Road Tour 2001 Build-Up Part 3

Finishing Up And Settin' Fire To Our Chevy

By Ron Ceridono

Thanks to a long list of talented craftsmen and generous advertisers, the Road Tour 2001 rod is wrapped up and ready to rack up miles on its way to a lucky sweepstakes winner's garage.

Based on a gennie '36 Chevy Standard sedan, this project is unique in a number of respects. For starters, this is the only Road Tour rod so far in the series that's been based on an original car. Even more noteworthy is that this car, or one very much like it, would be the easiest for homebuilders to duplicate. It's a perfect example of a down-to-earth street rod that's affordable, and judging by the reports so far, a pleasure to drive.

Prior to this third installment of the build-up, the Chevy had received a Fatman Fabrications Mustang II IFS up front and a Chassis Engineering parallel leaf spring suspension in the rear. With the chassis work completed by the crew at Fatman's, the sedan was shipped off to Jim Swan at CarFab. Swan installed the PAW-built small-block Chevy and 700-R4 and handled the major assembly as well as the thousands of little details it took to make our Road Tour sedan roadworthy. The final step in the transformation from restoration to rod would be in the capable hands of Cincinnati's Wade Hughes.

When Hughes took delivery of the sedan he had just 22 days to strip the existing finish, do any necessary bodywork, shoot a new coat of paint, and flame it. As if that to-do list wasn't long enough, Hughes was also assigned the tasks of building nerf bars, installing glass, and hanging anything else on the sedan that had been taken off; a tall order for anyone, particularly with a deadline three short weeks away.

Hughes' first move was to evaluate what he had to work with. To get to the bottom of things, most of the paint was removed by peeling it off with razor blades--the finish literally came off in sheets. Fortunately, the body was in reasonably good shape, although judging by the gouge in the roof, someone once tried to stuff the sedan under something that was lower than the Chevy was tall. Luckily, the damage to the top was deemed to be no big deal; unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the fenders. On most early iron the fenders were the most vulnerable parts, consequently they often took a beating--those on our Chevy were certainly no exception. All four had been clobbered at one time or another, and the repairs made were amateurish at best; however, the judicious use of plastic filler hid the ugliness below. When the paint was removed, Hughes discovered the true condition of the fenders: three out of the four could be saved, but the left front would have to be replaced as it was beyond help.

To initiate smoothing the several acres of Chevy sheetmetal, the divot in the roof was repaired along with various and sundry dings and dents in the body and hood. With a suitable substitute on hand for the munched front fender, Hughes went about healing the wounds in them all. Along ironing out all the wrinkles, both front fenders had the holes for the bumper brackets filled, the rears received some necessary patchwork, and all had the lips rebuilt and reinforced with solid 5/8-inch round stock. In between all the hammer and dolly work, Hughes found time to build the neat nerfs that were in the Thom Taylor drawings the car was based on.

With the body repairs completed, any bare metal was treated to a coat of PPG's DP 40 sealer, then the entire exterior was covered with K-36 primer/surfacer. After a thorough block-sanding to get everything straight, Hughes laid on a finish coat of PPG's DCC single-stage black. While that could have been the end of the make-pretty process, there was still one step left--a signature flame job by Bill Roell. With the pattern laid out by Roell, Hughes sprayed the licks with a custom brew of PPG mixing tints followed by a coat of clear. When the fumes were out of the paint booth, Roell returned with pinstriping brush in hand and outlined his work with One-Shot enamel.

While getting the body and paintwork finished was a major accomplishment, the days were being crossed off the calendar, and there was still a lot to be done. Mike Hall was busy installing the glass supplied by The Glass House, while Frank Marino was putting a sound system in place. In between a host of other chores, Hughes and a gaggle of helpers reinstalled the beautifully re-chromed grille and the other items plated by P-G Products. At this point in the story, most of us would be expecting the inevitable string of excuses explaining why the car wasn't finished on time, but amazingly, none are necessary. Not only did Hughes get the car done, he managed to wrap it up two full days ahead of schedule.

Thanks to Herculean efforts from all those participating in this project, the Road Tour 2001 sedan was ready to hit the road on schedule. In fact, it's already on its way making stops at all the NSRA events across the country (see Jerry Dixey's report in this issue). Make sure to follow along, because when it's time to give the Chevy away, it may be you that slides behind the wheel and drives it home.