I picked up this car about 5 years ago from another local hamb member.52 csb and been just moving it around my yard watching it rust! I always had a love for the 49-52 Chevy cars and really liked the lines on the fleetlines the best. Now this car is nothing to talk about. it has a lot of rust and to some it is only a parts car to other it is just plain junk!! I been told it is dead and this is where I came up with the name "flatliner". I am a sucker for cars like this. I have a yard full of it. Rust has never scared me and I enjoy doing rust repair. So this project is nothing new to me. I been putting off a custom build of my own for years and it time for me build one. Here are some of my plans for this car. A 4 inch chop, 56 olds headlights and dash,pie cut hood. 49 Ford Tail lights( Thanks Koolkemp for the idea) skirts, Wide whites with 57 caddy hub caps and a number of other mods which I will be deciding along the way. Still playing around with bumper and grill ideas. As for running gear the car will be running a 350 chevy with a T350 trans and a 10 bolt camaro rear end out back. Still working on frame ideas. would like to reuse the frame and just put a S10 clip up front. Wont know this till I pull the body and have a better look at the frame. Right now I know the front of the frame is shot and only found one place in the back bad. If the frame is gone too far I have a few other ideas in mind. I not looking to build a period correct car, just looking to build a nice driver on a budget with what parts I have kicking around. My plan is to finish this car for next summer and drive it to the Atlantic national. So lets start off with a few pics of the car being moved from it resting place for the past 5 years to my shop. Figure I throw a pic in of me with the car so you can put a face with the fool building this.
Now that it is at the shop I can strip it down and see what I have to work with. Both quarter have a lot of rust. The door skins are ruff for about the last 6 to 8 inches of the door but the inner door bottom is still there with only the lip rusted. Both fender have rust at the lower edge,again 6 to 8 inches down will have to be replaced. The hood has some rust but not too bad,the truck lid is maybe the best panel on the car, Now it too has rust but nothing as bad as the rest of the car.Now i have had this car for 5 years now and never could get the drivers door open till now. rusted shut!!Oh and the floors and rockers are gone as well as the lower door post. We having fun yet!! I am...
OK lets dig in deeper. After removing the front and the doors I come to find that both front windshield posts are bad and all the front sheet metal other then the fenders is junk. The lower passenger side door hings came with the door,post and all!! A bit of rust there too. Wonder if I can save the floors!! Had to measure up the door openings to see if they were moved. made some adjustments and welding in a frame to keep everything from falling into itself.
Now to start bring it back to life.First plan is to get some rockers and quarter on the car so I can replace the inner rocker and fix both door posts. I had to start with the quarters so I had something to weld the rockers too!! I picked up some replacement panels a few years back for the car. have behind the wheel and the lower section in front of the wheel. need to build a panel to join both together. Now if I want to I can get particular on the welding of the panels and butt weld everything.I do this on all my customers cars but it takes time so to help speed up the build I decided to over lap the panels.This will cut my time in half. here you can see both panels in place. next it will be the middle sections.
To build the middle panel I cut a piece of steel the size I need and mounted it to the car with a few screws. I then took a template from the other quarter and fit it to the panels.marked it out and cut the opening. I then cut a 3/4 inch strip for the wheel lip. I welding it both inside and out. this way I can dress out side and not worry about grinding through. I run the panel through the English wheel to stiffen up the panel. install it and welding everything up and grinder all the welds. Now time to move on to the rockers. This is where I left off so this will be all for now till I get a bunch more work done. I`ll keep posting updates as the build goes on.
Just to give you some idea where I am going with this I have some picture of Fleetlines that have inspired me on this build. The first one I have had saved for a few years,love the chop and the way it sits.
Nothing brave here.I was raised on rusted cars like this.Did a bit more work tonite but will wait till I get a pile of work done then make another post.
Go Fitzee Go !!! Wow you werent kidding shes pretty rotten ... even kinda makes my 47 look good lol!! Keep at it ya only got bout 11 months before you have to drive it on the ferry !
It is rusty all right. But one good thing is i will be using the 52 frame.Stripped out the floors and found that the frame is not that bad. So just going to put the S10 clip onto this frame. This will knock a bit more time from my build. That is the plan, to drive it next summer.
Thats wild eh , floors almost non existent but the frame is repairable ...the missing floors musta let the frame " breathe "
I drop up to fitzee's shop most Fridays at lunch hour and I must say the frame surprised me! I fully expected it to be junk but it passes the hammer test easily. The bad rust is confined to forward of the firewall. He's moving along well and I'd be surprised if he DIDN'T have it ready to go for next July. He's announcing at the Drag strip this weekend so he not working on it at all...or on the HAMB to post an update.
I been spending most of my evening at the car.A hour here a hour there.the weekend seem to be a bust. I am always out of town on weekends.I want to get a full day at the car.I know I could get a lot done.But anyway here is what I have done to date.I made my own rocker,inside and out. Used my homemade brake that I build about 10 years ago. still work good. I could not just cut all the rust out of the car at once cause there be nothing left!! I replace a bit at a time and as each new piece was add I move on and cut more out. After the rocker was installed I moved on to the door post. lots of rust here. Had to cut the face of the post off and repair the hing mounts and had to completely make the lower section where the fender bolts on,All that was gone. Had to get into the fire wall as well. seems there was rust there too!! go figure.
Here is the Door post. Also cut all the floors back to the truck out. to have a look at the frame.Was thinking the frame was junk but after looking at it closely it can be saved.The front is shot but I will be clipping that
Now that I have the door post,rocker and drivers side quarter done it was time to start moving around to the other side but I first had to get ride of the gas door. and replace the rear of the drivers quarter. Finished this tonight. have to turn the car around tomorrow and start in on the other side.
Wow great progress Fitzee ! Another month of evenings and the body shell should be in primer on the sandblasted frame . Have you found a clip for the frontend yet?
I have a S10 clip longer then I had the car!!. All I need is a rear end and have that lined up. been collecting parts for a few year for this car. Have all the running gear other then the rear end. Should make it a chopped roller for very little money.
No progress this pass weekend but found my tail light sections from a 49 Ford as well as found a 51 Hudson grill that might find it way into the project.
someone else on my back.lol Been a slacker Did the around the house clean up this past weekend. You and a 3 or 4 locals are on my back. That is a good thing. Needs a duff in the ass ever now and again. Tomorrow night then.I get something done.
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