The year has started off good for me. I worked the first week focused on mounting the body back on Andre. My wife and I were able to accomplish the task in a day without much trouble. I have done this procedure many times and have jigs made to secure the body from falling. I basically lift the body, install the supports, slide the chassis underneath the body and lift the chassis up to meet the body. I have several hydraulic jacks which makes the process easy. I do no lifting which is the primary objective of the process. I can now shim the body and fit the doors. I will also hook up the steering so I can maneuver the car around in the garage. It feels good to have the car back together and mobile again.
I am also working on Curvy preparing her for the Woody Show at the GNRS at the end of the month. The hardest part of cleaning is the inside of the wheels. I will take them off if I have to. I purchased some spray on cleaner that should do the trick without removing the wheels. Cleaning a Woody is like cleaning a house. You need to inspect every nook and cranny for dirt and dust. So goes the life of Woody owners.
Thanks to all of you who sent in photos of your projects. I will show them under Reader’s Projects at the end of my blog. I better go back to work and make week two even more productive.
Stay Tooned!
Lynn
The first movement of the process was to line up the chassis with the body. The closer you can come to making it perfect then the easier it is to install. You can see the steel bar that allows me to make the space wide enough to roll the chassis under the body. It should be about 6 feet between the jack stands at the base. I use 2 1/12 x 3/16 wall tubing with adjustable ends for storage of different car bodies. The system works great.
You can see how easy the chassis slides under the body without ever touching it. I use Harbor Freight dollies under all four wheels which makes movement in any direction easy. They are lower than the auto dollies and work just as good.
At the end of the day I was tired but the wife was able to capture the smile on my face. The chassis and body have been separated for about one year and were glad to be back together again. Now the fun part begins. Note, I have stripped the cowl down to bare metal and it is rust free and ready to prime.
The rear end sits perfect with around 4 inches of clearance with 3 inch blocks. The wheel spacing also seems correct but I need to mount the tires to make sure of the clearance. Sedan deliveries are narrow in the rear due to the wheel wells being offset.
Steve and his crew went on a New Years Day outing and sent in some photos. My second love is a Deuce sedan so I appreciate his photo of this beauty. The drilled and dropped axle is my signature logo. Perfect resto-rod sedan.
How about a nice 39 coupe with whitewalls and chrome reverse wheels. I like the front ends of the 39 Deluxe sheet metal.
I would like to see this 33 hiboy roadster in person. Note the Deuce like rear frame horn covers and gas tank cover. Neat!
I think this is the year to secure one of these long time dream projects for Pewsplace. I would love to have one in this shape to start with. What a nice profile for the sedan.
This is more of the chop style that fits me. Blake cut a mild 2 inches from the top and it looks correct to me. The front post must be leaned back to accomplish without slicing the top over the door. The Kennedy Boys know how to do this style in their sleep.
If you prefer not to chop one it would look like this. I would add fenders without chopping the top. What do you think?
Reader’s Projects!
I know Don is happy to have his project back home so he can continue to work on his 5 window. It takes a lot of work to progress this far on a hot rod.
This is a good feeling when you finally get your project home and can roll it out in the driveway for a photo shoot. This is a New Age Motorsports body with a complete chassis and polished Rodders Wheels. Don didn’t mentioned how long he has been working on his project but the end result was worth it.