Bob's 57 AGIN is back to the shop (Santini's)

[57AGIN]

Guys:

I had to ask Rick to come over to Santini's today to help them sort out some hood adjustment & fitment issues.  Rick came over a in relatively short order the alignment was nearly spot on, although the 58 hood has a bit of a problem on the driver side near the front.  Seems like there may have been a minor upward bend in that area at some time in the past.  Santini is going to try some hood bending/adjustment techniques tomorrow.  I'm pretty happy with it as it is, because when I'm not driving the car it will be on display at a show with the hood up of course.  However, we are still going to try to make it as close to perfect as possible.

Bob
57 AGIN

[RICH MUISE]

Welcome to the world of going nuts trying to get the front end pieces all aligned!! Quite a few of us have had similar issues. I spent more than a week trying to get things as close as posible on mine. I had almost identical issue as yours, but mine started with the doors not being as close as yours appear to be. My final attempt to eliminate what you have was done by leaving the nose piece, fender, and inner wheel well attached to one another, and  shifting everything back (or forward, or up, etc) as an assembly. I remember using a small machinist' jack between the frame front crossmember and the core support  to "jack" it back. You get to a point where it seems like it can't be done any better because if you move things to correct one area, it appears that it will throw something off (like the hood to cowl) in other areas. I'm sure Rick knows the hood has some unwanted up and down movement on the hinges as well as front to back. I'm talking about  where the hood bolts on to the hinges. One issue I was having was resolved when DJ told me to check my hood hinge to make sure it was all the way against the hood (it wasn't).
In short, I would think your issues are probably not due to a previous accident with the components, but a matter of having to possibly lose some of the perfect alignment you have in other areas to get the misalignment evenly distributed all over to a point where it isn't all confined to one area. Hope that makes sense. Think in terms of a solid square peg (the hood) in a larger, adjustable, square hole (nose piece, fenders). If that "hole" is a trapazoid, the seams will never be even.
I hope they can get things aligned without having to remove the grille to get to the hinge cowl brackets.

edited a dozen times to clarify statements!!

[RICH MUISE]

Makes one appreciate all the work it takes to get perfect seams on these high $ trailer queens you see at the shows.

[57AGIN]

Rich:

So true.  Today while I went over to install the 57 hood scoop chrome piece, Pete Santini was loosening the left side hood hinge springs to bring the front left hood down just a little.  It made the front of the hood to the nose piece a little better.  The hood alignment & gaps are nearly perfect, but they still haven't started working on the rest of the door & fender gaps.  Those could very well through off the hood gaps.  Pete took off the steering wheel and removed the ash tray to repair some damage overlooked earlier, they were being painted as I left for the day.  It is getting pretty close to being finalized, tomorrow they will be doing some minor scratch buffing and fixing some very minor paint blemishes. 

Bob
57 AGIN

[Hot Rod Custom]

Hey Bob,
  Thanks for keeping everyone informed on all you did to resurrect your beautiful car. Nothing short of incredible. What else is cool that nobody else has mentioned is that your Golden Anniversary is fast approaching. Congratulations! Your wife must be a gem. I know mine is, putting up with my old car obsession for as long as she has. I'll bet most of us could say that our wives are amazing.
  To think that you'll get the car done in time for the big event is awesome. Taking your wife to your anniversary party in the same type of car you dated in 53 years earlier is the coolest part of this whole thread, in my opinion. Enjoy the party. You're one lucky man!
Tom

[57AGIN]

Tom:

Thanks, having the wife not hassle me about doing things to the 57 is part of the give & take that has gone on throughout the years in our marriage.  I still have to figure out how to do a Power Tour, because she just doesn't do car shows and it would be very boring for her.

Santini and Wheeler's shops are aware of my deadline and it is helping me get them to put the 57 up on their respective lists of To Be Done Before July 28, 2017.  There will still be some other things they will need to do later, but getting it drivable & presentable before the 29th is the current goal.  Pete was getting the 57's steering wheel set up for painting as I went their today.

Bob
57 AGIN

[slumlord44]

Sheetmetal fitting can be a bear. Always liked the '58 hood on the '57. The hood was the best looking part of the '58 Ford. I had one on my '57 Custom 300 back in 1967. Wish I still had that car.

[57AGIN]

Guys:

57 AGIN is home again, this time from Santini's where he took care of most of the minor touch ups.  You can clearly see in the 2nd photo the adjustment required on the driver side of the hood near the front.  Santini feels that using some wedges and applying some pressure on the raised section will be able to fix the "bulge" in the hood.  The last photo really brings out the fingerprint design and metal flake in between the stainless trim pieces.  There are 3 types of paint on 57 AGIN: House of Kolor pearlescent blue, Honda pewter metallic and House of Kolor blue medium metal flake. On Monday the car goes to Wheeler's to modify the exhaust system in the rear to route the tips through the modified rear bumper.  He knows the deadline is Friday.  Meanwhile, tomorrow I'll be detailing the engine compartment and tires & rims.

Bob
57 AGIN

[57AGIN]

57 AGIN's Back in the shop::

This time it's at Wheeler's getting the exhaust system mounted to the new rear bumper configuration. and some minor tweaking with the front bumper.  Some months ago I osted the rear bumper with the mounting bolts removed and some exhaust cutouts in the bumper.  However in order to run the exhaust system to the new location of the exhaust tips it is necessary to run the exhaust piping through the rear springs on the outside of the frame rails. I took a couple of photos of what is going on.  The 3rd photo is of Wheeler's owner discussing things with his fabricator and a beautiful 39 (? something) in for some service parked directly behind my 57 which is up on the rack.  Looking forward to getting the car back again.

Bob
57 AGIN

[gasman826]

A tricky spot to get tailpipe clearance especially with bigger than OEM.  Looks great!

[57AGIN]

gasman826:

Yes, I wasn't sure how they were going to accomplish the transition from inside the frame to outside the frame.  I hope that when I'm driving, or possibly under higher than normal acceleration the springs don't make contact with the exhaust piping.  (LOL)

Bob
57 AGIN

[57AGIN]

gasman826:

I checked today with Brian, owner of Wheeler's.  He indicated that going through the springs shouldn't be any concern.  Unless I planned on doing some jumps, like Starsky & Hutch used to do.  I laughed and said I was only worried about dumping the clutch at 4,000 RPM and the car squatting enough to bang the spring onto the exhaust piping where it crossed through the springs.

Bob
57 AGIN

[gasman826]

I'm sure they'll do a good job.  OEM's have been snaking pipe through that area forever.  Even with big tailpipes, there is more room than it looks.

[57AGIN]

guys:

Here are some photos of the final product on the exhaust and rear bumper on my 57.  To me they really look awesome, but they will have to be dismounted in the future and taken in for powder coating to really finish off the system.  I'll probably do that sometime this Winter.

Bob
57 AGIN

[57AGIN]

Here are a few more photos of the finished exhaust system.  It looks like I'll also have to figure out a way to keep the emergency brake cables from ratteling against the exhaust system X-pipe.  Any suggestions out there?  I'm thinking maybe header wrap.

Bob
57 AGIN