Rusty Bowtie
Miscellaneous => Members Builds - Stocker -Streetrod - Ratrod - LowRider => Topic started by: 3WBill on March 18, 2014, 10:25:47 AM
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Hi everyone, names Bill and i would like to present my coupe to the members. This is the best place I have found to date, no fighting or bitching at each other. Proud to be a part of this. If you followed Cocobolo's build you will noticed that I was the the owner before he bought the car. I had the '35 and was quite happy with it but deep down I wanted a coupe. I am a first timer building a rod and I knew that coupes were mighty expensive. Then one day I was checking through
the local kijiji ads and I spotted this '36 chev coupe for sale. I was telling Cocobolo about how it never fails, you buy something and right after, what you really wanted comes up for sale. To shorten the story, Keith convinced me to have a look at the car, somehow we struck a deal on the '35 sedan and I bought the coupe. So if no one minds too much, I am going to tell my story with some pictures.
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This is the car I went to look at. The car had sat in a field for over 20 years then it was saved in the '80's by the fellow. All this time he had been waiting for his twin boys to come of age so they could build a rod together. He had his heart broken when the boys said they would rather have a drift car instead. When I showed up, he had over 350p enquiries about the car and almost 200 had actually seen the car at his shop. As you may have guessed, he was bummed out about the whole affair and was sick and tired of every low balling him or just wanting to buy parts. I struck a deal with him , gave him his asking price and thought I had done great. All I saw was what was in the pictures you just seen. He offered to deliver the car for $ 200 so I said great and came home to find this sitting in my front yard. Now I want every one to know, that I still did not know what I really bought. Just a '36 coupe I thought.
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I came home to find the car and and all sorts of parts laid out waiting for me. I was so nervous when I was dealing withe the owner the first time ( telling myself not to FU in my head ) that I never asked what all was included with our deal. There was fenders , hoods, the missing doors, bits and pieces. I phoned him up and thanked hem for all of this treasure.
That's when he told me what I really had and how rare it was. He liked my attitude and started me off on my quest to build a rod. Cocobolo and I became the best of friends and we found our way here.
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As you can see , lots of extras came with her. The doors are shot but can be repaired and will be. The worst thing so far has been a missing passenger window garnish. I looked for 2 years found 1 for $ 225 plus shipping ( another 50 ) and damn if it wasn't 1 & 1/2 inches to long . Even that can be fixed . I put all the parts away and moved the car, cleaned it up and started to plan my build.
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My original plan was to show my buddies I could build a low buck rod for 10 grand or so, not counting the paint job. this would be my 1st rod although I did build a '65 econoline van and entered a show or 2 . My list for the car was a sbc motor, had to be a 700r trans, wanted a dropped straight axle and some nice tires and rims as well. Not only did I need to buy parts, I had no shop at all because I rent a place on a retired farm.
There are still lots to tell and even more pictures before I made it to this site. I will stop here and see if any one wants me to continue with my "almost ' a build,
3WBill
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Well folks, I happen to know all the trials and tribulations that Bill has undergone over the past few years, and he has managed to overcome all of them. His shop is about ready to be used now, so no more excuses.
So, Bill, if you think you're going to get away with stopping there, think again. Keep going, and more pics please.
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You'll have to change the "almost" in the title to "ongoing" so we can here the rest of the story until you take it for your first ride! I'm not sure what the production numbers were on 36 3 window coupes but I don't think it was many. The guys on here will like all the pictures you posted. That's the best way to help with the story. Thanks for posting them and good luck with your "ongoing" build!.
Tom
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I love fat fendered coupes. THe first old chevy I built was a 38 chevy stovebolt coupe with the original engine. Enjoy the build you have a keeper there....John
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Thanks for the interest in my car , I appreciate that. So there I was, with a car that I knew nothing about and nowhere to work on the car either. I live on a farm , the owners had long since retired, when I had a brainstorm. There was a old grainary building just a few hundred feet from my side of the drive way. Pretty big I thought, 24 ft x 16 ft with 12 ft walls and made out of 2x6 old growth fir and a floor and was on skids. After some intense negotiations I bought the building and the landlord said he would move it over to my side of the road with a tractor. Well I knew where he said it was going , so I moved the car over there and preceded to start tearing her down. Couple of months later, it was time to move the building according to my landlord and that's when I bet him his tractor couldn't move the building. I seen his tractor , it wasn't all that big , mayde 50HP at best. I was looking forward to an easy 50$ bill . Or so I thought. next thing I knew the big rig or "tractor " was in front of my building and 3 minutes later it was all over with. I paid my bet up. I just wished the tractor stopped where my car was, it was so easy to move, they went a 100 ft past the car.
Next time I will make damn sure I have things straight before messing with old farmers.
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The first thing I needed to do was convert the old grain building into my shop . A buddy and myself insulated the whole shop and that's when I had a brainstorm. I am 6ft tall so I decided to add a second floor to my shop. managed to have a 6'5" under the second floor and there is the same height on the second floor as well. The 2nd floor was 8' by 16' wide, stuck my woodstove under the 2nd floor and things are nice and warm in the winter time. This summer I am adding a lean to on the side 15' by 24' and will be closing that in as well. My car attracts too much attention sitting out in the middle of the yard. I have a fully equipped wood working shop and bought my self a 180 Lincoln mig, a shrinker/stretcher , a brand new set of tools cause my others were "old". Even went as far as to buy myself a upholstery sewing machine so I can do my own. I am a thrifty fellow and look for ways to keep the cost of things down .
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I will be the first to admit that I had no idea of what I owned . I found out pretty fast when I started looking for parts. A really good set of headlight buckets took a year and cost a small fortune and the " bird " hood ornament was only a medium fortune. I was lucky enough to find a complete passenger door with no rust at a decent price. I know the car looks rotted out but after tearing it apart one day, I was happy to find only 3 spots of body cancer. Of course I do need an entire new floor but there is lots to make a pattern with. Here are some shots of various of the interior and body.
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Here are some more shots of my body rust holes.
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I just couldn't take it any longer. I had to start doing some thing so I began to tear her down . The rear end gave me a few minutes of head scratching, hadn't seen anything like this before, so I dragged it out from the back. Turns out my bumper was only held together by the spare tire mount. Broke into 2 and both pieces are split along the top and bottom. May attempt to weld it back together, need more practise first as it's been awhile since I have done any welding
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Now for the bad news. My frame is toast. Somewhere in my cars past, somebody welded up the front of the frame to the dubonnet suspension. There are some bad cracks in the frame that run from under the firewall to the front of the frame past the suspension. Thats when I made the decission to go with a MII front end. My frame man said the frame is no good so he found another for me and that is getting started some time in June or July.
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2WBill....This is a great post and I'm going to look froward to following you progress. As Tom stated this is a rare car. My literature on this model places the production numbers at only 10985. New it cost $610.00 and weighed 2990 lbs. and was Chevy's only three window of that year. You could order the car with optional wire wheels and a chrome rimmed spare tire cover came standard. Keep those pictures coming!!!
Moose
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Moose, as far as we know, Bill's car was built in Canada. The records indicate only 214 such coupes were produced that year up here. She's a rare bird for sure.
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As you can see, it really is a canadian car. Stay tuned for the next round of pictures. Thanks for all the comments , it's a real pleasure being here.
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Hah! Guess what Bill? I just posted a pic of the Body by Fisher tag on Kiwijeff's thread. Looks like both our Fisher tags are in good shape. Is there a body tag at all on your firewall?
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Unfortunately there are no VIN tags or body tags. I was worried about that but I have been told that it not too hard to get another VIN assigned to the car. Trouble is , I need an inspection first before I can get it registered and I can't get it registered till I can pass the inspection. It will more or less have to be roadworthy but maybe no paint. That's a year or two down the road before that happens.
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As you can see, it really is a canadian car. Stay tuned for the next round of pictures. Thanks for all the comments , it's a real pleasure being here.
Bill, That's interesting. I didn't know the Canadian Chevys had that special Body By Fisher tag.
Tom
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W3Bill After reading all this and looking at the picture if you want to move it to my shop for $200 to get your money back just head this way. Finding this to be very interesting keep it coming. Good luck with your build.
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Hi Bill, I just read your thread. Looks like you got some work to do there. By the time you get done you are probably going to have created a new language of curse words like I did. It will be a good looking car anyway, good luck.
Sammons
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Just reading some old threads. 3WBill, how is you build coming? Any progress, any pictures?
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Yes, and is your friend cocobolo doing alright, and his sedan build?