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1939 Chevy coupe

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  • If I wasn't such a tightwad I'd just spend $1200-$1600 on a nice grille. But that's as much as the whole car cost, so a painted grille it is. I bought graphite color mag wheel paint, and with the stainless trim it should make a nice combination once it's done. But right now it's just a lot of work.

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    • I imagine your labor rate is the same as ours...........good for you.
      Ed, Mary, & 'Earl'
      HRPT LongHaulers, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.


      Inside every old person is a young person wondering, "what the hell happened?"

      The man at the top of the mountain didn't fall there. -Vince Lombardi

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      • Originally posted by 1946Austin View Post
        If I wasn't such a tightwad I'd just spend $1200-$1600 on a nice grille. But that's as much as the whole car cost, so a painted grille it is. I bought graphite color mag wheel paint, and with the stainless trim it should make a nice combination once it's done. But right now it's just a lot of work.


        prettty sure most of us are in the same mind frame,
        id rather 'make something outta nothing' than drop
        a whole buncha $$$ on something that i dont really
        "need" to make the car run/drive...

        im sure it will look just fine the way youre planning
        on doing it.

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        • Finished sanding the grille today! Gave it a couple coats of 2x primer and then after that dried I shot the VHT graphite wheel paint on it. Didn't come out quite as dark as I expected, so chrome doesn't contrast as much as I hoped. But I think I'll leave it for now.



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          • That will work.
            Ed, Mary, & 'Earl'
            HRPT LongHaulers, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.


            Inside every old person is a young person wondering, "what the hell happened?"

            The man at the top of the mountain didn't fall there. -Vince Lombardi

            Comment


            • Originally posted by 1946Austin View Post
              Is this hilarious or what?



              The new LED conversion lamps arrived for my headlights and they have little finned aluminum heat sinks on the end with little miniature cooling fans! They're supposed to run cooler than halogens, but I've never seen a halogen with a tiny cooling fan?
              LED headlights don't run cool. Where did you get that idea?

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              • Originally posted by Eric View Post

                LED headlights don't run cool. Where did you get that idea?
                Got it from years of installing them when I was a licensed electrician. In every instance the LED lights I used to replace existing incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen lamps ran much cooler. In almost every case you could get serious burns touching the previous lamps, and not much more than warm with LED replacements.
                My entire shop is LED lighting, and I can touch the lamps after hours of run time and they're just warm.
                But beyond all that, everything I read says LED headlamps run much cooler than halogen. So where do you get the info saying they don't?
                I didn't expect them to produce no heat at all, but certainly expected they'd be cooler than halogen headlamps.

                https://www.superbrightleds.com/blog...s-halogen/707/
                Last edited by 1946Austin; January 20, 2020, 09:47 AM.

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                • I wrestled the one piece fiberglass frontend into the shop today by climbing under it and just standing up with my back bent over to walk it inside. Then once I got it over the front tires I used ratchet straps to pull it back against the cowl and a jack stand under the nose to hold it up at that end.
                  But it was discouraging to say the least. I can see the fiberglass is not a very good fit, and since it's street weight it has lots of heavy bracing inside. I think the cross brace just in front of the firewall on the backside of the hood is a major problem. The frontend sits against the cowl at center rear, but both hood sides are a full inch or so high to the adjacent body lines. That will likely mean I'll have to work on the backside brace by cutting it in the middle in a wedge cut, and hope it relaxes and allows the fenders and sides to align.
                  For now I left it sitting on the car and put a bunch of weight on each fender to see if it will relax with time and maybe get closer. Probably wont though, so looks like a lot of work ahead to make it look acceptable. I think maybe letting it sit awhile will be good for me, even if it doesn't change things on the car much. I'm dreading the amount of work this will take to get it to fit, and wondering if after doing the modifications if it will look acceptable after all?

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                  • fiberglass (and wood, and even sheetmetal) will 'take a set' where they are sitting.
                    especially if its in sunlight. off the car, the tendency will be for the nose to 'bow' or
                    push out at sides/droop in center of hood. so now when you put it on, the center of
                    hood will touch cowl first and hold edges up too high.

                    heat gun while its sitting on car may do wonders. i bet even sitting on the car overnight
                    will make somewhat of a difference.

                    worse case, bust out the cutoff wheel and start making relief cuts. but try letting
                    it sit or heating it up first, you may be pleasantly surprised--i hope !

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                    • oh joy, fiberglass work.... good luck, epoxy is your friend.
                      Doing it all wrong since 1966

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                      • Here's some pictures that will make things easier to see how bad this is.

                        The body line mismatch.



                        Passenger side hood too cowl.



                        Driver's side hood.



                        Top of hood.



                        Stuck this block in today to prop the center up so sides might sag?



                        You can see it's not just flat across the hood, but sagging between the center ridge line and the edges.

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                        • I'm contemplating another option. I'm thinking the least amount of work and finances spent would be to simply chop the hood away from the fenders, and then mount the fenders and nose as a unit to the body. I'd need to fabricate brackets up front to attach the nose to the frame, but that shouldn't be tough.
                          Then I'd just buy a stock hood that's been on CL locally for months at $250 and mount it in the stock location. I'd likely have to also fabricate and glass in an edge on the inside of the fenders for the hood sides to latch to, but that wont be tough either. Doing this will of course lose the one piece frontend that I thought would look cool and make engine work much easier if needed. But it will sure save me from pulling out all my hair too!

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                          • you can see the 'sag' in the hood/cowl area. id seriously heat gun it
                            or use even a really hot hairdryer. you may be surprised at how far 'glass
                            will move once you warm it up a bit.

                            or leave that block there for a week and check again...

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                            • Sometimes you just Gotta take a "Walk About" !!
                              I have a "Thinking Chair" in my shop. (A Curb Side Lazy Boy Pick Up).
                              Have a Cola, or a beer, sit and stare at it, or even as mentioned, come back to it tomorrow.
                              Many times for me, It works itself out.... Click image for larger version

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                              The Thinking Chair

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                              • Both good ideas. I wont get too much in a hurry to do anything as that generally leads to me having to redo whatever quick solution I came up with.
                                We had our car club get together last night, and I tossed around some ideas with a couple guys. Most said they'd try to save the one piece front clip, and the thinking was if it can't be saved then other steps are still an option. I think that trying to make this right wont be a huge investment in money. It will mostly be time, so I can try some things before I give into just cutting it loose and going steel hood.
                                One guy mentioned cutting the brace off the inside and try to see if that allows it to move. And then if it doesn't I can use a parting disc to make numerous cuts on the inside every inch or so to allow it to flex. Then it can be glassed over inside to repair the cuts and get strength back.
                                I came up with another plan to work with that. I figured I'll make a tracing of the cowl shape and mark it on 2X4 or 2x6 to make a wood pattern. Then cut along the pattern to make it two halves. One half on the inside, and one on the outside, clamped together to hold the shape. Then it can be repaired over the cuts, and the inside used as a brace once the glass repair sets up.
                                But for now I'll simply let it sit for a week or so with the block under it, and see if it settles any. Then if it does it might not need as much work to get the rest perfect. If nothing works I can always drop back to the plan of chopping the hood section off.

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