The purpose of this Blog

This blog is to detail my 50 years (1973 - 2023) with a 1928 Chevrolet tourer, affectionately called "The Red Chev".

The acquisition, restoration, improvements and my experiences over the years are covered in as much detail as I can remember.

Some of the later postings include car club outings and other vintage car items that I hope will be of interest to people.

If you have the time, scroll back to where it all began in 1973 and follow the journey so far.

Thanks for dropping by.

Regards Ray Dean


See my new section "The Red Chev - Repairs, Improvements, Maintenance and Technical Details" located on the left hand side of the screen.




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Sunday, April 1, 2018

A great memory from 6 years back - Monty the 28 Chev gets back his near and dear rear (end that is)


The target for our working bee today was to get Monty's rear end into shape, to be precise fitting the rear tub that had been repaired by a local panel shop.

Grant has been beavering away over the last month or so on the timber for the front seat, floor front and rear and the rear seat frame. I was very impressed by the quality of the work and the attention to detail that Grant had gone to.

We started this morning with a rough positioning of the rear tub, seeing there was an immediate issue to deal with, being that the rear doors had to be adjusted to maintain the body line, not just in the top from front to rear, but the two lines that run through from the cowl to the rear tub.

A while back when we started the body rebuild, we worked from the front back, radiator, cowl and bonnet. Grant continued this with the front doors door pillar and rear doors. Knowing that everything up front was correct the rear doors were rehung to match the door posts leaving enough play to deal with the repaired tub, we thought.

At the same time we were trying to keep the top curve on both sides of the body as smooth as possible. The passengers side was fine, the drivers required a bit of tweaking and eventually we had a very nice line down both sides of the body. Grant will be able to fine tune this when he replaces the wood in the tub and refits the Y brackets that hold down and strengthen the tub.

The only true obstacle we struck was getting the top of the tub to match the top of the doors while still keeping a good line of the mouldings in the side panels.

After a bit of deliberation, increased heart rate, and sweaty palms, we just keep reassuring ourselves that every thing from the centre door posts forward was correct, and that any tweaking required would be shared between the rear doors and the tub.

Pleased to say that after a couple of more adjustments, me covering my ears from the cursing, and Grant swinging the angle grinder around like a stock whip, Monty saw there was no point in resisting further and accepted the rear tub fitted, and bolted down just enough for a short test drive.

In the end we were both very pleased with the appearance of all panels both side on and above. One smooth, streamlined and racy 1928 Chev. Well smooth anyway.

I have posted some pictures below with comments, and well done Grant. Monty took a few very large baby steps today.


Shame to cover great wood work with upholstery








Monty awaiting his tub after surgery









At this stage the body top curve still awaits the Y brackets to be fitted to the tub which will tighten the body up nicely and allow Grant to fine tune the curve.



The drivers side top body curve required a bit of TLC to get it into shape.


Passenger side is almost perfect straight up, and again will improve with the Y bracket fitted.


Having had suspect body moulding lines on the Red Chev for over 20 years, these are very good, flowing with no sharp deviations.






Now look at that grin, do you think someone is happy with his handywork?


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