Projects Giant speedster project

LMAO!
If only i could fit this into my signature

 

Just a guy who read your build thread start to finish this morning, very enjoyable.

I find your steampunk and Edwardian references interesting. You also posted a pic of Professor Fate's car too.

I think for colors... I'm not liking the greens too much they make the car look Bentley and/or a bit drab.

I was thinking some sort of burgundy/yellow/black/copper-bronze mix. Paint block whatever you don't want folks to focus on since your eyes will be drawn to whatever is yellow or burgundy or gold etc... If you paint the frame black then the viewer will focus on the bodywork and the rear taper. If you paint the body black and the frame red it will look more sinister.

I think if you tried to use purple it would for me only work as an accent color if it's over-used it might be hard to pull off. But I tend to like stuff that has more of a darker more sinister vibe.

Amazing build sir!

 

Pro Stock John,
I like your eye psychology. I'm going to study on it.

More Apron,

Bondo--wipe on, sand off, wipe on, sand off. Not sure whether I liked the new Karate Kid better than the old. I'm a Jackie Chan fan, and the new fly-in-the-chopsticks gag was fantastic, but... My old Rodac air file blew up right in the middle of the job. Piston came apart. I had to finish sanding by hand. When I could stand it no longer, I sprayed on some old epoxy primer. I just wanted to protect the metal, but there was something wrong with that paint. The finish looked like hell. I didn't even want to take a picture until I pretty it up. Since you liked my grinder plane, maybe you'll like my Chinese vise-grip edge roller.

Jerry
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Jerry,

It is good to see that Chinese vice grips are good for something! Good tool.

Bondo work is like sticking your finger in your eye -- it feels really good when you stop doing it.

Here is a picture of the original brackets & placement of the lights on a little newer Seagrave. It may be of some help as a starting point in placing your lights & fenders.

Jack

 

I hear ya on the Bondo. Been getting Bondo Boogers all weekend working on my '51 F1. The Chinese vice grips are pretty cool!

 

Thanks for the picture, Jack. I didn't get any brackets with my speedster kit. I see Seagrave progressed to front brakes. What year is that truck?

Jerry
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Jerry,
I think it is a 1929 truck.
All winter I have poured any used varsol, thinner, brake clean, oil, etc on the clutch mechanism & the mass of stuck linkages around the pedals. Yesterday I tried the clutch & it is now free. The pictures you sent me let me know I was not ripping apart some strange wet cork clutch. Thank you.

If you need close ups or measurements on the light forks it would be no problem.

Jack

 

Cool build.

Does that make mine the 1000th post on this thread?

Cheers -- Gary

 

1000??

I'm not sure who had the 1000th post.

Wood under the hood sides.

What do you call those things? Sills? I got a couple of pieces of walnut from my buddy Don who builds Morgans. I need to have these sills fitted before I can finish the sides of the hood. I used a washer to draw a line around the oil filler cap. It keeps the mark an equal distance. Then I rigged up a stand to hold the board in place while I cut it. I don't know what makes more noise, the Seagrave or my band saw? You might start imagining the opening in the hood side for the exhaust pipes to go through. I was thinking a round ended rectangle. I'd like to put a stainless or brass woven mesh in the opening. I also have to figure a way for the top and bottom of the hood side to connect since it will have to be two pieces to fit around the pipes.
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Very cool!
I love the way this project has come along and always look forward to updates.

 

Jerry, does that oil cap pivot from the bolt on the back? If so you might need to trim the sill to allow for the radius of the pivot. Just looking at your pictures and thinking what a classy beast you are building. You definitely need some of the wood to be exposed and varnished to a nice sheen.

 

Man every time I read this thread I learn something. That washer trick is too slick just used it here at work. Everyone thinks I'm somekind of genius now. Ha ha!

 

Hmmm.....maybe flat hood along the top of the pipes and the lower section has a u-shaped cutout? It might allow the upper hood side section to appear unbroken and sleek while still permitting an easy way of getting the pipe cutouts to happen.

 

Or vise versa, good thought. I was thinking about having the local cnc plasma cutting place burn two identical 1/8 X 1 inch metal outlines of the opening, then I could rivet the sheet metal to the outlines and the openings would be identical right and left. They would also give reinforcement to the sheet metal. The exhaust side would be split somewhere. We'll see.

Foot well

I didn't get much time to work today but I did manage to make the sides and top of the foot well. I'm thinking rivets there too. It still needs some more fitting and bending.

Jerry

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Not only is this a very cool build, but I'm learning something new all the time on this thread. The grinder plane, the vice-grip roll...but the washer trick as fantastic. Yer a fart-smeller Jerry.

 

Gee, Jerry, you are doing an awful lot of detail work on a vehicle that you have not driven to shake down and dial in. Are you holding out on us?

 

It's the confidence of fools. Actually, I plan on driving the Seagrave down to a buddy's shop. He's only a short way down the road, but there is a hill to negotiate. Plus, he's got a lot of neat vehicles so I plan on making a video of the excursion. Could be real soon if the weather co-operates.

Jerry
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Hey, all you forum savvy guys, I saw a post on the H.A.M.B. and the guy had the "picture" pasted in the post of the actual youtube link, not just words of the link. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

Jerry
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Below the youtube screen you'll see a "embed" button. Click on the embed button and paste in the reply to post screen.

Or in the "Reply to Post" box, click on the icon that looks like a film reel. It'll say something like "wrap YT around URL"
Paste the youtube URL in the middle {YT} url {/YT}

 

for hood side how about?
twin pipes per cut out
vertical edged mesh between each pair of pipes affixed to bottom
the mesh could be tubular between the pipes flanged at the bottom so the seam is in the non moving piece
top will cover when closed
add four large tool box latches one each end
two either side of two center pipes
top of hood side has holes/slots that alighn with pins/ rounded tabs on bottom

you figger it out .. you always do..... swell

 

Thanks for the info, Artfrombama. Paperdog, you're a fountain of ideas, keep-em coming.

Foot well

My buddy Oscar came over and insisted I needed wrapping on the exhaust. Then he proceeded to wrap the pipe. Oscar has a shop close to mine and it's filled with wondrous projects. Soon I'll drive the Seagrave down there and give you guys a peek. Today, again, I didn't get much time to work, but I did get the rest of the sheet metal bent up for the foot well. Tomorrow, I'll rivet it all together.

Jerry
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PLEASE DO NOT WRAP THE PIPES!!!!!

This is a dangerous path and the next thing you know, you'll have ball-milled aluminum billet sprouting up everywhere.

Oh, the humanity.

Edit: Also, he did it wrong. You use the black wrap. You soak the wrap. You stretch the crap out of it as you install it. With two guys, if needed. You start at the bottom so the edges don't unravel. You run it to dry, shrink and burn off whatever needs to burn off. You spray it lightly with black VHT to seal the fuzz and prevent the carbon black from messing things up forever. And you secure it with safety wire, not hose clamps, twisted on the bottom so you don't see it.

That's how you do it on a bike, just stated for the record. It is never never never done on a Seagrave.

 

Bad, Oscar! No wrap, no wrap!
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Yeah, no wrap. The pipes and manifold would look much better shined up.

 

Foot well screwup

This may be hard to explain. I finished the foot well yesterday. Today, I got to the shop and was looking at my handiwork when it hit me. I'd made the foot well straight or parallel to the frame. But the hood is tapered as it goes forward to the radiator. In other words, a straight sided foot well and a tapered hood can't coexist. After pondering various ways to cobble the thing into a tapered shape, I ripped it out. Fortunately, I was able to cut and redrill and make the existing pieces work. The only screw up that shows is a line of holes along the sides. Not a problem. I'll fill them with rivets. Rivets always look good, even when they do nothing. And who will know the ugly truth? Only my confidants on the HAMB. Shhhh...


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IF, and it's a big if, you are going to wrap the pipes, there are a number of ways to do it. Early british racers and early Indy racers used the cloth colored wrap like you have shown.

However, as was stated, you start at the outboard end and wrap towards the header flange. When we did it, we used three layers (one in from the outboard end, one out from the invoard end, and then again, one in from the outboard end) and we always soaked the wrap in Waterglass before we wrapped. That helped bind the layers and keep things from unravelling. The Waterglass helped darken the fabric to a nice caramel color over time, and the hotter it got the better seal it gave.

There are several cars in the basement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum with wrapped pipes. The initial reason for wrapping the pipes was in fact not to help handle heat. Rather, it was to help absorb vibration and the resultant cracked pipes. Later racers found that it also helped keep heat out of the underhood area. There are still a number of cars in vintage racing wrapping pipes today.

Waterglass is available here: http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/waterglass-quarts-sodium-silicate-121797/4,14186.html

 

Welcome to our little discussion DBF. Sounds like you know your stuff. I like Hamilton Marine. It's a great source for cool stuff including brass moldings. I used a bunch on my '14 REO.

Jerry

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okay now ....
the hood ideers keep poppin into my brain.. now after looking over the new threads on here of speedsters bodies ...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=579644


http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197468&highlight=speedster

why does the hood need pipe cut outs?

how about flaring or buldging out around them individually or as pairs keeping the bottom edge of the side as low as the frame or lower

kinda like pants legs per pipe each rimmed with brass
or hoop skirt for all of em..

really like that pic in the thread of the wire mesh vent sides...

 

Muffler hanger

I'm trying to get ready for the big ride on Sunday. The muffler and pipes are kind of heavy and I wanted to put a hanger on thing to keep vibrations down to a minimum. It'd be no fun if the muffler fell. The Seagrave chassis originally had strut rods that ran under the chassis to keep flexing down. The rods went through neat forgings that were riveted to the chassis and just happened to be were I needed two muffler hangers. I recycled a pipe that came from somewhere by cutting off a 2.5 inch piece which I drilled a hole in. Actually the pictures show it better than I can tell it. I didn't get the first hanger completely done. It needs more welding and grinding. I used one of the old door hinges on the strap so it would fit easily around the muffler. Finally I'm going to cut off the bottom of the forging so everything looks natural.

Jerry
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They are properly called "Catwalks".

Cosmo