The "Flying Flathead": Out of storage and on the (slow) road to recovery.

After 12 years of dormant storage, my father finally unearthed his 34 roadster to start into it.

First a little history on the car:

As far as we've been told this was originally built up in the 60's or 70's by a pair of guys who ran it locally. Apprently it was featured in Street Rodder at some point wearing gloss purple and the name  "Flying Flathead" across the rear. When my father bought it, it looked as pictured; half assembled (or disassembled) and not running. Here's the car pulled into the daylight. I will update as we move forward.

...and closer

Closer...

54 Engine Sugery: Dropping the motor back in.

With the help of some beer,and a few buddies, I managed to get the motor set on the mounts, and started running fuel lines. Still a ways to go before firing it up, but the hard part is done anyway...

54 Engine Sugery: Closer and Closer...

Engine is cleaned detailed and ready to shoe-horn back in...

While it's out and the nose is in the air, I figured I might as well adjust the height again ...and whack another 1.5" outta the front, since I stepped it up to 3" blocks in the rear. It's hard to tell form the pic, but it stands quite a bit lower in front now, even without the weight of the motor, so it'll probably squat pretty hard once I drop the powerplant back in. :)



Honored.

Received some pictures last night from my buddy Sage, at Acme Signs. He's good friends with John Mumford, who owns and maintains the piece of automotive history that I based one of my Blueprint Series off of. The blueprint is now hanging in Johns garage, within eye shot of...well, the Sam Barris Merc! They sent me these pics of it, and it totally made my day. Needless to say, I'm honored to have one of my pieces be anywhere near the real deal.  Thanks Sage!

Barn Find Friday! 47 Plymouth coupe on the cheap.

I never really gave much thought to post war fat fendered cars. Be it Ford, GM or Mopar, they just never did much for me. But as I have become more versed in some of the early customs of the 50's I've seen what a good height adjustment, some tasteful dechroming and mild custom touches, along with wide whites and a good set of wheels or caps can do for even an otherwise homely car.

Case and point? the 46-8 Plymouth Coupes. Overall a decent looking car, with nice enough proportions.

Which brings me to the Friday Barn Find. Definitely gonna need some work, but if it's been inside for 30 years... well at least it hasn't been outside for 30 years! And the asking price seems fair enough.

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