Arrival of the 1930 Ford Coupe: Walkaround and Installation of a '32 Grill Shell

well it's time to welcome a new addition to the family uh this one just joined us yesterday afternoon as you can see it's a 1930 ford coupe five window uh chopped unchanneled well-built 350 chevy engine with straight pipes there is no auxiliary exhaust system coming out of the bottom and it is pretty noisy so i'm either gonna have to come up with baffles or uh actually run the exhaust under the car through mufflers got the probably like 47 or so international truck headlights i don't care for this grille shell i think it's some like punisher or something supposed to look like a 33 or 34 ford i have a 32 grill shell which i'm going to put on in just a few minutes i'll show you what it looks like with it get giant the tall thin tires and wheels which is the style nowadays engine is doesn't leak it runs great it's a 350 turbo hydro automatic as you can see the you sit right on the floor and all the way back so there's actually so much leg room in this i can't reach the pedals i'm going to have to bring the back of the seat forward about four inches which should be a real challenge look on the dash it actually has a couple little tiny instruments that fit in the original model a instrument cluster i'm going to have to add a gps speedometer and a rear view mirror if you look the patina as they call it which is a nice way of saying rusty metal is just flawless it's beautiful i mean you couldn't fake this it's real got the same giant tires and wheels on the back okay you can see where it was chopped no glass now on the side windows the little uh quarter window and the back window i'll have to add glass the roll-up mechanisms are missing so i'll have to get those also it's got a steel frame that supports this uh snap on top you can take the top off quite easily and have a giant sunroof if you wish uh here at the back some really kind of slick pinstriping very subtle let me open the trunk and you'll see uh the details inside we got the bungee cord trunk latch here and we lift this up and you can see where the frame has been lifted way up in the back to allow for the very low stance looks like a 10 bolt probably an s10 pickup differential batteries accessible and good size spun aluminum tank with a sender unit here i'll have to buy the sender unit but there's a flange for it so you can actually know how much gas you have and then nestle back and there's a little spare gas can in case you run out i thought that was a good idea it's got a giant panhard rod which will have to be adjusted because the right tire and wheel a little further from the body than the left iron wheel so uh you can adjust it laterally with the panhard rod get the real cute vintage tail lights with the little uh blue dots in the center and as you can see i heard a great expression the other day it's lower than beelzebub's basement okay so steering wheel can be removed so that you can get in and out a little easier got the hobnail steering wheel with the sternum and palemont bullet little skulls up on the dash arch oh and some neat artwork on the inside of the kick panels there's that steel ribbing that that supports the roof fabric so that's about it i've got a bunch of work to do on this i've got to do turn signals a little windshield wiper emergency brake grill shell baffles uh turn signals uh things like that a bunch of stuff okay so i'm gonna quit videoing and get to work i hope you get a kick out of this beast we'll go for a ride a little later it runs like a scalded ape okay so uh you're in for a real treat also a deafening one let's take a look at the engine and get the great big aluminum aeroscoop on an edelbrock i think 600 cfm carburetor with a little nice inline fuel filter the tall thinned aluminum valve covers got an aluminum long water pump and uh some really snazzy looking engine mounts a little detailed work like that really adds and then one of my favorites is on the side of the starter motor it says atomic no doubt it is they wouldn't lie i know there's also an electrical uh switch inside that can disconnect the entire electrical system if need be i'm not so sure about this bright red distributor cap i have a black one but maybe a little color is nice i don't know i've got the grill shawl off here and i'm going to put the 32 grille shell on so we'll see what that looks like in just okay the grill shell is just sort of resting in place there it's not bolted in and as you can see it's a little high sticks up about three inches higher than the cowl so i believe i'm going to have to cut out some metal right down here about three inches of metal so this can sit down lower and also still have room for the front axle to move up and down okay i've marked where i need to cut with the cut off wheel and i've got the grille shell propped up here and protected with tape so now it's time to cut out this piece of sheet metal okay that piece has been cut out now it's time to radius the corners with the trusty die grinder all right there's the finished cut as you can see i tried my best to make it look like it was made that way radiusing the corners really help now it's time to do the other side and here's the passenger side cut to match the driver's side with the bottom of the grille shell cut out down here i stacked up about an inch and a quarter inch and a half of shims to give that front axle room to come up and down as it rides over bumps and got the right slant on the grill i had to move the overflow tank back a ways to give some more room but i think i have the right angle here in the right position and enough ground clearance where i won't be hitting speed bumps with the bottom of the grill now we've got to alter the clamps that were holding that old grille shell in place they were much longer the i had to cut off what a good uh inch or so of length and then redrill them and then i drilled the grille shell so that it is now held by two shortened clamps up here at the top at the bottom i rotated the clamp from being on the inside to being on the outside and you can see we've got about a half inch gap here so i'm going to bend this out a bit drill it and then drill the shell and then we'll have clamps at the upper and lower sides on both sides of the shell it ought to be real sturdy and then finally the radiator supports will have to be properly positioned and then drill through this part of the shell and secure the support so that the top of the radiator can't wiggle back and forth now we're ready to apply the final touches i'm going to spot weld the nuts to each of the brackets so that once the radiator shell is in place you can just run the bolt through and tighten it down because it's going to be real tough to reach up inside to try to hold on to keep the knot from spinning these upper stays have been shortened about an inch and angled properly and re-welded so they're ready to attach to the 32 grill shell now the nuts have been welded to the brackets so they can't spin they're captive now and i'll just remove the bolts and the grille shell is ready to be installed as you can see that grille shell makes a huge difference when we go from this to this in all of hot rod dome there's nothing more classic than the shape of a 32 ford grille shell and i think it made all the difference in the world on the front end of this car i hope you agree

Channel: Uncle Doug's Hot Rod Garage

Views: 2,191

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: gBKnwhVoDPw

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020