Finally back on the coupe

Mickey, it's been tough. First one thing, then another kept me away.
I'd work on it, then something would come up and I'd quit.
The 55 was supposed to be a running/driving car that I could have fun with while I got the coupe together.
I spent the last 5 or so years on the 55 getting everything working, dependable and safe.


Angs, that's just it, I've been sidetracked for years now.

Yeah Robert, come on down. We'll throw some burgers/steaks on the grill.

Here's some pics I took back in 79 just after I got it.


This is a scan of my photo album, remember those?
Days before digital photography.

What I've done to date:
I took it apart and ended up storing the body in my Dad's barn for 10 years.
One day, on the way home from work, I decided to stop at the place that I'd been told the past owner (Jack Friend, RIP) worked. It had been 10 years, but I figured maybe they would know how I could get in touch with him.
I pulled in and parked, went in and inquired.
"He just left. In fact you pulled into the spot he pulled out of"
I told him I had an old car he used to own. He stopped me right there and asked if it was 32 coupe. I said yes and he said Jack was just talking to him about it and wondering where it was now.
I gave him my contact info and Jack contacted me.
He came out and looked at the car (embarrassingly for me it was in pieces in the barn at that time), told me some stories and let me borrow some old B/W pics he had to get copies made.



That finally got me going again and got it out of the barn and took it down to Redi-Strip in Jackson, MS and had it dipped.
Then went back and brought it home and applied a liberal coat of DS primer.
And it sat for a while again. During that time, I got married and we lived in a mobile home. No place to work that was convenient. My Dad's shop was not that far, but once I got home from work, I didn't want to go anywhere.
In the late 80s we bought some land and started planning a house.
We sold the trailer and bought a travel trailer and moved next to my parent's house.

Now I'm right there at the shop, but I'm working nights.
I'd do some in the mornings and some after I got home from work at 2 in the morning.
I had sold the original frame with the idea of building my own.
This was the era of the billet filled streetrods and that's how I was going to do it.
Well, after talking to Jack, I had decided to restore it to it's original glory from the 50s. No one was doing that...back then.
But, I still was without a frame. I had already acquired some 2 x 4 tubing, and a friend of mine with a 32 Sedan had a frame print.
I layed out the dimensions and outline on the floor of my dad's shop and started cutting and welding.
I fabricated the frame, front cross-member and suspension mounts.
Working in a machine shop has its advantages.
I made my own 4 link rear set up.
I traded my 55 2 door sedan (I was young and stupid) for some parts. I got a front axle, brakes, front 4 link, coil overs for the rear, steering box a few other odds and ends and a lincoln crackle box welder.
I already had a welder so I sold it to a friend.
While the house was being built, the car sat again for a while.
A year later I got my shop and the car soon came to its "forever" home.
I did some more work off and on. I'd gotten a new tubular crossmember and installed it.
Fabbed up clutch (hot rods gotta have a clutch) and brake pedals, headlight mounts, shock mounts, bought a Walker radiator and a full size grill and shell. The sectioned one on the original just looked wrong.
Plus, the 400 I was planning on using, Walker said they couldn't make a radiator that small and cool that engine.
But, now I have the 351 Cleveland to go in it.
And then it sat again.
I like all (old) cars, I guess you could say I'm a "cross driver".:sign0020:
In the mean time, I got the itch to have another 55.
I've touched on that already.

Fast forward:
I spent most of today (took a vacation day from work) getting body mount brackets and floor braces made. Some of them welded in.
I need some weld nuts to weld into the top of the frame rails to bolt it to.
This car was channeled. The floor was cut out except for a lip along each side to mount the body under the frame.
I'm building mounts for the body to sit on top of the frame.
It's a chore to have to strip the body and frame, then slide the frame out the back.
I'm thinking about getting wood nuts and cutting off the spikes

drilling a hole in the top of the frame rail and welding them in place.
Looks like it would work out easier than actual weld nuts.
I had so wanted to have it done before Jack passed away.
He was in his 70s by the time I met him. I heard a few years ago he had passed.
One of my uncles really wanted to see it done too. Didn't make it.
My brother...ditto
I figure if I don't get back to it, I won't see it done either.:ashamed0005:
Sorry for the long post, but once I get started about my dream car,
well...you know...

Another little bit of back story:
When I was a kid, like 5-6 years old, my parents built a new house.
I grew up there and my dad still lives there.
Well, mom and dad got to be friends with the contractor and they lived in a big house on a lake. They also had two boys about the same ages of me and my brother.
So, we'd go over and visit, swim in the lake, and just have good times.
Just about a half mile from them was this older, smaller house that we'd pass by whenever we'd go over. And I remember seeing an old car half covered sitting by the house. It was just an old car and I didn't think much of it.
A few years pass, I got out of high school and needed summer employment.
The contractor friend had given me a job in his construction company just doing odd stuff. Painting fences, picking up, just a helper.
By that time I had my first 55 together and driving it.
I'd learned a lot about cars, old cars especially, and could identify many of them by sight. My dad was helpful in that as well as all of the hot rod magazines I was eating, sleeping and dreaming with.
One job was close to the contractor's house and I was to work with one of his sons. I met him at their house and passed by the old house and the old car.
I knew what it was then. I nearly ran off the road. I asked my friend/boss about it and he told me someone down the street had been trying to buy that car for years and he wouldn't sell it.
So, dejected, I forgot about it.
Time passes again, I've gone through machinist's/ welding classes and landed a job with Torque Converters Inc. They were still in Memphis at that time.
One great part of that job was most everyone that worked there was some kind of gear head.
Guys that had 66 Novas, Mustangs with Chevy engines, choppers, drag cars etc.
There was always a new copy of Auto Trader on the break table.
One day I was thumbing through and saw this add:


I knew immediately what it was and called right then.
I went out after work and put down some money on it.
Went back on the following Saturday with my brother, a trailer, the rest of the money and brought it home.

I wish I'd taken more pics of it then. There was an MSU (Memphis State University- now University of Memphis) parking sticker on the back dated 1968. I didn't get a shot of that, but I found this in a little clear pocket in the passenger's side kick panel. I did save it.


How about that phone number?

There are a few more pics in my picturetrail link below.
Go to the 32 Coupe/66F100 album.
The 351 actually came out of the F100.
It has a (not running yet) 302 fulie motor/AOD out of an 88 Lincoln in it now.

I dont care for you sir! lol I am super jealous!!! I wish I had a deuce let alone one with HISTORY!!!!

One day the car fairy will turn my '31 into a '32! lol3:

That is one sweet A bone. :tu
You know that's what the Hot Rod Lincoln was.
"That model A body made it look like a pup"

I haven't made much progress. Still fighting all the other stuff.
I had a few hours to work on it Monday and Tuesday after work, then
I had a dentist appt Wednesday didn't get home until late.
Thursday, my dad called and needed his lawnmower fixed...again...
That took Thursday afternoon, Friday afternoon and this morning.
Then MY yard needed cut badly, now maybe I can get a couple hours in before dinner if I'm lucky.
BUT...
What I have done is get a good start on the sub frame for the body.
The whole floor was cut out except for a lip along each side from the cowl to the back of the doors.
I'm building a sub frame to weld to the body so I can remove that lip and be able to lift the body off and set it on without having to strip the chassis to a bare frame to get it out.
I'll post some pics later tonight.

Every time I hear this story I have to ask, “what the h**l were they thinking?”

It always goes like this, “I bought a perfectly good old hot rod that would have taken a long weekend and a couple hundred bucks to get on the road and been enjoying driving it for many years. But I thought I just had to restore it, so I took it apart so it couldn’t be enjoyed or appreciated by me or other folks for what it was. Will, I got busy or didn’t have the money or whatever and didn’t touch it for the next however many years that I otherwise could have been enjoying it had I not started "restoring" it. Now ever how many years later I’m going to spend a ton of money on it trying to make it look like it did when I bought it so I can finally get to enjoy it.”

Folks, please just put a battery in them and get the stock brakes working a little. Put a Indian blanket over the seat and a set of take off tires on them and get out and enjoy them. If they really need “restoring” let your grandkids do it after you’re gone. Besides, it takes fifty years to duplicate patina like that and most of us don’t have that long to wait to get them looking that way again !!!

Moon Rocket said:

Every time I hear this story I have to ask, “what the h**l were they thinking?”

It always goes like this, “I bought a perfectly good old hot rod that would have taken a long weekend and a couple hundred bucks to get on the road and been enjoying driving it for many years. But I thought I just had to restore it, so I took it apart so it couldn’t be enjoyed or appreciated by me or other folks for what it was. Will, I got busy or didn’t have the money or whatever and didn’t touch it for the next however many years that I otherwise could have been enjoying it had I not started "restoring" it. Now ever how many years later I’m going to spend a ton of money on it trying to make it look like it did when I bought it so I can finally get to enjoy it.”

Folks, please just put a battery in them and get the stock brakes working a little. Put a Indian blanket over the seat and a set of take off tires on them and get out and enjoy them. If they really need “restoring” let your grandkids do it after you’re gone. Besides, it takes fifty years to duplicate patina like that and most of us don’t have that long to wait to get them looking that way again !!!

Click to expand...

Easy to say, but not always as easy as is might appear.
Today, this would be a cool rat rod just as it sat.


Even with its 4 layers of pealing, cracking, rust-pitted paint, (the last color looking like it was done with a roller)
In 1979 you wouldn't be caught dead in a ride like that.
They looked like this:


Would you rather my car look like this one? That's what it would have looked like if I'd had the money, time, space, tools, abilities etc. etc. back then. All the patina and traditional stuff would have been gone anyway.

Remember this was before traditional hot rods made a come back.
Before rat rods, the HAMB, heck, before the internet and digital photography.
(You may notice many of these pics are scanned photographs from my photo album.)
All I had to go by were the rod magazines and one national event that was in Memphis back in 1978.
I didn't know any hot rodders and certianly none anywhere close to where I lived.
My Dad thought is was a heap of junk because it wasn't "stock", so no help/encouragement there.
The stock 48 flathead that was in it was stuck. It had been sitting out, uncovered for years. All the go-fast goodies were long gone.
The brakes were rusted up, it would barely roll.
Just sticking a battery on it and driving it was not an option.
The body had some rust out and all the lower wood was rotted out.


While this doesn't look bad by today's standards, it was pretty nasty-looking to me back then.
Plus the whole tail pan was rusted out, the interior was moldy, stinky and coming apart at the seams.
Repro parts were just getting a good customer base but expensive, heck they're still expensive.

No doubt, I can say I made plenty of mistakes.
I let the frame (stock un-boxed), engine, front axle and wheels get away from me. But that was before I knew the car's history.
I still have the trans (probably not the Zephyr geared one from the 50s), front brakes, steering box (such as it is),
steering wheel, (had been welded to the steering shaft) and rear banjo axle though.

But I kept what I had left and continued a bit at a time when I could.
I had the body stripped.


I built my own frame. (from stock plans, not pinched like Lil John's car shown above)






I patched the rusted out panels




And endured countless people's
"You'll never get that car together"
"You won't..."
"You'll never..."
"...wasting your time..."
"you ought to sell me that car..."
blah, blah, blah

I got a job, I got married, I got sick, I got over it (after several years), I built a house and shop


I blinked and 30 freaking years had passed.
:dontknow:

I'm not flaming you or griping at you.
But it did hit a nerve.
You weren't there, you can't know.

I can say this though. After 30+ years I'm not saying:
"I remember when..."
"I used to have..."
"I wish I'd never sold..."
:winking0070: