My street rod…”All Couped Up”
**************************
1934 Ford Three Window Coupe
Ford V8
power…255 CI Mustang
Edelbrock
Performer 600CFM carb
Edelbrock
Performer Endurashine intake manifold
Gear drive cam
timing setup
C-4 Automatic
transmission
B&M Z-Gate shifter
American Racing
mag wheels
Speedway 60”
side exhausts
Electrically
actuated door openers, locks and trunk
Heat and A/C,
AM/FM/Cassette, Electric wipers
’39 Ford style
LED taillights
Mirrored
stainless steel firewall and under-hood lining
Numerous strobe
lights under body
Electric
actuators to open the hood halves and the trunk
We purchased the car in June 2007 from the huge car show in
Harrington Delaware after two days of looking.
There were approximately 2,000 cars on display, some for
sale, some for auction, and most just for showing.
The car was built by a guy on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
where I live but sold to a guy in Belair MD, north of Baltimore.
He owned the car for about two years and decided to sell
it. It turns out the original builder is in the same classic car club
I joined and lives about 20 miles from my house. It’s
certainly a small world. The first Chesapeake Classic Car Club cruise-in
we attended in July I was surprised to hear all these
people saying “Hey…that’s Eddie’s car”. It’s definitely a trophy winner.
People love it and so do we.
Here’s what it looked like in the parking lot when I bought
it:
Here’s the interior:
and here:
Flames on the outside and flames on the inside. It’s even got
the same flames in the trunk!
Since buying it, I’ve added the electric door locks,
changed the carburetor and intake manifold, replaced the electric cooling fan
and thermostat to help keep it cool, installed the side
pipe system, installed shoulder harnesses to replace the simple seat belts
that came in it and removed the “eyebrows” over the
headlights and CB antenna. It’s got a number of small chips in the paint and
stress cracks
in the fiberglass that detract from the show quality image.
People understand it’s a “driver” as opposed to a “trailer queen” but still you
want it to look perfect.
In the yard at home
We entered the car at a Halloween show on Kent Island in
early November 2007 and had the car dressed as the devil.
Here’s what it looked like:
The arm above was “Going to Hell in a hand basket” and the
dog wails… the sleleton is motion sensitive and wise cracks to you….and the
back:
We made the cape and added the flames from yellow and
orange felt.
The corners were held with Velcro to the insides on the
rear wheel wells to keep in from flapping in the wind.
The basket in front of the car says “going to hell in a
hand basket” and is full of hands as well as being held by a torn off arm :-D
It won a trophy, which is one of the prettiest and largest we’ve gotten so far.
On December 2,
2007 we entered the car into the Easton Christmas parade along
with 19 other cars from our club.
It was a blast cruising slowly through the town at night
with thousands on people lining the streets.
At the 2008 Halloween Show we changed things a bit. We
dressed the skeleton (his name was Bones) as a fireman and had him squirting
gasoline on the car.
In February we took the car into Blades Enterprises in
Easton to have Tommy Blades begin the body repair and re-paint.
Tommy has a reputation for doing excellent paint work among
the club members. Each Friday we’ve gone in
to see how it’s going and pay on the progress. One Friday
Tommy asked “Do you really want to keep the same flames?”... it’s gonna happen.
We decided on a more contemporary look...what’s referred to
as “Ohio” style flames. One thing that’s
driving this is the
fact there’s a copycat car in another club about 20 miles from me and often the
two cars are at the same show.
They’re not totally identical but at first glance you’d
swear they are. Don’t know why when you spend the money
you do to build one of these things that you’d want to copy
somebody else’s car down to the same flames and same color.
Next thing he asked me was “Do you really want to keep the
car the same color?”. Well.....no, now that you mention it.
See he’s pointing out to dumb old me that if you’re going
to spend all this money to paint a car it should reflect what YOU want
not the way someone else thought it should look. So we
picked a color that’s pretty up to date but rare also...a 2007-2009 Corvette
color called “Atomic Orange Metallic Effect”. My God! I
didn’t think an automobile paint could be so expensive!!! The flames
when applied are going to be House of Kolor candies Lemon
Yellow, Tangerine, Red, and Brandywine. Ther clearcoat will have a small amout
of
tiny metalflake added to give the flames extre sparkle. So
here’s the paint removal/body work pictures.
Here’s the beginning with the bumpers and trunk off, taillights coming off and the start of paint removal.
Drivers’ side view, door off, with the roof and rear in filler
Passenger side catching up
Hood with filler along the hinge and where the hinge is riveted on
Side cowling panels getting their cleanup, repair, and filler
Drivers side door. There was some apparent damage to the door that had been repaired previously.
First full covering of roof and rear shelf in filler. All the filler is to even out the waves and ripples in the fiberglas.
The body and frame are from Classic Motor Carriage in Florida which is now StreetBeasts. The car is somewhere
in the vicinity of 18-20 years old. The assembly manual I got with it was dated 1991.
Hood, cowlings, and grille removed and paint coming off the fenders
Working his way to the front.
Passenger side paint is off
The hood in filler. The hood was really a mess with stress cracks and a generally bad finish. The
mirrored metal I attached to the underside was put on glassed-in ribs that should strengthen the hood.
\
In the paint booth. The rear view of the car in primer
Front view of the car in primer
Dashboard
repairs. We removed the radio (large filled area) is since it’s hard to hear it
with the loud
exhaust. The
sides of the dash at the roof pillers were cut off for some reason leaving an
elongated gap wide
enough to put
your pinky finger in where the white tape is. I had Tommy grind it and fill it
in. on both sides.
In the middleof
the dash was a Ford emblem that looked like it had been glued on badly so I had
him remove it too.
Dash repairs in primer and the dash sanded
Rear window frame sanded and ready for paint
First paint on the car. The color is not as dark as it appears.
A hint of things
to come. The dash painted. This paint is something to behold in sunlight since
it glows on
rounded surfaces
which a street rod has plenty of. The pearl flakes in the paint catch the
sunlight and
reflect it in
multiple shades of green, purple, pink and blue in addition to the background
orange glow.
According to a
web site I found only 5% of Corvettes are painted this color. People may fear a
more difficult
resale with an
odd color like this as opposed to the usual red, green, blue, yellow or black.
The car in
basecoat before clearcoating
The car’s been
painted and buffed and now he’s begun outlining the flames. Wherever the flames
are
going to be has
not been clearcoated.
Looking down the
side of the car.
A closer look at
the side. L-O-N-G skinny sweeping flames.
A hint of what
it’s going to look like. Fluorescent light and camera flash lighting only.
Imagine this
baby outside
glowing in bright sunlight.
First pic of the
flames going on.
Adding more
colors
Sides
Tangerine to
Brandywine to Candy Red
Yellow to
Tangerine. Needs some touchup in the vent recess.
Tape and masking
coming off
All the tape and
masking off but not clearcoated yet.
Flames
clearcoated and beginning to buff out.
Last part is to
clearcoat the areas around the flames...doors and hood.
Home at
last..but still not done. The flames have to be striped in teal.
An interior
view.
First bath since
coming home.
Looking into the re-done trunk.
The new
brake/turn signal LED lights.
Passenger side
view of the flames.
Top views of the
flames on the hood. There’s metalflake in the clearcoat.
The new
Centerline Thruster wheels.
Looking down the
hood.
New bumpers and
the mountings are now black.
The paint glows in the sunlight.
More glow
looking from behind.