r is for restraint

There's not a better way to get me to tinker on something,
than to take my hot rod home,
and dump yours right in the open spot left in the yard.

brandon's 1936 ford coupe

You may remember this car from when I did that nose piece.
Over 2 years ago already!
perich brothers (and sister): motorvation - ford coupe nose part I

2011

Well Brandon played his cards right,
and now his '36 was in the spot.
Now was the time for some restraint on my part.
If you look at the old shot above,
there are 2 obvious things that need to be done to his car.

One is easy - chop it.
Gone are the days of big flowery hats.
This was a little ambitious to do in a week,
but it would have been fun.

The second thing that bugged me were those little bumper pads.
If I can see them in a tiny little picture like that,
then they should be taken care of.

1936 ford coupe

Many of you restorers will cringe,
but Brandon's car already had some custom treatment -
the overly frenched tail lights and license plate hole,
and he hasn't ran a bumper in years.
Besides that the pads were basically bondo sculptures anyway.

chip away

No wonder these are the only things that hold up the bumper.
There is also no hammering access with the double skin.

stock 1936 ford coupe

Here's a comparison shot of what's missing.
Most likely the rear was lightly wrecked long ago.
The spare tire was probably pushed in,
which made the license plate hole an easy choice,
and the whole rear panel had also been replaced.

holey chit

A couple minutes with a grinder and there was no turning back.

clampage

A couple simple curved patch panels were rolled out.
Those clamps made it so easy.

stool time!

The afternoon sun was a cooker.
Crawling around in the dirt made it all the more pleasant!
It's like our own little Mexico.

tig time

I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure out how
to drag the TIG out to the side yard.
All it took was the little skateboard ramp and a couple minutes.
There is a bit of wind in this area it acts like a funnel.

primer

Some magic epoxy primer was rolled on.
I love it when it gets dark at 7:40pm.

hammer time

This was difficult to hammer out,
and I was a little lazy with the metal finish
since there was already bondo work in that area.

smooth

A couple thin layers with the Evercoat Z-grip smoothed out the weld seams.
This stuff is amazing how fast it can be sanded.
After that a thin coat of the finishing or glazing putty was spread out.
Much easier to feather in the patched areas.

brandon's 1936 ford coupe

It looks much cleaner to me,
a much better flow.
Some stainless nerf bars,
or even a push bar style pipe bumper would be cool.
Still needs a chop...

TP