Hello from Alaska / Washington

Been visiting the "other" similar named site and while doing a search,.....found this one. Read some posts and joined. Looks like a good group to hang out with.

I am doing a rotisserie restoration on a '55 belair 2 door sedan. Just got frame painted (black SPI epoxy primer) and all Earl Williams stuff. Will be running a BBC.

Not sure on trans yet. Have a TH400 but considering manual 4-5 speed.

Day jobs keep us in Alaska but we have property in eastern Washington. While our previous builds were in Alaska and sent to Washington to be stored, This build will be done in our Washington shop while visiting the property 4 times / year.

My wife (Caprice) and I do all the work ourselves.

We have restored several cars & boats and most are life sized Hot Wheels. We usually restore one vehicle a year but are trying to have more of a social life so no Alaska project this year. Although, I did bring up some trim pieces that need straightened and polished in my luggage.


This was in May when I put the new floor in and the tailpan.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2qxsry1.jpg

http://i64.tinypic.com/2ecqi3k.jpg



August was the frame mods and motor mock up.

http://i68.tinypic.com/4zuno7.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/6yjdzt.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/20sgaro.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrr22w.jpg

Couple of our other cars we built.

After watching hollywood knights,... Caprice wanted her bug to look like the one at the drive in. Next day, out came the sawzall!!
4" chop and seuicide doors.
http://i56.tinypic.com/301ouq0.jpg

Built this the same year as the bug. It was a busy winter!!

http://i37.tinypic.com/2l8hvsz.jpg

http://i38.tinypic.com/bga2i8.jpg

We weren't fond of the AMX hood so I made a mold and then this hood.
I pulled a mold off the bumpers and made them in Fiberglass as well.

http://i45.tinypic.com/jr9r9w.jpg


I liked the scoop in Mad Max so much, I made this one out of aluminum..

http://i48.tinypic.com/6t36hk.jpg




4x4 1937 Chevy Sedan delivery!!

http://i41.tinypic.com/209hlj9.jpg

Caprices' '65 GMC 4x4 truck

http://i63.tinypic.com/2rfeyyh.jpg

My '79 Ford F-150

http://i64.tinypic.com/3wtq8.jpg

Shop truck

Before:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2l6veo.jpg

After:



http://i66.tinypic.com/2s959oy.jpg

My old renter gave me this 4 runner for free. Well it was a stock rig with a caved in fender.

3 months work and total investment $1600.00.

3" body lift, 3" suspension lift, $300 tires and rims that had too much offset soooooo,......Made 4 1/2" wide fiberglass fender flares (modeled after "arctic truck" flares) , Roof visor, hood scoop,running boards,all fiberglass. then Steel offroad bumpers copied design from our Dodge truck.
Drove it for a month and was offered $6500.....SOLD!!!

http://i61.tinypic.com/286y15k.jpg

My kids wanted their own boats so in one winter, I made 3ea. 1/2 size boats like my 18' boat.

http://i57.tinypic.com/2yy8n5l.jpg

Shaping foam for plug:

http://i40.tinypic.com/veryup.jpg

finished in drywall mud:

http://i44.tinypic.com/2i12glh.jpg

painted:

http://i40.tinypic.com/azdu2v.jpg

Mold:

http://i41.tinypic.com/dy528g.jpg

Making a deck:

http://i41.tinypic.com/2r6igi8.jpg

x3:

http://i42.tinypic.com/1zp17vc.jpg

Paint x3:

http://i41.tinypic.com/359h505.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/b7i7hg.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/rwi5nn.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/2jtkdl.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/10clzxs.jpg


I'm burned out on molding fiberglass and am really having fun with my metal shaping tools.

Have a great older gentleman near by in Washington that is like Robert (MC&P). Can reproduce ANY panel on ANY car. He loves coming up when we are in town and we make stuff and drink root beer.

Last visit, Bob had me make a 1/2 of a ball (tennis ball size) out of a piece of 18 ga. annealed sheet metal. Using the beater bag, planishing hammer, and shrinker. My tools aren't the quality of his but he showed me how to get mine to work properly.

My '55 build isn't going to be full of custom fabbed metal parts, Just a super clean straight BBC cruiser.

Hope to help out some and learn a bunch.

Ron Pratt

Thanks for sharing your projects. You are a man of many talents to say the least.

Welcome Ron! :) From viewing your projects you're a very talented fella! and from the number/speed of your projects.... :) Also a very BUSY fella!

We're glad to have you here and I look forward to learning from your technical posts!~

Welcome. That's is a great collection of toys you have. Looking forward to seeing the progress on the '55.

You said you and your wife do all the work on your cars. My wife and I do all the work on our projects. But we are great-grand parents and we work slower and have fewer projects than when we were younger.

hi Ron and welcome. good to have you here and great intro. very nice toys and great work.

Welcome to the site! Wow, do you ever sleep? Awesome project and obviously awesome talents. What headers are you using on the BBC?

Thanks guys, My father-in-law said to build all your stuff while you are young so you can maintain and enjoy them when you get older.
We may have a pile of cool cars / boats BUT the trade off is we are hermits in our own garage. Most our builds are covered on jack stands and have less than 100 miles on the build.
At 54 yrs old, and having 80 yr old parents nearby,...... We need to get our priorities straight.
We are walking every day and going out in our fishing boat finally. Making time to visit both our parents more often. This is good!!!

Thanks again for the welcome, Feels good to be outside the "cage".

Chevtnut,.. The headers are from Earl Williams (Williams classic chassis in California). There are several threads on header fitment. I've read them all!!
Like most,... I need to be frugal with my build funds. I've also learned not to be too cheap on certain parts. Earls was $300 more than any of the other headers but had the most consistent fitment. Also keeping the collectors above the frame was important.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alaskastreamin

. The headers are from Earl Williams (Williams classic chassis in California). There are several threads on header fitment. I've read them all!!
Like most,... I need to be frugal with my build funds. I've also learned not to be too cheap on certain parts. Earls was $300 more than any of the other headers but had the most consistent fitment. Also keeping the collectors above the frame was important.

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I have Earle Williams headers on my Nomad too, but I modified them since I don't have a steering box to deal with. I got mine uncoated and hd them Jet Hot coated after I modified them. I was just curious if you had something else since I couldn't see them from the side.