Haha- that turtle deck floor is gonna be a bitch to make. I had high hopes for the one from Shadow Creek's body, but it's pretty roached... good enough to be a pattern. I can't remember what size the wire is - @RMONTY knows though. I know we had to change to a smaller wheel in the machine when we switched. It looks like fishing line.
Name your price, cut 'er up into quarters, pack it up in a box UPS will ship and I'll pay the shipping. It would be worth that just to watch Trevor cringe then watch him weld it back together!
Plugging away at the sheet metal… I did the cowl patches in three sections - one at the rear by the door, under the A pillar, one in the front, and then a big patch bridging them, using a slightly curved piece of scrap Chevrolet roof skin to match the subtle curve of the cowl. Here’s a look at what this silicon bronze wire can do. The cowl side was rotten further up on the driver side, but I didn’t want to have to remake the curve at the front corner of the doorjamb. I cut it way back - the metal was still pretty thin but this is where the pinholes stopped. I do not believe this could have been done with MIG.
I just did the same thing with my 27 and mustang radiator, I had to take 6in section out of the shell
Wow, been a while! Ok, so we got some important stuff done today… First things first… @alanp561 generously sent me his trunk floor, which is a leap forward. I’m bad at the mushy stuff but guys like him keep the fire burning for the whole hobby. I’ll pay it forward… I set to cleaning it up straight away and had it pretty presentable within half an hour of DA sanding. We had to cut it to clear the rear crossmember, then Robin wanted to TIG it. The trunk floor bolts to the seat back panel. The outside of this panel has had a crunchy, almost like grout filler on it this whole time. I thought it was a solid panel, but when I went to clean it to help the trunk floor fit up… Oops, all rust! So we were gonna have to patch that… This is getting to be pretty routine now. Slice, fold, weld… With that out of the way, we got the trunk floor squared up and bolted in. Apparently I didn’t manage to get a clear picture of the finished floor with the turtle deck on, but whatever. Anyway, that’s that!
As an aside, I think for now I’ll just run a 28/29 radiator with a 30 shell. This junk 28/29 rad fits close enough for government work. It is still a little too tall to run a hood, but $200 for an aluminum rad to get me moving isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Down the road, a custom radiator will be necessary to get the nose low enough for a hood.
The floor is strong enough for Trevor to stand on it with no additional bracing underneath. This project is picking up steam I think!
The floor looks very impressive, is there any chance of sharing out the basic measurements, as i need to fabricate a set of subrails along with the flooring for this.
Sure... I won't be back over at Robin's til next Saturday but he may be willing to take some measurements for you if you need them sooner. I saw your thread... big project! Wish I could get you some spare tin.
I set a reminder on my calendar to get back out to the shop tomorrow around 5. I will get the measurements for you.
Another one of those days where we did a lot but it doesn’t sound like it! I fabbed up & burned in the driver side cowl patch. Then we did some delicate work on the top of the cowl, around the gas tank lid. The metal was pretty thin here where water sat under the hinge for the tank door, and required careful reconstruction. A small circular patch was made for a really rough spot & the rest I just built up & smoothed out with the brazing wire - I’m telling you this shit is magic. Even the rolled lip, where it was cracked & split and super thin, I was able to revive. What I was not able to do, apparently, was take a picture of the end result Maybe Robin got one. Anyway, we did some more sanding on the passenger side & more hammer and dolly work. Then we chopped the windshield posts, but I didn’t get them welded today. A lot of the time today was taken up painting & re-bushing the control arms for my other car. But anyway, there’s the report.
Bit the bullet and ordered an aluminum rad... 20" tall, three core, inlets setup for 4 banger so should pretty much be plug n play and more importantly, should be the right height to match the cowl. I know aluminum isn't really trad but it's gonna have to do for now. We'll figure out how to disguise it...
Reporting in… Short day, short post. I spent the first part of the day carving bondo out of the doors. The door with more bondo was the better door, go figure. The bottoms will need some repair on both doors but the skins are beat to hell. I’m thinking cut the inner structure out, smooth out the skins with hammer & dolly, weld the inner structure back in. Maybe. Forgot to take a picture of the finished product but I got the bucket side patch burned in. Then we made a floor. We were gonna finish the windshield stanchions but I immediately got distracted. Next week, hopefully, we’ll be fitting the radiator & chopping the grille shell.
I just put a mid 60s mustang radiator in mine to get the right hight. fits good in width but is not as tall as the model A radiator. I put mine up side down. you can see it in the latest posts in my project thread. Projects - T on A : Fjant the complete novice builds a hot rod | Page 4 | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)
Damn, that’s genius!! I have two of those radiators and never did think to just flip it upside down. I almost wanna return this aluminum rad and copy your homework!
A power outage cut the day short, but today I followed in @Fjant’s footsteps by modifying a mid sixties Ford radiator to suit. We started by taking the 2 row Mustang radiator apart to research how these radiators are constructed. This was the radiator @MojoRacing donated and it ended up being very helpful despite having a damaged core, so thanks!! Dissecting it saved us from making some pitfalls that would have trashed the 3-row Comet radiator, and it is providing some patches and fittings for the modifications. We started working on the Comet radiator by using a hole saw to remove the filler neck. Then, I cleaned up the paint with a wire wheel. An area on the Mustang radiator’s tank was chosen to take a patch from… Cut and cleaned… Then we soldered it in place with 95/5 solder.
The core braces off the Mustang radiator will make a good foundation for a core support on the T. Looking good! We’ll have to add a filler neck to the bottom tank, but we can’t do that until the grille shell is fitted up. Robin has a junk repro 30-31 shell that he got for pennies as a wall hanger at a swap meet. Being stainless, it will be ideal for experimentation before we cut up my nicer shell. A little more slicing and dicing… That’s looking real damn good! The next step is to weld the grille shell back together but uh, the power never came back, so, that’s that for today. And before we can make the filler neck I need to find a junk 30-31 radiator I can harvest a neck from. I won’t cut up mine - it’s a nice original radiator that cools good and doesn’t leak, so it’d be a real waste to do that. We’ll do as @Fjant did and solder an original filler neck to a water pipe so that it comes out of the opening on the shell like it should.
Thanks again man! I'm glad it's able to be part of the project and I really appreciate you sending it to me.
Filler in the bottom tank? Last time I checked water didn't go up-hill on its own. You will have to remove the upper hose at the radiator to fill it.
I started priming stuff… Everything that isn’t gonna be body color or upholstered on the interior will be red oxide. Then I brazed the chopped grille shell together. The silicon bronze MIG wire works great on stainless. Then we test fit the radiator and started building the core support. The core support is built out of an old bed frame and most of the day was spent puzzling out different ways of making it work. Ultimately we didn’t finish that job and will have to get back on it in a couple weeks…
Hopefully it will be a short time before we can get back to it. This is Trevor's thread about Trevor's car but I'm having open heart surgery in the next few days so I'll be taking it easy for a few weeks.
The Jalopy Journal
