Dad's '51 Plymouth

This project has spanned the course of over 2 years. We began tearing the old Plymouth apart in February 2004. The following 200+ pictures show the long, hard, joyful and sometimes painful road to building a hotrod. The pictures are only 20k in size, which wont be to bad for a hi-speed connection. I will be narrating some of the pictures to guide you along the way. 

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Above is the 51 in its stock state. It was fun for a while. Us Miller's cant leave anything alone. LOL.

While the flat six was being rebuilt, Dad scrubbed, sanded and painted the engine bay and front suspension.

Rustoleum hammer finish gray. Its a driver.

In the cold days of February 2004 it found its way to my garage, where it has been for the past 2 years. Not to worry, those missed summer cruises will be made up for 10 fold when this beast hits the street again.

The hinges were shot. I had to re-drill all 4 and install new pins. I used smooth case hardened bolts as hinge pins, it was the only option since the holes where the stock hinge pins went through were wobbled out so bad do to lack of lubrication. The white burn marks are from using the torch to heat the mounting bolts, they wouldn't come out any other way.

View of the stock trunk with trim removed. As you can see the paint was in good condition, it had just been painted a year or two ago. 

The main reason for the repaint was to make the car "our own".

All trim was remove, most permanently. Unused parts were sold on ebay to help fund the project.

Filling some stock trim and antenna holes.

Upon grinding some paint off I discovered the car had about nine different layers of paint, right down to the original green.

There was a big thick surprise hiding under the front of this hood.

Parts of the hood seem were welded shut, the rest was tiger haired over bare metal. I didn't want to take a chance of warping the hood so I elected NOT to weld the entire length of the factory seem.

I always wanted to french a set of headlights.

I donated a perfect set of 1948 ford truck rings to weld on.

I welded these bolts in place which will hold the headlight bucket from behind.

View from behind.

I heated the springs up front to lower it about 3 inches. I placed blocks under the frame rails so it didn't fall to far.

I surprised my Dad with these American Racing wheels. Special order only 18x8 in the rear, 17x7 up front. Tires are Kuhmo.

I waited over 8 weeks for these wheels to be made.

Wheels in place.

2 inch blocks brought the rear down. Yes, the under carriage needs some beautification work.. LOL.

I had to cut and narrow the blocks to fit these puny springs. 

Dad stripped the car using Mar Hyde (tm) stripper from the Advance Store.

Dad stripping the door jambs.

Hold still now, this wont hurt a bit......yeah right.

Me cutting out the stock tail lights.

A good clean cut using a thin abrasive wheel on the 90 grinder.

But welded new steel in. A '52  Ford truck donated the skin.

My before and after polish job. Mothers (TM) wont do this....LOL!

Home made dent puller.

Gutted.

My help for the day. Couldn't get much out of them. Check out that MEAT!

Extra teeth bought on ebay.

I worked some dents out of this fender while it was off the car.

My Dad and Josh grinding paint off.

Filled gas filler door. The lower portions of this fender were pretty rough.

Reworked gas filler hose. It was steel so I cut and re-welded it.

New rubber connection, stock was shot.

Welded on the rear fenders. Welded about 1/2 inch at a time, warping was minimal.

Smoothed out with "All-Metal" filler.

The car with "Metal Prep" on it.

The stock hood has a flat spot on the bottom where an emblem goes. We wanted a smoother look so I cut and welded the seem to flatten out the transition.

It was a tedious process, the metal seemed thin in this area.

Working my way across. I used a hammer and dolly to beat the area flat.

Now you get the idea.

Dad going over the trunk with the DA sander.

Our "to do" list. Dad's winning.

The floor boards were replaced by the previous owner. They had already started to rust since they were left in bare metal.

Smoothed trunk.

Father and Son team.

Sanding "Metal Prep" with 180 grit in preparation for the first coat of primer surfacer.

I laid down 3 coats of primer surfacer. This body had a lot of scaring in the metal from the factory. I would love to see how these old bodies were made.

Activated primer and 100 degree days don't go well together.

The car has been blocked with 220 at this point. Getting ready to cut in the '38 Ford tail lights. I used a permanent red marker to make sure I liked the location from a distance before doing irreversible damage. LOL

Buckets were bought from Big Jims and made the job real easy. These could have been made in house too.

I tacked them in place, aligned them, welded, then carefully ground off the protruding edges,

I used a flap disc on the 90 grinder to bring the edges down to meet the body.

All that was needed was a little coat of glazing puddy. I used Feather Fill brand puddy.

Errrrr-EEEEEE Errrrrr-EEEEEE

I used this pic to sketch out the flames. (Many times).

Car in second coat of primer sealer, waiting to be block sanded with 320.

Just plain lazy.

Car blocked with 320 and painting the door jambs. The Tangelo Pearl didn't make the final cut.

It was just to orange for our taste.

Seeing the door jambs shiny gave me the desire to get the rest of the car done.

Moving the car into place for the big day, paint!

I needed some extra muscle to drag the car into position.

2 years of dust and dirt.

I spent a full day positioning all the pieces and cleaning the garage. It was a great 70 degree weekend, just right for painting.

Here is SOME of the paint that went into this project. I all came from House of Kolor.

Car in House of Kolor white primer sealer.

Note the jack stands to raise the car up a bit. This made it a little easier to get to the rockers and fender well edges.

Car in House of Kolor white base.

Me taping out the top edge of the flame job.

The best thing to do with a set of engineering plans....LOL!!!

Top of car sprayed in a custom home brew mix of House of Kolor Tangelo Pearl and House of Kolor Red Pearl. This was almost a last minute decision, I decided on this color the night before painting.

The custom base coat with House of Kolor Inner Koat Klear applied. You cannot mask over a pearl base, therefore you must user a temporary clear coat.

Weird aint it??? I took a full day to get the paint this far.

Day two of the paint job, adding the flames. Drivers side taped out. Tribal look.

The 3M fine line tape works great, 1/8 inch. I only use 3M brand tape, anything else could RUIN your hard work, I know form experience!

More engineering plans. I recycle.

My wife helping mask the flames. 

Trimming with razor blade to expose the flame. We trimmed to the middle of the fine line tape.

Me starting on the passenger side.

Images I used to guide myself during flame tape out.

Ready to spray. Again.

A lot of precaution was taken so that over spray didn't ruin my previous work.

Since I wanted a blue outline, that color had to be sprayed first. House of Kolor Tru-Blue.

After we used fine line tape to go around the edges of the flames I shot House of Kolor white base in preparation for the Tangelo Pearl.

I forgot to take a pic of the last flame color going on. Note the Tangelo Pearl on the flames and blue outline. Its all under 3 coats of House of Kolor klear at this point.

It took a full day to lay out the flames and spray the clear. A LONG two day job, and much work is left.

My french job turned out pretty good.

She came out pretty smooth.

Love those 18's.

This color changes with the light.

All the hard work paid off.

My first flame job was on my '48 Ford truck.

Some reflection shots.

Above: the car sits after being color sanded and compounded. I used 3M perfect it compound and a 3M Hook It system with a wool pad.

Me polishing the car with 3M perfect it and foam waffle pad. This is a messy process.

Foam waffle pad used for polishing. The buffer is a $60 unit form the local auto body supply, variable speed from 500 to 3000 rpm. Has a full 3 year warranty. It's a Vector WAXXPRO, I found more information on it for you here. I am pleased with it.

Dad checking things out.

I love that look!

The exhaust has been completed in this pic, here it exits at the rear

Up and over the rear end. These were regular tailpipes cut and rewelded to fit.

The single Flow Master. Don't worry it still sounds like a traditional six cylinder.

Looking back from the front of the car.

The down pipe from the front header was a challenge. It clears everything fine.

Front bumper with bolts welded fast.

I welded the bolts from the rear then Dad ground off the heads.

We gave the rear bumper the same treatment.

You would think the rear bumper was white from this angle.....

...but surprise, its not!

This is how the rear bumper turned out.

For now, we installed 6volt 1157 bulbs in the 12volt tail lights, worked just fine.

The rear of the car is pretty much done.

Dad scrubbed and vacuumed the car out, then repainted the floorboards.

A good shot of the engine, still some stuff to do in the engine bay.

The cast iron headers from Langdon's Stove Bolt, note the water lines used to heat the intake.

Carbs are new Carter/Webber from Langdon's, breather is from here.

The front bumper is done too.

Now I just need to finish that grill!

All metal interior pieces were removed, prepped and painted to match the exterior.

Dash has been repainted and re installed

Insulation glued down to floorboard.

New black carpet installed.

Here is the finished product!

On the road.

Last updated 02/23/2009 - Check back for more updates!

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