'57 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Hey, Dan, the door gap looks worse in the photo than it does in person, but it will require a little finesse for sure. The gaps on the other three sides look good, so all the work will be on the back edge.

If you can't wait to see it running, imagine me. 25 years, 5 different homes, 4 times off and on the chassis, 3 sets of tires, 3 engine rebuilds, 2 sets of headers ....and it has never once fired up or turned a tire under its own power. I'm past ready for it to come to life.

I can only imagine... I am going crazy after almost 4 years on "Class Act" and I am at least 1 more year and probably 2...

[Vic1947]

On New Years Day, Scott came over and helped us move CRLS to the upstairs garage and then roll the '57 into the workshop. The immediate goal was to get the front clip mods done so I could remove the parts and get them to George at Eagle Stripping. Schedule is to have the car at Precision Collision no later than the first of March. So the final bodywork and fitment has to happen quickly.

First on the list was frenching in the headlights. No matter what I end up with for a bumper, the bug eyes had to go. AutoLoc makes a headlight frenching kit that has the buckets and the rings, but I already had '56 Ford truck headlight rings. Their kit costs around $350 which made me gulp a little bit. In the end I reasoned I could make my own buckets for just a few bucks if I carefully cut out the stock mounting surface and moved it back the amount needed. So I measured the diameter, made a template and transferred it to the mounting pad on the fender. Used an air saw with a thin kerf, fine tooth blade to cut it out. I estimated that a 2" recess would be about right, so I took some 2" wide sheet metal strips and formed them around one of my welding cylinders and spot welded them into a ring.

[Vic1947]

Tacked the mounting plate I'd removed and cleaned up to the back of the ring I made and test fit it into the hole. Turned out that a 2" recess wasn't quite enough. The headlight protruded thru the ring a bit too much, plus the back of the ring was almost touching the adjustment screws. If I left it as it was, the trim ring could interfere with the hardware. So I decided to add a 3/8" strip to the ring which made it fit just right.

[Elliot949]

Niice Vic... Love the frenched look .. back in the day this is how they did it so buying a 350.00 kit would really have been unnecessary considering your talents...

[jlsanborn]

All amazing work, clean or detailed just don't describe it. Love the 2 minute blueprint build and the headers are freakin' awesome!!
So here we are, up to date and maaaaaan you got some work ahead Vic. We're all rootin for you!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Niice Vic... Love the frenched look .. back in the day this is how they did it so buying a 350.00 kit would really have been unnecessary considering your talents...

The older I get, the more inclined I am to shell out a few bucks for parts where someone else has already done the heavy lifting. As long as they're well designed, fill a need, move the project forward and are reasonably priced. But in this case, homemade was the best choice.

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

All amazing work, clean or detailed just don't describe it. Love the 2 minute blueprint build and the headers are freakin' awesome!!
So here we are, up to date and maaaaaan you got some work ahead Vic. We're all rootin for you!

Thanks, John!

Before welding out the headlight buckets, I needed to figure out a way to attach the trim rings. Tried an angle tab with a drilled hole for a sheetmetal screw but ran out of threads before it tightened up. Switched to a J-nut but couldn't get the placement where I wanted. Ended up welding a nut on the angle tab and using a stainless oval head machine screw. Spot welded the tabs to the rings and then welded the buckets into the fenders. Then it was on to the bumpers.

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

The older I get, the more inclined I am to shell out a few bucks for parts where someone else has already done the heavy lifting. As long as they're well designed, fill a need, move the project forward and are reasonably priced. But in this case, homemade was the best choice.


Thanks, John!

Before welding out the headlight buckets, I needed to figure out a way to attach the trim rings. Tried an angle tab with a drilled hole for a sheetmetal screw but ran out of threads before it tightened up. Switched to a J-nut but couldn't get the placement where I wanted. Ended up welding a nut on the angle tab and using a stainless oval head machine screw. Spot welded the tabs to the rings and then welded the buckets into the fenders. Then it was on to the bumpers.

Man do I understand that getting older stuff

[Vic1947]

The moment of truth was upon me and the bumpers weren't going to jump on the car by themselves. So, as usual, I started with the easy one. Supported the '57 DeSoto bumper on stands to get an idea of how it was going to fit. Years ago, I had the bumpers straightened and de-chromed. I could see from old photos in books that my bumper was pinched together slightly in the middle. Since it was apparent that the DeSoto unit was too wide and I'd have to section it, I corrected the gap at the same time. Measurements indicated I needed to remove 1-1/4" from the middle to get the fit I wanted. Marked my lines and cut with a cutoff wheel, then tacked the two halves together.

Positioned the revised bumper in place and it was beginning to look like it would actually work. Reality has a way of smacking you upside the head, though. I trial assembled the '55 Pontiac bumpers and filler panel and set them roughly where they needed to be. I could tell immediately the amount of work to get them to fit would be outside the scope of my time budget. The angles were not correct, the lengths would have to be altered, the filler panel would need extensive pie cutting and re-contouring. In short, it looked like a huge amount of work. So, I'm going with Plan B.

I'd seen some custom tube grilles made by Jerry Wesseling of Glory Grills. I rung him up and ordered one and it should be here in a couple of weeks. The design that Charlie did for me will have to wait for another time. Stuff that looks great in PhotoShop can be a rough trip from the small screen to the real world.

[Low Elco]

I like the frenched lights. Sorry your bumper didn't work out. Go Vic Go!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Man do I understand that getting older stuff

Originally Posted by Low Elco

I like the frenched lights. Sorry your bumper didn't work out. Go Vic Go!

Blessing in disguise, Chip. Using the stock front bumper and outsourcing the grille sped things up considerably.

Like many other parts, I'd sent the bumpers out for straightening and de-chroming years ago. When Charlie Smith did the front end design, I decided to sell the stock stuff and make a few bucks. Figured if they were gone, it would force me to use the Desoto/Pontiac setup. Hauled them to three or four swap meets and never found a buyer. So luckily, I still had them on hand. (Can you say lucky, lucky, lucky?) However, the fit was not what I expected. I knew I'd need to narrow it, but turns out, the bumper had taken a light hit on the driver side. Found a small telltale kink in the same general vicinity as a ding in the valance panel. After pressing, beating and prying it out, it was straight enough to slice and dice.

I cut it in two places outboard, since the inner curves had to match the valance. Took a total of 1-1/4" out of it to get the fit I wanted alongside the fenders. Slight modifications to the bumper brackets and I was in business. Plan is to paint the front and rear bumpers to match the lower body color.

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Blessing in disguise, Chip. Using the stock front bumper and outsourcing the grille sped things up considerably.

Like many other parts, I'd sent the bumpers out for straightening and de-chroming years ago. When Charlie Smith did the front end design, I decided to sell the stock stuff and make a few bucks. Figured if they were gone, it would force me to use the Desoto/Pontiac setup. Hauled them to three or four swap meets and never found a buyer. So luckily, I still had them on hand. (Can you say lucky, lucky, lucky?) However, the fit was not what I expected. I knew I'd need to narrow it, but turns out, the bumper had taken a light hit on the driver side. Found a small telltale kink in the same general vicinity as a ding in the valance panel. After pressing, beating and prying it out, it was straight enough to slice and dice.

I cut it in two places outboard, since the inner curves had to match the valance. Took a total of 1-1/4" out of it to get the fit I wanted alongside the fenders. Slight modifications to the bumper brackets and I was in business. Plan is to paint the front and rear bumpers to match the lower body color.

Hey Vic... what would happen if you tucked that bumper back a few inches... might sleek it a little more without to much difficulty...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Hey Vic... what would happen if you tucked that bumper back a few inches... might sleek it a little more without to much difficulty...

Probably more difficult than it would appear at first blush, Dan. The tips of the bumpers are already at the leading edge of the front fenders so they'd need to be shortened. Plus, they're tapered, so sectioning 2" out would entail pie cutting the ends to make them match up. Maintaining the outer curve of the valance after sectioning out 2" would be tricky. And then there's the bumper brackets. No real room to move them back that much, so you'd have to start from scratch.

I did a lot of work on the rear bumper to make it fit closer to the body. It's off of a '58, so it's close, but I had to cut up the inner bumper bracket structure off the '57 to make it fit. Didn't have a bracket for a '58, so I was forced to do the modification. Had to section a tapered piece out of the center of the rear bumper to make it tuck in closer. Lot's of work to get the angles correct. Bought the bumper 8-10 years ago and never unwrapped it. It had a nice kink in it where a PO had hooked a chain to it to either pull or be pulled. The 12 ton press, 2 lb. sledge hammer, dolly and I all got a workout.

[Elliot949]

Very nice...

[Xeen]

Helluva good job on the headlights Vic they really change the way the front end of the car looks for the better.

[jlsanborn]

Looks stout, top notch welding Vic! You made the headlight bucket trick look easy and it came out sharp

Re-chrome outta the picture? Saw over on Losh's thread where they wanted $750 or something to re-plate a grill Sure like the look of your first plan up front but the custom grille and what you did with the lights will still look great. I actually think it looks a little cleaner. Imagine you'll still tweak it somehow from that anyway

Lots more questions but I don't want to kill your morning schedule. Get on it!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Very nice...

Originally Posted by Xeen

Helluva good job on the headlights Vic they really change the way the front end of the car looks for the better.

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Looks stout, top notch welding Vic! You made the headlight bucket trick look easy and it came out sharp
Re-chrome outta the picture? Saw over on Losh's thread where they wanted $750 or something to re-plate a grill Sure like the look of your first plan up front but the custom grille and what you did with the lights will still look great. I actually think it looks a little cleaner. Imagine you'll still tweak it somehow from that anyway
Lots more questions but I don't want to kill your morning schedule. Get on it!

Thanks, guys.

At first, I planned to re-chrome the bumpers, but got talked out of it. From a practical standpoint, the rear bumper especially needs a lot of work and to make it look perfect would require big bucks. I can paint them both for a fraction of the cost of chrome, plus I don't have to ship them off and be at the mercy of someone else's schedule.

Over the weekend, after finishing up the bumper brackets, I blew apart the front clip and loaded all the pieces in the little truck. Hauled them to Eagle Stripping yesterday to be blasted clean. On the way home, we stopped at the upholstery shop to check their schedule. They're slow right now, so I plan to drop off the seats tomorrow so they can get started. He prefers to do the door panels on the car, so the seats are it for now. Went ahead and removed the tracks and trim pieces from the buckets I'll be using. Also, I needed to modify the rear seat frames to clear the tubs, so I removed the ancient covers, welded in new stiffening ribs and cut out the old frame. The frame is in amazing condition for as old as it is. Should finish up on them today.

Seeley, my little helper from down the street, kept busy cranking the wheels on the lathe while I whittled on the seats. Kinda dark over in the corner because the fluorescent ballast in that fixture died for the third time. Ordered several LED replacement tubes ($$$) but they're supposed to last forever and put out a lot more light.

[Low Elco]

Ha, Trans Am seats. Had some in my Cutlass in HS. They go all... the.... way... back. Who's doing your trimming? Them bumpers is a PITA, I've straightened a couple. They look good!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Ha, Trans Am seats. Had some in my Cutlass in HS. They go all... the.... way... back. Who's doing your trimming? Them bumpers is a PITA, I've straightened a couple. They look good!

Yep, 82-84 versions. Had them for 22 years. We're talking with Jeff Riddle at Gladstone Custom Upholstery. Plan to go in tomorrow with the buckets, pick out materials and then see if we can schedule the car in the first of next week for the back seats, door and quarter side panels, package tray and console. All those pieces can come back out for paint and it only leaves carpet, headliner, windlace and mouldings for later.

[sduckworth13]

Nice work on the headlights Vic. I went to Gladstone Custom Upholstery when I was looking for someone to redo my buddy buckets. I thought the guy was so far from reasonable on his prices. I ended up having them done at The Interior Shop in Kansas City 5x cheaper than the quote he gave.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Nice work on the headlights Vic. I went to Gladstone Custom Upholstery when I was looking for someone to redo my buddy buckets. I thought the guy was so far from reasonable on his prices. I ended up having them done at The Interior Shop in Kansas City 5x cheaper than the quote he gave.

We haven't discussed price, just the scope of the work. Kathy and I are going there tomorrow to pick out materials and once we do that, he should be able to give us a ballpark estimate. My gut tells me this falls under the "Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick One" principle. If you want good, it probably won't be fast or cheap. That said, if it falls too far outside my comfort zone, I'll look somewhere else. Did you actually get the work done at The Interior Shop or just get a quote?

[sduckworth13]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

We haven't discussed price, just the scope of the work. Kathy and I are going there tomorrow to pick out materials and once we do that, he should be able to give us a ballpark estimate. My gut tells me this falls under the "Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick One" principle. If you want good, it probably won't be fast or cheap. That said, if it falls too far outside my comfort zone, I'll look somewhere else. Did you actually get the work done at The Interior Shop or just get a quote?

Yes, I had the work done at The Interior Shop. I was really impressed with the work they did and actually piped them, used a perforated simulated leather on the inset and bolstered them for free. I gave the guy a general idea of how I wanted them to look and when I went to pick them up I seriously about fell over. I do know the guy in Gladstone does show quality work, but I just couldn't see giving $2500.00 to redo my seats. I want to add that I told him to take his time and get to them when he could, because I wasn't in a hurry. It took three weeks, I figured that if I didn't rush him he'd cut me deal. I think I got a great price, I've also read some reviews for the shop and everything I read they are fair to everyone.

[texasld]

This is my favorite picture of the car that I snapped when I was checking out CRLS the 460 next to the 460V. Hehe The two extremes of the automotive industries!

[JayMc46]

Cost of operating,low cost small thrills, more cost BIG THRILLS. Gas is cheap for now. Keep on keeping on.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by texasld

This is my favorite picture of the car that I snapped when I was checking out CRLS the 460 next to the 460V. Hehe The two extremes of the automotive industries!

Polar opposites for sure, Mike!

Originally Posted by JayMc46

Cost of operating,low cost small thrills, more cost BIG THRILLS. Gas is cheap for now. Keep on keeping on.

If that's the case, Jay, I should be thrilled beyond belief when this is all done. Just hoping gas doesn't zoom back up to $4 a gallon by June.

Kathy and I went to Gladstone Custom Upholstery this morning (and again this afternoon). We picked out vinyl colors, headliner and carpet. Jeff's ballpark estimate was right where I thought it should be, so we left the front seats and visors with him so he could get started. Looks like we will be trailering the car to him the end of next week for the back seats, package tray and side panels. After paint, we'll return it to him and he can do the carpet, headliner and console.

We discussed the rear bench seat issues and decided to cut the bottom seat into two smaller sections. The mini-tubs and the custom driveshaft tunnel made it nearly impossible to maintain the full bench seat. So I've been hacking it to bits today. Should have it all back together by tomorrow night.

[Vic1947]

I had planned to be done with the rear seat mods by tonight, but it didn't pan out that way. I did get the driver side finished which is more than half the battle since I can use it as a guide for the other side. I reckon the rear seats will mainly be for show anyway. I doubt they'll be comfortable enough to ride in for any distance.