Projects Giant speedster project

Jerry, compared to the rest of us and our progress, you are working that fast!

 

Jerry, the giant is looking phenominal. This is something I could see Leno driving to work.

 

Hey, I actually had some time to work on the speedster today!

I fitted the left hood shelf today which meant taking off the muffler. This is tedious fitting and marking and drilling and tapping. That done, I started to make the final fit on the right hood side so I can rivet it in place. I couldn't trim the bottom until the hood shelf was in place. The band picture is for Mac the Yankee. Sorry for the crappy quality. Alex is first chair and was voted most valuable brass player by the his buds. Hey, a guy has to brag now and again.

Jerry

 

Congrats Jerry! Let me know the next time he has a concert and I'll try to make it up there, oh and the speedster looks fantastic, as always

 

More hood sides

I finished punching the holes on the right hood side for the rivets and temporarily bolted it in place. It was very apparent the side needs a stiffener like the left side. I think it also needs something along the bottom. This means a trip to Gainesville to get a stick of 3/4 angle iron. You can see where I drew an oval to see what a cut-out might look like--but I think I'm going to veto it. The hood latch would go right in the middle of it. And speaking of hood latches, I needed to know it the latch would tend to pull the hood side in or out so I made up a little test pad. The answer appears to be neither. The latches came from ebay as did the catches that mount on the hood side. The latches are real neat but the spring inside is weak--a trip to the hardware store. I've got to paint the sides before I get down to riveting.

Jerry

 

The oval is where the large Seagrave Special logo goes, maybe a little higher. The logo looks like the exhaust manifold.

IMHO anyway...

 

the hole is fine just must have its own pair of sliding doors

 

Exhaust

Exhaust systems are things of beauty. Why is that? We fawn over them, obsess over them. Maybe it's the sound. The speedster's system is no different and that's why when David Kelley, the area manager for City Electric Supply gave me two 3" 45 degree EMT bends for my exhaust I was tickled. David loves cool stuff and wanted to contribute to the speedster project but he also wanted to butter up his new landlord--me. I didn't need any buttering, though. David pulled my nuts out of the tempering oven by renting a building that has sat vacant for two years now. He not only rented the building--he renovated it! The place looks fantastic--and special thanks to Sabrina and Jerry. If you need any electrical stuff, and I mean anything--they even have appliances--check out your local City Electric Supply. They're all over the country.

Jerry

 

Hood sides

I finally got that angle iron and made some pieces for the hood shelves. The hood sides needed something to push against. Plus the piece under the exhaust pipe needed something to support it. Drilled the holes for the rivets and everything lines up pretty good. Next thing is to mount the hood latches. Also spent some time helping Alex make a handle for his Bowie knife. We'll have to finish that up too. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day! Go Troops!

Jerry

 

usually any store that has bar stools in front of the parts counter is a good place to be.

 

Jerry, how about a Brooklands style "muffler" (hollow of course) and exhaust tip aft of the new extension to complete the exhaust system?

 

Definitely going to have a fishtail on the exhaust.

Hey, check out this speedster. Nice video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9nyndEHy5o

Jerry

 

Oh man! Thanks for sharing that video. I had a grin from ear to ear the whole time I was watching it!!

 

Opportunity, opportunist, optimist

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. I (because of a flaw in my psyche) see the opportunity in every difficulty and right here I see a big opportunity. This opportunity comes in the form of a 1929 Seagrave fire truck (which belongs to a friend of mine) perfect for making into your vision of a giant speedster. I won't say if it's for sale because that would probably be a breach of HAMB etiquette. But if you message me I might be persuaded to tell my friend's number. Think of the fun of building a giant speedster--the prestige, the thrill, the pride, and of course, the adoration of millions of breathless fans as they read about your progress.

Jerry

 

Finally, something that makes your speedster look puny. You should buy it and build the Seagrave Super Sized Special Speedster. Then you could race yourself!

 

I'm definitely thinking that this is the perfect opportunity for Jerry to have a racing team. I mean, how hard would it be for Jerry to build a second speedster?

 

I worked with guys in georgia ,who would cook up road kill.

 

Fenders

Well, I needed some space to rivet the sides on my hood which meant cleaning off the area in front of my sheet metal shear. This also meant getting rid of the sheet metal which meant cutting it up into strips for fenders. I couldn't do this very well on the the shear and the nibbler makes a mess so I decided to try my Chinese hand shear. The hand shear worked great on a small piece and for the first 12 inches of the big sheet too, but after that it became a real chore. I had to push super hard and the cut edge got real ragged and bent up. Luckily it didn't matter too much because the edge will be bent over a 3/16 rod so I just kept going. The cleaning up and shearing took forever but it was a great leap forward. Now I've got to dig up a sheet of plywood to lay out the hood on. Also I got to drape the sheet metal over the tire and dream about what the fender will look like. Mmmmm.

Jerry

 

The old car builders used to take pieces of metal like yours, fasten them around the running board front, and twist them at the front end to get some nice compound curves the easy way. You may want to try twisting them a little to see if it works for you and if you like the look.

 

Great leap forward... ha ha! I get your drift. A truly amazing project Jerry.

 

Jerry,

Did you see the American La France build that just got started? Hill climb maybe?

 

Seriously??? Man you havent ate till you have had a big mess of fried squirell!!! Now thats some good eatin!!! My grandma would fry up a huge pile and mashed taters with gravy for sunday dinner when I was a kid, that was the best eatin! I always looked forward to some tree rat and taters on sunday! Jim

 

I checked it out. Awesome!

 

Psychic

I know what you're thinking. "He hasn't finished the hood, so why is he working on the fenders?" Ha! Well, the truth is I need a piece of plywood to put down to have a place to rivet the hood sides on. So rather than sit around I figured I'd mess with the fenders. Besides, the fenders are kind of fun. To get ready I welded up the supports for the running boards. I had to modify them because I moved the running board hangers from the inside to the outside of the frame. After that I got out the metal I bought for the fender jig. A real metal worker could just whip up a fender from a sheet of 20 gauge but I need a jig. I pondered the fender curve then stuck the metal bar in my sheet metal roller. (Are you supposed to do that?) After that welded up a ladder affair. I still have to make the front pointy and figure out how the sides will hold my rod over which the fender sides will fold. Is any of this making sense? A friend had an emergency and I had to watch her boys. Helpers? Well.....

Jerry

 

will these be " stepping allowed"?

 

Happy Father's Day

My present? You can do anything you want honey. YAY!! A little work on the fender jig. I bent one side of the front into a point. It turned out to be a little hard to keep to the paper pattern. I needed a jig. A jig to make a jig. Interesting! The other side bent way easier. then I welded to two sides together. Next: Round off the corners. Not much grinding involved. After that: Rush home for a dinner at Outback. Nice!

Jerry

 

impressed! a ton of work and very different! great job!

 

Odds and Ends

The whole point of this jig is to bend the edges of the 12 inch sheet metal I cut in a uniform way to allow the 1/4 rod to fit in the inside so I can bend the inner edge over it. Your basic wired edge--but on a big scale. After I got the jig set up I tried a test 12 inch piece of metal and found out that despite my calculations I'd made the jig too wide. The sheet metal didn't make it all the way around the 1/4 inch rod. By trial and error I discovered I needed to take out 1/4 inch out of my jig and weld it back together. Simple enough--but I had run out of welding wire. My Miller 130 takes a 11 LB spool. My buddy Don's bigger welder takes 44 LB spool. He pays about 25 bucks extra for 33 more LBs. Not Fair! I'll pick up some wire tomorrow. You can see the radius gauge I made to ensure I was close when I rounded of the corners of my jig. I gotta get that raw fender on the planishing hammer and see what it looks like!

Jerry

 

Let's make a fender!

Maybe I should have watched those youtube videos were the guy pounds and wheels out a fender free hand. So I clamped my metal to the jig (made with a jig) and trimmed everything up (using a special jig) then I started bashing the sides with my trusty hammer. I needed more clamps because the metal wanted to move around a bit but I just shifted the clamps around as needed. Things looked pretty good. See next installment.

Jerry

 

More metal bashing!

After I bashed all the sides down I smoothed things up with hammer and dolly. The sides were looking pretty good and I was thinking maybe I should make my own fender video. I pried the fender off of the jig to see what it looked like on the speedster. Not bad for a common fool. Next I need to install the wired edge then planish and wheel to give the fender some crown. How hard can that be?

Jerry