29 A gets new threads!

The little 29 A pickup had a "well worn" interior. The back of the seat was a Mexican blanket, the cushion was black oil cloth vinyl that was crisp and starting to split at the seams. The wind lacing was worn and kind of shredded.I decided it was time to spruce it up.
I painted the garnish moldings green rattle can, also the top part of the dash. I made some ABS plastic panels that go below the map pockets on the B pillar, and made a speaker cover from the ABS and painted them green too. I had already added a AM/FM 8 track radio below the seat......yes, a 8 track. I bought a couple of Waylon and Willie 8 tracks from the swap meet for a dollar. Now I have cool tunes.
It had real nice green carpet on the floor, kick panels and door panels that Dan had put in. I thought a nice green pleated seat would look good. I tore the seat apart, the springs were really bad shape. I decided to make a new base of 3/4 inch plywood and have Al use webbing and new foam for the cushion. The back was already good foam. Al sewed up a beautiful pleated cover for the back and the cushion, looks and sits nice!
To finish it all off I added a flying eyeball third brake light and put a sending unit in the gas tank so now I have a working gas gauge! No more need to have a note with the mileage at last fill on the dash.

A little work on the "Deuce Delivery"

The seat handles on the delivery have always been broken, I tried to glue them a couple of times and did not work.
This idea came up back when the interior was done. I finally decided to do it. I also replaced the passenger side door glass that had been cracked for a couple of years and had the chip in the windshield repaired, looks all better now.
You can see the broken handle. I made a new one from some tubing,, one end flattened and drilled to bolt onto the seat adjuster. I finally decided to paint them brown, I thought of chrome, nickel plate, powder coated black or silver.....it all seemed to stick out too much. Brown rattle can worked well! To fill the end of the tubing, I used a railroad date nail that had been chromed, a "32" of course. It fit perfectly in the tubing.I attached the handle with two little stainless button head bolts. I think they look good..much better than the broken plastic ones!
I had the front tires rebalanced and reset the toe, now the annoying little vibration that would occur at 50 to 55 mph is gone.
I wired the fog/driving lights up, (they were just decoration before)so now I can see at night better, cleaned it all up, touched up some paint underneath, cleaned the interior, re glued some carpet pieces..I think its all ready for the summer trip

My new "Deuce Garage"

I needed more garage space, I was out of room. All last winter I used the empty house garage across the street to store four of my cars. I have had 13 cars crammed into my house garage. It is very hard to keep nicely finished cars in the work shop when I am grinding, sanding and painting there. The decision was made....build a new garage to park the finished cars in. This garage will house just 32's. The other rides will stay in the house garage.
I got the variance and the permits to build a 46x60, 2x6 stick built, cedar sided garage to match my house and shop building. There is a 12 ft wide door in the north wall, small windows up high on the ten foot high side walls. The light can shine in but you cannot see in. I don't need snoopy eyes looking in the windows.
There is floor heat and brick red epoxy floor coating. It is all drywalled, textured and painted two tone grey with a "Ford" blue stripe separating the colors. It is lit by old school house lights down the middle and two rows of aluminum dome lights from Ikea on each side. At the top of the long walls are two rows of blue neon tube lights and a large 48 inch diameter red neon "Open Tonight" sign. On the south wall under a red and white stripe canopy is a half of a deuce chassis, powder coated red, complete with the front and rear axle cut in half, a vega box, chrome brake pedal, chrome 4 bar and a 3/8" glass counter top. Rope lights under the canopy and two red bar stools finish it off. There are two high top bar tables and bar stools in the middle.
There are lighted show cases with die cast deuces and deuce pictures and posters on the walls. I added a glass top desk, dvd player and tv, security camera/tv, micro wave, coffee pot and fridge full of beer and water. This should be a cool place to hang out this winter between shop projects.

A little work on the #42 Deuce

With no big projects on the plan for this year, I thought I would do all of the little lists that I have for each car. The first one up is the 42 car. I call it that because at one time I had two black hi boy deuce sedans. The first sedan I had painted on the door a big 42, that was to mean "four deuces", I had my son design a lady luck gal with 4 deuces to put on the front quarter. Anyway, the list for this car.
1. weld in new patch on passenger side rear quarter.(its all painted and looks good now)
2.straighten the exhaust pipes to be even and straight.
3.replace the ugly yellow plug wires, (see the before and after pics)
4. move the hoodlum plaque from the chain to the right taillight
5.clear coat the original 32 rear license plate
6.clean the interior
7. clean the engine
8. clean the tires and use rubber dressing on them
9. add a hand pressure pump to the eelco tank. (I bought a pump in 2007 at a swap meet in Colorado, finally got it mounted.)
The list is completed, not very big I know but sure helps the look of the car, now just drive it a few more times before it gets too cold and snowy.

The Scavengers come to visit

Sunday the Scavengers Car Club from the cities came to St Cloud for a garage tour that I arranged. About 10 AM we all met at the Copper Lantern. There was around 20 cars from the club.
The first stop was at Mikes "toy Museum". They all enjoyed the many die cast, hot wheels, pedal cars and of course all of the St Cloud advertising things in the antique replica gas station.

Stop #2 was Terry's Rod Shop. There the group enjoyed the collection of red Chevys, the orange hot rod bus and spacious shop with the new chassis for the 35 Chevy.

The next stop was at Lumpy's place, the Divco beer truck was a big hit as well as the other rods and the cool collection of toys in the house garage turned into a car party room.

The last stop was at my place. The group were fed pulled pork sandwiches and other goodies in the newly decorated house garage and then toured the new "Deuce Garage.
Except for the short rain shower the day was a lot of fun. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Looking forward to summer 2012

I am having "trip withdrawals" already. There are no more trips planned this year. I have been thinking about and planning the summer of 2012. The stars are all aligning with the moon or something because the show schedule seems to be working with the calendar for 2012.
The way I see it, I could leave about June 4th and head for Loveland, CO for the Goodguys Colorado Nationals being held on June 8th and 9th.
Monday morning it would be off for the LA Roadster show in Pomona CA on Fathers Day June 16-17.
Sunday after the show it will be going east to Vegas for the night and onto St Paul, MN for the Back to The Fifties.
After three days at home its off to Des Moines for the Goodguys show then onto Columbus Nationals on the official cruise.
I would be home for a week or so and then to Salina, KS to the Leadsled Spactacular the last week end of July. Driving the 50 Buick custom for this trip
That pretty much takes care of June and July don't you think?

Iowa and Hastings MSRA

7AM we met Zannoths and headed south towards Kimball. There we picked up the Dicks in their 35 sedan. We stopped for breakfast in New Ulm. Just missed a deer on the highway, too close for comfort for me!
We arrived in Algona, IA about noon. Found Randy and Vicky's B&B, wow wnat a nice p;lace. Huge house built in 1913 or so, 25 rooms, all reubuilt by Randy in 9 short years.
They got their Lincoln Zephyr out of the garage and we all headed about 30 miles to take a tour of the Winnebago factory. That was very interesting. On the way home we found a neat antique store in an old barn. I think we all found something there to buy.
Saturday morning the gals went shopping and us guys went to see Randy's shop about 10 miles away. The next stop was a tree grove to check out an old bus that Randy had heard about. It was a 32 Dodge weged between two trees. He will need a chainsaw and a tractor to get it out!
About 2 PM we headed for Northifield, MN to our hotel and then onto Hastings for a cruise night. There was close to 1000 cars. One of the most impressive was a Peterbuilt V12 truck, all chrome or polished aluminum...pretty cool.
Sunday we had special parking by the newly relocated Porkys drive in. There were around a 1000 cars there. So many people that they ran out of food.
About 3 us and the Nystroms headed north to home. It was a 630 mile weekend. The car ran fine, we all had a good time.