VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 My 1951 Deluxe Sedan Restoration Journal...

The Online company dealing with EMS and Chevs of the Forties both sell the products for the same price. I prefer to support a VCCA member and Chat Site advertiser...

I had a really good day on Wednesday this week! I think the main benefit we all get by belonging to this club are the friendships, assistance and shared experience we get from our fellow members. I took the '51 chassis down to fellow member George Worron's house to do some work, and received a lesson in seal and gasket changing.

George is a former mechanic and high school shop teacher. Working with him was great, as he had me doing all of the physical work, and he offered the guidance and lesson I needed.



We removed the pulley at the front, and replaced the front seal, then dropped the the pan and replaced and repacked the rear rope seal. A new gasket for the oil pan finished things up.



Carol came out and helped us push the chassis back onto the trailer.

Next it was off to drop the chassis off at Kerry's place, where it will be reunited with the body. Kerry has done quite a bit since I was there last. The underside is all done and painted.





All of the rusty little edges have been repaired. The right rear fender from the '52 parts car has been grafted on, as well as all of the EMS panels. It was here that Kerry uncovered a problem. He put the rear wheel arch patches on the left fender, and then found the fender skirt didn't fit. He said he was racking his brain for an hour or so on what he did wrong, before he realized that the answer was right there on the sticker, staring him in the face!





Apparently the fender patch panels are made for '49-'50 rear fenders only! He ended up making a template from the other side, and reshaping the opening.

Another fix he did was to reproduce the pan that goes behind the rear wheel. His bead rolling looks every bit as good as the original!

While we're on the subject of Kerry's shop, let's take a look around! This is the '59 Dodge that Kerry and his Dad are restoring for his Mom. I saw the car last year, just after Kerry rescued it from another restorer that had gotten in over their head. The bottoms of the doors had two inch gaps to the rockers where someone had messed up the bodywork pretty bad. Kerry has rebuilt all of the metal on the car. The interior was recently fitted by fellow VCCA member Gerald Romkes. He did a beautiful job!

WOW!! great job on the 51.



pete

I admire an individual who is capable of doing quality repairs, with body work.

I would like to know how you decided on Kerry to do your work.

Really looking good, Bruce.

Kerry was referred to me by Paul Rozon (1931Roadster, here on Chat) He did an incredible job painting Paul's roadster. This is the second Chevy he's done. Somehow he got an Alfa Romeo to restore from a guy in a club, and now he's working on the third or fourth one from that club too! Referrals go a long way in his business!

The paint has started to go on, and the body is back on the chassis. The grey has a sandy tinge to it in some light, just as the factory paint did. The firewall, and floors are all done...

I started to clean up the radiator to paint it to send to Kerry. I believe that Dad told me the radiator has never been swapped out of the car before, so the tanks and frame appear to be the originals. They are a bit different from the USA built ones, as the month and year are not stamped onto the front of them. They are also the same as the ones I have here from the parts cars. I'm not sure if they've been re-cored however.

After years of "driver" status, it's bound to have eaten a few bugs. I figured I would turn it over, and dump some soapy water through it, run the garden hose over it, and it would be clean. Wow... was I mistaken!! The entire rad was plugged with bugs! Lots of them! I have no idea how the fan was even pulling air through! After the rinse, this is what I was faced with. This is on the drivers side outer edge of it...



The water and soap seemed to do very little! I got a handheld pin vice drill from my model car supplies and proceeded to pick out every single fin! The secret is to start at the right side if you are right handed and work towards the left. That way the bugs flick into the work you haven't done yet! After doing 8 or so rows in an hour, I rinsed it from behind with the hose, and it looked like it rinsed a second deeper layer of bugs to the top! Another half hour of picking them out and it's starting to look good!



Who knows if I've just succeeded in poking it full of holes or not?!! I'm about a quarter of the way across. I've also decided I'm buying a removable screen for it!

Many 1951s had the top radiator tanks replaced under warranty and it is unusual to fine a properly dated 1951 radiator. This pertained to Canadian cars also.
The original top tanks were steel and rusted through.

The excitement has started again! Kerry sent me a picture of the car back in the paint booth. He's done a lot of paint removal and filling in the areas of the new fender patch panels. We're aiming to have the car here by Nov. 8th!

Looking great!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to post up this picture of Kerry's Dad's Dodge Custom Royal Lancer... It's come along way from the shell I saw the first time I visited Kerry's shop. His Dad has been out enjoying it this fall, and has had it to a few shows...

This week has been a good news / bad news sort of week. I had a weeks of holidays left to use up, and my plan was to do a little road trip into Ohio to visit a few of you guys, and pick up some purchases I've made. I was also hoping to write a journal of the trip as well. I had the whole trip planned out, contacted all of my stops and got them ready, and begged Jane for the cash flow to put it all together. I was packing up the truck, got my passport out... and found out it expired 2 weeks ago!!

Emails and phone calls were made to cancel my plans, and now I've got a couple of days to kill. I found the rear licence plate bracket that needs to be painted the body colour down in the basement, so decided to run it to Kerry, as he had said he would be painting soon.

This is what I found when I arrived...









He has already had the doors and fenders back on to line them up, and he had to drill the holes for the fender spears (the parts car was a Special) to line them up with the door spear. They are now off again for painting.

Of note here is the racks that Kerry's using to hang the parts on to paint. They are clothing racks that he bought at one of the Target stores that went under up here. Brand new, and only $75 a unit! he can wheel them in and out of the paint shop, and the bars are all adjustable for height. There are also bars that hook them all together, so he can hang stuff all around himself, and paint everything at once, spraying from the centre out.

The '51 is looking very good.

Thinking about the laborious task of "bug picking", one would imagine you are certainly ready for the "rubber room".

Looking at the front area pics, it appears Kerry did a conversion to 4 wheel drive. Was that a Styleline Deluxe option in 1951 ?

Wow Bruce,it's beautiful! The reflections in the left quarter panel says it all...Quality workmanship! I was envious of the "parts carts" when I saw the picture then the back story really made me jealous, what a score.
Jay

Kerry has been hard at it, and has the new paint all buffed out. He also added on the trim that I had left with him to drill holes for in the new metal. Yesterday the car went over to Gerald Romkes place to have the headliner re-installed. I had the same one put back in, and will have to do some touch ups around the window garnishes. It goes back to Kerry's for the rims and visor tomorrow. I'm hoping to have the car home on Tuesday.

Work looks great!

Wondering now if this '51 is going to Tahoe, and, if it will be going ..... are you trailering it with your open trailer ?

Hoping to have it there, Bob. My open trailer is the only option I have, baring a big lottery win ! I still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of $ to spend before I get there though! The upcoming expenses are going to be the wiring harness, gas tank, window channels, and floor & trunk coverings.

My trailer does have stake holders for sides, so I have been kicking around the idea of a wind break / stone shield for the front end...

"My trailer does have stake holders for sides, so I have been kicking around the idea of a wind break / stone shield for the front end..."


Your reply was my reason for asking my question. Good idea. Thanks.

Here is another possible modification of an open trailer.

Dean

I have seen that trailer or one like it.

Ed Archer in Hayward CA built it for his 1920 Model T Dryers Ice Cream truck. I rented him and his trailer for a day to bring Justin home in the summer of 2010.

I call it the Cinderella trailer.

;-) Dean

Looks like the poor man's Popemobile...

Today was the big homecoming! I went down to Kerry's around noon and met with Kerry and Gerald Romke. Gerald was just returning the '51 from his interior shop. We switched the car from his trailer to mine, then loaded up all of the parts that were both painted or old parts that are not going to be used. I'm really thrilled with the job Kerry did, and can't wait to show Dad how it turned out. I stopped at a Tim Hortons on the way home, and it was given the once over and thumbs up from a couple of Harley Davidson guys.

I was alone when I got home, and had to figure out a way to get it into the garage. It's a slight uphill run, and with the engine back in, it's too heavy for one to push. I could have waited until Jane got home... but ever since she threw that "no more pushing old cars" vow into our wedding, she's somehow held me too it! I decided to knock off two birds with one stone and got the snow blower out, changed the oil in it, gassed it up, and used it to push the car up the driveway! If only I could get it to cook and fold laundry too!





The '50 and '51 reunited after 19 months...