C'mon Art, you already stepped up your engine to stay ahead, hell I may drill a bunch of lighting holes yet. The ordeal has left me home nursing a pretty severe back today, could hardly lift the coffee container out of the lazy susan this morning. My mind says go but the back says woah !
Looking good man! Missing out on that deal got me to thinking, I may make up my own glass front end. It will be rough compared to store bought stuff but I can buy the materials pretty cheap. Doors are another story though. More complex than I'm ready for and I need at least the driver's door due to rust. How are those glass doors set up? Are there mounting points for window regulators or will the glass be static mounted? Thanks, Devin
Well I made it to work yesterday and today back home, not only is my back bothering me I have also caught something else. I've got a crazy raw sore throat, headache and stomach not so good, believe me that's a lot of aches I can do without. Devin, I am using the top of the window frames out of the original doors which have the glass tracks all in one. The regulators and door latch stuff bolt to inner door panels just like stock.
Dumb question, but since mine is 50 miles away in storage: Do the upper window frames just bolt on? Devin
Yes they do, they extend almost to the bottom of the doors, you can just make it out in the stock door photo on the right side. One bolt at the top and one at the bottom on each side. The frames that came with the doors have the vent window track cut out for what I presume for use of one piece window. The round holes are for the bolts
I had my little helper give me a hand today out in the garage, I just couldn't sit in the house any longer. I held the new/old quarter in place while my 8 yr. old tightened the bolts on the inside, it needs a little finessing yet but fits pretty good. Once I get it all lined up I'll radius this one like the other in the past.
Lookin Good Phil! You're just chuggin right along on this bad boy! haha Bet you can't wait to see how much quicker it goes now! haha
Right on.... Today I just spent a lot of time studying the front and where to hinge it for the tilt. I've got a good idea but would like to have some adjustability in leveling the front just incase it's not square. It's kinda hard to get a visual so up close to it and we all know that there are times things just look better by eye than the measuring tape.
I think it looks "perfect " just as it is. If you make a couple of plates that weld or bolt the the chassis and make two more plates that have slots that allow it to move up or down 1 inch, and attach your hinges to the adjustable plate, it will give you all the adjustment you'll need. And make them small and light !
My project is moving pretty slow due to business, health, moving, etc. but I was planning to make mine slide out and then tilt so that I didn't have to do that little cut fender thang. I figured on telescoping square tubing at the front and alignment pins facing forward mounted to the lower cowl/firewall inside the fenders.
This is how I want to do it. Weld a "C" plate on top of my radiator support which will have an opening in top just wide enough for the tubing to slip through. This "C" bracket will be about 5 inches long, the opening will be in the middle so will allow the front to be slid forward past the opening and then be able to tilt. All the way back is in the closed position , once again on the other side of the opening. If you slide it forward to the opening and lift up, the whole front clip will be able to be removed. If you notice the lower half of the rear of the fenders are cut off and capped original fenders and at the bottom with a latch. The front should slide forward on the capped portion then be able to tilt without interference. This should be pretty light as it will only have one piece of tubing and the two brackets. I will weld a washer on each end of the tubing just on the outside of the brackets to prevent side to side movement. The tubing will be attached to the under side of the hood via standard fiberglass and wood method.
Good idea. Just have to make sure the nose slides forward enough so that the front of the fender (frt lower) clears the front tires when opened.
we did some like this 40 years ago this vid is not me or mine sorry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNqfGGBNNA4
That will be the same effect hopefully, I cannot put a slide forward hinge at the frame on this because of the Eelco tank. It prevents doing any kind of cross bar in that area, lot of stuff going on in that area too, tank,radiator and trans cooler.
I marked my radius cut today and hope to get that cut out tomorrow. It's been a slow week on progress with the J but looking forward to making that cut !
Well that quarter is not virgin steel now, that cherry got popped this afternoon. I do have to say that after doing this before, this time was not so nervous,,lol Tomorrow I'll weld that brake line around the perimeter and the roughing in should be done.
Hi Phil. I have found over the years that using a solid steel rod works much better than brake line tubing. Bends in a smoother radius and welds much easier and cleaner than brake line tubing.
I don't know about solid rod being easier to bend than brake line ? I do know the solid rod would be heavier ha ha, I had the brake line on hand and it worked before so that's what I used again.
It's a little late for that, I cut the radius yesterday, today welded the filler piece, the brake line around the opening for the lip and have the first skim coat of filler on it already. It pretty much looked like it did the last time, seemed easier this time around though. Striking the arc on the fender and then bringing it over to the brake line worked the best as far as welding goes. If the line started glowing red it was close to burning through since it is thin wall. I jumped around the whole perimeter doing one inch welds to keep the heat down. I took a couple cell phone pictures but the other half doesn't like seeing the 5 dollar charge on the bill for each picture transferred to the internet ha ha.
Awesome build, makes me wish winter wasn't coming so I could start on mine. Was wondering what size wheels and tires you run out back and if it's still the stock frame or if it's been narrowed at all. Also, weren't you going to get some fiberglass quarters?
I was headed for the Scotsrods fiberglass quarters but found a pair of really nice steel doors and quarters on facebook of all places. The steel vs glass thing really doesn't mater to me as an issue I just needed a straight quarter panel ha ha I had planned on using the one quarter and both doors until I found the fiberglass front clip and doors here on HAMB. So in the end I sold the steel doors, used one quarter and used all the fiberglass parts. The frame is stock width, 73 bronco rear (stock width) and the rims are 15 X 8.5 with 28 X 10.5 slicks. Hope that clears things up a bit ha ha
I drug the camera out to the garage today, didn't do much other than sand the first coat and apply a second. I also fabbed up some wooden blocks to hold the tubing for the tilt part and figured out a way to make it adjustable up and down. Here's the section I cut out, this time around I knew I needed to cut that extra part out of the fender with it. Here it is with the first coat of filler, these fenders will drive ya bonkers with all their curves. I checked out several other Henry J's and they all look the same after the radius is cut. The top of the cut is further in than the middle and the front of the fender has a bulge that the rear doesn't. Bonkers !
Looking good. Nice to know you only have to do the one side this time. And while your at it, you should knock the dent(s) out of the old quarter and use the left over bondo on it ( waste not,want not).
Ha, I should beat it back in where it was after the mishap, it'll be a wall hanger for now. Besides Baron, that's pushing the amount of work now, it was a balmy 45 out there today hence the waiting a full day to sand...lol