Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Nice looking solution!

 

And it doubles as a dash support. Good work!

 

That is why we are invested! Top quality fitting and problem solving!
It could probably be used to tidy grounds, too.

 

Tonight I got a small project done - scuffed the lower steering column mount and stuck it to the firewall. This is another item that will get tabbed in when I’m happy with all the other things that will live under the dash and/or on the firewall.

 

Tonight I needed to lay-up some more fiberglass in preparation for the lower dash construction. Now that the heater is mounted, I can build the lower dash around it.

 

Managed to get some time in on the lower dash for the passenger side. I didn’t take the best pictures of the process, but basically I referenced the previous pieces, made some patterns to tune up the gaps, glassed in a flange to mount under the dash, then played around with the shape of it all until it looked decent. There is not one square panel on this car, so it is really tricky to make something like this, at least for me anyway.

Picture shows waterfall piece just set in there to get an idea of how things will get divided up. I’m thinking now, I take what I learned on the passenger side and replicate on driver side. I’ll have to notch around the steering column and make a little pocket for the throttle pedal to pop through, so those will be new challenges. Anyway, picture:

 

Tim, didn't you say that you wanted to see the east coast in the fall? You know, to see real fall colors here in the Adirondacks, the Green mountains, and the Berkshire mountains. Oh, and do some more fiberglassing. Not too much, you'll probably get an hour or two per week to see the sights...

Oh well, I remember that others are first in line...

 

Tonight after work I spent some time working on the driver side sub dash. More or less, I used the patterns from the passenger side, flipped them around, and tuned up the gaps until they fit decent. I then cut a thin strip and clamped it down to the dash rail, then bonded the dash rail strip to the piece I cut out from the pattern. This gives me a flange to mount the sub dash to the upper dash, using the dash face as my datum to match the angle. It looks pretty messy at first, but you can clean up the joints once cured with a rat tail file pretty quickly. I’m going to wait to do finish work until I have two functional pieces, though. Tomorrow I should be able to get the other two pieces molded in.

 

Slow progress today, but made some good mental progress on how I’m going to re-make the rear crossmember cover. I think I’ll have to go get more supplies to do that- maybe this weekend if I’m lucky.

I managed to get the second part of the driver side panel bonded together. Gonna go for a walk while it cures, come back to check the fit, then probably call it for tonight. I try to be nice to the neighbors and not run power tools at midnight lol. This is my extremely sophisticated lay-up jig:



Edit: Fit is pretty good- keep in mind center section will be removed to accommodate the waterfall piece, so I’m not paying attention to that area right now. Fitting the steering column is going to be interesting lol. Overall I think it’s going well though!



With waterfall leaned up in place for a visual:

 

More slow progress, but I got the driver side notched for the heater, as well as the upper column mount. I’m not sure yet how to notch for the lower column mount, but I’ll get it sorted out. After that, I think I’ll move onto the waterfall area, and see what I can come up with there.

 

Yesterday afternoon, I went and picked up the front suspension pieces I had re-worked to allow more shock travel. Part of the rework was I had them chemically dipped to remove the powder coat. I re-worked the brackets etc, then dropped them off at the powdercoater’s place (Russel). When I picked them up from him around Christmas time, I didn’t notice initially, but when I got home they had fish eyed. I asked him to re-do them, stating the issue was likely the chemical dip. I guess he had a heck of a time getting them to take the powder without fish eyes in the cure process. Eventually he had a friend who is also a powder coater take a look, and he managed to get it done. They look great now, but expensive lesson for me lol.

 

Looks good! I think a lot of us have had expensvie lessons on our projects-you are not alone. Looking forward to how you fit the "waterfall" in.

 

Spent some time tonight getting the driver side to fit around the steering column. Overall it fits decent, but I haven’t figured out the best way to hold everything together yet.

After that, I messed around with waterfall shapes. What’s pictured here is about the smallest/shortest I can go and still have functional floor vents coming out the sides. I had a shorter shape, that I like better, but it wasn’t gonna work with the heater. I think I can make this shape work, although now the trick will be****embly strategy.

 

Update time. More or less, I came to the conclusion I needed more structure in the cowl area to be able to mount the sub dash. I couldn’t really do that without planning for the doors, so here we go into the deep end.

My plan is to construct the door and door jamb in pieces, including the hinge and latch, line them up as best as possible to the raised bead door opening, glass everything in, then cut out the door. Some of these boards were laminated together and shaped, some were made in sections and shaped, depending on the curve of the door.

I’m pretty close to being ready to bond the wooden structure to the body - I still need to add some radiused gussets into the door corners, make the latch striker bolt****embly, and shift the hinge section ~ 1/8” toward the rear of the car so the hinge lines up with the door reveal. If all goes well, I’ll have a functioning door before the weekend.

 

Tim, does the top of your floor match with the bottom of the door reveal?
EDIT, never mind, answered in past picture.


Also, I don't see any structure up under the windshield post area. To be added or hidden or?

 

Yeah, the reason the lower door bracing is thicker than the sides and top is to build in the door jamb at the bottom of the door, to blend into the floor.

The structure for the windshield post area is partially covered by the door hinge pillar, but will be built out to continue on to the cowl area, ideally building in the mounting for the sub dash along with it.

 

Still a lot to do but the scary part is over for this side:

 

Guess you won't have to hike up your britches every time you get in and out!

 

Okay you're hired! Mine needs an opening door, and I'm still scared $#!+less to cut the body... but you've inspired me, so maybe by this time next year...

 

I definitely did not achieve a perfect cut, but it wasn’t too bad. If I could do it again, I would do it a little differently, but it turned out good. Today I worked on cleaning up the imperfections of the cut. I should be able to make the striker pin work this week, optimistically figure out interior and exterior door handles.

 

Nice Tim. I think I see a path thru the woods after looking at these pictures. I bought the Speedway door kit, which includes a door, the door hardware and a replacement body side. It might be easier to just use the door without the replacement side molding. I just have to get some courage to cut the body...

But you've given me something to think about...

 

A whole body side?
Looks like just a partial mold of the area, no extra lip for the body or door.
It also looks like Tim's hinge is a full section between the top and bottom at the points where it attaches to the door and body, rather than 2 hinges which is easier to set up since you don't have to align the hinge pins.
model t hinge
https://www.modeltford.com/item/5297X.aspx
Speedway kit
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Spee...dster-T-Bucket-Fiberglass-Door-Kits,1422.html

 

I had bought doors from Cromwell, with intentions of cutting my body and using their doors. Their doors are slightly different contour at the fronts compared to my body, and a couple other things led me to the decision to just cut the door(s) out of my body. When you think about it, if you have a door, and a body, you have to make the two things match (twice the work).

The way I ended up doing it was a best guess compromise for the constraints I had to work around.

If I were to do this again, I would know from the beginning I wanted functioning doors and plan accordingly. This is what I would do:

• Build a steel cross structure that bolts through the floor to the frame, serving as a seat riser and a door jamb brace for both front and rear door jambs, similar to how CCR does it (but tie the front door jamb into the steel brace, which would be bolted to the frame):
  
  
• Build the wood structure of the door framing, shape it to the body, integrate the hinge (poke hinge through body at its location), latch, and striker pin into the****embly before bonding it to the body.
• Mark everything in mock up stage, setting up datums/reference points.
• Remove hinge, remove latch, remove striker.
• Bond wooden structure to body.
• Cut out door.
• Reattach hinge, latch, and striker pin.
• Bolt on door.
• Tune up the door gap/clean up your cut lines.

This way, you can brace the body and doors with the steel structure, and you can build all the stuff that needs lined up as one unit, before you cut out the door. That way, when everything goes back together, it was already built to fit together.

 

Nice work Tim! It is hard to take a saw to your car, but it looks like you did well. it'll have tight gaps!

 

My approach was to contour and glass some 2" thick wood to the inside of the body, cut the door out around the molded in shape with a saber saw, and then notched the front edge and mounted an original Model T hinge on the front. Recessed a slam latch on the back inside and bolted a striker on the body. All the fasteners on the hinge and striker used long bolts that reached thru the bracing with nuts. Other than the latch nothing relied on screws into wood.

 

Thanks Tim! I like that steel substructure. I'm close, with the seat frame I made. Slight modifications to it, and I'd have a very similar setup. And you both have much better woodworking skills than I do, but with a little bit of help and effort, I think I can make something similar. And the good news is that I have a spare door should I need...

Keep an eye on the Whatever project sometime this fall. Right now I'm redesigning the front suspension. I don't like what I currently have...

 

what did you use to glue the wood to the body?

 

I used long n’ strong fiberglass filler. After I’m done with the wood construction, I’ll seal everything up with a couple layers of fiberglass, tabbing over an inch or two into the body and floor for strength. I also have a steel structure in the works that will get bolted in, once I have final thickness finished. Lots of work to do still.

 

Latch is done: