I think it is safe to say that Super Dave is the most talented fabricator on the site.....

That is a safe bet Charlie..this build it astonishing!! :eek2:

Wow, guys. I'm humbilicaled by this gestation. :worship:

That means a lot. I'm anxious for you all to see it next year at MCACN in whatever state it'll be in then which will hopefully be ready for paint or maybe painted. :dunno::cool2:

Headed to Philly tomorrow to check out a real one and get more detailed photos for my archives.

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Safe travels

Wow! $2.3mil. From my understanding, the person that bought it was not really even paying attention when the hanger fell. Meaning, "Oh, It's there cheaper thing I bought this weekend....":eek2: Still, that's pretty impressive for a car that needs a bunch of work to it to be driveable. Albert was happy, but his brother wasn't. He wanted to keep this one and sell the one being restored that I visited. This was in their best interest though I think grin a logistical standpoint.

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Cheers
Dave

So with that comes more motivation for panel forming! :grin: Hood time! First thing will be to make the hood frame out of 1.5" 16ga round tube like the original. No pipe bender? No problem! I used my press for the more gentle bends which worked surprisingly well. :shocked:

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Now that the frame is done I can cut the skin to fit. The frame is 1.5" inset from the edge of the skin since I need to weld a 1" flat bar stock (1/8th inch thickness) around the edge for rigidity which the extra 1/2" of skin will fold over onto. Does that make any sense? :no: Doesn't to me either.:dunno: So that's coming up next. But big news is the car now steers! The linkage is hooked up and its functional! Woohoo!

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Lastly, I scored an original used valve cover and amazingly (just like I had thought) it is the same size as the 215s cover! I'll be making this work somehow and will hopefully find another or make a duplicate.

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More to come...

Cheers
Dave

Simply put an amazing build! The detail and your ability to fabricate with minimal equipment takes ingenuity and skill!! Love it Super Dave...

Holy cow, this whole build just rocks!!! :biggthumpup:

Thanks guys! Don't forget, Steve. Minimal tools, minimal ability and talent to match! :cool2: But seriously, thank you for the compliment.

So after some wheeling on the wheel I placed the hood skin on the frame I drilled that into the frame while I centered it up. Knowing I now have it where it needs to be more or less, I removed the skin and mounted the hinges. I then welded the skin to the frame after I verified everything operated correctly. An interesting note was that later in production they increased the gap at the hood to header panel intersection due to complaints of interference.

Of course lots of final metal work to do, but time to crack a Shock Top Pretzel Wheat beer and enjoy my labor the past two weeks!

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Cheers:beers:
SuperDave:grin:

AMAZING Stuff Dave!

So cool!!!

WOW!! Incredible

Super Dave is right!!:biggthumpup:

Moving forward with progress! Progress is progressing at a progressive rate. :hmmm: After coming off the high of the hood coming out so well,I moved onto the trunk... and that's when the problems started. :thumbsdown: I slipped on the press and whacked my noodle (which normally is a good thing, but this time, it wasn't like it sounds). That resulted in my New Jersey temper flaring up and me treating inanimate objects like living things which means I yell and curse at them thinking they learned their lesson, which they never do. But despite all that, I'm happy to say the trunk is formed as are many bruises and lacerations. :scholar:

After forming the frame I placed it in the opening and then positioned the hinges. I'm using 1968 Mustang Fastback hinges since they are compact and have a coiled spring, so no torsion bars.

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And then of course after all the fabrication the trunk lid is too heavy so I'll just add a pair of smaller helper struts or possibly another spring somewhere. Not sure just yet. Then after all the hammering and such, the skin got welded to the frame and viola.... trunk lid!

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So now all the exterior sheet metal is done. What's that mean for the body buck? Mwwaaahhaaahaaa!!:eek2:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Another fantastic day and one that is bittersweet, exciting, and sad all rolled into one giant sentimental sandwich. With all the exterior metal done, I have no need for this sculpture. All this thing is doing is taking up much needed space that could be occupied by another project. So with that, it's time to send this thing off to the dump.

The exciting part about this is I'm past the stage where I need it. No longer am I looking at a mock up of my dream car. I'm walking into the shop and touching a hand fabricated copy. It's gone from dream, to concept, to computer scan, to reality. The mighty buck has served its purpose well and all along the plan was for this to be collateral damage as part of the build.

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So join me with raising your glass tonight to a toast to your dreams: MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Alllllllrighty. Moving ahead it's time to figure out flooring. And while composite weathered birch really would look good in here, I'm thinking the floors need some better rigidity. The floors are pretty easy to form. Easy...:haha:.... is anything on this easy?!:scholar:

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However, there are stamped impressions that I need to make which will require me to do some modifications to my press to accommodate the larger panels. I will also need to use the bead roller on a few panels too.

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The trick here is also to leave enough room to run the exhaust without it hanging below the frame along with enough recess to make sure I'm not looking clear across the top of the windshield while driving. The seat has to be in the perfect spot. Should be easy enough. Should be....:laugh:

So after all the fab work here's the pans roughed in. Nothing welded up yet. Why not? Everthing gets mocked up first then the whole car gets disassembled and I'll weld inside out. Of course before the exterior skins go on I'll get some nice pics of the structure and compare them to the ones I have of an original. One thing the 507 has are heat shields that run the entire length of the floors under the interior. Those will be formed later.

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Stay tuned.... more to come!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

As always amazing work Dave.

It looks great, Dave. Just think how many people may see your trailer and think it's a real version in there.

Hmmmm. The plot thickens...

In true Joysey fashion, I imagine he fully insured that TFOSFKAABB (The Five-Oh-Seven Formerly Known As A Body Buck) and just called in the total loss claim for the ravaged hulk just recovered, floating off the coast of southern Florida after Hurricane Ian. It's gotta be worth millions, I tell ya! :naughty:

Whaddaya mean, Steve-O? Alls I did was to hand it over to my buddy Johnny “Tight Lips” and his portable dumpster service. Might there have been an unfortunate accident? Who’s to say? He sees a lot of things. Johnny ain’t saying nothing.:naughty:

Thanks for the positive comments guys. More to come!!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Love this thread, but...

What I cannot figure out is why you cut up and scrapped the wheeled metal cart under the body. Couldn't that be used for another purpose, or sent to metal recycler?

This build is just incredible. :worship: Getting closer every day to see it in its final Dolomitengrau or Steingrau/Graphite Metallic paint.

Johnny's good people. He's dat guy that did dat thing for that other guy.

Correct description of the color! Good on ya! :worship:

Don't sweat it, Kevin. When Johnny Tight Lips showed up, we went over the contents of the dumpster and he sorts through what's there and sends metal, cardboard, glass to their proper recycle centers:scholar::biggthumpup:

Ok, maybe that wasn't exactly Johnny Tight Lips that I chatted with, but the latter part is true. It's actually why I decided to use this guy since he recycles and we loaded it up with cardboard and such too.

Cheers
Dave

Been doing some more work and next week I'll start welding the car together from the inside out! With any luck, I'll have a complete car by the end of this month with pics and vids to follow.

Floors have beads run in them for rigidity and I formed the front wheel wells too. Door hinge pockets formed, and various other smaller parts and pieces.

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Something cool I found after removing the motor were these numbers on each cylinder. I believe they are piston size numbers much like Mopar used letters on the 440 that was in my Super Bee. Those letters were grease pencil on the exterior of the block. Each cylinder is measured and each letter corresponds to a piston size. If the cylinder measures. 004 over, then it gets a letter A. The engine assembler goes to the shelf and gets piston A (a piston .004 over in size from standard) and uses it in that cylinder. .006 over would be a B, and so forth. I'm not quite sure on the actual numbers, but that's the idea behind it. Can anyone confirm this?

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More next week! :cool2:

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Cheers
Dave

----Dave,,,Just wonder what I'm looking at in the bottom of that last cylinder. Not sand is it?....Bill S

It is actually very fine saw dust, Bill. The walls and pistons were coated in cosmoline which has browned over the years. The block was stored in its original crate and was protected in a bag.

The dust came from building the trophy for the award I'm handing out at MCACN. I just didn't vacuum it up before I took that photo. :tongue:

Cheers
Dave

----Thanks, Dave! I knew there had to be an explanation.....Bill S

Similar markings to the 455 block in Gramma's Firebird, only stamped into the deck surface! I have the GM paperwork somewhere that translated the letter codes into the oversized components.

Awesome! Nice to know Steve!:biggthumpup:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Big progress today! Floors are welded in and zero flex with my mighty 152lb chiseled frame standing on them.
The inner structure is almost complete! It's eerily similar to the stock structure in many ways. I took advice from a member and boxed in the lower links using 1" square 3/16 wall tube and a lower gusset below it. It adds rigidity to that lower link mounting point.

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I'll detail up photos in comparison to the factory skeleton structure next week.

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I also recessed the rear wheel houses for convertible top storage just like the factory did. A little heat and a curved 3lb mallet made quick work of creating a concave recess in the panels.

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Next up will be to route the harness to weld in the retaining tabs, access holes, and various other small things associated with wiring junk. I need to mount the heater, controls, and wipers too so I have all the brackets in place. The fun and challenging parts are to come: inner door mechanisms and a functional convertible top. Since the entire rest of everthing was sooooooo easy....:wink:

More to come....

Cheers
Dave

Absolutely amazing talent. Food for thought. Some of the better known custom car build shops get a Mil + for their builds they do for customers. This build is a good resume if you wanted to continue this madness and get paid for it.

I’m always amazed how clean the shop is when you show these updates, specifically the floor. I make a mess just changing my oil!
I bet you have little super Dave elf’s that come out at night and clean! Ha!

Wow - looks awesome! Bracing looks good for the LCAs too.

Thanks guys. I appreciate all the comments! :biggthumpup:

It's funny you bring that up, Charley. I was sent this form just like a few minutes ago after you posted that. Strange how your signature is so elegant it forms somebody else's name!:hmmm::biggthumpup:

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But as you can see by the calendar, the schedule is pretty booked. We do require half up front and the other half after the first half. :dunno: .

In all seriousness, it's flattering to think somebody would pay that amount for a custom made car. If that we're to ever happen I'd have to actually hire a staff, be in charge of people, and spend other people's money. There's a downside to this how? :tongue:

I have another creation lined up after this if I have enough energy to do it again!:grin::no:

Cheers
Dave

In all seriousness there are a bunch of 1-2 mil builds for what looks like a standard custom car build until you see everything is highly modified or made from scratch.

I've seen a lot of Fooses' stuff in person and what's involved in that. Like the XKE. Amazing stuff. You're right. The clientele is out there. Exciting to think about!

Cheers
Dave

----The gull wing Mercedes reproduction redue comes to mind.....Bill S

Photo courtesy of Kindig’s Website

Now back to Dave’s awesome 507 build.LOL