Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Day 8 - THE CHOP!!!!!!


Well its day 8 and today is the day to cut it all up! Most people when chopping only take about 2 1/2 inches out of the tops. In case you havent realized already, I am not most people. I already channeled it 5 inches and it will get chopped another 5 inches!! Lowering the overall heidth of the car 10" will be a huge difference between looking like a buggie and looking totally cool. I need to get the pics up so you can see the progress. I took alot of pics so if there is someone out there who might want them for info on their car please feel free to email me. Also I would like to thank Ralph from the H.A.M.B. site who was nice enough to send me a traced out drawing of his 28 chevy coupe floorboards. You saved me alot of time and I appreciate it a ton!!

Day 7 - More tubing

Well I got more tubing welded in the car today. That covers most of the structure. I channeled the body the width of the frame so it is about 5 inches lower. The tubing for the front floorboards is basically done. Now its strong enough to chop the top !!!!!

Day 6 - Babies got new shoes!!!

I asked my son Joey if the car looked like a hotrod yet and he said "No dad, no wheels, not a hotrod, there's no wheels!" so I told him I would have wheels on it the next time he seen it. So I got some tires mounted on 2 of the ET wheels and mounted some on 2 other wheels I had. I didnt have 2 more tires for the other ET's. I picked up a rearend and proceeded to stuff it under the car. I slapped some brake rotors on the front and slapped on the new shoes. I asked Joey if it looked like a hotrod now and he said "No motor dad, it cant be a hotrod without a motor." So I guess it still isnt a hotrod yet. By the way, Heather said she really likes the car. She is already planning on driving it around and taking it to work. She also told me there is no way we are selling it. It's so nice having someone around who supports you and the things you do. I have heard before that behind every great hotrod there is a great woman, I am starting to understand why that is. Hopefully there will be some pics soon!!!

Day 5 - The bodies skeleton

Well I spent all day bending and welding square tubing into the body Not much fun but the top sure is strong. The steel tubing should make alot better bones to hold everything up than the wood. Lets see if we cant make this car stick around for another 80 years, or at least till gas runs out in the world.

Day 4 - The heart and feet come home

The fourth day I didnt get too much work done on the car itself. I looked on craigslist and found some great deals on parts. I found a running low mileage motor and transmission out of a wrecked firetruck for $250!!! What a steal! If you dont think thats a good deal then how about some original ET wheels from back in the day. I got a full set of four with center caps for $60!! I think the planets aligned this day because that just saved a ton of money!. Oh by the way in case you are wondering the total cost so far is $250 for motor, $60 for wheels, $35 for gas and oil (my truck is so worn out its basically a 2 stroke) , and $100 for square tubing. Total so far is $445. I cant wait to get back to work on it.

Day 3 - Welding it up

On the third day there was a very bright light that came from atop a big hill. The Lord was asked if that was to be the sun and he replied "No, my son, That is welding from what is to be the coolest hotrod the world will ever see." Ok maybe that's not what really happened. On the third day there was alot of welding though. I started tacking the body panels together to get an idea where everything goes. Then I can start welding a inner structure made out of square tubing to hold everything together. Heather is thinking that it really looks like a car now, and she is starting to like it.

Trouble with pics-HELP?!?!

I wanted to post some more pics for everyone but I cant seem to get it to work. Any Ideas????

Day 2 - The Jigsaw Puzzle

Day 2 consisted of starting to figure out the jigsaw pieces that make up the body. Since this car was basically built like an old horsedrawn carriage the body was basically built out of wood then had sheetmetal tacked on with little nails. I believe at this point there are some people worried about my sanity since most people wouldnt even attempt to do something like this. It is shaping up to look like something now though!!

Day 1 Another pic


This is another shot to give another angle on the beauty.

Monday, May 4, 2009

The day it came home


This is it!!!!!! Now I'm sure that 99.99999% of the population looks at this as junk but to me it's gold! Free gold!!

The story so far

I have created this blog to tell the story of our 1930 Chevy coupe. I have built some hotrods and done some restoration work in the past but I have never been able to keep them as I was doing them for a living. This however is the one I will be doing for myself and my girlfriend Heather. So lets get to the coupe.

The story on this car goes in a couple of segments here so bear with me as it is a little bit complicated. I had a 1930 Ford roadster pickup body that I was wanting to find a chassis for. I called a friend of mine named Dave as he has alot of hotrods and parts and knows alot of people with them also. Now Dave is a great guy and a good friend however he is not the kind of guy who likes to get rid of things. So I called to ask him if he knew anyone who might have an early chevy chassis for sale. He said "there is one next to my barn but it goes with a body". I said"OK, but would you want to sell it?" He said "well whats it worth?" After playing the game of what it is worth I never really got an answer out of him. He told me the body was in the attic of a barn at his friends place along with some other bodies. He asked me to give him a hand moving the bodies from his buddies place back to his and we would get a price figured out. Well he thought there were three car bodies up there but it was more like six. We pulled them all out and hauled them all back to his place. All except the Chevy coupe. He said we might as well unload it at my house. I said "Dave we have to get a price figured out becasue I dont have alot of money and to tell you the truth I probably cant afford to buy it off you." Dave said " You don't owe me anything you just got done working it off." I couldnt believe it. Dave, the guy who never wants to let go of anyhting just gave me a coupe. Now this thing wasn't any kind of beauty queen as you will see in the first pics, but it was well within my price range and I know I have the ability to bring this lost cause back to life. Thats the story of how I got it.

Now for the story on how Dave got it. After looking at the title for the car (he got a title shortly after getting the car) Dave realized that those bodies were in the attic of that old barn for the last 25 years. So it was around 1983 or 84 that he was talking to a friend of his that told him about the coupe. His friend told him that they were out rabbit hunting in the woods and ran across this old car body. They informed him that there wasnt much left but that they would take him to it so he could check it out. They went back to the spot and found the coupe on the edge of a swamp left to rot. They got to work hauling the leftover pieces of the car out of the woods and hauling the parts to back to the loft of the barn. So thats the story on the car from then until now.