Recent content by Rocksalt

Thank you and I hope so! I can’t be the only person a little burned out on spiderwebs and rat fink.

The Visor: This a tricky one for me. There’s only a handful of Essex hot rods out there, and if they don’t have the stock visor, they can look like a school bus really quick. I knew if I could figure out some embellishments, the visor would hide that giant-ass forehead look. I'm a member of the...

Oh lord yes.

I’m intending on adding an angled wood block/panel/whatever on mine although the body is built square. It’s exactly for ergonomics in my case. I just like something to prop my foot on.

Floors: I have a friend who’s built several cars shared this trick with me. It was a bit more effort, but I felt it would be worth it. I welded sheet metal floor panels to the bottom sides of the body’s framework. I then put a layer of ceramic blanket in each section and capped them with a top...

The grill shell and headlights: By this point in the build, I'd transitioned from an office job, to a professional metal artisan for a bronze foundry. I had a good idea of how to make pretty. I took my inspiration from the 1934 Packard and the 1932 Hudson grill shells. I wanted that heavy...

More Body: The rear section of the chop. The original metal of the Essex is extremely temperamental to weld (hammered shit is more like it) and I've never been satisfied with how the rear seam came out. The finish was rough, and the welds were dodgy at best. Several spots I had to use new...

Thank you for the kind words! I think I’ve rebuilt this car twice from having to go back and make corrections where I botched it. I’m really good at making pretty metalwork but I struggle with getting measurements right. I plan on posting a bunch of the things I made a complete disaster of soon.

More more body: The pretty touches, and a perfect example of how little I know what I'm doing. Here's the first design of my firewall. I love classic type filigree and so I started drawing to fill space and eventually settled here. When I realized that I would have to re-do the entire thing...

More Body: I finished the space between the rounded corner pieces by running a square tube and capping with sheet metal. I only tacked it on the section that touched the original body because the original Essex metal has ALWAYS welded like hammered shit. It burns away like a leaf under a...

More of the Body: The original top to the Essex' were made of wood. I decided to make mine from metal as my wood skills are... meh I made ribs from 1/2" square tube, and then used 3/4 for the pieces that run the length of the car. I was extremely new to the concept of form but I managed to...

The Body: 1927 Essex. 4 suicide doors, (they're discolored because they're aluminum, riveted to steel hinge plates. I rebuilt the front passenger door with a full steel frame and put the original skin back on. Chopped 3". I didn't have a TIG welder for the aluminum parts of the doors so I...

What avenues would you recommend I should take to correct it? There's still a bit of angle on it and a full tank of gas will only add 90 lbs. I think the shocks have 3" of travel total. I'm always hunting for options.

I freely admit, the above photo is totally staged. I've yet to drive, or even start it, but I was too jazzed with how it looked not to get it all posed up. I'll post more pictures of the build. I've been at it awhile, and I have no idea what I'm doing. So I'll start with the my chassis, and...

I’ve been working on it for about 10 years. I just painted it over the week between Xmas and New Years. I plan to post more of the progress pictures here and there, but I thought it would be best to start with a current image next to where an image of what I started with.