1937 Zephyr coupe

[1937pickup]

Great work-you are an artist in metal fab. Someone should send you a v-12 for that car. Have you had any problems fabing parts due to Englands conversion to the metric system, LOL.

[Flat Ernie]

Excellent work, Paul! Always amazed!

[OLDTGUY]

Paul, Beautiful work!

[Blownflatheaddeuce]

Definately watching this one....Lz esp 37s are beautiful !!

BFD

[Wensum Valley Rods]

Bit more progress done, finally got out in the workshop this afternoon after spending all week suffering man flu.
I bought a 40s ford master cylinder from Duksville and needed to make the brackets to fit it.
I wanted to use the original pedal set up which was for cable brakes. These incorporate the handbrake linkage so they have remained as well.
I have made the bracket so it bolts in using original holes in the chassis, which is a result.
It's all mocked up and looks like it's going to work well, and once painted should look pretty well in keeping with the rest of the chassis.










Paul.

[Lawson Cox]

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AWESOME BODY WORK. Thanks for the pictures and keeping us posted.

[Brian]

Fantastic work Paul. You are to be congratulated for not only taking on a project that would be beyond most of us, but you are seeing it through, and as if that ain't enough, you are recording it all and posting on here! You will have, without a doubt [in my opinion anyway!], the best car in Britain!

[41ford1]

Paul,
You are a sheetmetal magician. Without a doubt your LZ will be one of the best anywhere.

[Wensum Valley Rods]

I now have the whole underneath sprayed with two heavy coats off zinc rich primer followed by two good coats of rustoleum gloss black. The front beam ,wish bones ,torque tube and rear axle has had the same and are now bolted up all be it with tempory bolts.
It is now back on it's wheels for a total mock up to see what kind of ride height it's ended up at. I have got the engine in, after making up new mounts. It fits well and even the boss on the back of the french block clears the firewall. The pilot rad looks like it's going to fit like it was made to go in there
I have also started to strip the flathead down, took the heads off and to my surprise after 7 years of having the balls revved of it the bores are like absolute new. It also has the 4" crank which I had never checked before. Result. should get away with a set of rings (maybe pistons to, as they are still the french ones in there) and some shells and she should be good to go again.



















Paul.

[frenchy dehoux]

Nice project well done.

Frenchy

[Wensum Valley Rods]

About time I did an update . Bit of a long and picture laden one I'm afraid.
I have had all the fenders,running boards,grill and hood shot blast so I could start work on them.
I have started on the massive job of trying to make something of the doors. I have made up repair sections to repair the door frame, and in the process have radiused the rear corners to match the front corners. There is a huge amount of work involved in getting the sedan/coupe door amalgamation to fit the coupe body. The bottom of the sedan doors are dead straight when looked on from above, but the coupe curves to match the profile of the rockers. This meant that I had to cut and shape the bottom of the door frame to match this curve. I had to make a new patch panel for the inside of the door panel where the door lock/window winder mechs bolt up. I have decided to use the original door skins and just remake the bottom as the one I have started on has gone together pretty well and the metal is still very good.
I have leaded both the screen pillars and apart from some fine tuning with a smaller blow torch are good to go.
I have always planned to change a few things on the body which I think improve on it. The Zephyr is pretty much spot on as it came from the factory, but I noticed that the rear panel and the ends of the rear fenders finished in a straight line across the back and the bumper had a nice shaped profile to it. I have spent a couple of hours tonight making a mock up rear pan and tacking it on , with some strips mocked in on the fenders I think it will look way better.
It should follow the shape of the bumper and the rear deck lid and just finish it all off.
I have also removed the filler cap from the rear fender, and will mount a new one in the boot as it will run predominantly lpg.

[Brian]

Your new rear end looks better than original profile for sure! Keep up this outstanding workmanship, I follow your updates with much interest.

[Willit Stop]

More fun than smashing bugs isn't it? Nice work! Love it!

[Wensum Valley Rods]

Hey guys,
Wow I can only apologise for not keeping this thread up dated. Due to issues with registering the zephyr over here and the amount of work I ended up having to do in a very short space of time I just didn't find time to keep you all up to scratch on the build.
I will post a link to the hamb build again as I did manage to keep a limited thread on there.

The long and short of it is that I did get the zephyr on the road, it did get a coat of paint (all be it temporary to keep the elements out) and it has got most of it's interior.
I managed to get it to the Pendine sands VHRA meet and also raced it on the beach as planned. It's now in almost daily use and won't get much more work now until the winter at the earliest.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...720735&page=13

Paul.

[37coop]

Originally Posted by Wensum Valley Rods

Time for an update. I haven't spent a huge amount of time on the zephyr lately, but what time I have spent has been taken up with the lead work and repairs to one of the rear inner arches.
All the welds on the panels I made and where the roof was joined back on were leaded in and filed back. Because I was only doing about 2 hours work each night and the fact that I had problems keeping the flash rusting at bay during the time between working on it I opted to spray the roof panel in zinc primer and to get the lead as close as possible and then skim fill with normal filler. Not the way I had planned or really wanted but I was ending up spending more time cleaning up the panels than I was putting on more lead. To be fair I haven't had to put much filler in so it's not so bad.
I think the main problem I had was that I wasn't getting rid of all the residue from the tinning flux properly and it was causing the flash rusting.
The panels that I put in are now pretty much leaded up and filled ready for a primer coat.
The rear arch is also coming on well, it's pretty much welded up and until my grinder cooked it's brushes tonight was well on the way to being cleaned up as well.


























Paul

paul I,m inspired ,I,v also got a 37 zephyr coupe ,I,v had it 26 years and been put away to begin restoration 25 years ago and still is ,its rhd and one of 40 odd made, i,m at the moment at the back end of a 25 year restoration of my 39 coupe (I never rush things ) and a recent import 51f1 truck,the zephyr is my next project ,its pretty complete with a v8 in but with the 12 that's locked ....its going to need welding in places but no pud on it and very straight ,looking forward to starting it , seeing yours made my heart a flutter ,good luck and I,ll keep em peeled , cheers jim.

[37coop]

wow paul, I,v just seen your posting ,I do the barn daily and never seen this before , the work is amazing ,I did a similar resto on my 39 coupe (imported from w.virginia 26 years ago),my work though is not in your class but I reckon I,m o.k at fabricating and welding and painting ,I finished the body work then got into old English and American bikes ,I had nine at one time now just got five , my 37 zephyr coupe will be started on next spring hopefully ,after seeing your photos I feel like starting it tomorrow ,I live in kent and now retired but as keen and busy as ever , good luck , cheers jim.

[Wensum Valley Rods]

Hey Jim, good to hear from you. Sounds like you also have your hands full. Would love to catch up and maybe see your zephyr at some time. I think that's three 37 coupes I know of over here now.

Paul.

[37coop]

hello again , sorry to be a stalker , I,m hypaventilating here, the grill on my zephyr is going to be a challenge ,almost all the slats have tin worm, do you do your own mechanical work,wow ,the best thing I,v seen on the barn ,cheers jim.

[Wensum Valley Rods]

Jim, have pm'ed you mate.

[Wensum Valley Rods]

A few pics of the zephyr at Pendine sands.









Here's a link to the rest of the build thread from the Hamb.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...720735&page=13

Paul.