Jerry Daman's 1950 Ford
1950 Ford Coupe owned and restyled by Jerry Daman, and his two sons, of Saginaw, Texas. The car was built as an accurate recreation of Junior Conway's 1950 Ford that Jerry has been huge fan of since the 1950s. Jerry had been thinking about doing a re-creation of Junior's famous custom car since the late 1980s, and in April 2009 he finally bought a shoebox that he could turn into the car of his dream. He asked Junior what his favorite version of the car was, and Junior replied "the last one". Junior's answer set the final path for Jerry's build. Junior's last version of the car, is the Teardrop version of the car with chrome reverse wheels, 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser skirts, and chromed lake pipes This version had also been repainted in gold below the side trim moldings.
The build was started in October 2009, and Jerry's goal and purpose with the car was to build a historical document that reflected the particular time period that it was originally done in. The build was also meant to be a tribute to the great legend Junior Conway. Jerry and his crew started the build by stripping the car for parts and pieces. After tearing the car down, the original tunnel was cut out and replaced with a new home made tunnel. This had to be done in order to lower the car as much as Junior had done many decades earlier. After that Jerry pulled the dashboard out, and had it painted just the way Junior painted it after he crashed the car and rebuilt it into the teardrop. The dashboard was painted in an ivory and copperish maroon. The dashboard in Junior's car was originally painted the same color as Dick Jackson's 1957 Ford Thunderbird. When "Peep" re-created his Thunderbird he used a late 1970s GM copperish maroon on his car. Jerry used the same color, but replaced the mica with metallic. There were five different colors on Junior's car. Two under the hood, and three on the exterior.[1]
When Junior's brother Herb bought the car, it was fit a 1951 Ford hood. This was a very popular way to change the look of the front end on these cars. Because of the scarcity of 1951 Ford hoods, Jerry had to settle down with a damaged 1951 Ford hood that he cut the front portion out of and grafted on to his hood. Up front, Junior's car featured headlight shades built from California Custom Accessories, items available for any car. As Jerry wasn't able to locate a pair of these, he used 1/4" rods to recreate the shades. The stock headlights were used, but the bezels were replaced by 1955 Chevrolet, just like Junior did. With the fenders in place Jerry could start to re-create the grille opening. Through the build Rik Hoving provided Jerry with photos of Junior's car. One of these photos revealed that the car had a inner grille. A new inner and outer grille grille was created, and fit inside a Mercury grille shell that Jerry bought from Jim Laga.[1]
By the end of March, 2010 Jerry had dropped the seats for the build off at the upholstery shop. In order to not get overspray on the trim and other items, Jerry wanted to paint the car before he installed these pieces. But before the car could be painted, he had to complete the rear end of the car. The finned rear fenders and taillights were fabricated, and by april Jerry's son Dan Daman could lay primer on the car. By May the car was almost ready for paint, but before the car could be sent to the paint shop, Jerry and his crew had to rework a set of 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser fenderskirts to fit the cars bulbous shape. After modyfying the fenderskirts, the car was sent to the paint shop May 8th, 2010. After spending a couple of days in the paint shop, the car returned to Jerry's shop for wet sanding, assembly, and a lot of detailing. Having some problems creating the side-trim moldings, Jerry had Classic Stainless of Fort Worth, Texas help him with this task. While waiting for the side-trim to return, Jerry and his crew painted the scallops on the car in June 2010. Jerry wanted to do the scallops before the upholstery because the taillights had to be in place before the trunk could be done. By October the same year, great progress had been made to the car, the grille and bumpers had been installed, a brand new exhaust had been made, and the car was currently at the upholstery shop receiving a brand new interior identical to Junior's original interior.[1]
References
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