Body assembly part 1
We installed the front gravel pan, headlights, and minor frame components before joining the body and the frame.
We very carefully installed the headlight buckets and front gravel pan. Our headlight trim rings needed some work to make them perfect, so we could not install the bulbs just yet.
The frame was ready after we mounted the front air intake, bumper brackets, pedals linkage, emergency brake cable, and the strips of fabric between the body and frame. The previous owner of our car fabricated an incredible air intake to replace the original cardboards using sheet metal and aviation engine baffle material, so we decided to reuse it even though it was not original.
I 3D printed battery caps and a side plate with authentic Auto-Lite logos to make our battery look more vintage-y.
We used our car lift to raise the body before connecting it to the frame.
Body and frame combined!
Lots of room for engine bay accessories, just need to install them!
Engine testing
After installing the rest of the engine and frame components, we temporarily mounted our gauge cluster and electrical system to test the engine!
We started by installing our beautifully restored generator from Service Motors.
After the generator, we installed the fuel pump, and the fan and belt, followed by our shiny red valve cover…
…which we then removed so we did not risk damaging it while testing! We also installed the starter, recored radiator, and hooked up the spark plugs to the distributor.
Finally came the transmission cover, exhaust, and our temporary firewall. We also decided to remove the air filter for testing. The last step was to add oil to the engine, water to the radiator, and mount our gauge and electrical components.
VIDEO
Runs good as new, all it needed was a little idle adjustment!
Frame assembly part 2
After reassembling the engine, we were able to mate it with the frame, which was mostly assembled. We first had to install the rear end, torque tube, and rear coil springs before installing the engine and transmission. We were also able to assemble and bleed the brakes.
Almost ready to install!
We masked the “CROSLEY“ text and carefully used a paint roller to apply the red paint.
Although our car originally had a 6 bolt water pump, ours was completely rusted out, and we had already rebuilt the 4 bolt water pump from our first car, so we installed the 4 bolt pump.
After adding the exhaust manifold, temporary valve cover, generator bracket, and transmission, it was time to lower onto the frame.
Engine and frame together again!
Although we painted our valve cover gray, further research made us decide that our valve cover was likely originally red, so we later repainted it.
I used waterslide decal paper to exactly reproduce the original air filter decal. The hardest part to make was the bird on the top… and it is almost completely hidden when viewing from the top!
The body is next!
Frame assembly part 1
We took all of our black painted front suspension parts and installed them on the frame. We left most of the rear suspension and rear end out until we were ready to install the engine.
Lots of painted parts!
Shiny axles!
Our ‘finished parts pile‘ started small…
…then more parts were added…
…until it was full and we started to mount parts on the frame!
Undercoating
We used asphalt-based undercoating to mimic the original undercoating used on our car.
We thoroughly masked the car and lifted it with a forklift to access the underside.
We sprayed the entire underside of the car and select areas in the engine bay. The thick texture of the new undercoating was a nice match to the original undercoating, which also had a very thick and splattery texture.
Although the finish dulled out after drying, the texture remained.
After much debate, we decided to undercoat the upright bars after looking at original photos. We also sprayed over our mask lines and the top and sides of the fender wells to match the original sloppiness. Although hesitant at first, we thought it looked much more original than before!
This photo shows an example of original undercoating on the upright bars and the sides of the fender.
This photo shows how inconsistent and sloppy the original undercoating was. Look at how all-over-the-place the firewall undercoating is!
Bodywork part 2
We painted the body and other parts Ocean Foam Green base coat followed by clear coat. Finally, we buffed and polished the body.
We started with sanding the sealer primer, then painted two coats of base coat.
We followed the base coat with several coats of clear coat. It took several times of sanding and reshooting to get it just right, but we finally did!
End result - super shiny! We made it even shinier by sanding with 3000 grit DA and then polishing the whole body, which eliminated minor imperfections and removed some of the orange peel texture.
The trunk lid became even shiner after polishing!
We also painted all of the other body color parts, including dash parts, windshield frame parts, and more.
We also painted lots of screws and bolts that were originally body color separate from the body, so we could install parts like the gravel pan and headlight brackets after painting the rest of the body.
Reviewing factory photos revealed that the front body welting was originally painted with the body. Because we did not want to paint the body and gravel pan as one, which could result in cracking paint on the welting, we replaced the cardboard tube in the welting with a metal bar, which we then formed around the gravel pan and body to fit perfectly. Finally, we painted the welting with the rest of the body color parts. We also painted the screws used to hold the gravel pan on, and then carefully installed it. The paint has not cracked yet!
In this photo of a Hotshot with 1948 NY dealer plates, the front welting appears to be painted.
This period photo of a 1950 Crosmobile in Japan also shows painted welting and screws, painted in original Mariner Blue.
This brand new Super Sports at the 1951 New York Auto Show also appears to have painted welting and screws.
Although we found overwhelming evidence of the front welting being painted, all reference photos we had showed black rear welting, so we decided to leave it unpainted.
Bodywork part 1
Lots of filler primer, seam sealer, and a little body filler made our body smooth as new!
We started with a coat of filler primer over the first coat of epoxy primer.
We then filled in the body seams (not completely) with panel adhesive to eliminate any gaps or leaks.
Practicing laying down a nice coat of color.
We painted the engine bay, bottom of the car, and the interior before moving on to the exterior.
Shiny engine bay after clear coat!
Shiny interior too! We later decided to repaint the dash due to some small imperfections.
Lots of sanding, and a little body filler later, we painted the exterior with sealer primer. Now it is ready for body color!
Carburetor
We rebuilt our original Tillotson carburetor using Service Motors’ rebuild kit. Hopefully it will work!
Our carburetor appeared to be in very good condition, apart from some minor surface rust on the smaller parts.
We used carburetor cleaner to clean everything (large parts not shown here) and the minor rust was gone!
We unfortunately had to replace the bowl of our carburetor with that of another one we had lying around - there was a void in the casting, which resulted in stripped threads. Of course we discovered this after we were almost done!
All done! The other bowl cleaned up nice with some carburetor cleaner, polishing, and steel wool. Our original carb was marked a DY9C, while the replacement was marked a DY9B. There appeared to be no functional differences in the casting itself, so we decided there would be no harm in swapping just the bowl.
Framing
We pressure washed the frame, then covered it in epoxy primer followed by filler primer. Finally, we gave it a healthy dose of wet sanding and black frame paint!
Before painting, we fitted our new gas tank and drilled its mounting holes.
Epoxy primer!
We decided to go over the frame with filler primer to remove this rough texture from the steel.
Lots of wet sanding required!
Ready for black paint! We tested the black paint by the gas tank mounting rails before spraying the whole frame.
Black paint! We are going to give it one more coat for durability and to repair several small imperfections.
Paint store
We took our original hood and our paint chips to the paint store to get an accurate color match.
We started with the color of the hood and added white to reach the color of our best paint chip.
