Do you work on cars for a living??

[Zach Gomulka]

We've got this 1939 Graham Custom Supercharged. Flathead straight 6 cylinder with a supercharger, 3 speed on the tree with an overdrive for 2nd and third, so it essentially has 5 forward gears. Ugly as f**king sin. The car was an American attempt at French Art Deco design applied to a 4 door sedan. Bad idea. The owner is one of those eccentric weird car guys that wants every detail exactly the way it was in 1939. The car has a lot of interior to do, was assembled very differently than other cars from its era, and we have to figure out how everything goes together from crappy pictures! So far I stripped the previous interior, installed new tack strip around the doors and on the C pillars, insulated the roof with Dynamat and 1/2" foam, as well as the doors with jute padding. My boss, John, sewed up a headliner and hung it today, but we have to wait to see what the dome light is like before we install it for good. The owner is having an original style dome light reproduced for an ungodly amount of money. Everything has to be made from scratch. Its a major headache, but I think it will come out well.


I know it says 1936... its a typo.


So what are you working on right now?

[Zach Gomulka]

.

[Neil Davies]

That is a seriously ugly car! Might look ok rodded though... 

[Bruce]

What does he figure that car's gonna be worth when it's done?

[Zach Gomulka]

That is a seriously ugly car! Might look ok rodded though... 

Nope. They still look shit.

What does he figure that car's gonna be worth when it's done?

Ive looked around online and I saw one older resto for auction, from the pics the paint and body looked to be done better than this one. It was expected to only bring $40-$50k.

[stealth67vw]

Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder. 

[louisb]

Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder. 

It would be hard to drink that thing pretty. Be sure to post some photos of the finished work though.

--louis

[richie]

Did they have Dynamat in 1939 then?

 

cheers richie,uk

[Zach Gomulka]

Did they have Dynamat in 1939 then?

 

cheers richie,uk

Hahaha! No, but what was left of the original insulation wasnt doing much. The owner says that it had horrible harmonics inside the cabin at 65mph, it resonated like a drum, I guess. Should be quiet as a chruch mouse now.

[Jim Ratto]

I don't work for a living.

[sheep]

I don't work for a living.

yeah you just post all day while you are supposed to be working.

[sheep]

I have realized I am unemployable

[Neil Davies]

That is a seriously ugly car! Might look ok rodded though... 

Nope. They still look shit.

You're dead right! Ok, it might look Ok re-cycled into beer cans...

[Lee]

I've recently moved from an office based position, to building these...
 
www.caterham.co.uk 

The best move i ever made.

[lowfastbus]

I also moved from an office job to working on old cars everyday...

Check out there website:

www.marreyt-classics.com

Not your everyday cars but some beautiful machinery...
Really love this one designed by Ghia, can you see the resamblence to our Karmann Ghia's?

[Kobus]

Sweeeet Move Jelle!  Congrats 

I also moved from an office job to working on old cars everyday...

Check out there website:

www.marreyt-classics.com

Not your everyday cars but some beautiful machinery...
Really love this one designed by Ghia, can you see the resamblence to our Karmann Ghia's?

[Lee.C]

I think I have mentioned before I used to work for a company called DK Engineering in the uk restoring 50's 60's and 70's Ferrari's - it was anawsome couple of years but I found thats after working on cars EVERYDAY as I had also done 4 years as an apprentice at Vauxhall before this  I lost all interest in my own car/Beetle.

I now work as an Engineer in a swanky 5star Hotel in central London - its nice and simple and only 5 days a week 8-5 so I get plenty of time in my OWN garage working on my OWN cars and not some millionaire dimond mine owners 1960 250 SWB 

This is DK's web site http://www.dkeng.co.uk/

P.S where do you think I got those really COOl grease brass grease nipples on the front beam of my Manx 

[Lee.C]

Look at what they have for sale at the moment 

[Zach Gomulka]

You guys are making me jealous!!!

We work on this project when we run out of other things we would rather be doing The first major job is about done- headliner is stitched up and installed. The lines you see are shadows from the drop light. There are some tiny wrinkles but they will be out with a little steam treatment Next up is the wire-on (to hide the headlining staples) and the windlace around the doors, then the windshield trim may be re-installed. The color is actually a light grey... correct for this model.

[Zach Gomulka]

"Quick" project we did last week. '71 Challenger, blown 440, dual quads At least it has 3 pedals

[louisb]

Is that from scratch or were repo parts used? Nice flame job.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Repro stuff, thats why it was a "quick" job

[louisb]

Still nice work.

So hypothetically, if someone were to want a full custom '70s interior for a bug. Fat biscuit seats (no back seat), carpet, head liner, door panels etc. What would someone need to budget for that type of work. And how long would it take to get done? And how far in advanced does this type of work need to be scheduled? You know, car mags run engine, paint & body, and wheel articles all the time. But most articles surounding upholstery usually are form the angle of how you do it. Not so much what needs to happen before or what you need to know when talking to an upholstery shop.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Upholstery is the very last step- by that time most people have far exceeded their budget and want to cheap out on the upholstery. Which is stupid, because that is where you are when you are enjoying your car!!
For a '70s custom interior on a bug... strip your seats first, weld/repair broken parts, and paint or powdercoat them first before you hand them off to the upholsterer- as always, the more you can do yourself, the more you will save. We charge $65 an hour, which I think is cheap. Now, total upholstery includes (in order of assembly)... headliner, carpet, panels, seats. Sound deadening will be added under the headliner, new seat foams, new panels (we order them bare if they are to be custom). We would order the headliner and carpet as a kit, saves a lot of time (labor- $$$) on our part. If you go the inexpensive route with lower quality materials on the seats, panels, and carpet, you could get away for about $2,000-$2,500. If you want german square weave, better vinyls/cloths, leather, custom this, custom that... well, the sky is the limit.

[louisb]

So a good budget for a quality job would be close to five grand. (What I was guessing anyway.) I am still a good ways off from that but still its good to know what to expect.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

What I consider to be a quality job- square weave, good vinyl, good cloth, mild custom with nothing too radical... would be in the $3500 range.

[Fastbrit]

The Graham is beautiful; Monkiboy, leaving the chance to work on classic Ferraris is insane; flaming a 70-71 Mopar is height of bad taste; I write about cars for a "living".

[Lee.C]

The Graham is beautiful; Monkiboy, leaving the chance to work on classic Ferraris is insane; flaming a 70-71 Mopar is height of bad taste; I write about cars for a "living".

Yeah I know dude but if you'd tried working for that company you'd know why I left - They only ever had a maximum of 8 engineers at a time and in 5 years they went through over 60 guys 

Like I say AWSOME cars but a CRAP company

[Zach Gomulka]

I now work as an Engineer in a swanky 5star Hotel in central London - its nice and simple and only 5 days a week 8-5 so I get plenty of time in my OWN garage working on my OWN cars and not some millionaire dimond mine owners 1960 250 SWB 

Hotel Babylon, Monki???

[Zach Gomulka]

This is a project we did about a year ago. '32 Ford Roadster (steel repro body). Overall, it was done pretty nicely for an old guy in his home garage. We really knocked out the interior though Everything was supple furniture grade leather, with german square weave carpet.