O.K. gonna do some updating. First round of pics is cutting the ends off of the howells panel below decklid to remove the 3/8 or so bonus material and tiggin it back together.
So that panel is sorted and ready for primer n such, next is the panel above the decklid, which has a couple dings I can sort out with filler, although one end was badly rusted. I made a new end and put it on..
I enjoyed the howells remodel so much that I ordered the quarter panel corner patch pieces as well..Now to be fair, anyone online can curate their own life so to speak, (read, only show the cool stuff). I tried to make the corners several times with varied degrees of failure, which I will show, because sometimes people need to see the bad stuff.I found out howells made these and gladly ordered up, expecting to do some rework. Shown is the fit, not great, I only used 1/3 of one corner, however It moved me along when I was stuck. Not sad about any of the howells panels.
So this next job, I actually did a while ago, when I was trying to make the sheet metal corners. It is the corner inner structure piece the sheet metal attaches to and bolts to the subrail. One was gone entirely and the other was pretty rusty. I made a right and left side tool, cut out some of the discarded seat riser stuff that was the same gage and used a torch and hammer to forge these bits. Now that I had the sheet metal installed I could rebuild this structure piece.
O.K. next is something I'm kind of excited about. All hot rods have those details that define it as the "so and so hot rod" . I needed to replace the wheelwell panel on this passenger 1/4 panel as it looks like a violent rear tire blowout at some stage battered it badly. The drivers side was salvageable. Howells makes them of course,Although they are so boring. I thought it would be neat to roll some beads in scale with the T body that were in the style of the A roadster wheelwell panels. So thats what I did. Again I want to show some of the scrap I made in the process, because it isnt always sunshine and lollypops. I'm pretty stoked on how it turned out,oly the passenger side is mostly done. This was how I ended today. Thanks for watching. Have a good week fellas!
Oh, one more.. This is a heater outlet I got on ebay that uses exhaust hot air. I found and bought another one as well. One for each side,mismatched but cool. I think at least. See ya.
Hello Matt, Names Mike, I'm 250 miles from you on the western slope, just following your build thread. I'm doing a 27 roadster as well I found it in Utah. It will be like yours a traditional build, flathead,ect,ect. but I will us the A.s.c rails. I'm inspired! keep up the good work. I have a lot of catching up to do.
Hi Mike thanks very much for the kind words. If you are ever in Denver and want to stop by, let me know. Also if you need any parts along the way of your build, I may be able to help you out. Matt.
Thanks Matt that sounds great. I get down to Denver a couple times a year and I would like to meet up. From your pictures and posts it looks like I'll be fixing the same pieces on me body as you are doing. I'll keep following. Mike
well its been a year almost since i have posted anything. that every two weeks update didn't really take.Not sure where the time went. Motorcycles,bicycles,beer and my job I suppose. I would love to say I will post updates every two weeks again.. I would also like to wrap this thing up this summer. No promises. I will just pick up where I am at and go from there. This series of shots is making body mounts. I machined 8 slugs with 3/8-16 internal thread and a little top hat to sit on the frame rails. I would make body mount locations and mark the frame,drill,drop em in and weld. a couple I did in reverse. I was trying to maximize space inside, so that was tricky. The body sits on 1/4 thick conveyor belt material and shimmed for best door alignment.
cant find the shots of the cowl mounts. not a big deal really i suppose. This next series is some pedal and steering work. Again, trying to maximize floor space, the pedals are made up of an f1 mount turned upside down to drop the pedals down, the brake pedal is the f1 clutch pedal with the pulling clevis mount, and the clutch pedal,shaft and arm are 37 pieces, with machined bronze bits to take up space where needed. The master cylinder will be operated by a bell crank. I sorta built myself into a corner with space on my frame k braces.
I'm going to have cowl steering for more room and a better steering wheel position. plus its bitchin', so that helps.I also want a smaller diameter steering wheel, cause it's tight in there. I would really dig an early sprint car wheel. I'm not on my game enough to score one of those for the right lettuce though. So I have this 37 banjo that has a broken ring that's been hanging around as long as this body. I cut the wheel rim off,figured up the circumference of a 15" wheel.I though 3/4 dia. might be nice with a little friction tape for pad, then maybe make a leather cover outta some old stuff i got laying around. So whaddya know? I had a ford cross steer shaft laying under the car,3/4 dia. and 1/2 longer than needed once the worm was knocked off. I tack welded it to a flathead flywheel on the ring gear and bent it in a circle with my torch. I even left the tapered keyway section in for heritage purposes. Here's some shots.
I ground pockets in the wheel rim and tacked it up. I haven't finished it yet, like most stuff in my life.
I scored a couple of 50's austin healy seat backs and some bottom tracks so my chick can drive. Not sure if these backs will make the cut or not. Time will tell.
Ok, onto some steering stuff. I'm using an f100 box 53-56 because the column comes out the top and the sector shaft comes out on bottom. Best option I had in my stash. I had to make a hoop under the cowl to support it. My buddy HI (here on the hamb) found a couple 1.5 mandrel bends of stainless in my stash. Old motorcycle project stuff leftover. He cut it in half and I welded some 1.5 pipe between for a nice hoop. The feet of the hoop are model T frame rail chunks.
Originally I was going to mount the original steering box flange to a boxy bracket thing attached to the hoop and some hoop triangulation. First I couldn't work out a good way to extend the sector shaft and keep the cool f100 pitman arm, second I realized I need some outboard sector shaft support. I had a plan to extend the sector, until I realized that I would never get the box apart for a rebuild, then I noticed the brackets I had planned were going make it un-install-able! cool wordsmithing huh? What a dope.
So this next series is how I spent this past weekend. I did some research and decided to loosely copy Joe Kerr and his model a coupe setup. I met him briefly at bonneville this past summer, nice guy. Total badass for driving that hot rod from indiana to the salt by himself.
next, flame cut slugs from some 1/2" plate, drilled, bolted to a mandrel (7/8 bolt) turned clean and radiused for that casty look. Bored, pressed on and welded to the box.
The Jalopy Journal
