1937 Volkster convertible

[markh]

Painstakingly sanded each bar of the '37 grill top and bottom and backside. As well as touched up a couple filled trim holes. The grill will be color matched to the car with the only chrome being the aluminum center strip.


Yup, that's black high build 2k primer. I planned on only shooting the grill but I had extra paint in the gun so went a little crazy and shot the hood, part of the cowl, the front fenders, and a few other random spots.

The plan is to paint one last coat of high build primer in black. Block it down and then it should be ready for sealer and paint.

Can't wait to see how the car looks blacked out. Still more sanding and a couple more minor tweaks before that happens. But it will soon....maybe next weekend even?

[markh]

ok, took a little longer than a week to get the body in black primer. Here it is:






It's as much coverage I could get with just under a quart of primer. One final sanding with 400 then 600 and it will be ready for sealer. Running out of things to do...finally!

[markh]

Still spending time in the garage working out some of the little pesky details on the bodywork. Looking back, I seemed optimistic months ago thinking I would have it in paint by now. Well, it's been months of sanding, filling, priming and I'm happy to say sealer is really next. Good thing because my little crap-o-matic wire feed welder has officially given up the ghost. No more fab work on this one.

The sheen I believe is due to that I just sprayed this last and final coat of primer. Happy to report the front fenders, below the headlight openings are FINALLY in order.

Not the ideal temp in the garage for painting so I suspect it will be a little before final sanding. However I have already managed to find three really small areas needing a touch of body icing and a squirt of primer. oh joy...

Expect the next update to be in color. Stay tuned..

[markh]

Sneak Peak of new color:






Assembly begins!

[markh]

Thought I would update my build thread with recent photos.



Hood mounted with the struts adjusted. I'll be taking everything apart again to finish brakes, air lines, and electrical... all after detail painting the beam and frame head area. The inner luggage panel walls are painted as well. They are the last panels to go in.



Threw the speed in the hole to see how it looks. I like it. (Have a new steering wheel to install, yeah)


Profile:


Rear 3/4: Notice the 56 Chevy LED Bullet tail light mounted and license plate lights installed and ready for finish wiring.


The driver side headlight is not installed in the following photo. The housing I made for the H4 bulbs had a tack welded nut fall off. Re-welded and good to go. In the reflection of this photo it looks as if someone is standing next to me...nope...just me. Weird huh?


The front fenders are bolted to the internal frame via 4 mounting locations along the inner fender well arch.
There is another series of bolts that tie the grill to each fender (not bolted yet).
Then along the back edge at the running board, there are another 3 or 4 bolts.
Right at the rear of the wheel opening, a fender supporting rod/strut reaches in to the inner fender well frame to keep that outer most area of the fender from flexing.
At the front lower edge of the inside fender well, there is still one last mount to be drilled and that's why you see a C-clamp near the front wheel. This keeps the lower front edge from flexing.
All of these mounting points to the frame have to work together to align the nose of the grill, the front hood and the front hood side panels. (I SURE HOPE I GOT ALL THIS RIGHT!!)


Yesterday I stopped by VR member - Mundo's to fix the tack weld in the headlight bucket. While hangin' out, he spotted me some wiring parts, a horn and some tubing shrink wrap stuff.
He had some thin door panel material hanging in the rafters so I'm going to make good use of it and start the interior panels and design. I'll need to re-install the vert top frame and canvass one last test to make sure the interior panels will not interfere when the tops down. So far, the interior will either be grey with black accents or tan. the seats will dictate once I have secured some seats.


I had the doghouse on the motor and the rear breast plate tin color matched. No photos of the motor yet.

Stay tuned....a lot more finish stuff to wrap up.

[markh]

Been working on a LOT of things. Interior, wiring, airride, and last night...I intended to go out and finish up a door panel design and instead, the motor fell in!!


The rear cooling tin is just sitting on the seal. Still need to squeeze it in. Really had no intent of installing the motor but, well, it was sort of in my way so...



Have the exhaust, intake manifold gaskets and a few other half dozen loose ends to button up before Saturday. Saturday she gets fired up!

Back to our regularly scheduled program....

[markh]

Other than running, she now stops.


Electrical is all about done aside from a few little things.

Installed a 3rd brake light behind the decklid louvers:



Also picked up the interior. All Tan leather.


Finished mounting the seat belts and retractors.


Behind the seats I built a plywood deck with two hinged access doors.


Got the air ride gauge and switches located to the glove box, all the dash lights and what not installed.


The exhaust (dual quiet pack) all tucked up under the rear apron. Don't have to worry about dragging the mufflers off.


The decklid is on for the last time. I have a pneumatic strut to keep the decklid up when opened...but it seems it is now 3-4" too long. Huh? Anyway, need to find a shorter strut


Just about to final install all of the front sheet metal for the last time. Will probably complete the interior before that, but we'll see.


I should have some great progress with the interior over this next week. Having the seat belts figured out, the paneling and interior wrapping should go quickly.

The NEW, NEW windshield goes to the cutter on Monday.

Getting closer...

[markh]

Checked in and set up at the 2012 Portland Roadster Show.

[markh]

Best in class for Radical Custom compact. I'm very happy.


Need to tighten up a few loose ends and get this thing on the road.

[markh]

Tail lights, brake lights and turn signals are all working properly.

This past week been busy cutting and buffing. Taking FOREVER! But it sure makes a difference though.

Pics with the top up. A few panels are still needing buffed:


Here the passenger door and rear quarter panel are done. Still need to finish running boards, front quarters and front fenders.


Had a little issue with the turning radius and the tires rubbing when aired all the way up. So I took out my front wheel spacers and now she turns much bettter.

The rear air route is still losing air somewhere. Takes 6-8 hrs for the rear to drop but still..?

Still working out some stuff.

[markh]

All the panels are finally buffed out. Not bad. I still might send it out to a guy for a professional detail but for now...I'm going to go drive it!



Drove down to the grocery store for no reason.

Clutch needed adjusting so back home, jack it up, a couple twists and off again.

Stopped at a nearby business park to snap a couple of photos:




Nice sunny day so it was fun to have the convertible top down. But it started getting a little cloudy so put the top up and headed home.



Here is a unique perspective of the bodyline:


Found a few odd rattles and squeeks needing tightened. Only thing that fell off was the air cleaner wing nut and a chrome exhaust tip came loose. Not bad considering. Still need to double check a couple things before hitting the open highway but so far so good.

One biggy is a new gas gauge and fix my gas tank filler neck. The filler tube has a slight kink that doesn't allow pumped gas to fill with the pump pouring full open. You have to slooooowlly pour in gas. Easy fix, just got to get to it.

Thanks for following along!

[markh]

Got the filler neck and fill tube straightened out. Going to tackle the gas guage next. Got a pair of door mirrors on order. Also found a local mobile upholstery guy to fix the convertible top cover. Have templates for the door glass made and will be sending them out to be cut and tempered.

Taking care of the little things.

Was browsing the web and found these two photos from the roadster show:

[markh]

Fixing broken images. stay tuned.