Back to the expert…
I was supposed to drive the cabrio back to Pittsfield on Friday to leave it for Ken to have the remaining work done, including refitting the fender to the LH running board. As it happened, I spend much of the night in the emergency room with a kidney stone and by morning was so drugged up that driving didn't seem like a good idea.
Fortunately my good car buddy Paul Austin came to the rescue: he drove & I rode shotgun. He's driving it to Stowe in August, so the practice was good for him.
As expected, Ken figured out the problem and a solution to it readily enough. The first problem was to expand the rear portion of the fender so it fit properly. Ken did that my rigging up a turnbuckle jig and stretching it out, all the while banging on the boomarang shaped lower brace to get its radius to expand. That got the fit right, but he is still going to work on getting the entire fender to fit properly (It needs to come back about 1/2 and inch). It may require cutting back the front edge of the running board. A word to the wise: there was a hell of a lot of standardization in 1936. If you're doing this too, expect some fitting to be required.
Here's Ken at work on the fender:
We also got some other small jobs done while we were there. I hope I can pick it up in the next week or two, fully finished at last.
Here are some of the other cars he's got in the shop:
A very rare 1928 Rickenbacker:
A 1925 Franklin gentleman's speedster. It was strapped down in a trailer that rolled over, crushing the windshield frame a lot of the right side. Still runs great however.
A 1920 Reo:
Fortunately my good car buddy Paul Austin came to the rescue: he drove & I rode shotgun. He's driving it to Stowe in August, so the practice was good for him.
As expected, Ken figured out the problem and a solution to it readily enough. The first problem was to expand the rear portion of the fender so it fit properly. Ken did that my rigging up a turnbuckle jig and stretching it out, all the while banging on the boomarang shaped lower brace to get its radius to expand. That got the fit right, but he is still going to work on getting the entire fender to fit properly (It needs to come back about 1/2 and inch). It may require cutting back the front edge of the running board. A word to the wise: there was a hell of a lot of standardization in 1936. If you're doing this too, expect some fitting to be required.
Here's Ken at work on the fender:
We also got some other small jobs done while we were there. I hope I can pick it up in the next week or two, fully finished at last.
Here are some of the other cars he's got in the shop:
A very rare 1928 Rickenbacker:
A 1925 Franklin gentleman's speedster. It was strapped down in a trailer that rolled over, crushing the windshield frame a lot of the right side. Still runs great however.
A 1920 Reo:
posted by Bob Shafto at 10:29 AM
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