Projects BRIAN MADE ME DO IT: 34 Roadster Build

It aint done yet but I pulled turkey out of the oven for a quick basting. Last nights pics were just in rubbing compound, tonight we are starting to get stupid.

about face!

This is "step ladder" deep

The polish is bringing back the dark maroon. This is sexy!

Another day and the body should be done. Them on the hood and misc parts. I'm giddy in anticipation.

 

Polish!
I thought you were Irish.

 

Actually Scottish but I don't discriminate. Waiting for the polisher to show up so I can leave for work. He should wrap up the body today then we can start on the hood and small parts.

 

How did you find this polisher fellow and how did you determine that you could trust him to polish everything without burning through the paint and requiring a respray?

 

Well, this is not the first car he has worked on for me. It isn't an easy prospect to hire someone to sand and polish another man's paint job. I have golfed with his father since he was born. I had him do a couple of Bandit TA's, a 69 Camaro pace car I took to Barrett, my little red Nova (someone buy the Nova!!) and my OT parts getter. He is talented. I leave him here while I go to work and he locks up when he leaves for the day and heads to his night job.

We were going over a couple of trouble spots this morning, he knows when it is ready to burn through and stops, then gets my advice on how we want to proceed. We had a little hanger in a tough spot this morning that we hadn't noticed prior, he got 90% of it. Couldn't see it if it wasn't on the lift anyway.

He has a bit more work to do, I probably wont be ready to mount the body for a week or so.

 

Not the polisher Jason I know... looks like he's doing a darn good job.

 

Day 5 of polishing (he has to leave for work at his regular job at 2:30). Today we are just about ready for finish polishing on the body and hood. I snapped some update photos for you.

Starting to look like something now. I am dying to put some parts back on it!

A close up of the cowl. The color is staring to get dark and lustrous.

This kid good with the buffer or what?

Here is one with the high speed down force spoiler deployed.

And finally, my shop floor which was clean when we started. That's a couple of coats of clear lying there.

More later.

 

I told you it's like jewelry
Next you'll be using words like refractive index and dispersion

 

I'm saving those for next week.

 

Looks good, shiny, if you like that sort of thing.

 

BEAUTIFUL I like shiny paint.

 

Billy is making me do it! I'm going to start polishing mine today, with some trepidation. It's so easy to go from making a mediocre paint job look great, to making a great paint job look bad, I'm always nervous. It's beautiful. Merry Christmas!

 

I'm gonna watch this ! ! ! We gots us a buff off. HO BOY gonna be good.

 

Buff off?. Sounds intriguing, possibly illegal in some states. But I'm in

Let's make it a shimmery and shiny new year!. Wax on, wax off!

 

Getting tanked today...hey, it is Friday... and a 3 day weekend, so don't judge me.

 

I haven't been doing much this week as I managed to "customize" my cold into a rather severe nasal infection. But I did stick a few parts on yesterday.
I really appreciate guys like Steve at Limeworks. Speaking of customizing, he custom bent this teardrop to fit my deck lid for me. I actually tried to do it myself and broke it in half first time, Steve did a better job. The deck lid has a cable remote latch, the handle is just there to look pretty and give you something to open and shut the lid with rather than painted surfaces.

From the OTC Gear guys I picked up this fuel filter and M/C remote filler. Neither fit my firewall so I had to make spacers.
They say there are two types of people in the world, Ones with pickup trucks and those who borrow them. I say it is also good to know a guy with a Bridgeport mill and the skill set to use it. Dig this spacer behind the fuel filter, perfection.

All I had to do was polish it and install it. Of course I also added threads in the firewall to make it cleaner and simple to install.

And we had to make one for the remote filler on the other side. Note the recessed hardware on the backside.
The devil is in the details.

Now there is enough room to unscrew the filter to clean it out without pulling it off the car. We also made it so the unit can be removed/installed from the outside of the firewall rather than trying to mount it through the firewall as designed.

It is fun putting her back together again. I also glued in the cowl vent weather-strip and preparing to bolt in the vent next. I bolted on the windshield posts but left the glass out until I finish the cowl vent to make installation a bit easier. It wont be long before I re-join the body and chassis but first I have a flathead to install.

 

Hey bud, I was thinking you were having trouble making bail.
Welcome to the club, I'm dealing with that same crud, not fun, this couch is not confortable anymore.
Coming along nicely man, you gonna have it ready for Beaches PIR opener?

 

Lookin good Billy!

 

Doubt it. I have an excellent upholsterer here in Battle Ground that will come take a look a the car tomorrow morning. He is pretty busy, he thinks he can work it in around July. That is ok as I still have a lot of wiring to do.
Tired of being sick, the antibiotics will start to help.

 

Thank you sir!

 

Try a Netty pot on that nasal infection.
Yeah it's gross but just do it, you don't have to tell anyone, and you'll feel a lot better imediatly.

 

Thanks for the disturbing visual but it was helpful and I'm almost back to my car building self. Tonight I had some fun with the cowl vent. I am using a under dash switch panel that required a longer vent handle. I had a 34 handle but it was not long enough. I used a 32 handle and put it in my press and bent it to clear. Much better! Here are the pics.
You can see the length difference and the bend I put on the 32 handle which was straight.

Here it is installed in closed position showing the room I have before it interferes with the switch panel..

How tight is that for a body that wasn't designed to have a cowl vent? And the best part? The cowl section came from a fellow HAMBer. It takes a village...

 

This worked out really well tonight. I used some JB weld to glue the rear view mirror onto the windshield frame. There wasn't enough room to tap and thread a screw so I just cut the top off a stainless screw and glued it in. I did scuff the frame and the mirror with a die grinder just to give the epoxy a little more to hang onto. Here is the results.

The mirror is an open car beveled mirror from Drakes

Just one more piece down. A lot more to go.

 

Here is a another reason to own a two post lift and engineer your car yourself to be easily worked on. The logic of which is undeniable.
Take part A, in this case an 8BA flathead and 5 speed

And place in part B, in this case a freshly painted frame,

Lift part B, roll part A under part B

Remove front wheels to allow frame to hug the ground and lower part B over part A

One of the necessities in this installation are the bolt in motor mounts I created. I kind of over engineered them, but that is better then the reverse.

6 bolts ( I welded threaded bungs into the frame) and 2 motor mounts later...

And engine and transmission are mounted...yes I chrome plated the trans mount. A nice shot of Russ Meeks ceramic coated Red's headers. Body waiting patiently on the dolly in the background.

Motor angle needs one half degree up, so I will add a washer tomorrow under the rear mount. That will match the rear pinion angle. I have a nice drop in the drive line for the u-joints to enjoy. Making them look nice is secondary to making them run nice.

My shop floor is a mess as witnessed by the tires but we are not finished sanding and polishing all of the parts yet so I didn't want to mop it until we are done.
Total time involved, 3 hours. Number of people involved, 1. Well 2 if you include Jack Daniels.

Try that with a 4 post lift. Oh, by the way, I can do this with the body and grille attached to the frame as well.
I love designing and building cars! Long live hot rodding!

 

Sweet!

 

Thanks! I left a few projects for tomorrow out there. I think I like building them as much or more than I do driving them. As a result I don't like rushing the re-assembly.

 

Did left-hand threads come about because of horsepower increase ?

 

My guess was that rotation was thought to loosen or tighten. Have to ask an older Chrysler engineer.

 

I had to watch a little football today so I didn't accomplish much in the garage. I did start tucking the exhaust system on the frame. I had cut down a set of flathead push rods to make pipe hangers out of. I had Russ Meeks at Finish Line coating add a ceramic coating to the hangers, pipes and smitty mufflers. I ran the stainless v band clamps across the buffer prior to installation.
Here are the updated photos. This is the cut down rods, ceramic coated, chrome nyloc nuts, and a rubber insert to help insolate them. I did "re-size" them to make install easier.

And a shot of the mufflers and header connectors. I'm not done with the tail pipes yet.

And a close up of the tricky mid section around the M/C.

Next up, e brake and fuel lines. Stay tuned!