I was talking with a friend yesterday at the Gilmore Car Museum and he suggested I post some of my work. The car is being built as a 1955-1958 hot rod. I am building it the way it would have been done in the day recycling parts and giving the roadster If you want to see more of this type of stuff let me know and I will keep posting as the car progresses. I have an F1 column and need to make a bowl/bell to cover the hub and rear of the steering wheel. It will have a Bell 3-Spoke so I want the bell as small as possible while retaining some class. Enter a 1933 Cowl light. Using a circle template I roughed out the opening needed to slide it on the column. With the gauge set-up below I got a nice concentric circle so it will be straight on the column. Opening cut Now to fill the extra holes. These are 22ga steel so I am leaving the flange around the front for strength and then when it is welded to the column jacket it will have strength on the back. This 22ga makes for some fun welding. First, remove the chrome where the welds will be. Now is the time for the torch to shine as MIG will blow holes in this and you can't work the welds. Smith torches with 00 tip. Small holes filled Plug for large hole cut and hammered "on dolly" to stretch the metal so it stays put. Welds dressed with a 50 grit disk in DA. Be very careful to only dress the welds as one slip of the DA and you will go right through the 22ga. Now to metal finish I used two special dollies. Anyone want to identify the car part that became the two flanged dolly on the left? It is great for working "inside". Almost done metal finishing (using 100 grit on palm sander) Done and Done
That is definitely think outside the box,using a cowl light,that's better than wrecking another column just to salvage a smaller bell like I have done in the past. HRP
Nice work...one of your dollies looks like a slightly modified Model A kingpin, and the other looks like a crankshaft. Too cool!
If that was an original cowl light it should be stainless. Maybe do I it again with the other light from the other side, but use stainless rod and polish it afterward.
That is some interesting right now as I was trying to figure out how to come up with something similar, Thanks. Those two damaged cowl lights on my Model A Vic may not hit the scrap pile quite yet. And my son can weld stainless (insert smile).
Rearching the swan neck shifter. The shifter was hitting the dash in 3rd gear so I had to rearch it. Started with a French curve and made a template. The key to getting a nice gentle radius without kinking is the buck. I had an old Bandsaw pulley that did just the trick. Picture 1 was the original then pic 2 after rearching.
I will be really interested in the hood latch set-up. I've been looking for the right thing for my hood.
Great idea! I see your striker...assuming you heated & bent? I've heard some folks have had luck keeping the chrome/nickel from cracking by bending cold.
I did not want to make any drastic modifications to the hood and since the original hinge hoops would not give me clearance I chose to TIG some stainless tube to the originals. (If I want to use hood sides in the future cut 3 tacks and move on.) The latches will be spring loaded stainless rods and the receivers will need to be adjustable to allow movement up/down, and in/out for body bead alignment. This is looking from front to rear where the rod will latch at the corner of the firewall
Have not been in the shop fabing for 7 weeks. Hit it hard but did not have a chance to take pics along the way. Anyhow, here is a stock bone, my extended bone since I pushed the front axle out 5 inches. Finally, the 35/36 rear bone extended and beamed to add strength for the rear end. **If you are extending a bone make sure that you keep all the geometry straight, put slugs inside the tubing, and weld with plenty of penetration. Don't forget plug welds into the slugs. SAFETY FIRST.
Shot of master cylinder mounting plate with beaming for strength. Going to try to get some serious progress and updates done over the next few weeks.
Love your approach and craftsmanship. Got me thinking about why it is the build quality is so much better on today's "nostalgia" cars. You've probably got more time and effort invested in tooling than a lot of teenage builders had in the entire car which had to be built quickly with a minimum of tools and experience. Watching builds on the HAMB for me is like seeing a consummate artist create a masterpiece one step at a time. Just because most of us can't achieve this level of results doesn't mean we don't fully appreciate what you're doing. Thanks for posting. lucas doolin
Made it back to the roadster and needed to look back at where I've been so I designed and made the rear view mirror components out of a chunk of 7/16 stainless. Since the roadster has a lot of Zephyr parts/influence I wanted to use the Zephyr tear drop as the base. It also gives that feel of speed as the droplet is stretched buy the biting wind. Since it is mounted behind the DuVall the stalk has to be angled accordingly. Pics below show the project....... . Wooden template Need to extract base by getting rid of "excess" stainless With some serious cutting and grinding with my 1/32 cutoff wheel and dart grinder I got the base done in 3-D. Some stainless rod and a stainless ball bearing and we have a way to mount the mirror head. The hole is drilled in Parallel to the DuVall windshield so the stalk can be welded in. With everything welded together and some studs welded into the base this is what we have. (Mounted to pie container to keep from tipping over.) Doesn't look like much but it sure took some time.
The Jalopy Journal
