Thread: '37 Oze build

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What I need now is a good quality grille. I took a picture of a '37 that has a show quality grille, at the Road Knights car show this last weekend. That's one fine quality grille, but the owner thought that it might have cost him $5K. I asked him who made it, but he really didn't know. His '37 tudor was built by Showtime Customs, somewhere is California, but there's no telling who they contracted to make the grille.

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I always get my fiberglass work all done then spray a nice coat of gel coat over everything before spraying any type of primer, etc. This seals the fiberglass up perfectly. I have made several consoles from scratch forming them with only fiberglass, then spray my gel coat, then do my bondo work, then poly primer to make ready for paint. Also do this over any fiberglass repairs before adding any bondo or primer or paint. On complete paint jobs on old Corvettes I always spray all new gel coat on the complete car to get all the old and new fiberglass sealed perfectly so no stray hairs stand up later on the glass and poke through the paint as I have seen on many jobs that just primer over the fiberglass. I get white brushable gel coat from our auto body supply house which also does a lot of sales to boat repair businesses. I thin it with acetone and you can then spray it to whatever thickness you want.

Originally Posted by daytonagary

I always get my fiberglass work all done then spray a nice coat of gel coat over everything before spraying any type of primer, etc. This seals the fiberglass up perfectly. I get white brushable gel coat from our auto body supply house which also does a lot of sales to boat repair businesses. I thin it with acetone and you can then spray it to whatever thickness you want.

That's a good tip... I'll remember that one and try it out sometime..

I spent about 9 days doing more body work. I matched and aligned the running boards to the fenders, did some more work to the hood sides and started doing some work on the belt line on the doors. The belt line is particularly difficult. I expect to several days getting both sides straight, with a uniform radius.

I spent about 6 hours reinstalling the hood sides, front fenders, running boards, hood, headlights and grille. I took the car out for a spin in the downtown traffic yesterday afternoon. I get more thumbs up in the hot rod than my new Corvette.





This area required a lot of work to extend the peak of the fender all the way down to the running board, and match the bolting flange to the running board. The peak of the fender only clears the door by about 1/8" when it's opened. The rolled edges of the fenders and running boards all need some work to match them up. Also notice that there's about 2 inches of the hood side that rests against the running board. Some cars are built to have a large gap that matches the door to running board gap, but I matched the running board to the body everywhere, except the bottom of the doors.



I installed the grille, but won't be using it, due to it's poor quality. No use doing any body work to fit the body to that grille.

It's definitely looking alot better! It's really hard to get those grills perfect. I've tried to make a couple and it is very time consuming and takes great patience. I had to step away before I wrecked them.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

It's definitely looking alot better! It's really hard to get those grills perfect. I've tried to make a couple and it is very time consuming and takes great patience. I had to step away before I wrecked them.

It's really sad how much work went into this grille, with such a poor result. There are 50 fins, 1/8" thick with about 5/16" space between them. The MIG welds down the center rib look awful and there are many grinding marks that would be next to impossible to remove. I would never have put that grille into the plating tank, unless it was to apply a heavy layer of copper, followed by a lot more polishing to remove the grinding marks.

The fins are all laser-cut. I have to assume that the top fin is the same shape on both sides of the center. The hood matches the shape of the top fin fairly well on the driver's side, but on the other side, it appears to lack up to 3/16" of material.

I can only dream of this:

I'm adding a line to see if this post comes up in a google search. 1937 OZE grille.

I moved on to working on the belt lines of the body, behind the doors. Both sides had plenty of ripples, but the driver's side was the worst. The whole area lacked definition, so I built it up a little. The intricate shape over a long line makes this slow work. In the photo below, I just applied some glazing putty to bring up a couple of low spots.



I also did some work on the hood, to match it to the cowl area and the passenger side of the hood side. The other side didn't require any filler to match the hood side, just some heavy sanding on the hood.



I sent a scathing review of the last grille that I received, to the OZE Rod Shop, in May. I never got any response, so I inquired again, to see if there was any plan to improve upon the poor quality chrome plated steel grille. I was told that I wouldn't get a grille that was any better than what I have, and to quit asking about it. I also got a lecture for posting the truth about the poor quality products that you now get from OZE.

Since I'm stuck with the crappy grille, I decided to do a little alteration to it, to improve the fit. In the photo below, you can see the end of the top fin protrudes well beyond the mounting flange, so there's a big gap between the mounting flange and several of the lower fins.



After some filing, I reduced the gap between the mounting flange and body, on both sides. Of course, the chrome plating is now compromised, so I applied some clear epoxy to the ends of the top fin, to reduce the chances of rusting. Notice that I still have a gap problem between the hood and the top of the grille. The grille is mounted as high up as it can go (tight against the lower part of the "nose" section of the body), but there's a gap of over 3/16" between the hood and grille. The gap tapers to zero at the very front of the hood. Also notice that the gap between the top fin and the fin just below it is larger than it should be. The gap between the second and third fins is much too small. I could cut the mounting flange between the two fins, and weld it back together, so that both issues are improved, but that would destroy a lot of chrome. This grill is looking like it may become a paint-quality grille.

Nice work getting the grill to work. It sucks to hear OZE could care less about their crap fitting grill. I can't imagine you're the only customer to complain about it either?

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Nice work getting the grill to work. It sucks to hear OZE could care less about their crap fitting grill. I can't imagine you're the only customer to complain about it either?

If I'm not the only one to complain, then the other buyers are clueless. Most of these cars are built into show-quality trailer queens. The current grille would be a huge contrast, if it was positioned next to an older, Canadian built product.

It's been over a hear since I received my roller on August 6. I think that I've accomplished a lot, but there's a whole lot more to do, if I'm to finish this car.

I got the car running in late December and logged almost 1000 miles on the road this year. I've taken the car up and down Highway 34 from Loveland toward Estes Park and found that if can take the twisting corners at far above the speed limit, with little body roll. I've got no need for sway bars unless I decide to take up autocross. The ride is OK, as long as the road doesn't have many sharp mismatches. The springs seem stiff, if the road has sharp mismatches. I'm considering getting some springs with a 10% lower spring rate. I found that I have been using too little spring preload for quite awhile. Ride Tech wants to see 60% of the shock travel dedicated to compression. I had mine set at less than 50%, in attempt to keep the ride height low. I've increased the preload, to raise the car about 1/2", but that's still below 60% compression.

The power steering is light and quick. The car practically drives itself at 80 mph (2100 rpm). Apparently my do-it yourself 4-wheel alignment is working well. I've seen no evidence of unusual tire wear, up to this point. I'd still like to have more power assist for the brakes. The car stops fine, but it still requires considerably more effort than most new cars.

The engine has been running great, since I changed the intake air snorkel, to follow GM's instructions for the MAF sensor location and bumped the idle speed to 600 rpm. I get about 20 mpg in city driving.

One thing I can complain about is all the noise - lots of creaks and rattles, road noise and exhaust noise. I've got no sound proofing installed, so I can only hope that it works miracles. If not, a sound system would be worthless. I did reduce some noise just by laying a doubled-up blanket on the trunk floor, to cover all of the large access holes.

Another problem is gasoline smell. I installed a cap that I got from Tanks, Inc., with a spring loaded trap door that allows gas to be put in, without removing the cap. It's similar to what's used on many new cars (including my Corvette). Unfortunately, with only a 3-4" long filler neck, the cap can't seal out the splash from the tank and I see gas around the filler hole, that probably accounts for most of the smell. Tanks sells an O-ring sealed pop-up cap with the same threading, so I may try that. Otherwise, it's a new external cap (with a long filler neck), to replace the one in the trunk. I'm certain that the tank still has a small leak at the weld seam along the top of the tank, that needs to be fixed. I see a dirty spot that returns, after wiping it off. I've already had the tank off once and did some welding to repair an obvious leak at the seam along the bottom and did some welding along the top seam at the same time. It's not all fixed yet. I suspect the leak at the upper seam extends to the driver's side mounting bracket. I'll probably have to cut through the welds holding the bracket and weld several more inches of the seam to stop the leak, then weld the mounting bracket back in place.

Who's tank is it? Sounds like you have enjoyed the car a little and all is going pretty good. Yeah, sound deadener and carpet go along way in sanity after a bit.