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video with sound of the exhaust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlV5aPZMN8U

time to do something with those seats!


















all that for 25 bucks!!!

Gonna stitch those up to reupholster the seats?

Nah, those are a temporary fix until I can afford to get the seats done professionally in vinyl. The originals were just too skanky for me to keep sitting on.

Looks good as a temporary measure! Seeing those old seats got me to thinking 'bout any mold that might be lurking within their makings. Have you thought about blasting the interior with ozone? Just put the machine inside, turn it on and close the doors overnight. The next day she be fresh as a daisy.

Well, the only fabric in there is the seats and headliner, when I get the seats redone they are going to take them down to the frame and fix ant broken springs and refoam it before they put a new cover on, and the headliner may have to come out soon so the same shop has a pattern to work off of. But, until I get new glass and gaskets and weatherstripping there will still be a little water coming in. Haven't seen any mold.

Yeah... I hear ya on the fabric thing. And like you said the seats will be stripped right down to the frame so no worries in the mold department.

I just caught your video. It was cool to see an animated version of the ol' '49 revival. Exhaust sounds good and looks clean too. Nice car Dave... and nice work on getting 'er back into shape.

Btw... LOVE those two horns under the hood. Bet they sound good too!!

Yeah, I need to get the horns wired up right, but they are loud like a train! I don't know if you caught it in the video, but when I was reaching for the throttle linkage from the left side, I actually grabbed a plug wire and it shocked the crap out of me! It was at the one spot where the camera moves real fast hahaha.
When I get all the wiring sorted out I'll do another video and blast that horn and maybe go for a drive.

yesterday cruisin' down the highway just flipping miles...









look at me go UNDER the speed limit!!!

Highway? Nice. I guess you can run faster now that you've got those new shoes, brakes, and springs. Is that 68000 or 168000?

it could be 268000 for all I know, or it could just be 68k

no mileage history on the title for exempt vehicles

So tell us Dave... what did it feel like to go that slow?

No updates since May? Man I tell you, I've been slacking! So I have most of the lights working now, most of the time... still haven't completely rewired it but getting closer all the time. But brake lights, turn signals and headlights are wired up. Really just been spending most of the time driving it around. I have a new gas tank, and its now hanging under the car but no fuel line to the pump yet. Today I got motivated to finally strip the roof...









I have it primed now, but no pics of that yet, I had to go play softball tonight so I was in a hurry. I need to fine sand it and make it all even, the primer was kind of streaky.

Geeze, I guess it has been a while. Wiring takes time... you'll get 'er done. I'm not sure if you ever mentioned it Dave, but are you sticking with 6V? Meanwhile thanks for the update... I feel like a part of that car is mine!!

Yeah, 6 volts, positive ground, all like originally designed. I figure it's been working all this time, who am I to go changing it up? I'll keep the flathead in there too, and rebuild it if it blows.

Ah yes... keep 'er as original as possible. Probably what I'd wanna do too.

Dave, Your restore is looking sweet! What a beaut!


Have you any thought of removing the windshields and refurbishing the seat areas? Long time ago saw a pre-yute, with a busted leg, rewiring his '51 chevy pickup. Layed the harness out, opened it up, and reworked one wire at a time. Had lots of time. Gosh things were simple then. oops...geezer moment!

Your restore brings back memories: Pushing lawnmowers, working a sand blaster, farting round with paint guns just to purchase all new rubber seals, etc. Upholstery? hahaha. More like seat covers.

Yeah, the windshield is a soon to do thing, and I found an upholsterer to do the entire interior and make it all new and nice, but recent developments on his end may prevent that from coming soon. I want to get all around the glass stripped and ready so I don't have a lot of prep when I replace the windshield, and redo the rear window gasket and install the stainless trim around the back glass. Lots of stuff... Now I need a new speedometer cable as mine broke recently and I have no speedo/odometer.

pics of the primed roof...






Yesterday I decided to go ahead and pull the old nasty deteriorating headliner out and get the inside of the roof ready for some new headliner. After all the old stuff came out I sanded it and repainted it and installed some HushMat (same as Dynamat but less expensive) to kill the sound, and I have some closed cell foam on the way for insulating. Since I have the headliner out now, I can access all the wiring to the back half of the car and get it all re-done. Very time consuming, I come in and take breaks quite a bit. But I'm enjoying it. I think I found my headlight problem, had one wire way in the back that was shorting out.

Nice progress.

I still want one of those to park in my 40's era garage. Can't leave it in the drive or the milk truck and laundry service can't get in.

Interesting post as usual. Love following this project... kinda like having a beer while watching yer buddy work! Keep 'em coming Dave!

I dropped the front and rear seats off at the upholsterer on Tuesday afternoon, he called and said come get them Monday morning! Of course, the car isn't ready for them yet, I am in the process of patching new floor in the car. I only need to do the front, and the drivers side is done. Hopefully I can get to the passenger side in the next few days, because until then, the seats will be in the dining room. Here are a few pics of my progress...


First I cut out the sill. I took measurements to the metal supply yard and they cut and bent it for me right there.







Sealed my seams even though I solid welded everything.






I still need to smooth out the weld at the sill/rocker, but I think it turned out pretty well. It's getting carpet anyway, so I wasn't going for artistic quality. I don't think I'm going to get the rubber sill caps that were original, so we will need to figure out how to end the carpeting and make it look good. That's still a long way off. I also need to get my seatbelts and mounting brackets so I can locate and weld them in place. The drivers side took me a lot longer to do than I though it would. Of course. And I still need to find a good access panel for around the pedals. I'll be posting pics of the seats when I get them tomorrow!

Looks really good, Dave. The other side should go faster now that you've done the one side. Looks like I need to stop by and take a looksy pretty soon.

Yeah man, the other side isn't a quarter as rusty as the drivers side so I'm hoping I can knock it out in a few hours. Then I need to re-seal the whole thing front and back and let it dry and call it good. Stop by tomorrow, I'll need a hand bringing the front seat in the house anyway.

I might be able...
I get off at 1:15...got to get to the painter again after work to see if I'm happy with this attempt(If I'm not, I'm not sure if I'm changing the design or taking my tins back)...anyway, my buddy from Texas is in town and I may come by with him in tow. I'll try to come by before heading downtown to the shop. I'll call you.

It seems it's always the driver's side that has the worst rust. Up here at least, I attribute that to the salt being splashed up on the driver's side from oncoming vehicles during winter. It seems things like rocker panels, fenders, doors and floors rot out more on the driver's side than the other, 'round here anyway.

I always enjoy your pictorial posts of progress made on the ol' 49er. That car's gonna be like brand new when you're finished!!

I always figured it was the driver getting splashed while entering the car then having it drip on the floor that made the left side worse. LOL

Got the seats this morning... well the seat backs anyway. The bottoms were not how I asked for them so they are being redone. I should have them by the end of the week though. Here's what we have so far...

Front seat








rear seat




Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. There are a couple small things I would have liked differently. I don't know, maybe I didn't explain to him what I had visualized quite right, but it really looks good despite not turning out how I had envisioned. It's a whole lot better than this






and even after I covered them up temporarily

The seat backs look good. Is that upholstery pretty close to original?

No, not at all. I'm not too much into keeping it original, as long as it looks period authentic. The pics of the stained, chewed up seats show the original ones.

yeah yeah, very funny...
I can't see me putting all the hours of work and dollars into this car and then selling it. Besides, it's Angela's car. I got it for her as a wedding gift from me, remember?

I remember, but I have begun to think that the real value to Angela is that this project keeps you out from under foot.

Latest bit of stuff. My tail lights were kind of crackled and the red had faded to clear in some spots on them. So I went to the hobby shop and bought some of this...


I sprayed the inside and outside, it colored it up, made the white cracks disappear, and being translucent, it still has all the light coming through.





I didn't take any before pics unfortunately, but they were in way worse shape than the brake lights, which will be sprayed next time I take the assembly off the trunk.




The spray cost less than 7 bucks.

the weather has been all like this lately...



and I have been rewiring behind the dash, but it's been too cold to sit in the car, so I brought the dash inside to work on





it's really not that complicated once you figure out what color the wires were supposed to be




I'm almost done with this part now, and once I hook up the rest of what's run, all I will have left is to re-wire is the headlights and get everything tied up. It will be nice to have 100% new wire in the car, and to know that I can completely re-wire something.

Aaaahhh..."Testors Paint"! Boy does THAT bring back memories of building all those Revell and Monogram car and airplane models when I was a kid...along, of course, with their model glue!

Ya know, now that I THINK about it, it's kind of lucky that I DO remember building all those models with that stuff, HUH?!



(oh, and btw Dave...I just remembered to say that your taillights turned out pretty good there!)

Always appreciate an update Dave. So tell me... what will you do for paint on the glove box door to get it to best match the rest of the dash?

Actually, we are going to two-tone the car at the belt line, and the dash and interior will be the same color as the top half of the outside. After I get everything wired up here, I may take it all apart to strip and prime it before it goes back in. No more faux wood grain!

Finally got in the paint shop this weekend! Spent 11 hours working on the hood alone, and it's not even done yet. Stripping, grinding, sandblasting, smoothing, sanding... Time consuming, but should be worth it in the end.
My buddy Mike in the picture






Front fenders are next, we are hoping to have the front clip done by spring, only working on Saturdays.