Need a Custom Metal Worker HELP

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Serj22

Serj22

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Benicia, CA East Bay
So, a little about me and what me and my father do, is basically: We restore antique wood boats - mostly Chris-Craft, Hackercraft, Century, etc...

We have been building a 1947 Hacker-Craft that is almost one of a kind. The only larger example of this style hull is the Thunderbird at Lake Tahoe, with similar construction, but Thunderbird is a larger boat.

This is a 30 foot boat. We currently have 3 projects going on - this one, a 26' Chris Craft that needs to be done by SUmmer, and a boat that was owned by Joe Dimaggio, called the Joltin' Joe, a 22' Chris Craft Utility.

Basically, we have three projects, and would like that ALL THREE get to the Concourse in Tahoe this year for show, which is in August.

Here's the problem - we are having zero luck finding a custom/ hotrodder person that can handle the dash board in the Hacker Craft.

This one is weird because the boat actually had a 1947 Cadillac dash board installed in it. Since this is a mostly original restoration, we want this dash in there. The old dash was thrown out over 10 years ago by my dad, because he thought no way they did this - turns out... they did. So we have the 1947 dash, stripped, and we have the tube radio rebuilt, and the instruments getting rebuilt. We can't possibly handle the dash and the other two boats at the same time. The Hacker goes to upholstery soon and it'd be great if someone could handle the dash during that time.

We are located in Benicia, Ca and therfor we'd be looking for someone in the bay area or nearby that could pick the dash up, listen to us explain what's going on, look at this badass boat, and get this done. The client will pay for the work no problem, but we need the talent basically.

The dash needs to be extended in basic terms. But it needs to retain it's original feel and curvature. There's a glove box door as well that needs to be dealt with. It's not easy for us. Maybe it's easy for you. We built a template of the side panels, deck, under the deck, etc... so that you can take the whole thing, build it in the form we built and it will fit exactly in the boat. All the angles and curves have been matched exactly the same.

So if you know anyone, or if you are the guy - and have proof that you know what the heck to do with this - let me know and we can get this together. We are seriously in need of help, and need it done. The last guy who had it had it for about 5 months, and accomplished... well - it's not done.



And the dash:











The dash is currently bolted to the pattern we made that i described so you can kind of see how it needs to extend. This is a plea for help as we've been at this boat for 4 years and would like it to get to the show this year. The owner is getting impatient with all the metal workers that just abandon the project. He doesn't have a problem paying for a reasonable finished product though, and if you can paint it - THAT WOULD BE EVEN BETTER! Help us, or someone you know can help us, and be a part of resurrecting this awesome piece of history.

 
Ya might make a plea on the Hamb. Their is some seriously talented metal guys there, but unknown if any local to you. If the dash was left full length it may have been easier to transition to wood on each side. those pieces will be extremely difficult to fashion in metal. Fiberglass with classy wood accents may be another option.
Good luck with getting that done in metal.
 
I can see how I would do it but I would need another decent 47 Cadi dash to take segments from. This is assuming you want the same taper bullet contours present at left and right of that center rectangle to repeat on left and right ends.
Good luck
 
you need to find local hotrod builder. the guys that do custom rods of the 30-5o's. they can fab it out of metal and do whatever it needs.
 
We've been looking for a Hotrod builder nearby and can't find anyone. We did have someone named Don Brazil (brazeo?) who was supposed to come look at it and supposedly works magic with metal. We saw one of his trucks he made in person and it looked very nice and well done. But have not heard or seen him with many calls, etc... and August is getting closer...

We've debated adding wood to the sides, fiberglass, etc... and the outcome is that it must be metal, because that's what was there. We don't skimp on our restorations, so if the dash was metal, it's gotta be metal. We're trying to preserve a piece of history to show how it was done in 1947, so if the welds weren't straight on a bracket, we tell the welder to do a sloppy job. We don't like to "restomod" these so to speak.

The guy who had the dash could do it, but he never had time for the last 5 months it's been sitting in limbo. So we're really just looking for anyone through the grapevine or otherwise that can do this, and do a bangin' beautiful job. The other guy was getting somewhere with bending pipe to continue the bullets on the side, but then never finished, so we've got the bent pipes he made which look like they'd work if you formed metal over them and welded it all together.

But yes that's the other problem is that the bullets have to continue - if it was just a flat, or slightly curved piece we could do it ourselves... but its not. It's complex.
 
Well we found someone, if anyone was following this, but Hills Rod and Custom in Pleasant Hill handled this one, or rather the retired owner, his son now runs the place. He had previously built this Studebaker (I believe it is) into a woody, based on a Foose drawing, and it looks... beautiful.

But anyway, he did awesome work. It's extended, and we only tweaked a bit at the ends to get it to fit just right. It's going to be wonderful, and I highly recommend you check their work out. He made the radio grill fit in better, recurved the whole thing and with minimal body work we'll be set to go to paint.









Once the upholstery is in, and everything's painted (cream and red) it will all fit together pretty seamlessley. A crash pad wrap goes into the sides of the extended forward "bullets" in the center and it looks great.
 
We got the filling and body work done, drilled out the large 2 1/4" hole for the WWII surplus magneto, and Put in two holes for the original Ivalites, which are like car spot lights, but controlled via a cable with a longer reach, and were often installed on boats.

Then we took it to the painter and he hit it with 2 part primer and we sanded some more, now it's back to him to be painted dark red and cream, along with the steering column.

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Should have it back in a couple of days.
 
Does not look extended the way you were describing at first.
I figured it could`nt be done.
As long as you can make it work.
Show the finished boat when your done, I`m sure it will be sweet:happy1:
 
mopar head said:
Does not look extended the way you were describing at first.
I figured it could`nt be done.
As long as you can make it work.
Show the finished boat when your done, I`m sure it will be sweet:happy1:
Click to expand...

It wasn't the way we original thought of -no. We had to make a different approach to it, to make it feel more like what attempt would have been made in 1947. The original dash would've been bought brand new straight from Cadillac or Gm to be made to fit, so we looked at it as a "what would they have done from there" and this seemed the most logical. It allows the crash pad to wrap the cockpit and end right underneath the "bullets" on the ends of the dash. If we had not done it that way the crash pad would have ended somewhere before the dash and that would look odd. The crash pad is a half round rubber piece that has red leather wrapped over it. Then chrome sits on top of that to cover the leather seam that will be made. That's all up to the upholsterer, but it's going to look sweet.

The side panels will be cream colored leather and "tomato" red leather, and the crash pad with be wrapped with red leather as well to terminate into the "bullets" on the side of the dash. It's going to look very slick.

We really really want this boat to make the concourse in tahoe this year, so all this final assembly is coming together rather quickly. There's still lots to do, but it will be a very intense looking boat for sure.
 
All the stuff's back from paint, so here's some paint **** for ya. We matched it to the colors of leather that are going in the boat, so it's a "cream" and "tomato" red. It looks... so nice.

I think all of us that did work on the dash pulled it together, and Hills Rod and Custom made a great base for us to pull this off. It turned out wonderful. Tomorrow I'll be building a glove box latch, and getting the glove box door lined up with the 10 allen screws that line it up in slots - and then hopefully we get our gauges back soon. We had them all restored by Mark Clawson up in Ohio, and he was also converting the Speedometer to a tachometer for use on the boat.

I modified the column to turn it into a "3 speed" basically, since the transmission only has Forward, Neutral, Reverse. So you pull the lever back and up to reverse, and then back and down, to go forward. Pushing it towards center from either direction makes the lever fall into neutral, so no pulling is necessary. This allows a safety to stop putting power to the prop in an emergency maneuver, but also does not allow a bump to R on accident. The whole thing flows well and allows the stock column to function. I started on this column about a year ago, and just now getting it back together. The turn signal holes and all their functions have been removed as well.

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I say you missed an opportunity not doing it yourself; metal work isn't that hard, plenty of information on the net with examples. Looks good!
 
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