Projects Traditional Banger Build

Man, that looks great.

 

This must be fake. How can anyone or any team build such a nice car & maintain such a seno garage? In background of pictures I see no dirt under the drill press or sand blaster. Impossible. I can tell tough jobs like rear spring & gear box take apart because tools & pieces not all lined up in pictures. Even wood braces in vise appear brand new. Parts trays, cardboard & even shop rags all clean & neat. Rolled up towels under the rear fresh from washing or brand new. Currently on vacation when I get home I will post pictures of my sons garage. Prepare to see disaster. Love your work & car. & garage

 

Thanks ronzmtrwrx!

AmishMike - I cracked up when I saw your post - it made my day. My ShopVac and spray bottles of grease and oil remover are the most used items in my shop, and the towels were brand new - I bought them for putting together the gearbox and rear end - they are a lot dirtier now....

 

Spent some time yesterday and today getting the radiator back on the car, dialing in the carb and working on getting the brakes rods hooked up and adjusted. The idle and brakes still need some fine tuning but are working reasonably well. I also got to test out the clutch action along with 1st and reverse gear moving the car in and out of the shop and everything seems to be working great - plus no leaks so far from the gearbox or rear end. On the other hand, my exhaust setup is crazy loud - might be a little more muffled once I get the floorboards back in but I am going to need to look into options for inserts and baffles to try to quiet things down before I go deaf....

 

Started staining the floorboards - going w a Minwax weathered gray to lighten up the interior a bit.

 

Installed the Zipper distributor and higher resistance coil (and just realized that the #4 wire is disconnected in the pic). Car seems to idle better than with the points and manual advance. Not thrilled with the grey coil (I thought it was going to be black) and modern wires / connectors but fixing them is a ways down the to do list. Put a couple coats of polyurethane on the top of the floorboards - shine is starting to be visible... .

 

Warned u would post pictures sons garage. Please do not be sick. Also latest project 1953 willys c2/3 with f-head 4 ( half a flathead ). When downsized & moved with his help all my tools ended up in his garage. Takes double time to do anything must find tool first

 

Sorry screwed up post pics. Out of order. 1st from garage door. 3rd is look left from door 4th look right. 2nd is from door way into other 3 attached garages. Show hellcat & caged Camarillo road racer. My 496 roller motor over at far end. 5th pic is look right from doorway. Total 5 garages. Boxes because ships lot & receives lot of “stuff”. Sorry to scare u. Willys trans out full of water needs a little help. Build to putt putt around town

 

Outstanding car, and build! Thanks for bringing us along!

 

AmishMike - I am getting anxious just looking at the pics… love the Hellcat and the Willys looks like a fun project.

Logan LeMaster - thanks for the kind words.

Spent more time than I care to admit tacking up the battery holddown - yesterday I skipped the measure twice and cut once rule and wound up with some scrap metal. Better luck today. Will hopefully get it welded and cleaned up a bit tomorrow.

Also got the post mirror mounted - I like the look of it.

 

Just FYI, Snyders only sells those as LH mirrors because they won't swivel / adjust quite enough on the right side without the driver leaning back a bit and someone complained about that. They work great on the right side as well- if you don't mind a little extra driver effort. Beats no right side mirror IMO.

 

I am getting excited to see this back on the road...you are doing a banger up job!

https://brillman.com/?brillman_prod...chicalMenu][category_lvl0][1]=S. Wire & Cable
Dang that turned out long....
My experience with the spark plug wire set you have is that the boots split plus they just come off the plugs as you experienced.
Brillman also has the Rajah style terminals....I believe you will be happier

 

Dan from Oakland - Thanks for the tip on the mirror - am planning to just run driver’s side for now as I like the asymmetrical look.

Winduptoy - will look into the Brillman wires if the existing ones start to give me problems.

Managed to get the battery hold down into primer and mounted the battery cutoff - need to make some new cables for it.

 

Decided to relocate the cutoff switch and test fit the floorboards. Next up is getting the floorboard trim and associated hardware attached.

 

Made some progress over the weekend but also had a small step backwards. Finished up the floorboards which gave me a chance to put to use my new rivet gun - worked great. Also got started on the windshield disassembly - am going to use adjustable stanchions and go with a 2” chop. I like the look with no windshield but it seems like it might get tiresome very quickly.

When I went to double check pedal clearance after the floorboard install, I noticed a lot of play in the clutch pedal which was somewhat mystifying since I had just driven the car in and out of the garage a couple weeks ago. After a bit of investigation, I realized that the threads in the clutch pedal connecting shaft were slipping - am kicking myself for deciding they were good enough - clearly not…simple fix but annoying nonetheless.

 

Battery switch in the cockpit is best.

 

Got the clutch pedal hooked back up today - upgraded to the modern style adjustable connecting shaft - makes adjustment process much easier than the original style - highly recommended.

 

Got my 3 disk insert from Car Chemistry installed today - definitely took the edge off the noise from the open header pipe

 

Got the 2” chopped stanchions fitted to the chopped windshield frame. More metal work than I had originally anticipated to get everything to go together properly. Need to order new glass to get it wrapped up.

 

Started work on the headlight mounts but my Map gas torch wouldn’t get the metal hot enough to bend. Will an acetylene only torch (without oxygen) produce enough heat to bend the metal or do I need to go to an oxyacetylene setup (which I don’t have and am a bit intimidated by)?

 

I managed to use a map gas torch for mine, I cut the bar down after bending though so I had a lot more leverage. Possibly weld a length back on and try again.

 

I don't think I've ever seen acetylene only torch.
Oxy/acet will definitely do it.
@J.Ukrop had a similar issue with his roadster & talks through how he went about it.
Look up his First Roadster in San Fran thread, it's somewhere in the last few pages

 

You'll need oxygen, I'm afraid. What a smokey mess!! LOL
Two MAP torches - one from each side - might work. That's about another $30-40 so pick your poison.
OA isn't bad at all and would be super useful IMO if you fab stuff often. It's pricey up front as most of the "sets" you find used will be $3-400 but will need gauges, hoses, and bottles replaced in the next few years. If I had it to do over, I might consider a new setup. Expensive but not over time IMO as the irritation and expense of gauges leaking, hoses getting brittle and cracking, lacking the desired tips, etc. is a bummer. In the end you have infinite heat!
Great work, BTW!
D

 

WOW! That’s the money shot!! Great roadster.

 

It took my O/A torch to do mine. Biggest trick was making them match!

 

Thanks hotrodA and thanks everyone for the thoughts on the oxy - acetylene setup vs MAP gas. I tried a TurboTorch which uses acetylene and natural oxygen in the air. It seemed to work reasonably well although I ran out of gas before I could get all the bends done - also needed to work up a jig since my clamps started slipping a bit.

Installed the drivers seatbelt and worked out what I wanted to do with the license plate holder - will need to paint it when I do the headlight mounts.

 

Good work, the car is coming along nicely

 

I like that single taillight, it looks great

 

Single light looks good - but - you going to drive in modern traffic, please, maybe trailer type plug in lights removable on top of trunk so bad drivers will see stops or turns