Rough bodywork continues

Pat has repaired the damage to the c-pillar on the passenger side, the gash to the front and rear door pillar, and the right front fender.


He used a hydraulic jack, and particularly medeval looking piece of persuasion that helps bend or pull the damaged metal back into its original position.

I understand that it saves a tremendous amount of hammering. I was not present for this and I'm glad - I think I would have passed out!

I think that one of the trickier bits of work will be getting the doors to align straight. These cars were handbuilt and the gap between door and body seems to vary widely as I look at different models.

Pat said that many restorers will spend countless hours and create a much flusher gap than ever came from the factory -- a 'better than new' scenario.

A coat of primer will make this fender look whole again. It's amazing the number of compound curves on this car. Even the headlight cover is complex.

These covers are aluminum, and the driver side one actually shattered -- Pat sent it to an aluminum welder and we should have it back this week.

Removed the interior

Pat and I removed most of the interior from the car over the weekend as well. It's necessary for a couple of reasons:

1. With all the bodywork that needs done on the c-pillar and passenger side doors, the interior on that side would have to be removed
2. Painting a car is a very dirty process with all the sanding, priming, and painting - removing the interior means that you preserve it rather than ruin it!

The interior is a completely custom-crafted thing -- all fabric is woolen broadcloth and most is screwed, nailed, or stapled to wooden bows on the seat frames, door frames, and body. It's amazingly labor-intensive.

Bodywork is underway

Things got underway in earnest this past weekend -- If you've looked at the pictures in the archive, FB2191 had a decent bit of damage to the front and passenger side -- specifically the front fenders, transmission cover, fence, hood, passenger side doors and c-pillar.

Well, Joe and Pat have made phenominal progress on the front of the car -- here are several pictures:

This is my 9 year old son Austin helping Joe arc-weld the driver side fender

This is the rough-finished driver side fender -- the fender had to be pounded out, straightened, then welded together.

Here's the passenger side fender -- it wasn't quite as bad as the driver side.

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And this is the transmission cover -- Joe had to completely rebuild the front piece, cut out the bad metal, and weld the fabricated piece in. Not bad work for a union guy!

Transmission work

I spent a decent part of yesterday afternoon at Pat's, working on the Cord - or rather, Pat and Joe spent a decent part of the afternoon replacing the bent parts of the transmission, while I watched and offered irrelevant suggestions.

The vacuum-driven shift cylinder's rod was bent and broken.  Pat had several available.  Second, the 'dog-bone' rod was bent as well.  I have a spare, but it is pretty rough.  Once again, Pat had at least 6 complete assemblies, so my tab to him continues to grow.

Cord 810/812's have a novel and unique front wheel drive system that was originally designed by Bendix and then modified by Auburn.  First, front wheel drive was unheard of in the 30's, with the exception of another Cord, the L29.  Second, most of us who have driven a manual transmission car recall the gear shifter between the front seats or even on the steering column.  The Cord's is much more elegant:

The picture on the left shows the actual shifter -- it's no bigger than a modern car key, and to shift you press in the clutch and flick the lever to the desired gear.  The business end of the transmission is in front (and in my case, damaged).

In theory, this is really an incredible setup, made even more so considering the time period.  In production however, the early cars transmissions wouldn't hold a gear and would constantly pop out.  Secondly, although today our cars are so completely computerized we wouldn't give a thought to the programming of this mechanism, back in 1936-1937 the design was entirely analogue -- a set of limit switches, placed at the end of the correct range of movement, allowed the system to select the right gear.  But without a feedback system of understanding how the gears inside the transmission were moving, when you select a gear, this system selects it, no matter how much grinding (or even shearing of gear teeth) it causes.

After replacing the entire dog-bone housing, the repaired parts were reassembled on the car.  I am so pleased with how it runs -- maybe 500 or 600 RPM, and nearly silent.  The car now kind-of shifts and we'll have an afternoon of tuning to do.  After that, out comes the interior!

Original key blanks

Here's a original set of uncut Cord key blanks. I'm debating at this point on whether to have them keyed to FB2191 or leave them as is.

Josh Malks, a ACD member, author, and historian of the marque, wrote to let me know that this set is actually for an L29.  810/812 keys would have the Auburn logo on the reverse rather than the Cord name.  

Here's a question -- Joe Leahy, a member of the club and the editor of the junior member newsletter, suggested that I approach Yale and have them stamp a new set of these blanks -- most owners I know don't have the original set of keys, so would you pay for a blank set that you could then key to your car?

The next chapter in the story

This blog will be the "official" statement of record for the restoration of my 1937 Cord Custom Beverly, Serial # FB2191.

I purchased the car in late 2008 from Bill Hummel, oldest grandson of E.L. Cord. Bill is the web master of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg club and has been wonderful in helping me source parts.

Originally, FB2191 was Geneva Blue, but was painted Rich Maroon with burgundy interior during its latest restoration.

Bill was thoughtful enough to take many pictures of FB2191, which I have posted here. As I begin the repair and restoration, I will update the archive with additional pictures.