Projects Shade tree Model A speedster kind of thing

I am using fabric for everything else. I needed that cowl to be metal because I'll probably end up attaching a windshield and mirrors and whatnot, and you have to back those up behind fabric, which needs to be done before you skin it, and that takes a lot of planning, which is not my forte. I'm kind of an evolutionary designer. Haha. As far as the hood goes, I'm worried about the heat. I'm going to use Dacron, which I'll heat shrink with an iron, but I think the heat rising off of that engine would make it go slack again. I don't think the weight penalty of those two parts is going to be all that significant. I ordered the hinge from the largest river in the world.

 

Looking good, bud. It does remind me of an airframe. Menards has hinges like that, of several lengths.
AH

 

Got the hood panels roughly cut out. Same deal as the cowl, paper pattern, old cabinet, etc. I almost made them too short, but I think they will work. The driver's side also has some rust through in one isolated area, but I can figure something out. They kinked a bit due to my primitive methods, as well. All this ac***ulated error may well add up to a failure and re-start. I'm going to go to the coast for the weekend and let it percolate a bit.







It is starting to resemble in real life what I've been seeing in my head, though. So, that's good I guess.

 

I really like this thing. I think it's a noble quest to try and build like those guys did in the beginning. It's one thing to stick to a build philosophy, but your car has the other important element; the thing just looks right. Keep on keeping on!

 

Well, dang. That's really nice of you. I'm still piddling away over here. I temporarily pop-riveted the hinge to the hood panels, just 3 on each side, and carefully trimmed them to fit (more or less). I remember when I made the hood on the old car I was so proud of the clean, close tolerance fit I had gotten, only to find that the twisting of the ch***is made the hood ends jump up onto and off of the radiator shell and cowl, so I had to trim them back to a bigger gap. I'm trying to pre-empt that here with bigger gaps from the get-go, but I may have overdone it. It does look nicer with everything semi lining up, though. Starting to get a real idea of how it will all come together.







Those gaps look worse than they actually are. I made the wood framing under the back of the hood low enough that I could add some kind of gasket, since that spot is actually over the interior of the car. If I have to drive this thing in the rain, I at least want my feet to stay dry. Haha. The radiator shell needs the straps replaced too, so the hood panels are sagging a bit at both ends. I think I'm going to add some reinforcing of some kind at the ends of those panels to help them keep their shape, and along the bottom edges where they overlap the tubing (also need to trim the bottoms of all of the panels), but that will happen at a later stage.

All of my bends have creases in them. Not sure what to do about that. I may have just made some pretty labor intensive patterns. They will certainly do for now and allow me to move on to the next steps.

 

I'm a little early, but Happy Thanksgiving.

 

^^^OMG! Those cuties! Happy Thanksgiving. You have much to be thankful for.
Andy

 

I do, indeed. I have been extremely fortunate in the kids/in-law kids/grandkids department. Hard to have a bad day anymore. Knock on wood.

 

Can't beat grandkids for an excuse to play in and old car