Projects 1938,39,40 Sloper Custom

You are making a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s ear. Outstanding save. What brand of shrinking disc are you using?

 

It's been a looong time. I think something like Sunray?
EDIT: Sunchaser.

Next I thought I'd address an issue inside the left B pillar. The previous restorer who did the walnut shell patch must have cut away bracing for hammer dolly access. (I don't think they got to the hammer/dolly stage.) In any case, I needed to fix the situation, so I basically copied the same brace on the other side as best I could.




(You can see I did this before I fixed the door )

Okay, enough of that, time for mock ups to help with motivation.

 

Well you have started in the right direction when using the Lincoln door buttons.

 

I have always liked the tall vertical grills like the Packard and LaSalle’s

 

As seen today... not a sloper either.....was an original coupe.

 

I want those bumpers!

 

Sunchaser.

 

Damn Tony, how nice is it to have a garage space that you can dedicate to car stuff? Me like. Lucky!
My space is equal parts car stuff and family stuff, coolers, bikes, gardening tools, beach stuff, folding table, camping gear, etc.
Like your vision for the car.

 

Okay, moving on to the firewall/toe board area, specifically as it relates to the lower steering column mount. The first pic is old and small, but it shows my original idea for mounting a late 60's Ford column shift column (trans is C4.) The lower end fit in a piece of exhaust tube with a slot for the shift lever. Pretty simple and straight forward.

But then I decided to use a 1940 column, still operating the C4, but it complicates things because it has a mast jacket and a separate shift column as well as being clunkier at the bottom. Anyway, I had to re-do the lower mount, which gee whizz, is also right on the angled backwards part of the firewall recess.

With a lot of mucking around with cardboard then metal, I was making progress. Ugly, but progress:

Getting there:
The inside view. Because everything interrelates I was mocking the toe board as well. Plus the brake pedal in position to make sure that cleared the column. I had to make a funky access hole shape to even fit the bottom of the new column in place, while being as compact as possible. (You can also see where the previous owner had hacked a big hole for master cylinder access behind the stock one.)


So here's how the lower end was coming along on the outside. The shift lever is shortened from stock, but all that is another story.


And inside with a two piece lower mount for the column and a toe board starting to take shape. I made the column drop too as I didn't have one.

 

That's some complex shapes you had to deal with!

 

Looks good!...so excuse my ignorance because I have virtually no experience with right hand drive vehicles...does the gas pedal remain on the right (between the brake pedal and the cowl) or does it go on the left (between the brake and the transmission)?

 

Gas pedal is on the right, between brake and cowl panel.

 

X38 answered it, but to add on, the pedals are in the same orientation as US cars: clutch left, brake middle, throttle right. On my RHD Utes, shifting is with left hand on the floor shift lever. On column shift it is also with left hand, shift lever pointing toward center of car.

 

You need a dedicated page to the fabrication of that incredible grille.... just sayin’.

 

It's an idea, but I can't even recall taking pictures of that. I'll do an archeological dig and see what I can find.

Once the steering column mounting was in the ballpark it was time to break out the cardboard to fill the rest of the gaping hole. Old m/c access was first, then the slopy curvy bits.


I thought I'd make a fancy rounded end for the transmission hump, but this may go once I finalise clearances underneath with the suspension bottomed and the tail shaft is place.


In honor of old school, here is the little stump I banged it out on


Working towards a target:


This is it so far, just screwed in place for now.

 

Once I got to this point I figured it was time to pull the body off again and finish up chassis things.


First up, the tank. This had to be done before I could run the exhaust.

Two things:
1. I wanted to use a stock tank.
2. With inboard leaves, it was too wide!

As a result, I had to narrow it 300mm (basically a foot) and of course lost a lot of capacity. My solution was to make a new tank bottom and extend it forward and regain what I lost. This was fun with all the angles an curves, not to mention internal baffling.

Anyway, cut and tacked for fit…

You can see I made some inboard supports for the mounting flanges. Bolt in.

Making a new, larger (front to back) tank bottom:


So far so good, At this stage I was beginning to shit bricks about how it was going to come together.


Done, internal baffles included.


Sitting in position. I made a couple of forward mounts to help support the tank.
In this pic the fuel line was also underway.

 

Nicely done!

For me, having the car almost fully together and then having to take it apart to finish up chassis items, mechanicals etc, always feels like a step backwards. I know it isn't but just feels like it is.

 

Very nice mod on the tank. Looks OEM.

 

I get that. But a couple of things. I work on what I can as money allows. Often, time is all I have and I do what I can with materials on hand, avoiding capital outlay while I save. That doesn't always fit with the ideal workflow plan, but that's life and this is not for a paying customer. The other thing is, the body etc. all has to go for blasting, so needs to be off the chassis.

Back to the story...
From another angle, working on fuel line.


Thinking of using these wheel covers I restored.

Better pic:

 

Those caps are beautiful. Just curious about your rear spring hanger. Will it unbolt from the frame and drop down below the gas tank in case you needed to remove the shackle?

 

Good question.
The hanger is welded to the rear crossmember, but I can remove the shackle without disturbing the tank.

 

More great work, that gas tank, very nice! So it looks like you are running your fuel line to the sender hole, are you using an in tank pump?

 

I see. That’s good. It just looked like from the angle of the pic that you didn’t have enough room to slide the shackle all the way out. I have painted myself in the corner a few times, lol. Nice solution to the tank with the parallel springs. Nicely packaged.

 

The tank is getting a threaded bung welded in near the sender hole and I'm putting a 90* fitting with a pickup tube into that. I'll see if I have a pic. Fuel pump is mechanical.

Ha ha, I know what you mean. Generally when I do things, part of the 'design process' if I could call it that, is to ask myself "what if I need to service this? Can I remove it once everything else is in place?" That's also why the fuel line is getting a joiner, so the fuel line can be split allowing it to be wrangled out once the body goes back on.

 

Very nice work! I admire the workmanship and the caps are superb!

 

The wheel covers are amazing! That surface is uninterrupted and would show any flaw; they look like they are absolutely mint and have never had a blemish!

 

Thanks Tony! I can assure you they did not look like that when I got them. In some ways such a simple shape is relatively easy to work with, but the other side of the sword is yes, any blemish shows. I spent a lot of time getting teeny weeny things out that only showed after polishing.

 

Just saw your grille pic, this is a friends 40 sedan, finished last year .

 

Thanks for posting that, I'm always interested in seeing people's approaches to incorporating different grille treatments.

 

Really cracking on with this lately. I like the caps too.