Graham build

[BillM]

Thanks for the comments everyone....here's a few more. After storing the car for many years myself, I finally moved it into the "queue", or the shop.

 

[GJunktionMike]

I see a whole lot of other rides there. holding out on pics.[S[P

 

[CORPO]

thats really awesome that the car is from your family and you have an original picture.. very cool

 

[Tim...Ok]

I see a whole lot of other rides there. holding out on pics.[S[P

Really cool before pics..but I'm with Mike, show us the shiny stuff too[P

 

[BillM]

Thanks for your interest, Mike, Tim.....I wasn't intending to be elusive, but just trying to keep this thread on topic! But, since you've asked.....

The grey '29 Ford is my uncles car. We built it from scratch, finishing it about 4 or 5 years ago. The '30 Reo, is a restoration that my uncle, my dad and I did, for my dad, finishing it last summer. The car in the avatar is mine, a 69 Swinger.....

Here's a couple of pictures.....

 

[GJunktionMike]

Anything w/4 wheels is always on topic

Thank Bill for the pics nice rides[dr

 

[maverickmk]

That is an awesome ride. Can't wait to see it finished. Keep the progress pics coming. Like Flipper said, "us simple folk need pics."

 

[Tim...Ok]

Thanks for the pics..very nice rides!

 

[BillM]

So, to continue with the original intent of this thread - my Graham build....here's a few pictures from early on.....we pulled the sheet metal off the frame, and the patch work and chop began.

 

[zzrodder]

This so reminds me of my Caddy build with the body cut into pieces like that!! Nice work on the rust repair. [cl

 

[rex1927]

Wow! Thats the way to get all the rust out.Cool[

 

[BillM]

More updates

Here are some updates - after the chop and metal repairs, I had to build a roof. Turns out that I couldn't find any donor metal anywhere. The Graham is a very wide car, and the way the roof was originally constructed - wood right out to the top of the doors - nothing I could find was going to work. I had to buy a sheet of HR plain, and start from scratch. As you can see from the pic's here, I had a few moments of thinking that it was never going to work......

 

[Oldrodder43]

Great looking top! I can see from here that it was a LOT of work. I have to do almost the exact same thing to the roof of my '29 Essex Coupe! Darn discouraging to me. Got a detail pic of the roof ribs and how you made them? perley

 

[BillM]

Thanks for appreciating how much work the roof was Perley! Unfortunately, I don't have any better pictures of the roof ribs. I made them out of 1/2" X 1" tube. I ran a couple along the length of the car first - I shaped them to the curve of the car, then welded them in along the top of the sheet metal. To make the ribs, I bent the ends around a propane bottle, and cut them off to the height and length that I needed - mimicing the curve in what there was of the original sheet metal roof. I made them progressively shorter and flatter as I worked toward the front of the car. For the roof metal, I bent a 4" pipe to the same curve as the shape of the car, and tried to wrap the sheet metal over that. As you can see, I ended up with a couple of really bad "pleats". I stretched the pleats using a dead blow hammer and a bag of sawdust, until I had something close. Once it was on the car, I did have to make about 4 relief cuts in either side, and it turned out ok. It's a little flatter than I would have liked, but I think it will look ok. I put some really dense 3/8" foam on the ribs before I installed the sheet metal, in order to prevent any welding, or squeaks. I hope this all makes sense to you. If not, PM me and I'll try to explain it better....

 

[Oldrodder43]

Yes, I can follow that explanation BillM. The Essex is very similar to your Graham. I'll mull that over some, still got some time before I need to do that. I did ok on the structure of the frame and such, but the darn body work is getting me! I know it looks simple from watching videos and that, but just doesn't work as easy as it looks---
Thanks for the description of what you did, and I've enjoyed watching you build. Perley

 

[BillM]

Here's a couple more of the roof skin that I just found.....

 

[BillM]

Frame pictures

Here are some pictures of the frame....

 

[BillM]

More frame pictures

Found some more frame construction pictures........I need to organize these a bit......

 

[Sam_Fear]

Impressed with the roof - looks very good.

 

[BillM]

Back to where we are...

This pretty well brings this thread up to date with where I am....installing the floors. After fitting the floors, I stood the body on end, on the firewall obviously! This made finishing the floors a hell of a lot easier....