1940 Oldsmobile Coupe
Our customer bought this car some time back and had it media blasted and primed before he discovered us. We will be correcting a chassis length issue and completing the metal work for him. He'll then take it home and finish it himself.
This is what the car looked like when the customer first bought it.
This is what the car looked like when it first arrived at our shop.
The first thing that needed to be done was to correct the wheel base length. So, we leveled the car and set the fenders in place to determine what needed to be done. Since another shop replaced the stock front suspension with an aftermarket piece, we suspected that area. We found the front to be 1-1/8" too long.
We simply cut 1-1/8" out of the frame just behind the front cross member...
and welded it back together, being careful to keep everything level and square. That's our shop dog, Blondie, looking to see what's so important.
The customer had bought what aftermarket body pieces he could find that would work for his car, like floor pans, rocker panels, etc.
This is what the rocker panel on the passenger side looked like before repair. The driver side was in the same bad condition.
Here's a shot of Fred using the plasma cutter to remove the original rocker panel.
New aftermarket inner rocker panel installed on passenger side. The same was done on the driver side.
New aftermarket outer rocker panel installed on passenger side. The same was done on the driver side.
The new aftermarket floor pans were modified to fit...
and welded in place.
All of the holes in the firewall that were not needed...
were welded and ground smooth.
The trunk lid was positioned on the car to check for fit and location...
of the new aftermarket rear tail pan.
Common with aftermarket parts is the fact that they don't always fit like OEM parts. Here's Fred using the heat and hammer method on the inner rear tail pan to make it fit up against the outer rear tail pan...
and here's Evette welding the two pieces together.
The trunk floor was riddled full of holes...
so we cut it out...
fabricated a new one along with bracing underneath...
and installed it.
We then removed the body from its chassis...
and placed it on the rotisserie so we could work underneath the body.
There were rust holes just in front of the rear wheel opening, plus the aftermarket rocker panels that we installed did not extend all the way back...
so we cut out the rusted area, fabricated a new piece...
welded it in place and finish ground it.
Since the rear fenders will be welded on, and the area where the original mounting holes were rotten from rust, we cut out the bad areas...
welded in new metal, ground down the welds, and shot primer on it.
Portions of the trunk floor bracing need to be repaired...
so we cut out the bad areas and replaced them with newly fabricated metal pieces like this one pictured here.
Once we repaired all the rusted areas on the body and cleaned all the surface rust off, we primed it both inside...
and underneath.
Once the primer dried, we put the body back on its chassis.
Now it's time to start working on the doors. The bottoms are completely rusted out, so both the inside and the outside will need to be repaired. The trim holes will need to be welded shut, and there's an area in the center showing pinholes that we're concerned about.
So, we started by cutting the bottoms off the inside of the doors...
and welded in new aftermarket pieces.
Here's the finished driver side inner door bottom.
This shot shows the rusted area in the center of the outer skin that we were concerned about. Aftermarket door skins are not available for this car.
We made the decision to cut the original outer skin off of the door...
clean the inside and apply some rust encapsulator...
roll out a new skin on the english wheel...
and install it on the door.
As you can see, the newly repaired door looks and fits good on the body.
Next, we started on the trunk lid. As you can see, the outer skin has rust holes like the door skins had.
So we cut the bad section off, cleaned and treated the back side of the inner panel, rolled out a new piece on the english wheel...
and welded it on.
Here's the trunk lid on the car after it was repaired.
The customer wanted the stock hinges removed and hidden hinges installed. This picture shows the aftermarket hidden hinges on the passenger side of the car...
and here's the finished hinge pockets as well.
Same idea with the trunk...aftermarket hidden hinges.
This car originally had vent windows in the doors, but the customer wanted them removed. So we fabricated a filler panel to straighten out the edge of the door. This shot shows the filler panel tacked in; it was eventually fully welded and ground down.
And of course, electric windows was a must. We installed aftermarket units in both doors...
and made covers to fit.
The gas fill was changed from the original to an aftermarket piece that's flush with the outside of the rear fender. So, that meant the original hole...
had to be filled in and welded shut.
We welded the rear fenders on...
frenched the license plate area...
frenched the taillights...
and frenched the backup lights.
We installed an aftermarket air conditioning evaporator unit.
We frenched in some aftermarket headlight buckets...
then modified and installed some aftermarket running boards.
After we carefully removed the rust from the two-piece hood, we fabricated a strip of steel to fit the gap between the two halves and welded it in place to make the hood a one-piece hood.
We laid out where the hood louvers would be and punched them.
This is what the project looked like when we were done with our part...
and there it goes down the road.