I finished off the trans cover. That finished up the bolt in section of the floors. With a little help. I made all the floor sections. I have just finished lifting the body off again to weld these all in.
Gee Wizz Wardy! You have been busy man, Its looking great! Love the Column drop idea to, I know a guy that will find that a great help! Hope you and hte family are well
Love your coupe and the quality work you're doing ....... very well done. Will you need to have a collapsible column for rego in VIC, I'm of the opinion that we need them in NSW for full rego.
Hey Nick, thanks for your support mate. I hope I can be a help. We are all well, I hope you are too. I noticed you put bobbed fenders on the roadster and I’ve heard about another change on the cards. Bring on the 50’s hey?
Thanks Man. It all depends on your state, your engineers interpretation of the rules and the rego you are going for. Some will pass a solid steering shaft if the steering box is far enough back from the front of the frame. I’m putting this through as a modified stock frame.
Thanks for the reply, my engineer is fixed on me having one and it is probably safer anyway. I'm using a flipped F1 box with a >'48 splined shaft and the collapsible conversion is reasonably easy, especially if you have a machine shop at your disposal. Keep up the great work.
Last week I welded in the floor pans. I painted the under side first so there was paint between the mating surfaces. Then I sealed the top and bottom with a brush on seam sealer. Underneath I brushed on a bitumen based undercarriage paint. I finished welding the fire wall then cleaned up the welds. Then I put some paint on everything.
With the 32 column drop sitting in front of the dash I decided to finish it off a bit nicer. I cut and shaped some aluminium D moulding and glued it on with a 2 part epoxy. I fitted the body again after finishing the floors and firewall. I decided I want to run a rear spreader bar tucked up nice and tight to the body. So I shortened the sections of chassis rail I had already cut off. Now they are tacked up I guess it’s time to remove the body again to weld them and touch up the frames paint.
I’ve had a lot of small jobs I’ve been working on at once lately. Today I finished the accelerator pedal and linkage. I used a right hand drive 32 pedal, I shortened the rod 2” and mounted it inside the firewall then made a linkage to the rear carb out of stainless rod. The other job I finished today was the rear spreader bar. I messed around for a long time with placement but I’m happy to have it up close just to fill the void Model A’s seem to have at the rear of the body.
I set up the seat using the stock seat base on a hinged flat mount. The back rest is the same hinged mount and some 2” medium density foam. I unpicked the trim from the stock backrest and covered the foam with it. I set up some safety belts. I bent my shifter to clear the dash and installed my Lucky Burton shift knob. So I pulled the body off and finished the step down at the rear of the chassis. I’ll touch up the paint on the frame and get the body back on.
I really like your spreader bar mounting solution. Did you consider putting just a tiny bit of curve in the bar to follow the body?
@brEad i did consider it for a bit. But every time I go to do something like that I tell myself that wouldn’t of happened in the 40’s. I had the same thoughts with the floors. Had I not been trying to keep an early style I would of bead rolled stepped panels in the floor panels.
I didn’t realise but it’s just over a year since I painted the frame. During the week I touched up some paint and on the weekend I gave it a wash. I took the opportunity to get some photos before installing the body for hopefully the last time. After putting the body on I took a few more photos.
What a shame to cover up that great looking frame, but then again it sure looks great with the body on