[TFoch]

Congratulations! That thing sounds awesome!

[sammons]

Looks great, sounds great!  Man thats a major milestone in my books. 👍

If i would have got that far on my coupe, i wouldn"t have had to let it go 😪

[FATnLOW]

Its a thrill to go on the first startup and drive, even if just a little drive out of the shop..good job

[sixball]

Very cool! Sounds great. Congratulations!

[Essex_29]

Thank you all very much for your comments!

It's been fun starting the engine, discussing things and stuff with friends who've been coming
over to take a look, but the steam ran out of me, I have had a hard time to get anything done.
But it's been fun.

My grandkid took'er out for a ride, around the neigbourhood ( I live in the sticks). I'm certain
she's doing sixty here racing down our dirt road *big grin*



Jokes aside, I got the window templates made from masonite board, and ordered the lot yesterday.
1/4" thick laminated glass, total cost estimate 400 ?uros, which would equal $450.
In 2008 a similar lot of windows for the Essex cost 150?, it's a pretty big price gain.

I'll have to take another look at the ToDo-list...

[sixball]

She's doing at least 60.
When my son & I put his '54 Studebaker together and were on our way to Texas for his first year of college we stoped in Reno to have the windows put in the doors. We worked on it every evening on the way and I stayed a week to finish up some things while he started school. The next spring I flew back to Lubbock and we drove it home. We did that several times. Best road trips ever.

[TFoch]

Serious driver there!

[Essex_29]

Sounds great sixball, roadtrips are things one always remembers.

Fender work today. I cut 9" wide slices of sheet metal to weld to the rear
fenders, to widen them and to get rid of most of the rust. One of the slices,
once rolled on a slip roller, was tacked to the driver's side rear fender, and
it's now trial fitted with sheet metal screws. Looks pretty good so far, but
 the back end of the fenders need a lot of work.
Front fenders are just resting on a two by eight on top of the front tire.

[sammons]

Lookin good Essex. Are you going to have to build you running board with a wider taper to the rear fender?

[Essex_29]

Actually, sammons, I don't think I will have to.
I wouldn't want to make them tapered anyway, I think the rear fenders being a bit wider than
 the running board would look better. Especially if I cover the running boards with striped rubber,
 that wouldn't work very well with a tapered runningboard.
I'll probably kow in a few days.

[Essex_29]

The apron trial mounted tonight, cut and adjusted to fit
against the rear fender.
It looks now, like the runningboard will be about 2? narrower
than the rear fender. I still wouldn?t like to make the runningboards
tapered, I might make some kind of turn out at the fender.
Design is always an interesting challenge.

Also, the whole car looks big now? or maybe it?s just me gettong
dizzy from standing up suddenly after laying on the floor

[sammons]

Looking good!  I was just curious as to which way you were going. I've seen stock, tapered, flared at rear on widened rear fenders. What did you use to make the bend in the apron? I've used everything from bending over a pipe to an oxygen bottle. You use what you have😁  Ya, you look at one so long with out fenders and once they are on, it looks bigger till you get use to it again. Looks right to me👍

[Essex_29]

Thank you sammons.

Yes, you take what you get. I actually made those aprons for the Essex in 2007. Along the years, I've
often thought about cutting material out of them for one rust repair or the other, but they were a
chore to bend, so I never did, and now they happen to fit the Buick perfectly. I was very surprised,
since the Buick feels bigger than the Essex, but apparently not by much.

The guy whom I bought the Essex from in 2003 was restoring an Essex and had bent his aprons on
a sheet metal brake, which looked awful, and would need lots of bondo. I thought for a bit, then
took a 8" by 2" plank, long as the aprons, and cut the round shape with a handheld power planer.
Then Iclamped it to the plank, bent, hammered, hit it with pieces of two by fours and willed the
19GA sheetmetal around the shape of the plank. THe result is pretty nice, as the round shape is
much rounder in the front than closer to the rear wheel, where it tucks in under the body.
Simple, really, but it was a chore.

The same apron on the Essex here.

[Essex_29]

My rod builder buddy noticed that the driver's side rear wheel is further forward , closer to the front
 of the wheel well, than the right hand one. We measured it to about 3/4".
Today I measured it with some accuracy, to the frame, not the wheel wells, and got to the result
 that it's actually just 3/32".
The body is scewed, maybe in part from a collision, but the cowl is so out of square, that I feel
it's "factory" Accuracy on these cars wasn't a huge thing.

The Essex frame horns, in front of the grille where they bend down towards the front leaf spring
eyelet, the left hand frame bent down over one inch less than the right hand one, and I couldn't
 find anyevidence  accidents. Took me a while to figure out why I couldn't get things squared up.

[TFoch]

Looking good!