51 Ford

[idrivejunk]

Had Mike stare at the front end looking for anything crooked. Nothing.  All in my imagination I guess. He was confirming available cooling system space. I had given him a diagram of that prolly a year ago now. Art gets thrown away by default.

Anyway yesterdays picture with tape in it must have been confusing. The tape was not marking a length issue, it was indicating the problem and the solution. Here it is fixed-



Board sits flush with bed now too.

Crusty filler panel at front of board, in-



You can also see a little of where the cab was either dropped or scooted across a rough floor, damaging the fresh bodywork and affecting the door gap a little. On both sides.

[kb426]

The 56 grille is growing on me.

[idrivejunk]

The 56 grille is growing on me.

Its already overgrown. Take 6" out and you're there. I'll not do anything until you want something.

Nobody would want to hear the afternoon story. I made pieces for the front fenders at inners at firewall intersection.

[kb426]

The F6 still had those on it. That was the 1st ones I had seen.

[idrivejunk]

Which? The crusty fillers at front of boards?  

It was kinda wierd, I had to add a 90° vertical bend at the inside on those where no bend was but then they fit OK.

What I made today goes at the top of the fender, the highly visible when hood is open area immediately ahead of the hinge area on cowl. Top inner fender to firewall bracket bolt goes through them, and the pieces are just to visually and gracefully finish out that corner. Forgot pic because that bolt is pure heck to start, assistant or no, and I'd had a bellyful of heck. I will need an extended period assistant to proceed.

[idrivejunk]

Hey Bill I didn't do anything but did look at stuff. Still have no adequate reference pics for 300 lights, and part number research a half hour got me nowhere but I tell you whut...

If it was mine I think I'd deep tuck (leave 1/4" sticking out) or set back and/or trim/shave a smooth like the chrome ones stock front bumper (no valance showing below bumper), keep the 51 grille, lose the 3 uprights and keep 51 head and park lamp housings but fit 56 style headlights and bezels in them. Use good color(s), you're done and it's slick with no frog eyes. Shave hood wit dat and call her did. If'n another feller was hankering to use slanty lights I might suggest he look into using 48-50 fender extensions with those.  

Boss text this evening. Looks like I will be moving the cab forward half an inch in hopes of centering the front fender lips better over the wheels. That should make the running board stuff more interesting. But I have not "fixed" the board front ends yet, luckily. I leveled bed to frame with 6 thick shim stack at rear today. Cab still up in back about half inch so a third set of holes in brkts (or slot) req'd. That part has been as much a guessing game all along as the brown bottom diseased Model A but thats how it is when you start with junk.

[idrivejunk]

I know everyone has been dying to see front wheels centered in fender lips since day one. Today is everyone's day-





Boss sez much better and thats all. This bed gap has no effect.



Nor this board gap-



:?  I moved it two inches or more. The cab and clip. Toe is out an inch or so.

Heres what I was describing earlier-



Yes, these must be finished off the truck. Had to just weld up the right side with no bolt so correction there also needed then.

[kb426]

Yes, I was referring to those that block the running boards from the fender.

[idrivejunk]

Who remembers the plain clean white nice genuine Ford used car?







I shaved some underhood stuff and fixed that quarter you walked up on. Long time ago. Then it went to Tennessee around Nashville and came back sporting a 347 putting 769 to the wheels through a six gear.



If we can place bets with hoods shut and engines off, hey!







Mercy sakes alive  :!:        Now we're talkin Ford with no traction.



Heres the walkaround with the dead giveaway-

I did some of this-



There was more wheel circus, almost all in vain-



Boss vacation and maybe with F1 man. No further instruction until week after next and sometime next week I get to save this VW front panel. Keeping it... you guessed it... as small as possible.



The fender that goes there is also crashed and also to be used. Aside from the damage shown, the 66 bug body is almost perfectly rust and damage free. Never seen one like that. Know what its like to be a 66 model and have one really bad day though

This post took one hour and a half to compose. How long to read and forget?

[kb426]

I see high hp. mustangs quite often. I wonder what kind of reinforcement needs to be done to keep from destroying the car? A bug without the battery area rusted out is quite rare. Will it get paint and something cool while it visits your shop?

[idrivejunk]

I see high hp. mustangs quite often. I wonder what kind of reinforcement needs to be done to keep from destroying the car? A bug without the battery area rusted out is quite rare. Will it get paint and something cool while it visits your shop?

Yeah stuff where you can't floor it has no appeal. I imagine a cage would be a start. But how many Mustangs that I work on do you see?  4 in ten years. Nobody's seen me work on a VW, I think. I fixed a good many newer ones in crash daze. Maybe one here. The battery tray might be rusted on this one, I don't know. Only seen exterior. Sounds like a bargain basement job wanting a quickie so "bigger" jobs can come in. :?

[idrivejunk]

Heres something less often seen... fresh sheet from the 400 lb 2.0L Integra guy

[idrivejunk]

I succeeded where others failed, because I had to... it can now roll a short distance on smooth surfaces with matching wheels and tires all around. I had the man who assembled the chassis correct the toe. I lowered the rear of the cab to match bed height. Rockers and bed run parallel to frame now. Core support mounts' new heights are estimated, as are cab mounts and all will have to be redone / remade / redrilled / filled so I am starting from scratch again. With firewall revision and tunnel reconstruction likely to be necessary and the repaired destroyed hood latch hopelessly jammed shut again and with OE rear fender mounting locations that are obviously bad wrong.  

All because of some reason which can't be known by us, that requires an additional two inches of wheelbase to be added by Roadster Shop. I must believe I am the root of the problem and take full responsibility and feel like I should pay money back for all such wrongdoing on my part.

Thats sarcasm to me but reality to those accustomed to knowingly hiring thieves. Now everyone can shut up about front wheel centering. It never had a thing to do with me in the first place and doesn't now but I realize when all objectives must be ignored to focus on a single percieved overselling of ability and underdoing of job. Years of observation have taught me this and it applies at any employer:

If a person stays at a job, they get top position. Once top position is held long term, pay is capped and the witch hunt is on. Failing to provide a fireable catastrophe leads to a task not possible being given to induce a fireable failure. By failing to provide equipment or materials necessary to accomplish sold task, defamation sets in and you just wasted a chunk of life for someone who vacations a lot but does not allow them.

Everywhere. Not just here. So we end up back at the sad fact that-

Quality doesn't pay. America needs a scapegoat worse than a job done well. If there just wasn't such blatant disregard for honest effort, I could stomach it better.





Hopefully these unedited and current photos reflect the issue of the day having been solved.

[enjenjo]

I don't know if it's the picture, but it looks to me like the back of the rear fenders have to go up several inches.

[idrivejunk]

Yep, nobody reads. Just glance and point out what they see wrong. :?

The only thing that should look improved in the pictures is the position of wheels within the fender lips. All positioning of cab and panels except the doors but maybe those too, must be redone. Free of charge to the customer.

What could I have done to avoid this? :?: Never mind, its no use. You are right. I know when I'm licked.

I have half a mind to draw a picture to explain but am stinkin tired of having to do things to make people think I'm right. Why should I care? My words are feces and so are my images and theres no reason to believe I can fix cars. And lots of people who do stuff are A-holes so its OK, right?