Starting the bodywork. For now each panel will get straightened, primed, and painted semigloss black. I want to keep it semi finished for the summer rides, so this fall I can decide on a color and repaint the whole car. Fenders in back were really rough, and this one took me several hours to pound out, and several days to get it shaped and smoothed out:



Nose had a bit of rust underneath, and designed to trap water. I cut out the bad part and reshaped the filler metal to run off. When I opened up the frontend I found two minty Canadian pennies from 1946! Guess that solves the mystery of where the car was imported to when new in 1946!:


There's hardly a perfectly straight panel anywhere. None of it really bad, just ripples everywhere!:



One fender done and painted:


Got some lower rocker panel trim from an early Ford for $1. Made some replacement side grilles for the hood. I knew I'd never find the originals, so these will have to do:


Plugged the holes in the fenders for the side mirrors. Couldn't see anything in the original location, so new side mirrors went on the door frames:


The rockers were ugly! Exposed bolts and rough metal. Used to be hidden by the running boards, so I needed to hide them again. Bent some more 16ga. on the cheap HF brake, and filled them in:






Trunk drop was too badly wrinkled, so I cut out the worst part and welded in flat metal. Easier than trying to get inside that dropped area of the trunk with a hammer and dolly. While I had the bumper off I rebuilt the wioring, covered it with shrink wrap, and added plug connectors to allow it to be removed easily in the future. Also painted the brackets with Hammerite dark silver paint:



Since I was busy welding, I built these nifty little nerf bars for the front. They wont stop anything, but they fill the holes and I like the look:


Yesterday I tore into the brake system. I wanted to add a proportioning valve to the rear brakes to lessen the pressure. They were OK, but in the wet I could lock up the rears before the fronts, so I plumbed in a prop. valve. Also while it was apart I finally got the line lock installed to the front brakes. Went with a Biondo Racing line lock and it required some mods to the brake lines to fit. Plumbed it in below the master, then cut the line back and reflared the end.
The Jaguar shifter had a cruise control button built into it, so I wired power to the switch, and took it to the line lock. Just made a label to cover up the "cruise" label, and then labels for "on" and "off".
Haven't got pictures yet, or tried it, but the weather is not great yet. Once it gets nice I'll take it for a test run!

 

My offer STILL stands, I will fly out on my dime and hold that thing to the floor for ya. Its gotta be bugging you which ones faster. You drive the Camaro, which you have raced for over 30yrs and know EVERY nuance. Me first time in a possibly faster car. Just have to hang on and wait for the win light. I'll bring a helmet and jacket. Now off to Expedia to plan my flight.

 

Last sat. my neighbor and I went to a friend's house to see how he's coming with his '37 ****** gasser. When we were leaving my neighbor says, "Are you ever gonna open this thing up and really see what it will do?"
So I figured that sounded sorta like a dare, and as we were pulling out I stood on it. Never did hook up through 1st, but when I hit 2nd it felt like it lifted the frontend a little bit, and by the time I hit 3rd we ran outta room and I shut it down. First time I held it to the floor and really ran her out.
I looked over at the neighbor and he said, "Well that jump started the old heart again!"
So from what I can tell, I'd guess the Austin would most likely give the Camaro a good run, and I'm guessing even outrun it if my gut feeling is right.

 

All you need now is a 8000 rpm pill in the shift light and a transbrake for some real fun.

 

I've already got one of them, the 8,000 rpm chip in the tach. I rarely look at the tach though.

 

Looks like real fun Vall.

 

Got the car out to test the line lock and one of the fittings was leaking fluid on the header, so took it apart again and discovered they gave me the wrong fitting to go into the line lock. It wasn't a tapered pipe thread, so it bottomed out in the line lock and didn't seal enough. Have to tear it apart again and replace that fitting, then bleed it all over again. Irritating.
Decided to just go back to bodywork and stripped the hood instead. The paint was so rough people were asking if I painted it with undercoating! I had cleaned and shot some paint on it when I first got it to stop it from rusting, but I think someone had sprayed something oily on the rust. When the paint hit it the finish started to fish eye, and turned to crap.
So I stripped it to bare metal today, then primed and shot it with more semigloss black. Turned out fine this time, but I was extra careful to wipe it with degreaser after stripping it, just in case there was something on the metal. Those flapper discs make pretty quick work of the old paint, but the stuff I sprayed on before didn't come off as easy.

 

Love it! It brings back memories from the early 60's when me and a buddy stuffed a blown Chrysler into a Henry J. We had no idea on how to spray paint and had too much air pressure to the gun, resulting in a finish resembling sand paper, lol. Good luck with it!

 

Reminds me of the rad support I did last summer. I still don't know what turned gloss paint to Rhino Liner.

 

Thanks Pete! Since I'm over 60, I grew up with this type of car too, so that's why I went gasser, rather than down in the dirt with it. I think a lot of folks under 40 yrs. old haven't seen the old gassers much from the reaction I get driving it around.
I just turned over 600 miles on the odometer, so I'm getting a lot of time behind the wheel learning how to drive this critter.