My '63 restore is underway

[Phil Planck]

"Any words of wisdom before I start the removal process?"


Lay a pillow over the trunk opening while you are drilling out all of those spot welds.

[Dean Tanner]

I am making progress on the battery box area. So far all is going well. I have a couple of questions about other aspects of the car. First, the panel is missing form the driver's door area the would hold the Serial # plate. what are my options for replacing this?
I am missing the side view mirror, which style would my car have had?
Also, I am a long way from doing much in the electrical dept., but I am wondering if I should convert to a 12V system.
My wheels are toast, I want something that looks correct. Are there good aftermarket wheels that are decent quality and would offer more tire choices? Or should I just look for a good set of used wheels?
Thanks, I'll post some photos of my progress soon.

[Martin Benade]

Automotion has painted or chrome, 4.5 and 5.5 x15 wheels that don't cost much at all and are pretty nice. I have a set on my car and am happy with them. They appear to be powder-coated silver. They were only around $70 each. From China but seem well made.

[Steve Hatfield]

I am making progress on the battery box area. So far all is going well. I have a couple of questions about other aspects of the car. First, the panel is missing form the driver's door area the would hold the Serial # plate. what are my options for replacing this?
I am missing the side view mirror, which style would my car have had?
Also, I am a long way from doing much in the electrical dept., but I am wondering if I should convert to a 12V system.
My wheels are toast, I want something that looks correct. Are there good aftermarket wheels that are decent quality and would offer more tire choices? Or should I just look for a good set of used wheels?
Thanks, I'll post some photos of my progress soon.

Dean,
I have a set of four new Brazilian chrome Mangles with Cooper stock tires 165 15s from my '63 B Coupe that have never been on the ground (for drum brake cars) that are now available. Shipping from FL unless you are down this way. Contact me on 850 259 9759 if interested.

Steve Hatfield

[Dean Tanner]

Steve, thanks for the offer, right now I'm just looking to the future. Right now my money is going to more pressing needs. Sheet metal and more sheet metal! However, if you want to email a photo of the wheels and a price I might be tempted into buying something a little more cosmetic for a change of pace.

[Dean Tanner]

Well, the progress on the battery box area is going well. While working on that area, I decided to investigate some bondo areas on the nose of the car. I could see some rust perforation had been covered just below the bumper line. That wasn't too big of a concern, I was fairly confident I could shape some new metal for that area. It is about 3"X 12" or so.

While using the cup brush, I thought I'd do some exploratory work up front. I found some horrible patch work. The first one I found was right in the middle just below the trunk lip. It was a 5"X 8" flat metal patch. It looked like a smile shaped area had been cut out and then pounded inward, covered with the metal patch, then over a 1/2 inch of bondo slathered over the top. Sad thing is had the cut out a regular shape and butt welded a patch in, it would have been half way acceptable. Same thing was found between the horn grill and foglight opening on each side. A metal patch had been welded over the top of the existing partially rusted metal and then bondoed. I also pulled out the replacement headlight buckets that had been just shoved into place. the lip around the headlight opening is pretty rough.
So, now I come to my question, I think I can do a pretty good job replacing the crappy patchwork, but the headlight area has me concerned. I know that restoration design makes a headlight surround replacement. Anyone have experience with using these? Assuming I can do the other patchwork, is this a good route to take? Would I be better off replacing the the whole nose section? I'd like to avoid this if possible.

[Kevin Wills]

Dean, not sure on the headlight surrounds, maybe somebody else will pipe up. I need to get the camera out and take some pics of the patches I found on mine. It might be the same guy that restored both of our cars.

[Dean Tanner]

Sorry to hear that. I think he is pretty prolific.

[Dean Tanner]

I think what I am going to do, is do the repairs needed on the nose and foglight areas and see how happy I am with the results. If all goes well, I will order the headlight repair pieces. If I am not happy with the outcome, I will think about replacing the whole nose.

[Dean Tanner]

So, It has been almost three years since my last update. No, I did not give up! It took a year and a half to strip it down and do the needed repairs to the engine compartment and replace the entire battery box in order to get it mounted on the rotisserie. After that, I started cutting out the poorly done longitudinals and replacing ALL of the metal surrounding the driver's door. That is about where I sit now. I have been having a great time doing this project, when I get home I can hardly wait to get out to the garage and start cutting. I'll try to post some detail photos in the coming days to show some of what has been done. For those of you just getting started, some of the best advice was given to me by Adam Wright. "Don't get overwhelmed by the big picture, pick one area, get it done and move on." I like to think of it as 1,000 little projects instead of one BIG one.

[Vic Skirmants]

Glad you're hanging in there!

[Greg Bryan]

Dean - good update - post early, post often. Progress is good - there are plenty of guys out there that need the inspiration.

[Dean Tanner]

Thanks Vic. Greg you are right, I look at project updates daily. I am always disappointed when there is nothing new to look at. I have to admit when I see some of the beautiful work that some of you are doing, I feel a bit ashamed of my work. I know I'm doing a decent job, but sometimes it isn't real pretty. I'm getting better as I go, and fortunately most of what I've done is stuff that will never be visible til the next rebuild.

[Adam Wright]

So, It has been almost three years since my last update. No, I did not give up! It took a year and a half to strip it down and do the needed repairs to the engine compartment and replace the entire battery box in order to get it mounted on the rotisserie. After that, I started cutting out the poorly done longitudinals and replacing ALL of the metal surrounding the driver's door. That is about where I sit now. I have been having a great time doing this project, when I get home I can hardly wait to get out to the garage and start cutting. I'll try to post some detail photos in the coming days to show some of what has been done. For those of you just getting started, some of the best advice was given to me by Adam Wright. "Don't get overwhelmed by the big picture, pick one area, get it done and move on." I like to think of it as 1,000 little projects instead of one BIG one.

Can you get my kids to listen to me? They just roll their eyes or make funny faces...

[Dean Tanner]

Sorry Adam, I have the same problem. I am a photographer and this weekend we did our Christmas card photos. I have a 13 year old eye roller and a 10 year old funny face maker, but I wouldn't change a thing.