Custom Rodding Home Style
Updated February 16, 2000
This page is about trying something new, something that stretches the limits of your current abilities and talents.
WHAT IS THIS?
I have always enjoyed custom cars and hot rods.
I coaxed my father into taking me to the Motorama custom car shows when they came to town in the early to mid sixties. I would spend more time looking at the cars than my dad ever wanted to. I looked at the details and dreamed of owning something similar someday.
When I was 14 my dad helped me acquire a 1942 Plymouth business coupe. Boy, I wish I still had that car. I learned to drive it in a field behind our home. Later my dad rebuilt it mechanically and a friend of his painted it black. It became my high school car. I had Crager 5 spoke mags up front and chrome reverse's with baby moons on the rear. All the chrome was replated but the interior didn't get finished. I never got the V8 I wanted, I settled for the flat head 6 with a "big" 2 barrel carb. I had the car about 10 years, then sold it to finance a brand new Mazda GLC in 1978 when I needed room for a car seat to hold our new baby son.
Let's jump ahead 13 or 14 years and you will find me with a little extra cash and the "need" for another special car. With a little help from my favorite brother-in-law I purchased a 1952 Chevy that had been mildly customized some years before. It was in primer and "only" needed paint, upholstery and a couple of personal touches to be ready for the street. It was already sub-framed with a 70's Nova clip, stock 350 small block with a turbo 350 transmission. It had disc brakes up front and the tilt-wheel steering column was already in. I was stoked!
When I was driving it home the brakes seemed to be a little hard to engage, but that was probably just an adjustment. When I got it in the driveway I noticed a little rust bubble over one of the frenched headlights. I poked at it with a screwdriver and started the slow discovery that the new primer covered gobs of rust, filled with newspaper and bondo. I'd been had!
Well, I couldn't sell it and recover my losses, so I signed up for a night class at the local vocational school that was geared toward the hobbiest. The instructor was from the old school and was teaching the basics in hammer welding, dent bumping and leading. He taught us to use plastic fillers too, but we really did learn how to use lead. The instructor seemed to have magic fingers that he had acquired through some 40 years of experience. My fingers are not so talented, but with his guidance I was able to replace all the metal around both headlights frenching both them and '51 parking lights in a new location that was formed when the grill shell was reshaped and moulded to the body. The metal around both tail lights was replaced, reangled and filled. Then '58 lenses with blue dots were sunk below the deck lid. Both rocker panels were cut off and replaced, both inner and outer. The rear fenderwell cutout was removed and replaced both inside and out. The rear quarter panels were replaced on both sides and the front floor boards were cut out, new ones hand formed and welded in place. Oh, I had to replace all the brake lines, linings and master cylinder. The brake system was full of rust too, as were the fuel lines!
I still have the hood to weld up and round the corners on, and I want to rework the dashboard for VDO instruments. I have purchased a repop grill that resembles a '57 Corvette's with 13 teeth. I want to smooth the bumpers and have them rechromed. I have a '49 license frame for the rear bumper and an early '60's Impala steering wheel for the tilt column. I need to polish and reinstall the 1-piece Oldsmobile windshield and I want to pull the motor, fabricate new mounts and smooth the firewall. There's a ton of block sanding to do and I doubt it'll win any major awards but the car has NO RUST. I did it myself and it's my design!
I took that night class for only three quarters. Before then I didn't know how to light a torch. The tools I used were simple, just an acyetelene torch, hammers, dollies and files. I may never finish it but the experience has been alot of fun so far.
By the way, one of the reasons this car is just sitting right now is because my son and I spent a couple of years in BMX. If you have a child who enjoys riding a bicycle check out this great web site on .
I've been doing a little work on the grill. This picture was taken September 1999. As you can see it may very well be the best part of the car so far. I purchased it from Sabertooth Grills. You can check out their site and see pictures of finished cars much nicer than mine with their grill installed.
The BUG Lives
This is my son's project. It is a 1963 VW ragtop. It has a narrowed beam on dropped spindles. The front clip was cut off and replaced in the driveway, as were all the rusted panels. Repop fenders were modified to fit correctly on the rear. Front fenders were from two different years and had to have the turn signals repositioned to align with each other. Nearly all work has been done by Jake and his buddies. They won't let me help :)
He has owned it twice in the last couple of years. It started out in one piece, was driven daily, worn out and repaired repeatedly and then sold to finance a 1967 VW bus that never really got off the ground.
The bus was sold to repurchase the beetle which by now was blown apart and came back to our house in a box and bucket.
This picture shows the car after being painted and reassembled. The "snow flake" tail light buckets which were painted to match the car have been temporarily replaced with later model buckets until we figure out the wiring. If anyone out there knows how to change the wiring from a two bulb system to a one bulb system without screwing with the signal switch please reply!
Here's the kicker. Jake's 21 and has nearly finished his project in our driveway while mine sits on jack stands with parts piled up on it in the garage. NICE JOB JAKE!!!!!!!!Also a big THANKS to "All Types" VW club in Puyallup, Washington for all their advice and help with repairs and scrounged parts. Especially Jeff and Loren and Aaron's dad, Guy. But most of all, THANKS Dean, for the excellent paint job!
© 1997 JoeRusselljr@msn.com
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