Projects Tomcat’s Crazy '31 Model A Build Thread (2010-?)

Last week I decided to add a couple of reinforcement plates to the rear of the fuel tank mounting frame underneath the floor at the rear right where the tank straps bolt down. Not sure if I even needed them, but sometimes instincts just take over. Made from 1-1/2" x 1/8" steel flat bar.





Bottom of floor view;


Then it was back to the seat belt mounting. Bored some 1" holes in the center support bracket.


The floor where the belt mounts bolt in is angled down at the front 6 degrees. The metal fittings that are sewn into the belts have a 15 degree angle built in. So in order to get the angle of pull straight on the belt webbing and get a reasonable installed angle I needed an angled connector bracket.

I started with some 3/16" thick flat steel "rub rail" brackets (left) from A&A Manufacturing. I modified them by narrowing them down to 1-1/2" wide, opening up the holes to 7/16", and then finally braking them to 36 degrees.




All this resulted in a 45 degree installed angle which seemed to pass through the hole in the back of the seat pretty well in different seat positions using the sliders. I actually wanted more like 60 degrees but It was not going to work.




I found some 1/8" thick x 2" diameter washers for the bottom of the floor to beef up the mounting points and prevent pulling through the sheet metal.


This morning I made a couple of 3" wide hoops out of some 1/4" dia. round stock that I will weld in to stop the shoulder harness from getting cut as it passes through the hole in the sheet metal and from yanking on the upholstery once it's all in place. Details, details!




It is now beer thirty. Cheers.

 

Made a template for the harness opening that I could move around and get the hole in just the right spot while I'm strapped in the seat.






Easily transferred to the panel.


Belt loops mocked up.


After finding the best hoop height and position the legs were trimmed and welded. The last two tabs were also welded into place.


Back to making some patterns for the outer sheet metal panels.

 

Hot as hell in the garage last week so not much got done. Was able to finish the sheet metal patterns for the rear bulk head this morning.

 

Well after three heat waves, a cracked radiator in my wife's car, and six days down with a back injury I finally got back on track only to open ANOTHER CAN OF WORMS!. It started with check fitting the garnish molding to the rear window.

Normally the molding is fastened to factory wood using wood screws all the way around. This car still has the original wood at the top and the previous builders used 1" square steel tubing for the ends and bottom but still used wood screws! None of the holes in the steel tubing lined up with the molding. Even tried flipping it over. It was on there when I bought it so go figure.

The thin body flanges are booger welded to the 1" tubing. Time for more surgery


Of course everything was coated in thick primers and paint.


And of course the surface the glass rubber sits on was basically filled with body filler


It got a bit ugly


This side came loose easier but is a mess.


I think I have a plan but it's going to take some doing to sort this crap out. Still waiting for the fun part to start

 

Do you ever stop and just say Shit.... I shoulda started from scratch? I have been there working on other people's builds several times. Beautiful work BTW.

 

So many times I lost count. Thanks man

 

Well, it's been a while since my last update so here goes. I stepped away from the Model A about six weeks ago to do some much needed exterior home repairs before the rainy weather sets in. Most of the following pictures are from September.

The old crappy 1/16" wall tubes were cut out.


New 1/8" wall tubes were fabricated.


An attachment for the slide hammer was made to pull the widow gasket sealing surface back into position and a sanding tool was made to open up the notches in the wood so the new tubes could be welded in square.


Opened up the notches about an 1/8" on each side.


Next step was to repair the body flanges which are very thin. About .030" thick. This side was done with TIG filler rod.


The drivers side was too far gone so I cut it down the middle and welded on a new piece. I made the new piece slightly larger and then trimmed it after welding. A copper backing plate helped pull the heat out and prevent burn through.




After some metal finishing some new .090" holes were drilled.


Instead of welding the body flanges to the tubes I used some 3/32" dia. steel pop rivets which could be removed if needed.


To prevent any future rust I painted the new tubes and around the window prior to welding, welded the tubes, match drilled and installed all the rivets.


Next was tap and drill for #10-32 screws at a 45 deg. angle to attach the Garnish Molding. Quite tricky to get it right.


The back flange of the Garnish needed a couple notches to clear two of the bolt heads.


Garnish attached with Stainless Steel slotted screws.


Finally that mess is fixed. Nucken Futs!

 

Looks great, nice work.

 

@Weedburner 40 Thanks man!

 

Here's a mostly finished shot of the rear bulkhead. Just needs a hole and grommet for the wiring harness and some paint.

 

Finally back working on my Model A. Seems my house wants to keep me from enjoying the hobby. Soooo.... A trunk mounted battery is on the menu. Looked at lots and lots of factory battery trays and what is available in the aftermarket and nothing really seemed to ring the bell. The '55-'57 chevy truck tray seemed close to what I was thinking, so that is sort of the inspiration for making my own custom mount.

I scored an NOS GM Group 24 hold down bracket for a '63-'66 Corvette, some NOS TRW 3/8" Bolts, some Danchuk repo rubber corner pads, and some 1/8" steel sheet. The trunk floor is not flat or level so this should be interesting.

 

Here's some pictures of the Battery Mount progress. I ended up not being able to shorten the TRW bolts. The diameter is too small to re-thread. Got a shorter set that was a little lacking in quality. They required some work to get the button ends at 90 deg. without damaging the plating.

I retrieved a scrap piece of the floor and trimmed it to get the profile of the floor and use as gauge.


Using to hold down bracket gave me some idea the space and foot print.


Patterns for laying the parts. The one on the left replicates the foot print of a group 24 or 34 Battery.


End pieces roughed out with angle and die grinders.


Holes match drilled and top trimmed.


BFH and piece of wood used to brake the feet.


Finished parts ready to weld.


After making some thick washers out of the hole saw scrap to help with the bolt alignment I welded it up.


Bench mock up.




Couple more shots in the car. Final mounting position TBD.




Things are getting a little crowed. You'd think things like running Battery cables and Fuel lines would not need much thought. I guess I'll just stare at it little longer

 

Total perfection!

 

Well I don't know about that but, if it turns out half as nice as your coupe I'll have done something.

 

So after a lot of what if, and then reinstalling the rear axle and 4 link, I finally found pretty much the only location to pass the fuel line, vent, and battery cables through the trunk floor. I punched the holes for the fuel line and vent, installed the bulkhead fittings, then made up a fuel line. The fuel line cleared the the battery but not by much and just did not look right.

The problem is that area of the floor is at about an 8 deg. angle to the tank. I'm now in the process of making some tooling that will hopefully press a feature in the floor so the fittings will be parallel with the tank and not look unfinished. Will it work? I really don't know for sure.

 

if that fails you may be able to use wedge/tapered washers on the bulkheads

 

Yes sir, I thought about that and remember seeing them used in steel "I" beam construction. Getting them the right size and taper might be difficult to find though.

 

What's up Hambster's. Time for another Saturday update. Spent a few days making some half assed tooling.




Here's the initial set up. The 3/16" Die plate (above center) is made longer so the forward end can be restrained by the fuel tank bracket which is bolted down from the top and act as a fulcrum point. Pressure applied to the rearward end of the Die plate by the red C-Clamps should move metal.




Bottom view.

 

Well here is where things went sideways. 16 ga. is tougher than you think. Did it move metal? Oh ya. It took so much pressure the 1/4"bar across the top was bending big time. The fulcrum point theory did not quite work as intended. It also pulled metal out of the rolled bead. $hit.


Starting to fix the mess I made.

 

Update for those who may be interested. It took me damn near a month of welding (to shrink metal) and hammer & dolly work to get this rear floor section looking halfway decent. It's not perfect by any means but it's the best I can make it with the crappy tools I have. A massive frustrating pain in the A$$.

9 out of 10 things I tried just made it worse. It is 16 ga. which is incredibly hard to body work. I temporarily painted the damaged area with some flat Rustolem to see if it would look good enough. I also fabricated a different full length nut plate to reinforce the fuel tank support frame. Here some pictures of the work and the result.







Since this bulge/blister pulled metal out of the rolled bead and since there is no way I was going to stretch even more material out of there so I went with the flow and hammered the bead flat and split the single bead into two separate beads which can be seen here.










Another small detail are these Mil-Spec rubber grommets for the battery cable holes which have a thicker cross section than a standard grommet

 

Nice save.

 

Yeah that looks fantastic now but I know that frustration is incredibly real

 

Thanks guy's. Yeah, it just kills you when you screw up a part that you have already invested so much time and/or money in.

 

Looks incredible!

 

Well in between various home repairs and other projects I managed to get some more done on the car. The two main goals here are to get the body and chassis ready to separate for final welding of the floor panels in the body and all the various brackets & mounts on the frame.

I'm mocking up things like fuel lines, brake hoses, parking brake cables, speedometer cable, etc. to make sure things will play nice together and will be serviceable.

A while back I bought a Carter 120 GPH mechanical fuel pump still new in the box from I think the 1980's when they were still made in U.S.A. Seems some of them only came with 6 tapped screw holes in the casting so, I had to drill and tap 6 more to get the inlet and outlet ports in workable position.


I didn't really like the cheesy fuel pick-up that came with the tank so I made my own. I drilled a couple .090" holes through the -6 AN bulkhead nut and fitting to help prevent fuel from leaking out the vent line. Not sure if the vent will function properly without a loop at the top so I may need to experiment with this a little more.

I was going to run 1/2" Aluminum tubing for the pick-up and for most of the run from the tank to the pump but have now changed that to 304 SST.


To help keep bugs and trash out of the vent line I cut down a -6 tube sleeve and found some .500" diameter fine 140 micron mesh screens made from 304 SST. These fit perfectly in a -6 tube nut.




Hoses made up and battery mount bolted down.




I will tack weld these flat washers to the bottom of the floor for easier installation.


Russell 40 micron cleanable fuel filter mounted with 1-1/4" Stainless Steel Adel Clamp from McMaster-Carr.




Going to work on speedo cable and parking brake cable brackets this week while I wait for the brake hoses to show up.