There's a TON of ''how-to's'' on you-tube and other sites. Dolly work, body filler, sand-80-120-320 , primer, sand -320-400 , 4 coats of paint (watch for runs) , wet sand, 800-1000-1500-2000 , compound, polish, wax. I'm wet sanding now, the worst part is sanding thru to the prime and then repainting.
Almost time to take a seat. Got the base with pivoting top nearly done. Still need to fab zig zag spring mounts and the back rest.
Dude you are an absolute UNIT! I envy you man, I've got a 31 Roadster in a shed on the side of my house WAITING to be built, but we're expecting our first baby next month so everything's on hold!
R Racer, Get it done in the next month because you'll be working on your kid's stuff for the next 20 years. Those kids will never forget when their dad helped them build a roadster. The seat looks really good. Is that your design? Looking forward to see it finished.
Those boys come out and play racecar driver just about every day. I figured if the thing has been around this long, what's the worse they could do? Yes, the design is my own with a little bit of inspiration from some pictures found on the old googles.
One of my sons is really into cars and motorcycles like his dad. The other one is smart like his mom.
Rear seat hoop bent and welded. Scratching my head on fabbing a hinge or going to the salvage yard. If nothing can be whipped up, I guess there’s no harm in just making the seat back fixed. Thoughts?
Slow down a tad and think about that seat back. How often would you need to get behind the seat, what's going back there? If you decided to make it non folding now just because you want to get it done then later realize well crap I guess a folding seat back would have been better. Junkyards are full of seats just slow down and check some out first.
I think that if this is going to be driven you will need to have stuff with you to better assure a return trip. In that case you will want to have access to every inch of space to stash stuff even if it is something you will hopefully never need. I say hinge it. You could design a lot of tool storage within the thickness of the wood framing behind the seat and the seat back it's self.
One thing I'll mention about painting that I see here. Get it to the stage where you aren't going to bang it out any more (hammer/dolly work), then when you are ready to prime, mask off and shoot the inside, then mask inside and shoot outside. Really nice cars don't have lots of nasty sanding dust and overspray hiding in the interior. Look at https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/33-5w-build-thread.1127212/page-16#post-14103085 This is more materials and more work, but makes for a nicer end product. The common and true saying about body/paint is that it is 90% prep and 10% shooting. I'd guess it's closer to 99. Take a 2" square area on the body. You will wipe it down with wax and grease remover, sand, maybe tap out any highs or lows, wipe again, mask, wipe again, prime, sand, (repeat at least one more time for Black), wash, dry, mask, wipe, seal, wipe, then apply paint. Sand, wash, dry, polish, wash, dry, and wax. This did not include any part fitting or other things done during the prep section. The "paint" part is less than a day, even with multiple coats. Another is that any monkey can shoot a car, a real painter can fix the issues that will crop up. I''d also suggest single stage 2 part paint, some practice panels and buying a bit extra for any touch-ups and repairs. Make sure to get and use proper PPE.
I could see where a hinged seat back would be very useful. If you had to make a compromise to get things moving, consider making a tube base that the upper half of the seat slid over. One section of tube slides into the other, down at the bottom. So basically instead of hinging forward, you could lift the back of the seat up and off of the tubes. Would make for easy access behind the seat without a hinge mechanism. Just a thought.
Got the flywheel today. Finally, engine stuff is happening. Had a bbq to celebrate but my night was cut short without flywheel bolts. Still no Thomas head, stock will do for now. The engine will be in this weekend, I promise, maybe. Also, still need to finish the seat back. Lots o pokers, I mean gears, in the fire. P.S. the graphite gasket is temporary.
Now she looks like a car! Getting the frame spread to get that motor in was a real feat of garage engineering but we got it done. I say we because a nice neighbor stopped by to see what I was up to. 3 hours later and a little swearing, he was fully indoctrinated into the old shit club. I know he’ll never see this but a big thanks to my neighbor Jason for the much needed help getting everything together. There’s still no real date for the radiator to show up and I’m really on the fence about running the old crusty one. Perhaps an aluminum radiator may fit the bill for a while. Anyone have a good source for a decent aluminum radiator that isn’t one of the crap ones you always hear about?
Many HAMB members have said that Champion Radiators are good and built in the USA! https://www.championradiators.com/
Do yourself a traditional favor...SKIP THE CLEAR...use single stage paint! I used plywood for the seat bottom and back, so was able to use a piano hinge. Lots of space back there for storage!
Got a lot done on the motor and installed the radiator. Problem….I bought a 32 shell that I’m trying to put on. Not sure if I have a 28 or 30 radiator but the shell will not go on without serious modification. I’d love to keep the filler neck in the same position. I keep finding conflicting info regarding shell fitment. What radiator fits best with a 32 shell? What massaging is required?
Back when there were real radiator shops things were simpler. Real guys with real skills that understood what you wanted.
Looks like you have a 30-31 radiator. I Don't have any experience mounting a '32 shell on either of the Model A versions, but if reworking the mounting brackets on the radiator doesn't seem feasible the most obvious alternate would be a 1932 4 Cylinder (Model B) one.
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