Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

Looks good Pat.
I like the Edsel Grill.

A little inspiration-

Bought new by Frank Balzano and mildly customized by John Balzano off the show room floor.
Built as a full custom in 1959.

 

Those are 58 Edsel shells or the innermost shells off a 59. The piece I've got is a 59 outer shell and it's a little less straightforward. The contours make perfect sense in their intended use; I'm just not sure I'm sold on my repurposing. The shell is a bit beat up too but it's still a great piece to use as a general visual aide though for sure.

 

Sidebar: I picked up some nautical vents. They're 1-3/4" x 1-1/2" stainless and I think they might be good for brake vents:

 

Cool idea for vents!
Here is another,
http://www.hazecityspecialties.com/Products.html

 

I bet them'r more than $2 each

Nothing to report today, My dishwasher broke and flooded everything this weekend and killed my time as well as spirit. Then my sprinkler valve broke as well because it was accidentally turned back on at some point. good times in sub-zero New England this weekend. It was too cold in the shop anyway.

 

Fun build. Thanks for this thread. I have been holding back on starting a build thread on my '26 Chevy roadster build. I've been gathering parts and planning for several years and It;s about time. I'm not making much headway and I'm thinking a thread might help me to get more done and get me connected to people here that could shame me into action. I like that you make changes as you go and there is so much help and feedback.

 

Glad it's been a help. When I'm closer to done, I may do a more standard BUILD THREAD, but this one stands as good documentation of the stumbles, learning, and grasping at information that can come with the plunge into a first build.

I've found that, in a way, a car can start to build itself and tell you what it needs as long as you keep doing the manual labor. I had a general idea of where I wanted to go and the car has told me the rest as I put the pieces together.

 

I bet them'r more than $2 each

Good point !!

 

Shorter nose

 

Oh, wow. Cool. The top one looks almost like a streamliner, would be cool with a swept back windshield. The bottom looks a little more ordinary; but I like it either way. Going to be a one of the kind, 'non homogenous' hot rod!

 

Neet, thanks! Glad you were inspired!

I have the radiator sitting lower now, so the hood angle is more appropriate to a track style nose. It's lower than the cowl in the picture you used but just ever so barely. Now it's got a good angle to it.

I'm planning to go in bare aluminum or potentially stainless with no hood sides too BTW.

 

I didn't get very far with the paper because my kitchen flooded.

 

I like the shorter one just because it puts the nose behind the front of the tires. Now if you extended the frame and used a Buick straight eight………..

 

Actually, dropping a big inline in there just requires moving the body back. This started out with a Ford 300 Big Six in the plan:


The cowl is sitting back about 10" here, which would just push the back of the tub closer to the back of the rear tires instead of terminating ON the rear crossmember like it does now (read: easier). I could have gotten away without altering the frame at all going that route really.

BACK TO THE ACTION: I didn't get a lot of work that warrants photo-documentation done this weekend, but I did get the roll bar bolted down firmly as well as the major step of centering and bolting the subframe to the body. I managed to get the firewall cut off just right and popped into place. It actually looks like I won't need to do a ton of modification to it.



I put those stainless vents on the brakes to see how they worked out. They're a little small for where I've got them but I'm not unhappy with them. They didn't want to fit up top easily.

 

You had an inline six, and changed to a V8?
There's no accounting for taste.

 

You can buy those vents in several sizes - some of them quite large. Marine chandlers stock them.

 

I wanted to have at least a chance of running this car at TROG and OHV 6's are a no-go man!

That engine is currently earmarked for the collection of A pieces I've got. Gonna do a Purple People Eater style cab on the other A frame I've got and use up all the parts I took off from the original build plan for this car.

Yeah, I've seen them, the big hoss vents run around $20-30 and I might try one on the hood to shroud/cowl the air cleaners when they poke through the hood.

I started with the small ones because I figured they'd have the best chance of fitting up top unmodified. I may play with making spacers for them to get them to sit up there better.

 

I know. I tried to talk Mel into letting Chev. six powered car run a few years ago.

 

Well, I'd planned to play with the hood and nose structure this weekend, but my local Metal Supermarkets nixed their weekend hours, so, that didn't happen.

WHICH forced me to work on the body instead, which needed to be done for me to get an accurate framing made for the hood regardless. The firewall gave me A LOT more trouble than I'd expected since this firewall is not from THIS cowl. That 3" machine screw sticking out there was necessary to work it up into position since I was only born with 2 hands/arms. I have discovered that fender washers are great to use on the old welting rivet holes when getting it into position since there's slots in the cowl skin.



I also pulled the old seat back out entirely, in an effort to get the body straight. This effort ate most of my time this weekend.

I did a little hammer and dolly work on the bad spots, but this didn't do a whole lot and quickly started getting into a risky spot for more harm than good. So I got the rails level and put a hole through the structure to bolt them up tight in place. This did not fix things but started me down the right path.

It occurred to me that I needed another inch of support in this area so I can cut out the rest of the old seat frame and also to control flop in the body. Lots of gnarly cut-off wheel and burnt hair smell later, I got the new tube in snug.




At this point, I am starting to flush out and chase down issues with the body. As I left things, I'd clamped angle iron in again, this time flushing the panels alignment along the lateral lines. The passenger side still looks good, but the driver side still has issues. I think some of it stems from the door sitting about 1/8" out of flush with the cowl, but there is certainly still something going on in the center panel and/or the rear quarter.

And BOTH doors have somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" too much gap from their striker plates and jambs. So either the cowl moved on me when I put the firewall on, or I tacked the body in and aligned things wrong. Probably a little of both but, regardless, I'm thinking I'll have to sever the tacks and nudge the body up regardless.

 

Didn't get the aluminum angle I needed again but it's on order. I did get some 4 inch flat to make boxing plates though. gonna use the channel stuff on another frame.

Most importantly, I found a length of 6 x 2 , .125 tubing to make my steering box mount on. If I nail it I may do a tech week on it since I didn't find one.

Trying to figure the math to get it 90 degrees to the axle is a bitch.

 

See what I mean? 3 hours in.

 

Ok, here goes: I made a mounting bracket for my steering box this weekend. As stated previously, the idea was to correct the mounting surface to get dead center to 90° vs the axle. I was not able to either find or calculate a consistent number for this. The calculations I did based on frame plans came up with two different numbers, 2.9 into infinity degrees and 3.1551 and beyond degrees.... I CALLED IT 3° and said to hell with it.

SO that led me to figuring out what the difference in height I needed over 6" would be to get that. I came up with .3144.

I made a template for the frame rail and clamped it all down. I marked off the holes then drilled and tapped the two bottom holes so I didn't drop nuts all day.

I don't have any real precision equipment, so I dykem'd and scratched it out as best I could and went at VERY CAREFULLY with a cutoff wheel and portaband.


Once I got that done, I did the top hole and shaped the piece. I managed to get the difference in height between the two sides to .315 using my stationary sander and decided to quit while I was ahead.

 

Starting to look forward to your Monday morning updates. Looking accurate!

 

THANKS! I really appreciate it. I would have gotten more done, but we painted the town Saturday night so Sunday was spent on the couch!

I picked up some 4" bar stock so I think I'm going to work on boxing the front and switching to the mounts I got from @3kross over at RJay's a while back. The Speedway bolt ins do OK with the channel plates but I need to go up a half inch and using plate will weld in easier and look closer to period, so I'm setting all that stuff aside for a crispier frame I've got in the shed.

 

Nice fab work.

 

The skid marks from all the turns, stops, and goes have done your build well. In my head, I believe if my eventual build has as many diversions ... I will be surprised if it turns out half as cool as yours. I dig it !

I have kids ... but a Phaeton-esque low lakes racer with a Deuce inspired track nose suits me fine. Maybe a 50's Jag' six with an 4 speed electric overdrive ...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ........ dreaming away ....... thanks PatManta !!

 

THANKS! I think I'm finally starting to hit my stride in the shop. I've gotten enough ground steel up my nose now I guess.

Well, I can certainly see it. The shortened touring body plan may not leave you much room for more than a jump seat though and on my shortened frame, the rear crossmember has landed in a PITA spot under the body that I'll need to make something other than just a flat piece to close up.

Inline 6's take up a bit of room in an A frame. So your firewall would need to go back. In the first incarnation of this build, the wheelbase was also longer to compensate (@110") and the frame was left stock. But that means a Touring, Sedan, or Tudor body would still be able to fit. The 47 truck center and a set of 48 passenger bells reversed to an aluminum Vette drive shaft into a Mustang 3.03 behind the Ford 300 is what I did to get this.

If you want an open car and can't afford or find an A Phaeton, I'd suggest finding a cheap Sedan with a crap roof and make your own tub. I say A because there really is a shortage of room in a T cowl and I think if I were to build something like what you're describing, the extra room in an A will make the build and the ride a lot easier.

 

We think alike !! I have a 31 Chevrolet rolling chassis that needs to be deconstructed and cherry picked. Also have a 41 Mercury frame for the crossmembers. ( Poor man's Deuce frame with adjustable wheelbase .... and flattened 40 Ford style 'members.) Mine will be a 1/4 elliptical I beam front suspension with '47 Ford 'bones and a 60" Ford nine inch rear, because it's free. That's pretty much all I have currently. I've gone back and forth with a 215 Buick, and four speed to parting out a 50's to 65 Saloon Jag 6 four speed still to be found. Who knows ?

All I'll say for certain is : I like what you're doing !! Carry on and multiply !! It's looking really good.

 

That sounds like a cool platform plan! I dig it! I'd probably steer clear of the Jag stuff if it were my build. It sounds cool, but I think you might get stymied on parts be it by cost or availability. I'd go domestic with an early SBC, Y block, or Flathead over the 215 and a falcon/Mustang 6, Ford Big Six, Chevy 250, or a big nasty GMC for an inline 6.