Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Interesting point, Dave. I think you're onto something there. Gears turning...


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Huh. I forgot that you had Clevis ends on those ladder bars. I thought you had conventional Pete and Jake style Urethane bushed ends. Do you have a revision in mind? Give me a call this week.....

 

I'll give you a call later this week- got some T parts that need your expertise as well as some...wait for it... Chevy pickup parts! I can only imagine reading this news has taken your happiness to completely new levels of excitement. As for a panhard bar revision, I am thinking more along the lines of your suggestion to use a coilover bracket flipped upside down on top of the axle tube... I stared at it for awhile this weekend, and I think I can mimic what I did on the front in some of the bracketry. If I forget to ask you over the phone....do you have a 7* tie rod reamer, and if so, do you have a loaner program? This is unrelated to the rear panhard bar, but I don't want to forget.

 

Great article Jim. I'm redoing mine with a different body from Ron Pope.

 

Some times when I look at something , I miss the BIG picture ...w/your transverse rear spring [ if it's properly pre-loaded] you really should NOT need a panhard rod...just a thought ...
dave

 

BUILD THREAD!!! I need inspiration....

 

Dave,
You're absolutely correct. My shackles are roughly 45* out back - depending on what I ate that day, how much money I will have for fuel, and if there's any money left over, if that money is in dollar bills or coins.... my only thoughts are I'd like to make one work if possible because I'd potentially like to run slicks at some point, and I'm guessing those will be pretty close to the body. I know there will be some rubber roll I can't help, but if I can get a good panhard bar in there, I figure it's a good idea.

Since I'm getting almost nothing done lately and I've already leaked some photos, I might as well leak some more so we can all get our fix.

If you remember, this is how I did the shock/panhard bar mount on the front.


Well, I can do the same thing here by shortening the panhard bar a bit and cutting some tack welds.


And on the axle side, I can take a page from Kiwi Tinbender's book and flip a shock mount upside down to mount the panhard bar, which puts it in the same plane as the shock. It will need cut down obviously but you get the idea. This is the best idea yet I believe. Panhard bar rev. Z lol.



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Ok, I'm bored at work for the moment and... I've been kinda busy... not busy enough to do a legit update, so a photo dump will have to work for now.

More patterns...transferred from paper to steel, holes drilled, death wheeled out, hand filleted and sanded to perfect mediocrity....









...And it will go here-ish once I'm sure that will work. This version of the driveshaft loop gives me ladder bar clearance that the tubular one did not... Speaking of driveshaft... I got one that fits! 3rd time's the charm...or something like that.



A little teaser of what my sadistic brain has been cooking up.... I think I have a good plan in the works. I can hardly wait to scratch the chassis and suspension work off the list so I can move on to body....



Pedals.... Bending and welding courtesy of Kiwi Tinbender (Paul).









Clutch cross shaft and partial linkage...



And basic mock-up of the whole system using all-thread. Considering using DOM tubing and male heim joints.... still thinking on that...




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Nice work Tim.

 

Moving right a long it looks good

 

Are we really going to call that welding ?

 

Ouch.......

 

Webster's Dictionary:
Weld (verb) - definition 1a: "to unite (metallic parts) by heating and allowing the metals to flow together or by hammering or compressing with or without previous heating"
Welding - present participle of the verb weld

Any more questions, Larry? We all know you spent your career as a welding instructor; Paul has spent his career building hot rods. He has built or had a part in building more rods than most people on this forum combined; I'm both grateful and proud to have him as a friend. I'm even more grateful for his help with this project. My ENTIRE build thread is filled with bird shit tack welds layed down by yours truly (that Paul has to grind down and weld over every time I take something over to him, mind you); pick on those. Don't pick on Paul.

 

If you can't do you teach , if you can't teach you inspect. Thank god for friends and doers . IMHO

 

My career was not entirely spent as an instructor. That has been the past 19 years. before that was 25 years spent in industrial construction and maintenance as a pressure welder -steel fabricator on piping and pressure vessels.
Stick ,Tig and the other welding processes are what we train our apprentices in as well.

Sorry , but when you post close up photos of welds that look like that then in my eyes you are opening things up.
The poor welding and the grinding to attempt to clean it up has nothing to do with the experience of the builder, although after that many cars one would think that the welding skills would develop to a higher level.
Just an observation.
No need to get bent out of shape.
The pictures speak for themselves.
I'm not really saying that the welds are no good or that they aren't sound enough for the purpose, just that they could be prettier Paul.

And if you believe that then you really are stupid.

 

Please just keep the pics and the build coming. don't worry about the comments of some people

 

Tim will be driving his cool roadster when I'm fondling the purdy tig welds on my car.
But I take no credit for any of it.
I own a mig welder, but I'm no weldor.
Soldier on Tim, you'll get there.
See you out there brother.

 

Just ignore me and my higher standards Tim I am enjoying your build and I really like the direction you are taking it and the result is going to be a great looking and fun little roadster.
You have put a great deal of thought into your design and in making things look and work good.
And, it is great to have friends who can help you out.
Two thumbs up as they say.
Larry

 

Looking good, Tim!

 

Nice welds Tim.

 

just looked through most of your build, very nice stuff.....
love all the brackets and attention to details.

 

What a great thread. Happy to follow along.

 

I Love your T-Bucket Tim !
I built one back in the '70's and drove the snot out of it, what a blast, snow, rain or shine.
Voting the Dual Quads.
Did you decide on camshaft? If not, Call Bullet Cams and they will give you what will do the job.
God Bless !
Glenn

 

Thanks, Glenn! I like hearing stories of buckets being driven all over - I'm hoping to do the same with mine! Camshaft.......... still not quite there yet. I'm leaning heavily towards the smallest Lunati Voodoo solid flat tappet for drivability's sake, but I also want it to sound goooood. Like, inspiring younger generations from several blocks away goooood. I did a lot of digging around and found a couple driving videos of a car with that cam (didn't say what displacement engine), and to be honest it sounded pretty tame. Which on one hand would be good, but on the other hand.... I didn't find any videos or sound clips of the Isky 505, which made me sad (Monty Python voice here).

I have an older version of Desktop Dyno on my ancient laptop at home. When I get a few hours one day, I'll sit down and plug in some numbers. I have made a spreadsheet with all the valve timing events for each camshaft I'm considering, and I have calculated a ballpark figure of where my static compression needs to be to run each cam. I found some conservative flow numbers for the 461 heads w/ 2.02" valves, so I figure I can number crunch and see where my curves start taking shape. Basically I'm trying to avoid a power band beginning at 4500rpm, but I don't want to build me a sewing machine, either. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks to any and all following along. I suppose I should share a photo of all the fun I've been having without you all....

 

Slowly getting the rear axle smoothed over, removing what remains of my fingerprints and nails in the process....

 

Looks great! Tell Larry (@Blue One) to eat a bag of dicks. He always has something shitty to say and tries to pass it off with a ...

 

Looks great Tim, similar to your front axle.
Are you planning to have the rear end powder coated as well ? And maybe the frame later ?

 

It's a treat to see your progress Tim, maybe I will see you at the Portland Swap Meet this year, I applied for 3 spaces this year.

 

Thank you, sir! Yes; the plan is to powdercoat all pieces of the rear suspension. Ideally they will come out as nice as the front suspension pieces did. Which means I have a lot more sanding in my future. Hurray. I'm a bit on the fence for the frame finish. Possibly powdercoat, possibly body color. My dilemma is focused mainly around the welded seam on the frame rail's rectangular tubing. On the passenger's side, that seam is inside the frame (which I can live with); on the driver's side, it is on the outside... I tried to hit it with a belt sander, orbital sander, and block it; it will take some work to get that smoothed out. My brother thinks it needs to be powdercoated, and I told him if it was gonna go down like that, he needs to help me get it all blocked smooth! Ha!

 

Thanks Gary. I will definitely be there, but this year I don't think I will get a booth. Last year was AWFUL. I try not to complain about things through social media, because it's easy to come across as a whining little poo ball, but I will complain a little here. I had a booth full of treasures ranging from "buy it for a dollar or I throw it away" ...to... "I don't really want to sell this but need some money" prices.... I was LUCKY to have roughly 50 people stop by my booth the entire weekend. The overwhelming majority of people were wandering around looking at the ceiling, talking with their friends about non-car related things (I was bored, so I listened in), hands in their pockets, zero interest in being there. WHY WOULD YOU PAY PRICE OF ADMISSION IF YOU DON'T INTEND TO LOOK AT STUFF, LET ALONE BUY SOMETHING???? Why wouldn't you just go for a walk in the park? Why would you go to the swap meet and buy a hot dog for $6 when you could accomplish the same thing for $0.50 at 7Eleven, given that you have zero interest in being at the swap meet??? Anyway, rant over. I had fun with my brother and cousin and Paul people watching I suppose.