roadworthy's '49 build thread

[roadworthy]

Now at this point I am quite happy with the progress and decide to just do some driving for a while. I did some other small things, I remember getting a complete but non running 218 motor and taking off the pieces I was interested in. I picked up a couple doors that ended up not fitting since they were also Plymouth parts.

My rear taillight lenses were cracked and faded almost to the point of clear in some spots, so I went to a hobby shop and picked up some translucent candy apple red spray paint. Again, I was really pleased with the results, and even today they still look good.







and they let plenty of light through

[roadworthy]

I didn't do much else to the car until it was winter time.



I decided to finally rewire behind the dash after a couple shorts and other electrical issues kept showing up. It was cold outside, so I just pulled that dash out and worked on it at a table in my basement.

[roadworthy]

When I redid the wires, I put bullet and spade connectors on any of them that wouldn't easily disconnect for future ease of dash removal. Especially for the wires that run up the A post to the rear of the car. That spring (2011) I rewired the back half of the car, taillights, brake lights, license plate light, fuel gauge...

[roadworthy]

Now, in summer 2011 I did a lot of just driving with the car, didn't do too much in the way of fixing stuff. In fact, we took our first road trip in June and the car was flawless. Got almost 20mpg too!
I bought seat belts and started the install of those, it is difficult finding all the proper mounting spots and geometry for them on a car that never had them to begin with. They are in, but still not completely done at this time. I should really get around to finishing that, and will post some pics when I do.
So lets just fast forward to the winter, time to get serious on this front end body work. (January 2012)
First piece was the hood, we spent 11 hours in the body shop that day getting it all smoothed out and in primer. This is my good friend and body man Mike going to town on the hood

[roadworthy]

Oh, in case you guys are wondering, my wife and I bought a house in August of 2011 so now the '49 is under roof!

[roadworthy]

After we got the hood stripped and in primer, the right front fender was next. I stripped it at my house and coated the inside with Rust Mort. As far as dents and rust go, the piece wasn't too bad, and we were able to get it straight and clean.



I also welded the seam around the headlight hole where the two halves of the fender were joined

[roadworthy]

The drivers side fender was a bit more pitted and had a few more dents than the right side...

[roadworthy]

since this fender had more dents and pitting, we used a sprayable filler and put on three coats

[roadworthy]

Somewhere along the way, I lost a bunch of pictures, but I got the right inner fender done, the heater box, all the small pieces that go in the front end, and the piece between the bumper and the fenders worked and painted. You can see a couple pieces hanging on the wall in the background, and the shelves are full of small bits

[roadworthy]

I had my radiator boiled clean and checked for leaks, came back with a good bill of health. I stripped the brass top and polished it, then we got it and the radiator support set up in the paint shop. I also replaced the original overflow line with copper. I plan on doing the fuel line and the hard vacuum lines in copper also