For all who have been helping with advice and parts on my 55K project, here's a lesson I learned. My good old boy who rebuilt everything superbly was doing body work and I wanted to send it out to the pros. Someone here suggested I break his putty hand (LOL). Well he finally agreed but wanted it to look good for the pros. The car had been run dry of oil, frozen and hit. We KNEW it had been hit, but the frame was true and we kept going. I bought the replacement fender panels from CE but my guy put them on and the driver's front fender didn't fit right. I bought rust free front metal from Bob Petersen and the driver's front fender didn't fit. My guy was saying wrong year, etc. I never doubted Bob or SDC forum members. Ray-Lyn and others provided perfect instruction for re-assembly: start with the hood.. Well, when it was hit whoever did the repair shortened the LF front fender 2" and sliced and diced the hood to fit. The hood wasn't the same length on both sides LOL! I can laugh now. The pros are on the job and they now know about SDC and this forum. Thank you all! The laugh's on me, but it's paid for and finally going to be straight. Did I say thank you?
-
Dave Warren (Perry Mason by day, Perry Como by night) -
I'm sure it felt harsh at the time.
I once did a '52 for a friend of mine. The front fenders were pretty well rotted out around the headlights (never seen that before, have you?[
)]). We found a really nice looking set at Reedsville. They had been reworked, front corners patched, brazed and smoothed out.
When I started fitting it together the front corners extended three or four inches beyond the corners of the hood.[V] I spent a couple months of weekends tearing back to good steel, measuring and cutting a couple dozen little pieces to basically reconstruct the front 12 inches.
In the process, I could see how the original design was an invitation to rust. I added some unseen areas for drainage and made extensive use of modern sealants. The rebuilt areas should last much longer than the originals.
Lessons learned.Brad Johnson,
SDC since 1975, ASC since 1990
Pine Grove Mills, Pa.
'33 Rockne 10, '51 Commander Starlight. '53 Commander Starlight
'56 Sky Hawk in process -
It was one of those moments, when things finally make sense
. Doesn't happen often (lol).
Dave Warren (Perry Mason by day, Perry Como by night)Comment
Comment