1950 Hot Rod Chevy Truck

You have to be something other than a mammal if this truck doesn’t make your hands sweat and your pulse race.  It’s everything!  Cool, low, fast, and only slightly nasty.  No body or paint work was done here at Doug Jenkins Garage, we just focused on the go part of the thing.  And now it’s gone, like they always do when they’re done.  Happy guy owns it, daily driver…really.  His wife has a grocery-getter and he has this pickup and that’s it.  And he lives 40 miles from town!

Chevy Pickup Restoration Bed Wood Installed

So how about this, huh?  The best combination of wood and iron since Steinway.  Restoring classic trucks is great fun.

Dash And Interior Restoration Pieces

Aw, man, it just never ends.  Day after day there are just tons of little details to get right on a classic car restoration or customization job.  There are as many parts to a car as could possibly fit in a huge space, and every one of them has to look good, work good, and feel good when you touch it.  Heck, it even has to smell good.

Dash And Interior Restoration Pieces, Glove Box Panel '66 Lincoln Continental

So, how do you think you can get this chrome guy nice and shiny with the black background?  Easy, just a ton of work, that’s all.  What did you think?  This is a big muscle industry, not a big brain one.

Dash And Interior Restoration Pieces, Vent Grill, '66 Lincoln Continental

Same sort of thing.  I sure hope lots of people look really hard at this vent grill.

Dash And Interior Restoration Pieces, Dash Panel, '66 Lincoln Continental

Not just another chrome piece, this brushed panel adds some nice contrast.

Dash And Interior Restoration Pieces, Polished Stainless And Refinished Vinyl, '66 Lincoln Continental

And isn’t this a gorgeous looking pile of parts!  Interior was green, now it’s black.  Stainless was worn, now it’s polished.

Classic Ford Crestliner Restoration, Ready For Blasting

OK, let’s blast.  The car body is completely disassembled and cleaned up for media blasting.  The very few and very small rust holes have been repaired, all of the linear actuators have been restored, motors, motor transmissions, switches and circuits have been redone.  (Those guys may have to be revisited when the car gets put on the road, but at least now they’re perfect and ready for installation.)

Classic Auto Restoration, Rear View Ready To Blast

Same thing, different view!  Completely naked ready to get stripped to bare steel.

Vintage Ford Restoration, Top Ready To Blast

Same thing, top view!

Vintage Ford Restoration, Top Motor Transmission Before Restoration

This classic Ford swallows its top.  It’s a retractable hardtop and it takes a lot of work to get all the pieces doing their thing.  This photo shows a transmission before it was disassembled and restored…

Vintage Ford Restoration, Top Motor Transmission After Restoration

And here’s that piece after restoration, greased up and ready to do its job for another 50 years.

Vintage Ford Restoration, Top Motor Transmissions Before Restoration

Here’s another example of some cable actuated transmissions with their limit switches before they were restored at Doug Jenkins Garage.

Vintage Ford Restoration, Top Motor Transmissions After Restoration

And here they are completely restored.

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“What’s that?”  ”Well, honey, that’s the fuel filter.”  ”Why did Doug put a photo of something like that on the blog?”  ”Well, I’m not quite sure, dear.”  And now I know Jeff will always remember where the fuel filter is when it comes time to change it!

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Ok, so there are Ansens.  They were the thing then, now they are all that and then some.  And these are seasoned wheels, right off of a buddy’s mothballed high school cruiser.  This is a lot better use of them than letting them slowly biodegrade.  Ya, the axle looks too far forward in the hole, doesn’t it?  It’s a little bit of the camera angle, a little bit of the style of these pickups.

Semi-gloss paint kind of semi-glossing in this photo, too.

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Engine install is about complete.  Lots of power, it fits nicely, and is really great looking, too.  There is no engine appearance upgrades on this job, but how can you make all this cool stuff look bad, really.

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A close-up of the other side here shows the headers that aren’t going to be used.  Sanderson sold them as a fit, but besides being ugly, they don’t.  After more digging a set of gorgeous cast headers were found that fix both of those problems.

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A few things you’re supposed to notice: custom wiring harness built at Doug Jenkins Garage has all the wires exactly the right lenth; nothing pinched, nothing wound around to use up the extra length.  Also, solder fittings with shrink-fit insulation, correct wire gauges, and high quality materials.  It’s a thing of rare beauty when you see the work of a guy who really loves what he’s doing and he’s good at it.

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Cool custom crossmember, new driveshaft, awesome custom hot rod.

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This photo shows the good old, dependable, cost-effective mechanical fuel pump.  An alternative is a more costly, noisy, needs-a-circuit-run-to-it, more-apt-to-fail electric job.  So Doug Jenkins Garage loves mechanical fuel pumps!

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And a look at the port side rear Ansen just ’cause it’s so cool.

Robin and Holly and The Blind Boys Of Alabama

Jeff and I have been sending each other delightfully irrelevant photos during the course of the build.  This one is of my daughters last night after the concert, hanging out backstage with some of the coolest guys in history.  Robin and Holly are classical  musicians with a ton of class.

Custom Mazda RX-7 Fabrication

I think this will work better.  After roughing in the custom fiberglass fender fattening, it became apparent that to get the right look we’d have to use the steel fenders.  A more graceful line can be done this way, a look that’s truer to the original shape, and a perfect match to the rear.

Hot Rod Mazda RX-7

By opening up the original fender we can fatten up just the part that matters most, accentuating the original shape of the car and allowing for a super fat front tire.

Hot Rod Mazda RX-7 Fat Fender Project

The rear of the fender gets relived vertically so that the original shape of the fender is maintained while allowing the flare to begin as subtly as possible.

Chevy Truck Restoration New Shifter

Now that the heavy pieces are happily in their new homes it’s time for the controls, brackets, wiring, that kind of stuff.  Here’s the new shifter from Lokar.  This truck is going for the mild rat look, so the 8 ball handle seems appropriate.  But Jeff, let me know if you don’t like it, I can change it pretty easily!

Chevy Truck Restoration Engine Dressed Up

Last post showed the engine in place, now it’s got pumps and brackets and pulleys and carburetor…

Chevy Truck Restoration Starter

High torque awesome new starter fits in nicely.

Classic Truck Restoration Throttle Valve Cable

A picture is worth a thousand words, but let me add a few here to clarify: throttle valve cable is installed…it handles gear change info from your right foot.  Neutral safety switch is up there on the top left.  Coated cooler lines are in place to allow circulation of transmission fluid to the radiator for cooling.

And this week the body got assembled but the photos are trapped, so that update will have to wait a day or two…

Heater Control Valve

This classic Lincoln has two heaters, one at each side of the dash.  Each heater is controlled by a separate control valve.  This one had a leak, apparently, and someone saw fit to goop it up with silicone.  It’s an internal leak, however, that’s preventing it from doing its job.  A new one has been located and will be installed.

Also visible in this photo is one other earlier desperate attempt at repairing the flexible duct work that couples the heat exchange box to the duct system…aluminum foil and silicone.  A rubber membrane will be fabricated and installed here.

New Heater Control Valve

The other side, however, has a new heater control valve that was installed before the vehicle got to Doug Jenkins Garage.  Box got painted, too, but there’s still a messy silicone repair to the boot that will be corrected while the car is here.

Vacuum Line Junction Classic Car Restoration

We find all kinds of things when we restore a classic car.  This photo shows vacuum lines from different eras connected to a junction, and one line just left flapping in the breeze.  This ruins control of the climate control system and makes the car run poorly.  So it’ll get fixed while it’s at Doug Jenkins Garage.

Lincoln Classic Car Restoration, Close Up Of Poorly Repaired Valve

Lincoln Restoration, Poorly Done Duct Repair

A couple of photos of old repairs that will be corrected during this restoration project.

Thermostat

This photo and the one below show the routing of the vacuum control lines to the thermostat for each side of the car.  This classic car has dual control climate systems that rely on these thermostats to vary the temperature in the car.

Heater Control Thermostat

More Dead Vacuum Lines

This photo shows vacuum lines that are just ending in outer space.  An original shop manual is being used to restore this car’s line routing.

Vacuum Control Classic Lincoln Restoration

This photo shows just one of the many very busy vacuum controls that are part of this car’s climate system.  All controls have been tested and are being replaced as needed while this car is at Doug Jenkins Garage for minor restoration.

One Of Four Fans In The Climate Control System

One fan for each heater, and a pair of them for the AC.  Complicated, high luxury car!

AC Fans Lincoln

Classic Lincoln Restoration AC Evaporator Freshened Up

OK, lots of tough work here getting the climate control system perfect for this ’62 Lincoln Continental….more to come tomorrow.

Classic Ford Auto Restoration Frame Complete

It’s exciting when any auto restoration begins to really take shape.  Seems a 20′ deep hole needs to be dug in the shop floor before we get back up to level, and now the frame is complete and ready to set a body on.  Well, after the fuel lines and stuff are finished…

Classic Ford Auto Restoration Frame Complete Rear View

When restoring this antique car the rear springs were completely disassembled, cleaned, painted, and reassembled with new bushings and straps.

Classic Ford Auto Restoration Frame Complete Top View

Every bit of the auto restoration work on this Ford Retractable is thorough, clean, accurate, and really good-looking!

Classic Ford Auto Restoration Frame Complete Back View

Classic Ford Auto Restoration Frame Complete Middle View