First Date Jitters

The first date is always the most fun and the unknown, will she or won't she? Well she did! Tonight I went to the cruise-in and had a new date: The Willys. And guess what: SHE won an award for the effort. If it was an HE I would not have dated HER. Everyone had a lot say very positively. They rubbed the wood to make sure it was wood. I should have brought some polish and they could have waxed the car. They liked everything about the car and not 1 expert that I could hear had anything negative to say. It's always nice when you go to the Prom with the best date, at least in my opinion.

I've Been Framed

Now we look at the frame and see what needs to be done. This can get real boring so I might only spend a day. All of the "unneeded" holes were welded shut and even some of the "needed" holes were later re-drilled. After a lot of grinding to make the frame smooth and remove all of the sharp edges the frame was then coated with a thin coat of bondo to make it look good. Then the great sanding took place and put a nice layer of dust all over the shop. Even though this seems like a small project it consumed the better part of two weeks. Now when it comes to spending money you might want to blame yourself or significant other for spending too much but I suggest you read about spending a million dollars per day at http://bsweasy.blogspot.com/

Frame looks a lot better painted. It looked so good we took the pictures inside so others wouldn't steal our trade secrets.

A Stitch In Time

The car came with "Factory Air" but it only worked with the vent open and driving at 50 mph. Therefore a Vintage Air system was selected and the old factory air closed by "stitching" in some metal and let the bodyman work it over. Also the antenna hole was plugged. All of the work was done at J&B Streetrods. In the picture above you can see that the brake booster was mounted on the firewall. The decision was made to install it on the frame and make the firewall as smooth as possible. I was thinking about the cost of this project and it is good news; if I had left the money in the stock market I would have lost 50% of it therefore I have only spent 50% of what I thought I had spent.

PS I am looking through the Stimulus Package and hope to find something for this project and I think I have found it: 1 billion dollars for Old Former Army Retired Trying Somehow to build a car (Old FARTS)

2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

Sometimes things just don't go the way they are supposed to; the wood on the sides have developed stress crack along the joints; last night the dash lights wouldn't work; the low beam headlights were about as bright as a burned out match; then I overfilled the gas tank and ran gas out the overflow causing an "Al Gore" reportable incident; and I had 25 emails about basically nothing. Other than that it was a pretty good day.

Now back to the real world, we are wiring the power windows and lo and behold nothing seems to work. The connectors that came with the kit are too big, won't make good contact and basically suck but alas things could be worse. Here is one of the worse things that could happen.

This car was advertised to cruise smoothly at 80 mph.

Not quite sure if that was true. As you can see the U-bolts holding the rear end in the car were not even through the nuts as well as the lugs for the wheels were too short. Maybe he meant safe at 8 MPH.

A New Expert Emerges

By now all of the floor has been replaced and the body was ready for a first class bodyman to work the metal and paint the car. The guy next door was a retired bodyman and said he could do the job. He was into the job and doing a good job but had to quit due to illness.

That left me to seek EXPERT NUMBER 2. While the body was in the shop we could concentrate on the frame. After looking for awhile I picked up a business card for a body shop. I interviewed him and he looked at the car and said $10,000 to do the body work. I said that was outside of the budget and he came back with a $6,500 bid. I accepted and then the body went to his shop. He picked up the body and started to remove panels and weld in new ones, EVEN the ones we had put in. His father was there telling what a good guy he was a great bodyman. I visited a couple of times. He wasn't making much progress and then the big bomb. We need to sign another contract because of all of the work was not counted in the contract even though the contract said; "All bodywork, paint and polish" Let's see if you are good with Math; How much was the new contract? You are right Mr. Computerhead: $10,000.

And The Beat Goes On

Still sad after the departure of the MGM I now return to the Building The Willys. After much thought I will now review some of the metal replacement. After ripping the floor out as you can see there was considerable work to accomplish. We decided to replace all of the floor from the firewall to the tailgate. This was not an easy task and patch panels purchased proved to not fit. The best part was calling the panel provider and them saying "well all Willys are different". Makes you feel sooooo good. Tomorrow we will intoduce you to yet another "Expert" Expert 2 in our series of experts.

An Old Friend Leaves Town

Today I want to forget the Willys and tell you that an old friend has left town. It was my faithful companion for the past 3 years and many car shows and 38 thousand great miles. It has gone to Arkansas to a new owner and hopefully will give him the same cruising miles that I had, Bye Bye MGM (Mercury Green Monster, a name given by my granddaughter)

I Just Wanted a Tuneup

Sometimes you dig into something and instead of stopping you reach for a bigger shovel. I just wanted to tune the Willys a little and BAM it is now torn apart and this is just the beginning. The front seats sat on risers (actually they were floor mounted glove boxes) and my head would hit the roof, so out they came and then we moved the crossmember back behind the seats to get it lower, Well that sounds simple but ....... it takes a lot of doing.

But so what it is fun (??) and sometimes you just want to do it right. I know I know, that is a change

In a couple of days you will meet Expert # 2, so be ready.

The Studs of Motorcraft

Had to go on a business trip and actually was too lazy to post, probably lost my readership. Today I want to discuss some of the crew. They all have low testosterone levels UNTIL a hood is raised and then they become

"The Studs of Motorcraft"

We all know them, a lot of tools, nothing to work on and BAM a hood goes up, their libido goes up and the smell of testosterone is in the air. At the far right is Bill Horne (pronounced Horny) and owner of J&B Streetrods. In the middle is Keith the Woodman aka. Paul Bunyon and on the left is Jay the Polish Man. These are just some of the staff that contributed to the building of the car. Wait now I'm not sure Jay did that much, but he always took the largest chair so it was never stolen, but work I can't remember any. Oh wait a minute he did polish HIS wheels to try and look busy.

One other character is Jim: His sandwiches are so heavy he needs the transmission lift just to get them at should level. From Brooklyn so what can you expect. A good man and gets a lot done unfortunately not on the Willys.

Retreat to The Rear

Here is the rear with the new panel stitched in place. we also replaced the lower portion of the tailgate. But all is not disclosed. once we have the panels in and work on the hinge I found a picture of a 51 Willys and it had two taillights in the tailgate. But as you can see in the picture the holes for the taillights are in the fenders. So out comes the grinder and lo and behold the taillight holes had been filled with you guessed it: BONDO. So we then cut the rusty metal out and replaced it with good metal. It would have been easier to replace the tailgate but this was a learning experiment throughout this build. Darn I hate being over 21 and taking full responsibility for this build. Looking back I could have saved a lot of money by just buying a fully finished car, probably a Lexus!

Grillin' Out

The Willys originally had round headlights. Someone in the past had changed them to square but left the parking lights round. Kind of looked funny, so it was either both square or both round. The square parking lights were purchased at The Chrome Shop on I-75. Yes, for you "Free-Thinkers" we did consider round on one side and square in the other.

I liked the square except they really weren't square so we thought lets just square them up. Well after all the Bondo removal, then the pop rivets, we determined that the headlights being square was not the problem but rather how they had been made square. Just put metal in, pop rivet and then using more Bondo than is legal in most states just smooth them out. We cut the metal and rivets out of the grill and then set in new pieces and welded them in place.

I must say welding on this vehicle was something to see. In most cases, no heat penetration and to finish a weld you just Bondo it smooth.

There were so many pop-rivets and Bondo in this car that I think someplace, somewhere, probably on the porch in a "Cracker Barrel" rocking chair there sits this happy couple who's daddy owned the Bondo Factory and Pop Rivet Factory respectively.

While dating it was probably in the back seat of a 51 Green Ford (a long story about this car) that you could hear; "If you touch my rivets again I will slap you!" I can just hear their wedding night intimate conversation. "Oh, dear your rivets look so good, here let me smooth them out a little!".

Let's Get Started

You will see the term "we" used and "I". The "we" is myself and Bill Horne, owner of J&B Streetrods, the "I" is me. The "I" was mostly grinder work, procuring parts and the "we" is watching Bill do his thing and maybe handing him a wrench or two. I learned so much I told Bill I was going to open my own shop. He said you don't have to; I'll sell you one!

As with any good Doctor you always start at the rear and look for the wallet. So at the rear we begin. Below the tailgate was a piece of metal that was rusted in many places UNDER the Bondo. As we touched any piece of metal with a grinder, dust flew. So the first step was to reduce the Bondo to dust, get to bare metal, determine the damage and then replace the metal. The piece resting on the tailpipes in the picture fits underneath the tailgate. But first we had to replace a hinge piece for the tailgate to bolt onto. With that in place we then lined up the hinge bolts, drilled and put in Nutserts. After that it was almost easy, I say almost because the whole floor had to be replaced. I planned on driving the car in about 4 months and that almost would have worked if we used a 15 week per month calender. In the meantime I was unofficially named Parts Manager and I like to say; I got so good at what I did that no-one would leave me alone so I could do what I was so good at!

Meeting The Expert

Well the bodyman (Hereafter referred to as Expert 1) is now into it and it sure looks like the project is on the way. He is taking it apart and getting ready for the bodywork needed. I said I want an estimate of the cost and he said he would know better once into the project. I said OK and he was into the project by 40 hours when I said stop and tell me the cost. When he said it was $10,000 to get the body ready I said no and decided that Expert 1 ( I needed to number the Experts because as you will see I met a few) needed to look for other work, he was later laid off anyway, I hope I contributed to it. So I took the car back to the streetrod shop and started the long, long, long road to getting this car on the road. I did not realize being a 1951 car it was also subject to the 1950's diagnosis of cancer. They open you up and then sew you up and say once the air hit it went all through the body. Future blog entries will explain what air can really do.

Just The Start

In life you make mistakes and I think the time it takes to admit it is the true measure of what type of bargain you purchased. I ain't admitting nuttin! Well I finally found a body shop and decided to see if they could straighten out the "small" problem to get the windshield to fit and not leak. The shop was located in the same strip mall as J&B Streetrods and I thought that would be handy. So off we go to the body shop and after removal of the windshield and a disc grinder, the "Bondo" dust looked like a dust storm from the 1930's dustbowl, we saw a little bodywork would be needed. As you can see it was a little rough and he said yep I can fix but it will be difficult to match the paint. So I said well lets get it ready for paint while you are at it. This was the 1st Professional Body man I met. Can you see how easily it is to open your wallet to anything you? Please enroll me in the Street Rod Hobbyist section of the Stimulus Package.

Finally Home

Well after a lot of water and a 3 day trip because of the dampness and wet, I was in sunny Florida. I parked in the driveway and immediately was asked, "Is that what you bought?" Of course it is my dear I said in a very smooth manner. I had had a couple problems on the trip and now I thought it was time to really get to know the car, should have done that before I paid for it. I took it to a glass shop to see if I could reseal the windshield, He said he could not because it would not hold because the "A" pillar wasn't straight. That was the beginning of this small project, just straighten the pillar and .....

I could smell the dampness and pulled up the carpet and that was the first mistake. I should have dried the interior and then hope someone would steal it!! I pulled up the carpet and then "oh shit". Underneath I found rust and patch panels installed, but not real patch panels but homemade and pop riveted. I ripped all the carpet out and then the door panels and ended up with a bare interior and a lot of cancer. I also had a pile of trash for the trash man and was asked if I was going to leave THAT in the front yard.

I then decided I would repair the rust and then have a good cruiser, this is when I spoke with Bill Horne of J&B Streetrods about doing some metal replacement. He said sure and the adventure began.