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Old 04-05-2018, 09:36 PM
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pplace pplace is offline
MetalShaper of the Month March 2018, August 2021,November 2023
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Hector, MN
Posts: 294
Default 1958 Ramber American

This week I started on a brand new build in the shop.....a 1958 Rambler American! I'd say hands down, this is one of the best looking cars ever produced! Well, maybe not....but I hope to change that!!

For those that followed my '49 Mercury thread, you've already seen a preview of this project. I had also mentioned at the start of that thread, that I wanted to be up front so everyone was aware of the fact that it was known and planned that the '49 Mercury build would go on the backburner during the duration of this Rambler build.

The difference between this build thread and my previous build threads posted on this forum: This will be "live time" as I'm just getting started on it in the shop. However, with that said, the customer did bring me the Rambler over a year ago so I could do the initial measuring needed for the full custom chassis that he had build by a chassis fabricator. After the measurements and such were figured out, the car left the shop until our scheduled start date.....the first week of April 2018!

One interesting / challenging thing about this car and build is the fact that it is a uni-body. With what we have planned for chassis, stance, wheels, engine, etc. I will basically be gutting all of the floor, cowl, engine bay, etc. and re-building it to fit the new chassis and engine......it'll be big undertaking for sure.

This first grouping of photos is of the car as it came to me last year in preparation to measure for the custom chassis. The customer asked my opinion of what we could do to improve the looks of the car and make it "turn some heads" I've attached a factory ad that I started with and the initial concept I came up with. (I'll explain a bit more "rough" plans beneath the posted picture)

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View from the left front

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View from the left rear

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View from the rear. These are pretty small cars. Length is one thing but they are so narrow!

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View from right side

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View from right front

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View from front

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View of the engine and engine bay.

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A factory ad drawing that I based my initial concept off of.

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A rough idea of where we are headed with this project.

The biggest visual change is the roof line. The rear half of the factory roof in all honesty is just plain goofy looking!! I've shortened the roof up, slid the rear glass forward and slightly laid it down. Removed the B-post and turned it into a hardtop.

The second big visual change that needed attention was the rear wheel opening. Again....odd! It seems as if designer "A" designed the front wheel opening and designer "B" designed the rear wheel opening and they didn't compare notes until too late!ha I've changed the rear opening to mesh with the front, but dropped the opening a bit lower in order to help give the car a slightly more "slammed" stance by tucking the rear wheels deeper.

We have plans for custom bumpers, headlights, taillights, etc. but for the initial concept we just focused on the above items to get a good visual for our goals.
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Last edited by pplace; 04-05-2018 at 09:38 PM.
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