes already drilled to drill the headliner panel. Finally time for glue, sand the foam gently, spray both and let them dry thoroughly, and place the foam, smoothing from the center out. Here's a few shots:
Glue on, masking removed, ready for foam:Headliner & Panels 001.jpg
Foam on, nails in place from the bottom:Headliner & Panels 004.jpg
Luan Pattern in place, ready to cut:Headliner & Panels 005.jpg
Finished Headliner Panel, vinyl on, dome light in place:Headliner & Panels 006.jpg
Test Fit with Radio:Headliner & Panels 008.jpg

Beautiful job Roger. I am getting some good ideas from this for the 34. I love the arm rests.

Jack.

test,test,test.....If this was an actual post it would make some type of sense

Originally Posted by mrmustang

test,test,test.....If this was an actual post it would make some type of sense

It makes sense only because I could not seem to find the darned thread, no matter how I searched!! Thanks, Bill.

Nice work. That's pretty trick with the headlight/park/directional all in one.

So I finally jumped into the body prep process, getting ready to shoot some color on the '33. I debated a bit about starting a new thread, or even whether to post anything about the process at all. In the end I decided to post a few shots of what's occupying my time, and to add them to the build thread for continuity.

It's really hard to make that first cut into a nice gel coat, because once that first cut is made the die is cast, no pulling back. I had been looking at the rear license bracket, and the way the bottom rode up on the reveal line at the bottom of the body where the originals flared into the gas tank cover. I decided an inset was needed to let the plate fit flush. Here's the "before":



The first step was to go inside the trunk and lay in four or five layers of cloth & resin to fill in the hollow at the bottom, to prevent cutting through and having a hole to patch. Then it was a matter of taking an angle grinder with a thin abrasive disc and making a cut across the bottom, a pair of verticals, and then cut down flat across the license area to pull out the chunk. A bit of Fibral Lite filler (body filler w/ fiberglass added) and a few licks with a 120 grit block and it's nearly primer ready.





And with the bracket in place:





The next problem was the cowl. The "widow's peak" at the top center is formed from a stock body, which I believe is higher at the center because of the shape of the center hinged hood. Regardless, the one piece hood top I'm running is more flat, and that "widow's peak" is about 3/8" high - too much to grind down without creating a hole, which would be very hard to patch on a finished car (laying glass on an inside flat surface is not a fun task, especially when you're above carpet, wiring and the HVAC box). Here's a couple of shots of what I'm describing:





The solution is to make a "V" cut on the flat in front of the "widow's peak", which allows the offending tip to push down.



With the hood on, and support brackets adjusted to get it centered and aligned as close as possible a spare battery provides the weight needed to drop the peak:



Turned & centered, checked for even "droop", the inside was filled with Fibral Lite, pushing into the slot cut and creating a solid wedge inside to make it impossible for the peak to shift later.



After drying over night, another application of Fibral Lite, a contoured sanding block to match the contour line, and it's near ready for primer.



The resulting alignment is not perfect, but sooooo much better and easily addressed with a dab of filler during final block & fill.



Next is extending the back edge of the hood ~1/2" to fill the gap, and re-contouring the hood front into the grille shell due to the laying the grille back for clearance & appearance. Later....

PS - If you'd just as soon not see this kind of stuff just say the word.

Nice work, Roger!!!

Keep it up Roger and nice progress.

Coming along really nice Roger!! Huge improvement on the license plate!

I have to echo Dave S on that recessed license plate, looks much better - and reminds me that I should have done mine with a recess but it was a case of OH @#$%, now it's painted and too late and I now need a license plate to drive it.