31pontiac's '31 Pontiac

[31pontiac]

  After the dirty fab work around the 428 was completed, I took it to my long time friend, Pontiac drag racer, and Pontiac engine builder Paul Spotts, who rebuilt it per my request for a low-compression, 360 to 400 horsepower, dual-quad Pontiac V-8 with a '60's look. It looks and sounds great!

1024141708.mp4

[31pontiac]

   With the rebuilt 428 and Turbo 350 back in the chassis, we went back to working on the body, specifically chopping the doors.

[31pontiac]

  June 2015. First car show, first time it has seen the light of day since starting this project. Paul Spotts convinced Chris B. and myself to bring our unfinished 1931 Pontiac coupes to the Pypes show in Hatfield to display similar but different builds. He had also rebuilt the motors for both cars.

[31pontiac]

    Added a little recess to the firewall so that the distributer could be removed for service if necessary.

[31pontiac]

   After welding the tops of the windshield posts back on the cowl, we fit it over the wood structure for the last time and nailed it to the wood.

[Ringo64]

Love seeing this come together 

[31pontiac]

   Then I installed the drip trough under the rumbleseat lid.

[31pontiac]

1 minute ago, Ringo64 said:

Love seeing this come together 

   Thanks. Happy to share my experiences. I hope it may educate and / or help others also.

[31pontiac]

   Time to position the sheetmetal "skin" over the wood frame. I don't have any pictures during the process (my hands were full), but it went like this. First we (my brother and I) removed the rear wheels and tires and then the 2 of us slid the body over the wood beginning at the rear of the car and working forward until the body was correctly seated on the wood framework. After we were happy with the fit, we nailed the metal to the wood around the perimeter of the shell. 

    This was NOT the way I was told to do this job. It was described to me that I should replace the wood from inside the body without removing it and to drill through the body (and later repair it) to gain access to multiple blind fasteners. I did not want to create more bodywork to do nor did I relish the idea of welding metal right next to wood, so we tried the tactic described previously and are totally happy with the results.

[31pontiac]

   Paint removal, primer, and more mockups.

[31pontiac]

    Redesigned my original front shock mounts and installed 2-speed electric windshield wipers (on video).

20170122_143520.mp4

[31pontiac]

  We took a sliver of metal out of the edge of the rumbleseat lid to make the gap more uniform. Also test fit MG Midget seats, wound up not using them. More on seating later.

[Kim Francis]

probably the next purchase.. i always dreamed about building one of these hot rods. Good job

[31pontiac]

   Replacing the wood in the doors was the next thing we addressed, and getting them to fit in their opening after the chop proved to be a real challenge. it required removing a triangular piece of the door skin and a lot of fine tuning.

[31pontiac]

  Doors finally fitted.

[31pontiac]

  Back to the seats.  Looking to create a little more head and leg room, I searched for an alternative to the MG Midget seats I had., and came up with a pair of Austin-Healey 3000 bucket seats. Together with some modified Corvette C3 seat adjusters I was able to create a little extra space in both directions. Along with the seats, I installed a much modified '65 Tempest/ LeMans/ GTO  2-speed automatic shifter mated to the Turbo 350 trans with a conversion from Shiftworks ( before and after pics).

[JUSTA6]

Great to see the progress, thankz for sharing the pic's.

[Frosty]

A couple of kudos 31pontiac.

1. I really appreciate the fact that you had to pie cut the doors a tad to make the chop work and make everything fit. Most folks don't think of pie-cutting the doors until they have to do it. It is not something you see photographed or talked about it most of the write-ups. I've seen Gene Winfield do it since he chops the top of a car every year at the Detroit Autorama.

2. Re-purposing a 2-speed chrome shifter to work with a 3-speed tranny. That is what hot rodding is all about. I will have to remember this particular trick.

[31pontiac]

   Thanks Frosty. Not everyone is aware of what it takes to build a car like this, so I thought I would show just some of the modifications that we have done without going into too much detail and boring people. Nice to hear from those who appreciate this thread.

 

[Frosty]

11 hours ago, 31pontiac said:

   Thanks Frosty. Not everyone is aware of what it takes to build a car like this, so I thought I would show just some of the modifications that we have done without going into too much detail and boring people. Nice to hear from those who appreciate this thread.

 

I am always willing to learn my friend. I've seen Gene Winfield chop a different car every year at the Detroit Autorama for the last 5 years at least. One year its a '49 Mercury, a '63 Starliner, a '52 F-1, etc. Each chop is different and brings its own unique set of challenges to complete it and make it look right. What amazes me is that he and his crew of local high school/local tech school teachers and students start and complete the chop in one weekend! So I do appreciate all the little things it takes to get it done right.

[Last Indian]

Love the the work you’ve put in it 31! Like I said before, brings back fond memories. Thanks for sharing, back in the day we really didn’t take much in the way of pictures. Took a lot of time and money then as opposed to now.

[31pontiac]

   Time to tackle the steering.  I got a Flaming River tilt column and a 1960 Pontiac steering wheel and had to come up with a steering column drop from the dash and how to route the steering system from the floorboard to the steering box.

 

[31pontiac]

  Time to make the cardboard template into metal. 

 

 

[31pontiac]

Column drop finished except for paint.

[31pontiac]

  Time to address the brake M/C and booster. I did not like the M/C and booster together on the firewall, they were too massive and hid the engine and carbs. So I designed a bracket to mount the booster inside the firewall with only the master cylinder on the outside. Considered  mounted everything under the floor, but space is limited, and servicing is not very convenient.