Projects Jordan's 29 Ford Roadster

I machined these bosses to mount the steering box. I've always felt that flat plate style mounts with a vega box makes them look out of place. Hopefully these make the box look more at home...

 

I like that idea. It also supports the box from the frame rails and not the boxing plate.

 

Back on drivetrain alignment voodoo
Runout measured .0075 so I had to get offset dowel pins. I managed to get it down to .005", just in spec.

Working on making the T-5 fit. Started by t******* the beating retainer down on the lathe.

Everything fits, but the clutch disc is bottomed out all the way on the splines, so I've got a 9g steel trans spacer coming that should get things landing where they should

 

Picked up this spacer plate https://davisspeedequipment.com/product/10017-t5-spacer-plate/

Everything fits up perfect now. Used a summit hydraulic throw-out bearing. Engine and trans are back in the car now. Time to start designing and building the motor mounts...

 

Decided to remake the engine mounts I fabbed up some 14 years ago. Dimensionally very close to the originals. My usual process. Solidworks model, 3DP prototype then CNC...

The original part

Model

3D Printed Prototype

Job Stock

Surfacing

https://youtube.com/shorts/txaDALxnqjc?si=OfQ49UvwuiY6Lqyk
2nd OP

Finished product ready for hand blending and polishing...

 

Bolted up...

Time to design the lower half now. I've got speed holes on my mind...

 

Following my usual process of making a mountain out of a molehill...
I started with lots of measurements and CAD models. After about 5 revisions and plenty of sample 3D prints I came up with a design that worked well and looked the way I wanted.

Testing the fit...

5 axis machining...

After 2nd op...

Working on hand blending them to give them a more organic look, then polishing next.

 

Your level of craftsmanship is outstanding. Keep it up!

 

I drilled all the way through the frame and welded in some threaded bosses. Bolted in my mounts and, viola. Its tight packaging getting the vega box, motor mount and low mount alternator all in the same real estate. But as we say in the machining business "clearance is clearance!"

 

The next rabbit hole I'm jumping down; Trying to make my own polyurethane motor mounts...
I started with an Speedway motor mount kit. The upper works fine as is, but the lower is too wide to use in my custom motor mount setup. So I figured, heck with it. Why not try to make my own from scratch....
I designed a "mold over" setup that places an aluminum core at the center and gets encapsulated in .080" of 60A liquid polyurethane.

I popped my first attempt out of the mold to find lots of air pockets and a mount that still felt too soft...

I'm going to revise my mold, get a harder poly and give it another shot...

 

@Anderson is also playing with a similar casting of polyurethane thing, maybe he'll have an insight?

 

2nd attempt: I used 80A durometer poly this time. Density is spot on where I want it. The new 3D printed molds proved to work pretty well and didn't cause any major voids. The one big problem I faced with this attempt was lots of micro bubbles being trapped. I think I caused this by pulling too much vac on them in the vacuum chamber.

I'll take my learnings and go for a 3rd attempt...

 

Many attempts later, I got my process pretty well figured out. I managed to get a handful of usable units. I want to play with this some more at a later date. I need something tougher than the urethane I'm using now.

 

I bought some Brookville cowl sides to replace my hacked up originals. Unfortunately the fit really wasn't great. Specifically in the top corner, things just didn't line up. Angles were too shallow, lines weren't very crisp. Pretty much on par with all the other aftermarket panels I've ever bought...


I decided to demote my replacement panels to patch panels. Chopped off what I needed and welded them in...





Need to do some slapping to get things back in line, but overall I'm happy with the outcome...

 

Finally got some time to start digging deeper into the body. I'm in the process of cutting out everything I did in 2012. The cowl always sat ****eyed on the sub-rails and it bothered the heck out of me. The quarter panel patches never had the right shape and looked awful. Now that I have a nice square ch***is, my thought is to start from the bottom again and work my way up...

 

Wow, your work on this car is really incredible. Hadn't seen it before but following along now!

 

Glad I found this thread today! Not sorry I filled up your alerts box with likes. You have great planning, design and fabrication skills! Thanks for sharing your project with us!

 

Designed and built a 54”x90” fixture table for the home shop. It’s just big enough to get an old twisted up roadster body on it to straighten things out…

 

Wow! Your work is amazing.

 

Looks beefy! Should be a great ***et!

 

All I got is “wow”! That’s superb work.

 

@Cali4niaCruiser Great work! How did the you finish up your block off plate/PVC deal to the carb? How did it work out on the engine stand run?

 

I ended up making a fuel pump block off with a threaded hole in the middle and ran soft line up to the PCV during the break in. Worked great. I’ll probably end up tapping a hole in the intake for the final install

 

Thanks! I'm anxious to see what you do.

 

Made up some stand offs to fix the sub rails to the table. Time to start getting this body figured out

 

if henry built them this way-they'd have cost LOTS more!-nice!

 

Starting to get this mess figured out...

 

We're all the way in now... It was easy to see where a bunch of rust jacking had happened over the last 96 years. I'm dis***embling every panel an pulling the bracing to fix up all the seams. I'm planning to drill the rivets out on the quarter panel irons to get those seams as well. When re***embling the irons do you guys like to source flush rivets like factory, or just use a flush screws?

 

I bet you’re the first guy to ever remove the T strips to clean behind them.