47 Chevy build?????

chopolds

Member
I've got this build on the HAMB ( a traditionally built rod and custom car site), and my Facebook site (Customs by Flash), but I thought I'd see if there is any interest in a different audience see it.
Most of what I've done is pretty intense bodywork, and customization, not much paint work yet. And in the end, the paint work "might" be pretty simple. But for seeing what it takes to completely reshape a car to your desire, its pretty informative.
Here's what I first started with, then cutting off and lowering the roof, and what it looks like now.
 

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chopolds

Member
Chevybuild 002_w.jpgChevybuild 003_w.jpgChevybuild 004_w.jpgChevybuild 005_w.jpgThe first thing I tackled was the chassis. Since I enjoy driving my cars ALL over, I wanted modern handling, braking, and a decent ride. I had recently built a 69 Camaro for a friend, and he decided later to upgrade to a tubular chassis, so I took his "old" subframe, with all the new parts, and welded it to the Chevy chassis. Lots of welding, work, and gusseting, but it really gives you all the good stuff in one package, and lowers the car while you're at it. For the rear, I picked up a Buick Grand National rear, for it's 3.73 gears, and posi and coil spring suspension. I kept the trailing arms, and made brackets for them on the Chevy frame. Instead of coils though, I'm using air bags. The coils suspension allows for greater ride height adjustment, as opposed to the original leaf springs. The only hassle to it was cutting out the trunk floor, to fit the upper crossmember which holds the coils, shocks, and upper trailing arms. Had to build a raised floor area right above the rear.
 

chopolds

Member
Chevybuild 007_w.jpgChevybuild 008_w.jpgChevybuild 009_w.jpgChevybuild 010_w.jpgChevybuild 011_w.jpgChevybuild 012_w.jpgThe chop was next on the list, so I could look at it and stay inspired! I took about 4 in out of the front, and about 5 1/2 out of the rear. In this early version, I just welded the rear quarter window shut. Later, on advice from an old time customizer, I cut out the existing quarter window frames, and made a bigger, unsupported skin to cover the hole. If I didn't, the roof would flex, but not the area welded to the window frame, caused witnessing in the bodywork, if not actual cracking of the filler, or welds! I fabbed the pieces for the transitions to the new 'laid down' rear windshield, and quarter window cover on the sandbag and English Wheel. In one photo you can see how I visualized how the rear window would look at a certain angle and distance from the trunk. I welded welding rod together for the shape, and covered it with wide masking tape. I didn't like this version, so it eventually got move forward, and angled higher up. I also wanted to retain the distinct body line between the roof and catwalk, not have a 'fastback' looking roofline.
 

chopolds

Member
Been a while, busy, as usual.
After the chop, I decided to start changing other things. First up was the grill. While I wanted a Cadillac one, and I thought I bought one at a swap meet, it turned out to be a 50 Chrysler. All the better, as less people have used them, or could even identify one!
The grill was way too wide, so I cut off the ends, right at a spot where there was inside "webbing" so I could bolt on a new, fabricated part to match the contours of the Chevy fenders. The grill was made of pot metal, so it would be very difficult to rework it, or weld on it. I made the ends from 18 Ga steel, and they are shorter up top, and get longer as you go down. The middle one is open to house a parking light lense I will cast.
Al finished, and chrome plated!Chevybuild 013_w.jpgChevybuild 014_w.jpgChevybuild 015_w.jpgChevybuild 016_w.jpg
 

chopolds

Member
I scored some 41 Lincoln fender skirts at Carlisle Swap one year, so they had to go on the Chevy!
The fenders were cut to match the shape of the Linc skirts, and a new inner flange welded in. Rust was also cut out and replaced with new steel. The fenders were welded to the body, as well, a very old custom touch.
The rear part of the original fenders did not match the contour of the new skirts, so I had to stretch parts of them to match the new curvature. A lot of hand work, as the fenders were already welded on, but it would have been easier to work them on a sandbag, and Wheel them.Chevybuild 018_w.jpgChevybuild 019_w.jpg
The extra wide 49 Caddy bumper seen in the last post, had to be cut down to fit the Chevy as well. Not a problem with a Sawzall and a welder!
 

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TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Really putting a lot of work into . Going to be sharp.
Have you put any though into what color(s) you plan on going with?
 

chopolds

Member
The next part starts to bring in ideas for color, Taz! But first, had to get down and dirty, and sandblast the whole body shell, inside and out. I then POR-15ed the underside, and shot Bedliner over it for durability.
The I got started on the engine. I wanted to keep a real early 50's vibe (before Chevy came out with the V8), but wanted late model power and reliability. So I chose a Chevy truck straight six, with 292 cubes. With Stovebolt Engineering's help, and the rebuilding talents of Bontempo Brothers Competition, we built it with hi compression pistons, a hot cam, a two two barrel intake, and Cast iron dual exhaust manifolds. I had the oil pan, timing cover, T-stat housing, and intake, chrome plated, and finished the dress up with a finned aluminum valve cover, and tappet cover.
The engine block and heads were ground smooth, and sanded, epoxy primered, guide coated, then painted with HOK gold base, and Candy Apple Red urethane. Lots of work there! To house such a wild engine, I wanted an equally wild compartment! I painted Zebra stripes on the firewall, and eventually small panels on the inner wheel wells.
At this time I'm still not sure of the color for the outside. Originally the plans were for a super gloss black paint, perhaps with Candy Red outline scallops to break it up. Now I'm torn between that, and doing the whole car in Candy Red. Only crazy bodymen and detail nuts appreciate a black paint job. I don't want to "hide" the shapes I am building into the car, and black tends to do that. The Candy paint will be more outstanding and attract more attention, which is good for business!Chevybuild 001_w.jpgChevybuild 002_w.jpgChevybuild 003+w.jpgChevybuild 004_w.jpgChevybuild 005_w.jpgChevybuild 006_w.jpgChevybuild 007_w.jpg
 

chopolds

Member
Due to the fact that I had subframed the car, and the inner wheel wells were very rusty, I decided to make them from scratch. I'll spare you the details, but they had beads and offsets rolled into them for looks, and had curved corners instead of bent on a brake. I used mandrel bends to make them curve around the steering linkage.
I wanted to extend the rear quarters of the Chevy to give it more of a teardrop look, streamline it a bit. So I picked up some extra door extensions, and trimmed them up and welded them to the fenders.
Also installed a 50 Caddy front bumper on the rear, with a custom made splash pan. Made with a hammerform, so almost no filler needed on it. If anyone wants detail about any part of the build, just say so, I can fill in with more info.Chevybuild 003_w.jpgChevybuild 002_w.jpgChevybuild 004_w.jpgChevybuild 005_w.jpgChevybuild 006_w.jpgChevybuild 007_w.jpgChevybuild 008_w.jpgChevybuild 009_w.jpgChevybuild 010_w.jpgChevybuild 011_w.jpg
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Either one of those colors would look sharp. Or a mix like you mentioned black base with candy scallops, possibly with a charcoal outline or ?
Gonna be sharp!
 

chopolds

Member
The next idea for modification came about when we were sitting around on a Saturday night drinking beer and being creative! Looking at the side profile, I though we needed to change the short, chopped off looking Chevy door extension. I knew Olds had longer ones, but upon buying some, and checking, they had a different fender profile. SO I decided to use the Chevy front, and then graft the Olds onto it, making it even longer! Still not happy, Ron, Kenny and I again brainstormed, and came up with angling back the rear of the ext. instead of it's 90* drop off. What a world of difference it made! Had to fabricate it from scratch, and then make up all new supports, a bottom cap, and completely new rocker extensions to match the new door ones. Tons of work in this!Copy of 100_0249_w.jpgCopy of 100_0248_w.jpgdoorbubble13_w.jpgDSCF2085_w.jpgDSCF2492_w.jpg100_0511_w.jpg
 

chopolds

Member
After fitting up the Caddy bumper to the rear, I worked on makinChevybuild 013_1.jpgChevybuild 012_w.jpgChevybuild 013_w.jpgg the tail lights. I really like the bare look of the fenders at this point, so the tails got a classic 40's early 50's treatment....installed in the bumper guards. Using the stock 50 Caddy guards, I cut out the round ends, and cut down some 53 Buick lenses to fit in. The next problem was that the tall guards prevented the trunk lid from opening. So I cut off the bottom of the lid, and finished it off, and welded a panel to the bottom of the car (couldn't use the cut off trunk pieces, as it was too short, and I needed to fab up the inner trunk weatherstrip channel)
 
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TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Lot's or work you got going on there. Glad to see you have a lot of patience (and of course some beer in the fridge).
Going to be a nice sled!
 

chopolds

Member
100_0574.jpg100_0575.jpg100_0577.jpg100_0576.jpg100_0587.jpg100_0590.jpg100_0592.jpg100_0597.jpgSo this is where the build start becoming longer than it should! Since I changed the profile of the door bubble, and really liked it, now the rear fender profile did not match (remember, it was made from extra door extensions). So back to the drawing board to fix it. I made a wooden buck to match the angle of the door extension, and to be able to match both sides from it. Then I used the sandbag, shrinker, tuck shrinking, and English wheel to form 3 separate pieces to make a brand new trailing panel for the rear fender. Lots of work, but when finishes, it matched the door better, and looked great!
 

chopolds

Member
The last big panel to complete, the hood. I wanted to put a peak on it, and make it one piece, but the way I used to do it (weld a rod or tube to the seam in the middle) used to warp the hood pretty badly and you couldn't correct it easily, if at all. So a friend made a 2" wide strip of sheet metal, and rolled a peak he made for his bead roller into it. Before I welded it in, I made a couple extra side to side braces for the underside, by welding 2 half's of a hammerfomed steel shape I made. These got welded to doublers I made for the hood edges, as they are prone to crack around the factory braces. Then an X shaped temporary brace to keep the hood sides from spreading was tacked in.
Carefully, I cut out a 2" section, working about 8-9 inches at a time, out of the center, and welded in my peaked strip. I hammered and dollyed as I went along to control warpage. Very difficult to do on a flat piece of thin sheet metal! When finished, I also added a 3/16" rod to the trailing edge of the hood to stiffen it, and make it easier to keep it's shape. 100_0850_w.jpg100_0851_w.jpg100_0852_w.jpg100_0853_w.jpg100_0854_w.jpg100_0959_w.jpg100_0969_w.jpg100_0983_w.jpg0902141223.jpg
 

chopolds

Member
Got it all in one color primer, and temporarily assembled. Going to try to drive it around a bit before blowing it apart for paint.100_1016_w.jpg100_1013_w.jpg100_1014_w.jpg
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Super job. A lot of work there. Going to be well worth it. Probably a good idea to drive it a while and just let all that work settle for a bit while you enjoy it!!!

:bigokay:
 
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