Technical ´34 Ford HotRod, update... pg.11 interior and roof insert

Small world Baumi, I live in Carver also a couple minutes away from Jay

 

Man, the is a bad-*** car. I like the fact that you have gone and improved any thing that is not correct with it. Good luck with it, I can't wait to see it completed.

 

Hahaha, yes it is a small world indeed... the funniest surprise was that Jay´s wife natively is from Bavaria and he speaks German fluently and knows all the Bavarian slang´n´ cuss words. Not too many German or even Bavarian guys know what "Graffe" means. So you can image my blank stare when Jay said: " Baumi, please get your Graffe out of the way!" He sure loves to make fun of while he maintains his indian chief smile...hahahaha. I plan on coming to Carver again next July, maybe we can meet and chat a little. Jay even let me drive his 40 Coupe to Star´s Drive In on a Friday night. An aswesome experience...

Thanks man! I fell in love with this car on first sight in Vegas 2006.Never thought I´d own it one day. All the credits go to Fabian Valdez who nailed that stance and the awesomeness of this Hot Rod. I´m just giving it a good tune-up and hope I won´t ruin too much of the original theme. In no way I could have built this car myself here. Maybe I can repair stuff but it takes some vision to nail a look like that.

 

Here are some pics for you guys, nothing really special, just a little bit of tin work to make me look like I´m actually doing something. Just disguising my lazy ***, hahaaha.
P***enger side door had 29 brazed up bullet holes, there´s still some work to it but I´m making progress. Roof and drivers door are straightened, tinned and leaded as good as I can ( just an untalented DIYer).
I have a friend who is a very talented painter and metalshaper. I´ll do what I can and we agreed he will prep and paint the car to HIS standards, which I prefer. He usually restores vintage Maseratis, Ferraris, DeTomasos so he is used to rough stuff. Not my words , but his. Honestly, some welds or sheetmetalwork on old Italian cars make old American Hot Rods look like CNC machined, quality controled hi end products. Anyway, he was quite pleased when he saw the 34 , so I´m quite positive he´is going to fix the stuff I ´m lacking skills in.

 

Looking good.

 

Is the wheelbase still stuck for a 32 frame? 106 inches?


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No,it has a 111 inch wheelbase .

 

Nice work on these "Graffe"....

 

Ok Guys, here´s another little update, just to make me look like I´m actually doing something. I took the body to the paint shop and meanwhile I have time to get the ch***is ready.... Plumbing, Insatlling engine and transmission, getting the clutch to work , you name it. I think this is the most enjoyable part of every build, when all those clean and shiney parts go back together the car is starting to look like something again....

 

There´s still plenty to do, ...polish the valley pan, valve covers, intake, rebuild carbs, fab mounts for the e-brake cables to attach to the trailing arms,get the ingnition timing close, detail the transmission, ....I also ran into a problem with my Howe´s trow out bearing...

 

This is the kit I´ve got. It is for a T5 WC

It seems like there are two different input shaft support bearing housings, mine is about 1 mm to large in diameter, the throwout bearing is 40 mm ID, the housing shaft OD is 41 mm. I think its wall is thick enough to turn down 1 mm, so that shouldn´t be much trouble. Another issue is, that my clutch ***embly is sitting 89,5 mm inside the bellhousing, and the shims are covering roughly 30mm total...I´ll have to make a bushing to move the throwout bearing forward quite a bit...

This is how far the trans is set back from the bellhousing, obviously without the bellhousing, ...

 

How it has worked before ?

Was this the problem ,that you describe last year,with the bad engaging clutch ?

 

Jens, the problem was the worn out pedal ***embly, clutch not disengaging because of all that sloppiness in the clutch linkage... I got rid of the worn out 34 Ford pedal block and used 356 Porsche pedals which I moved forward all the to the firewall. Sitting so low in the car the pivot angle was akward with the 34 Pedals and as the Porsche pedals were next to the clutch fork now, it was nearly impossible to fab up a mechanical linkage for this applicaton. So i decided to use a hydraulic setup.

 

Got to see this 34 at bonaville in 03' love it ! Was my skreen saver on my computer for three years ! Good score !

 

Thanks! I always loved this car too!I´m hoping to get it drivable this summer... it really depends how busy my friend is with painting his real customer cars..I don´t wanna put him in a hurry because I´m really glad he´s doing it.
I´ve first seen this car in person at the 2006 VLV car show and I can wait another year if necessary.

 

I got the hydraulic throwout bearing figured out now. We turned down the input shaft housing down by 1,5 mm, made a spacer for the bearing to snuggly fit over the housing. Howe´s suggests a .060 " distance between the clutch fingers and the throwout bearing. I got to .078", adding another shim will get it to about .018 "....hmmm , will .078 be to much? I still can turn down my adapter ...

 

Got a little more done over the weekend. I made brackets for the emergency brake cables, installed the trans and started to fit the vally pan. It needs a few notches to clear the intake runners. I´ll probably have to pull the trans once more, I´m still not sure about the throwout clearence ....I think I´ll start a new thread about this issue...

 

So far, the engine is almost ready to go, got the igintion dailed in, intake and valve covers polished and installed, just the carbs still need some TLC. The chrome on the headers is not perfect, but that´s just right. I love it when parts look a little aged...it´s an old hot rod, right`?
Today I had carb salad...

 

koole karre weiter so!
just stumbled over it and really like it. My project wont be ready to go this year but im kind of ***embling too

 

Great job!

 

Not a lot of news here, but I´m still pretty stocked. I rebuilt the carbs and started fabricating a progessive linkage. Then I soldered a little leak in the top radiator tank , got it fixed and installed. Polished the grill shell, the chrome is still really nice. A little wiring and the engine should be ready to go! With the grillshell back on the car is starting to look like something again
The body is still at the painter´s , I should get it in a couple of weeks.

 

Another little update.
My painter friend was having some health issues and had to close his shop for about 5 weeks. Of course that put some delay in my plans, but health is always a first priority. You only live once. With him being back on deck again we were discussion paint schemes and colors. The body is turning out way better than I could have dreamed of and I' m glad I tossed my plans to paint the 34 myself.
This car really deserves a decent paint job...

 

cool story, thax for sharing Love a y block Ford in a Ford. Congrats brother

 

It is looking sweet - now . . . what color???

 

I hope yellow. It fits the car well.

 

Thanks guys, yes it will be yellow finally...I think this car has been yellow for a very long time. There was a layer of bright pale yellow under all those later coats of yellow repaints ( and bondo) that may have even been the factory color... This is kinda far fetched I know, but I am sure the first coat of primer was black and on top of that was the vanilla yellow hue .I found that all over the body. It must have been yellow before it was modified and chopped....but straight yellow won' t do it. Some pearl is in order....hahahaha

 

Right on my birthday I got a call from my friend to ' Come over and get your freakin' car!'
I did and I' m still overwhelmed by how well the body turned out....I couldn't be happier. These guys rock...
this door was the one with the 29 or so bullet holes.

 

That's one hell of a birthday present! Looks great!

 

And today buffed out and in the sun!

 

Very nice