1931 Chevy 4door into pickup.

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Alright, haven't done too much on the car this last week as I've had honey do's to do. But today I finally found my motivation and got out to the garage. I was going to start working on my grill but I ended up going another route. I started by stripping the paint off of the hood of the donor Mercedes and got a bit tired of working with paint stripper and a wire wheel so I broke out a 36grit flap disc and started going to town. This is where I decided to go a different route. After working the flap disc like a buffer, I fell in love with the pattern it left and thought it'd be a shame to cut holes in it so I thought that it would be better suited as a replacement firewall. I may even clear coat it so it doesn't become all rusty but maybe a bit of rust will bring out the pattern. Anyhow, haven't decided whether I should weld it to the body, bolt it on, or if I should just rivet it like the copper on my 33. Anyhow, time for me to head to bed. Here's a couple of pictures of the sheet.





I'll have to cut it out and grind off a little bit of the paint but that can wait until tomorrow.

Alright, firewall is mostly done. I really like the way it turned out. It's kinda a shame that it'll get covered up by the brake cylinder and booster and the chain drive system. So, what I did was welded in all the holes because there are a few spots that the "cover" doesn't quite seal up. After that I just cut the piece to fit, spot welded it on, and hammered down the edges to give it a "finished" look. Tomorrow I'll drill the holes to mount the brake cylinder and the chain drive assembly. Until then, goodnight y'all.

All the holes that needed filled in.


All the holes filled.


Cover mocked up.


Spot welded in place and places where the clamps were had to be reground to get the appearance right.


The pictures really doesn't do the firewall justice if you ask me.

Looks good !!

Well, I haven't done anything lately. Need to finish some tidbits here and there so that the interior is done but I haven't been able to get down to the steel store lately. After that, I'll be completely done with the body. I'm going to start running brake lines next week. Until then, keep on keepin on.

Looks great just hanging there....

As for not much done...? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!..

sgtpontiac said:

As for not much done...? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!..

Click to expand...

^^^Yeah, Right???^^^

Small project for today. Got a small oil barrel from work, ya see, the scrap metal company won't take them and the dump really doesn't want them due to residual amounts of oil left in the barrels. It's some nasty thick stuff that makes 80/90 seem thin. I'm talking thicker than molasses in the middle of winter up here, and yeah, I've seen hammers float on top of engine oil when it's that cold. Anyhow, got a barrel, cleaned it up real good with some diesel fuel, cut 9-1/2" off of the top, welded the filler neck from the Mercedes onto it, fabricated an "out" port, and capped the open end. I think it turned out pretty good. Still need to cut a hole for the sending unit, a return line, and a vent valve but I need to make sure she fits first. I figure it should be somewhere around 10-15 gallons right now.













Bolt needs to come off of the capped end still. Made for a really good handle when I was fitting te cap.

Well that's kinda cool....

Nice work.....[cl [P

Didn't do much to her this week but I finally decided to start on my door latches yesterday. I started with making a box for the bear jaw to fit in. Then I cut the door. This was the part I was hesitant about just because I didn't want to have to go back and redo it if it turned out wrong. So I cut little bits at a time until the box and latch for in place. Tack welded it in and checked to make sure the post would line up. I forgot to account for the fact that the door sits at a bit of an angle so I had to make a small bracket for the post and everything lines up. There's quite a bit of a gap where the latch is so I'm going to have to cut out bits of the door jamb on the passenger side and rebuild some of it once I get more steel but it's sitting in there and latches so that's a good thing. Here's some pictures of how she turned out.













So tomorrow or Monday, haven't really decided ill start on the drivers side. Should go a bit quicker as I've already done one side and it's just copying what I did on this side.

nice

Lookin good...nice work!!![cl

Finally got more steel.

So, finally broke down and went the 2 hours to the steel place and picked up another sheet of 18ga. Looks like steel prices are going up again. But I think this'll be my last bit until I start on the bed. Anyhow, did that yesterday. Today, I couldn't sleep so went out to the shop and made my grill piece. Took a bit longer than I thought it would but I think it turned out really nice. 24 2-1/2 inch holes total. Anyhow, that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll start working on the top of the door jams. After I get that stuff finished, I'll move onto the windshield opening and the inside skin of the roof.







I'm thinking I need to put some expanded steel behind the grill to give it the illusion of having a radiator up front. But I really don't know yet.

Grille looks good!!![cl

Holie molie that's a nice grill [cl

NEXT [P

Like it a lot, I think your right on the expanded metal, or something similar behind it .

I think the grinder marks around some of the holes from deburring are throwing it off for me. I keep trying to make myself see the hole pattern as evenly spaced, with the change in spacing to the bottom, but those marks are messing with me. Maybe grind the whole surface or something? Are you going to force rust it or patina it in some way? I like it overall though. I also agree that some mesh behind would look good.

Yeah, I didn't want to grind around the holes to much but I'm always afraid someone would cut themselves on it. Y'all know how folks are sometimes. As for now, I'm just going to leave her as is, no paint, force rust, etc. Anyhow, today I started on my door jams again. Due to my cowl shifting, I had a nasty gap in the top of the drivers side door so I needed to do something about it. My solution was easy and as long as you're not looking at both sides, it's no big deal. Not really a fan but I'm not cutting the floor pans up just so I can drop the cowl 7/16 of an inch. Besides, it's more of a rat rod than a hot rod and it was my first top chop. What I did was take a piece of 18ga and bent it to what I needed. 1/2" in the front and 1/8 in the back. Set it against the door and clamped it to the top. It covered up most of the original bead in the door up front and almost none in the back. Welded her in and ground her somewhat smooth. After that I filled in the gap between the window and the door. I think it turned out okay. I'll have to keep staring at it to see if I'm really happy with it or not. Tomorrow I'll make the top portion of the door jam. It needs to come down about 3/4 of an inch, make a 90 degree and then go back up in a curve. Explaining it may not make sense but after I get it done y'all will understand I think. Anyhow, a couple pictures of the drivers side door fitment.

Looking good..

I had a similar situation with my body shifting around on me when I did the floor and finished welding everything. Mines more noticeable at the rear door body lines where it meets with the cab.. I told myself the same thing.. its not a high dollar hot rod.. its fine!

Keep up the good work

Looks like that will do the trick! If you care about the bit of wedge gap between the A-pillar and the door at the top, use a piece of 1/8 steel rod as filler. Welding rod will work fine. Cut it roughly to length, tack it and shape it as needed then fill weld and grind. Works great to reshape door edges. Use a file to do the final shaping and round the edges off for better control.