SOLID9, I understand your view point. You are right that whatever Steve has made is to the point. Column drop will work as advertised. Dave
Yes your right, funnily enough i was offered an Olds axle for this project but i had the 9" already and as i could narrow it myself it made economical sense. I'm in England so Olds axle parts aern't the easiest to find. Thanks for your comments.
Sorry mate I didn't mean to come off as a dick head Just had a rough day as today was as well, only wanted to state that things your used to seeing get really old really quick and I really enjoy Langy's innovations Anyways... Back to the build! Cheers!
SOLID9 , I don't think that you came off as a "dick". I just think that you made me rethink my opinion. I am really enjoying Steve's build. You can correct me when ever I am in the wrong. Hope you have a better end to the week. Dave
I made up a light gauge framework that bolts to the firewall to mount the dash and column mount, this allowed me to get my column mount finished. Left it out overnight and it rained so started rusting in just a few hours No problem as it will get blasted and powder coated. The dash needs trimming as its well oversize but it looks promising. it needs a little blending and fettling on the ends as its not a 41 dash.
Steve, I revise my opinion of your column drop ! I LIKE IT ! It is simple, clean and very functional . . . Can't wait to see what the MASTER makes next. Dave
I bit the bullet last night and decided to go with the 3.3/8" Quad gauges. The 5" were far too big. Also drilled some holes for warning lights, I've had these lights for about 25 years after i took them out of a scrap airplane, they are all stainless construction and real nice, haven't used them as they are a bit bigger than normal ones, I think they look ok in this dash though.
Steve, Those are the best kind of parts. You rescued them from an airplane on it's way to the junk pile. I think they will look great in the dash. One thing are they set up for 24 volt or 12 volt ? Dave
Someone asked about using glass fibre (can't remember who) so heres how i sorted the dash ends, I'm no master laminator but this is how i do it and nothing has fallen off any of my cars yet. The dash isn't quite right at the ends and we didn't have one to mould from so we borrowed another glass dash and moulded from that but its not quite right at the ends, I think maybe its a 39 dash but not sure. I had previously made the framework to bolt the dash too at the bottom. The discrepancy is with the ends, It don't look to bad in the pic but the end is actually about 3/4" shy of lining up with the body line. First job was to cut a piece out and get it into the correct position, Next i cut a filler spreader into strips and screwed them in place to hold it altogether. Next some body filler was mixed up with extra hardener to make it go off quicker, this was spread on quickly and once hard (about 1 minute) would hold it all in place for glassing the rear up. Once on the bench the surface was given a good key with a grinder and the edges feathered to a knife edge, you need to remove all the semi shiny coating on the old glass. Then some resin was mixed and small strips of mat stipled with resin, you just need it wetted not dripping as to much resin will weaken the joint. The strips were applied in 3 layers and allowed to dry. Once the rear was cured the dash was flipped over and the same done to the front but only 2 layers this time. The curve inaccurancy was cured by adding chopped mat & resin until level with the body line. Then its all sanded to give a key for a skim of body filler.
great thread. she is coming along nice. i have a question. would the method you used for your dash be ok for extending a fiberglass bucket T body? i need to extend the body by 12" over all. never messed with glass before.. so not sure. but it would be couple inches here and couple inches there.. etc not one huge 12" section or i think the body would look odd. thanks. chris.
I would grind each edge to a knife edge just the same chris but take the taper back a good 4-5", I did my T that way, Extended it 2.5", nobody ever noticed.
Langy, I am not sure I totally understand what you did with the glassing of the dash. However, if you used the body filler simply as a backing to apply glass and resin to the backside of the dash I have a better method for you. Amazingly, resin does not adhere to masking tape. Sooo, you could have applied masking tape in between the yellow reinforcements you screwed on and then applied resin and fiberglass to the backside of the dash. When all is dry the tape will peel off easy as can be and you are left with a smoooooth surface. Kinda cool huh? You might even want to try applying that masking tape under one reinforcement at a time so no resin leaks between the tape and the reinforcements. I see you call the reinforcements a filler spreader that you cut into strips.
Steve, Keep up with the good updates.Really like the little projects you report on. Looking forward to any others you do. Dave
No mate the filler is not used as a backing, Its used just to hold stuff together solidly while the backside is glassed, I could of used a variety of materials and duct tape could be one of them, you have to use whatever method suits the application really, the filler held it completely rigidly so no movement, duct tape wouldn't of held it so solidly i don't think. The filler is ground off once the backside is glassed up, leaving filler isn't very good as its not strong. Yes i just cut a filler spreader into strips, could of used thin sheet aluminium or whatever does the job, the filler spreaders were just laying there so got used. Yes i've used the masking tape many times. Hope this explains a bit better.
hey mate what is that speedo from. i brought one at a swap meet recently, it is in a panel with another 3 way guage which is the same size. the guy said he was selling it for a friend and had no idea what it was out of.
Its an old VDO 3.3/8" speedo i had hanging around, I have the complete set, they are nice as they have the old letters on them, Fuel gauge reads Petrol etc etc.
thank you. the bucket looks nice.. and yeah cant tell you extended it. cool stuff. chris. P.S May i ask how tall you are? and how high off the floor your seat is. reason i plan on extending the bucket is cause im six foot 4. im just trying to get a idea how much im gonna have to extended it to be comfy. thanks again. chris.
I'm 6ft Chris, my seat was 2" off the floor, the small stretch enabled me to sit nice and low, heres a pic
langy, thanks for the feed back. yeah i want to be low in the car do not care for the look when you are sitting above the body. heh. i may have to rethink my 12" i was thinking i would need. hah. i will need a opening door tho. i have a bad left leg.. so that is a must. its summer right now so all im doing is collecting a few parts when they pop up for next to nothing.. so far i have a 9" rear ( hope its good ) 40s front ibeam axle with spindles, model A buggy spring, old number 8 pool ball from the 50s.. and some misc.. i bought a book for reference to build a bucket for 3000.00 so thats my budget. will be fun to try to come under budget.. for the power plant im thinking a slant six.. but like i said right now im in the dreaming processes, building the car in my head over and over etc. also, i saw no one answer you on your axle question.. and why it got harder to drill your "go faster" holes on the axle beam as you got further along.. what was happening is your drill bit was heating the metal up and air Harding.. so each time you went to drill the hole out with a bigger drill bit the steel was getting harder. one of my hobbies is making custom knives using either my gas forge or a charcoal which i prefer over the gas but finding wood in teh desert is rather expensive so its cheaper to run gas which sorta sucks.. my fav steels are ( wrought iron from the 1800s for guards, pommels, accents, etc.. looks cool when you etch out the slag in it using acid) 1080, and 5051 are very back yard friendly steels to forge no need for high dollar equipment that you need for some of the more exotics steels. at any rate i hope this helps you understand what was going on.. what can you do to help.. lots of oil and slow the drill down some and go very slow.. about it.. cause you would not want to mess with the temper of the axle by annealing the ibeam.... ( thats the simple answer, you could go into detail on what is happening to the steels molecules but shit, everyone would need a PHD to follow along.. and i have enough problem with my spelling. haha.. so I just keep shit simple and try not to impress anyone.. it makes life so much easier with out the drama ) you rock. chris.
Chris i think 12" is way to much a stretch, You will lose the asthetics of the body. I built my T for $8200 12 years ago. Yep I know all about drilling axles as i've done between 80-90 over the last 40 years so i'm fully aware of the procedure needed.
I'm sitting on the floor in mine also. I used steel buckets purchased from a farm supply store, bolted them to 3/16" plate steel floor bolted directly to the frame, and upholstered them with leftover seat upholstery. one on left is finished:
langly - i was not trying to tell you how to do it. just explain why it got harder to drill like you asked on page one.. at either rate i know you know what you are doing. and after thinking about it you are right 12" probably to much.. ill try 8" and we see what happens. so far with the parts i have, i have zero money on this project ( well the book that tells you how to go about a 3k tbucket build.. and the dvd on building frames so i guess im in this project 30.00 right now ).. and i go with flat satin black, zombie green or hotrod red for accents. and do the interior my self.. hope to keep cost down we will see. again i was not trying to tell you how to drill a ibeam out.. that be stupid of me.. sorry if that my post came out wrong. ( i suck at these words things) thanks guys.. ill shoot for 8" stretch ( if 2" works for you, and im six foot four with bad leg 8" seems to sound good.. wont know for sure till i buy the bucket ( body) and sit inside it i guess tho).. opening doors, and couple inches off the ground with the seat.. and im still gonna hold this book to its 3k price.. we see what happens. sorry to high jack your thread, this is suppose to be about your willies, rock on.. chris.
Its Langy mate, Its ok i know you wern't, A toolmaking apprenticeship taught me all that stuff many years ago. Good luck with your project.
The Jalopy Journal
