What a CAR, I mean come on, this car is the ultimate mid 50s understated luxury sports coupe. The Colonial white is just a total knockout! Pinks and blues are the mainstay of for the colors that signify the 50s, but this tuxedo interior and classic white shows the body just perfectly. During the restoration we focused on making as much of the vehicle appear stock, but carried as many upgrades that would improve drivability, fitment, serviceability or just plain old enjoyment into the final product. This beauty arrived at the shop and was a pile of parts. Totally empty body, a completed engine and transmission, and a collection of finished, half done, and just started sections of the restoration. Many shops turn away projects like this because of the difficulty of cleaning up someone else’s mess, but as we are committed to our clients and we want to save as many cars as possible we charged right into correcting and straightening out this puzzle.
The frame, suspension, and driveline parts were close to completion, cleaned and mostly painted, they needed to be finished and assembled. Some of the frame was rusty, some was painted, and this kind of “done here, not done here” continued though the entire project. There was not a part that was totally done, but there was also not a part that was not started on. Our main focus was catching up to the same point so that we could move the project forward. The frame and underside was cleaned and painted, the engine compartment cleaned, sanded and painted to give us a base to work off. The suspension and brake components were cleaned, painted, and finished as needed so that we could at least get this beauty rolling around the shop and OFF of the body dolly. Once finished we assembled, finding some misc items missing here and there, a few steps forward and a few steps back, but ultimately quickly made the car roll and steer. This important step really motivated and excited Gary as he had not seen the car on wheels for almost 8 years, and had not driven the car for around 20 years.
The body was in excellent original condition but due to storage and just being worked on for so long it had so many chips, discoloration, and other issues that needed to be repaired. the original idea was to just worry about touching up the small chips and scratches on the body, leaving it fairly original. When we counted all of the chips and scratches the decision was made to just repair, sand, and shoot the original formulation acrylic enamel single stage over the existing paint. This preserves the look and feel of the car as it would have been fresh off the factory. Matthew Means expertly sprayed the paint matching factory peal and texture, and created a true time machine. In the end all visible areas of the car were sprayed with a new coat of paint leaving this car looking factory fresh. There are some small imperfections or factory waves in the paint, but that is the point, this car is supposed to look original, not redone.
When the car arrived at Anaheim Rod and Custom the engine and transmission was already finished from the previous shop, so it was our job to complete the assembly, start, tune and get the engine running and driving as it should. The engine compartment was set up and finished to look stock. A Mallory E-spark ignition replaced the factory points, and a high power coil and new wiring for the ignition made her purr. The changing system was upgraded with a Powermaster Alternator housed in an original style case to look like the original generator. Anyone looking at the engine would think the 312 Y block was bone stock, but a new cam, upgraded ignition, better charging system really improved the drivability of the car overall.
Pulling both style and grace together is the tuxedo black and white interior, finished in the original vinyl and leather panels, primarily this was a kit that was purchased from Larrys Thunderbird, that we fit and finished for a better than stock fit and look. Some time were moved and or changed, and most of the original door panels were disassembled and used to finish and create the new door panels. We enjoyed the bright white and so we went with a 1956 headliner color and edging to lighten up the inside.
Overall this was a wonderful and very heartfelt project, this car belonged to Garys wife for the last 30 years and was always a dream of her’s to finish and drive the car. Definitely spend some time and check out the great video of the delivery party video that we created.
