Projects 1940 Ford Coupe Resurrection, Tuesday Night Special, 303 Olds Taildragger

OK, so now I'm curious... what type of business are you embarking on? You mentioned a paint booth and art at your former (I assume) place of employment and I just can't imagine what it might be... I'm sure it's got to be something interesting!

 

I do fine art conservation, preservation and restorations for museums, collectors, and just regular old folks who happen to have a painting or two. I use a spray booth to spray varnish on paintings while my wife works on sculpture and decorative arts. I have taken my trusty old Chicago Industrial Air spray gun (Binks 7 copy gun from high school in the late 1980's) that I had previously painted my 66 galaxie with to a $27 million dollar picture a time or two. My personal record is a $103 million painting I repaired after a water leak caused the paint to pop off in long running lines as the water ran down the face of it but most things I work on including most things at museums are worth $30,000 or less, sometimes way less.

I see you are in Madison, I have never been to Huntsville's museum but I take care of nearly all the paintings at the Birmingham and Montgomery Museums as well a dozen or more museums in the greater South East. I was working for what is call a "Regional Lab" and it just went sour with management based 2000 miles away. But I do not need that lab as my museums and regular clients do not care what the sign on the door says only who is inside touching their masterpieces. It is all about the trust that I have earned through friendship and performing high quality work and they will follow me as long as I stay in the region. I kind of knew this was coming so not totally unprepared and had a plan in place but was thinking in a year from now, not right now.

 

Russ has a barn. @Cabbage just in case - I've been piling stuff in there for a while...

 

Totally agree. I have a buddy who is an insurance underwriter and a car guy and his response was "your just another statistic". He stated the obvious, you cannot stop instantly from 65 mph, takes two seconds to register that you need to hit the breaks and another to go from the gas to the break, bam you just went the length of a football field in that three seconds. Statistic of the conversation was that Atlanta highway fatalities have risen 34% from 2014 to 2017, and it is not because of an equal population increase, obviously increased speed limits and distracted drivers. Good thing I was paying atention and hit the brakes and slid it home not crossing five lanes trying to avoid it, most of the fatalities do not he said they just plow into the back of the car in front of them at full speed or pull to the side and get clobbered by multiples going full speed.

The kicker is I should have made it, but the ABS never fired and she slid the whole way. But it would not have mattered as the F-150 was the real Dodge killer as he got clipped from behind not once but twice by cars that kept on going and hit me at what must have been 35-40 mph at an angle and took out the whole back end.

 

Not sure of your welding skills but with your chosen occupation in mind and attention to detail required for that the shock mount crossmember is easy to make yourself. Check my build thread for details.Page 6 post 172.

 

I will take the rear cross member out and put your name on it. It seems my memory get worse every day since my wife passed. I will be stripping out the good stuff and setting it with the 34 chassis for near future. It will be there when you need it.

 

I am a decent welder, not a rock star but competent. It is a methodical operation, steady and repetitive which fits with my mind set as you said. The only reason I would lean towards buying one is that after pricing the steel spending a day cutting and fabing, testing and fitting for $125 I could be done. I am generally not a catalog rodder but the Chassis Engineering stuff works pretty good.

 

Larry, you might better look around to see where else than CE to get a crossmember, do a search and you'll find a thread that CE is closing up for good. The owner/founder has died and the family is having a big sale/auction to clear out all the inventory and then shut the doors for good.

 

I do the same. Some times I trade money for time and convenience. As Dave says though you better take stock of what you need and make the purchases soon if you want to use CE parts. Hopefully some company or persons will step up and buy some of the CE tooling and patterns and continue making and marketing the some of the CE stuff.

 

I've seen some CE stuff on the H.A.M.B. for 40 Ford's for a very reasonable price

 

I got to spend a little time in the garage tonight. Didn't get too much done. Got the frame flipped over and got a couple of rivets out. Felt good to get the hands dirty again.

Sent from my SM-J327V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Out with the old and in with the new. Good night out in the garage. Got the old crossmember out got the new one in. Was a little tricky getting it to fit hindsight I should have taken the front gussets off and left the original ones on the frame. This would have made it easier to fit the replacement crossmember because the frame narrows at the front horns. I had to use a clamp inverted to spread the frame members apart in order to fit that cross member back in. Good thing though everything fit well and all the old rivet holes lined up from the old frame to the new crossmember.

Sent from my SM-J327V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I am now officially self-employed, got my first check from a paying customer. It was from an old client who would follow me anywhere. That is the kind of loyalty I am going after to retain existing clients as I build my own practice. I kinda wish I could have a dollar like you used to see in restaurants framed behind the cash register, but I will make a copy of it and immediately put it in the bank. Now I can go and get some grade 8 bolts to fix that crossmember in place.

 

Hang in there Larry things will shape up, both on the car and the business.

 

Congrats, man! That's awesome! On both the cross member AND the income! AND the 'stache! Keep them all up.

 

Business is looking up, still feel a lot like "shit I am in deep shit" but I have a months worth of work lined up and I put in a bid on a huge project here in town that if I get it, and I have a very good shot at it, will make my 2018. Still talking to some backers about getting a space built out and a partnership deal, but I am being cautious on that not wanting to invest too much time on it till something is in writing. It has the potential to be huge, but I do not want to give out too much without getting something in return.

The 'stache comes and goes. My wife thinks I look good in it but does not like when it gets too long and covers the lips, while my little lady loves it when it gets handle bars and hates it when I shave, now my son is opposed to any form of mustache/beard or any body hair at all for that matter. What is it that they say about pleasing some of the people some of the time.....

Working on the car is a good distraction from the oh shits of life. I certainly got in a funk and didn't do shit for a month just reflecting and all on what to do next. When I get out in the garage, or take the '47 for a spin, there are no thoughts of all that and all seems OK. I have plenty of parts, a gallon of primer, grinding and sanding supplies and lots of welding wire that are already paid for so I can work for a very long time without a major outlay of cash.

 

Been awhile Larry, and I've been enjoying your well written posts. What's the latest?

 

Well I have been pretty lazy, not going to whine with excuses. I have only managed three working nights in 6 months, pretty pathetic. So here is what I did get done....

Front cross member all squared up and bolted in place.



An old fire cut hole in one side rail filled with a small piece cut from the donor frame and welded in. Not a pretty weld, lots of pits but no light shines through so it is solid, I could spend an hour filling with tacks and metal finishing like Flop but it is nothing a little fill cant fix and no one will ever see it when the body is on..



There were two identical cracks on each side, top rail just behind where the X member attaches, welded em up and ground. I tried to make the holes round again but gave up, I need something better than a rat tail file.



And here is the beginning of addressing where the kick-ups were replaced. I ground the heavy weld bead down to see what I have and most was a good weld, just a few small spots that will need to be hit again. The original part is pretty pitted and where it was welded at the top I will add some weld to the pits to add some material to where the new joins the old. I plan to do this to all the join surfaces on both rails of which there are a lot. I will then fish plate on the inside over the joins and box the center between the x-member legs ( the kick up was already boxed after the rear most x-legs).



So that is it as far as actual work on it goes. Now I do walk by the body and touch it and tell it that I will fix her almost every day, kinda hokey I know but I still am stoked to own a '40 coupe and it will be one I built with my own two, no hurry I got time.

 

Been making slow progress but some progress none the less. I spent three of the last Tuesdays I had available grinding away on old frame repairs to prepare them for reinforcement. The join between the replacement kick ups and the original frame needed some plating. I messed around with a few different ideas and the one I came back to was to use some angle and flat stock to bridge the joins. I prepped some 8" long sections of 1 1/2" x 1/8" angle by grinding away the sharp point on the outside of the 90* so it would fit in the frame flush. The 90 area is thicker and grinding it rounded it to match the contour of the inside of the frame. The original frame stock is slightly under 1/8" thick. The 1 1/2" angle comes up about 1/4" short of the flange width after welding giving me plenty of space to put in a boxing plate later which is the plan. This was then clamped in place. You can see the new compared to the pitted original.

I used my trusty flux core Craftsman (made by Century) welder I have owned for 15+ years with the last of a 10 year old spool of Hobart wire to burn it in. I set it on #4 (highest) heat which is good to 3/16" on a single pass as #3 is only good to 14 gauge or .070 and set the wire speed quite low at 1.75 out of 10 on my machine.



Not Flop pretty but good penetration and strong. On the inside and no need to grind, nobody will be seeing this.
Cleaned up with a wire brush on a 4 1/2" grinder which takes care of the slag and some of the splatter. When I do sheet metal I use anti splatter/weldable primer to help.


I got two angles welded in on one side and a third tacked on the other before the kids had to go to bed.


When I get the last angle in I will add a strip of 1 1/2" x 1/8" down the middle welded all around and likely a rosette weld or two. I will then add boxing plates to the whole center section. I am working my way from front to back and will have a bit more of this type of repair to do.

Summer is here and the kids are out of school which means I can work much later into the night. No real time table but hope to have the frame rails finished by end of summer and make it a roller by winter.

I mentioned the Hobart wire above because, though I have had no issues (not that I would know if I was having them as an infrequent welder) I picked up a spool of Italian INE .030 flux core wire, I have heard great things about it, I will post my findings, good or bad.

 

I got the other two angles welded in, no pics but it went as the first two did. On the INE wire, the first bead I laid looked like I was a welding God, move over Flop new King in town. Then the rest looked just like all the others, except I felt like it took longer to get the initial puddle going. Jury is still out, visually the Hobart wire was shinier silver the INE more dull and grey in comparison, oxidized old roll? Either way it seems to do the job and I have a lot to do on the frame so hopefully Ill burn it up quickly and Ill try some Miller wire from the local store next.

I have moved onto the rearward join of the replaced parts of the rails. This is complicated as Chassis Engineering boxing plates had already been installed.


I just kept looking at it and said fuck it and decided to cut them out. I took my time and cut along the weld line to save both the frame and the boxing plates which I will reuse. Two hours later this is what I have, its ugly but now I can fix it to my liking and know what I am rolling on.

The inner structure was partially cut away and I trimmed it further to have access to the area for grinding and eventual plating over. I may have to replace some of the outer rail as it is very thin in a few spots, this is why I saved the junk frame for parts to fix areas like these.

Slowly but, getting there

 

Hang in there Larry, I admire you on making progresson the '40 at the same time as getting a new business started and being a good father, all at the same time.

 

Thanks Dave, progress slow, but a little at a time is better than none at all. Business is going so far so good, keeping bread on the table and a roof over our heads with a few bucks left to build a '40.

Passenger side kick up previous repair needed a massive about of grinding on the inside to get it smooth for angle reinforcements to be welded in place. I also cleaned up the cuts on the inner structure. I actually recut the frame on this side to pull it into better alignment before adding the angles. I will trim down the CE boxing plates and inset them where the original remains to continue the inner structure. I was thinking of the Wolfes Metal Fabrication pieces as they now sell individual sections to do the final boxing of this section as the edges of the "C" are somewhat craggy from all the welding and me cutting it apart.

The drivers side was worse when I got the EC plates off, much super thin deeply pitted metal far up the kick up beyond the repair and lots of filler weld and the inner structure really cut up far back. Pic makes it look much better than it is.

I just kept staring at it thinking how am I going to fix this...... I went and looked at the scrap frame and thought maybe if I can get it off without messing it up.......



Success all the rivets came out nice and the metal is real thick. I will be reusing the body mounts, more grinding and rivet removal ahead. BTW NEVER buy Diablo cut-off wheels from Home Desperate, they absolutely suck and grenade at the slightest whim. I never had any problems with DeWalt cut-off wheels and will now but nothing else.

I trimmed the inner structure to match the opposite side to give me room to add angle reinforcements.

So now comes the ballsy move cutting the good frame to piece in the good section from the bad frame

I still need to finish pushing out some rivets on the good frame then I can align the replacement piece and make the final cut. It figure it will be like the front cross member the rivet holes will match up at the rear and spring cross members giving me accurate location at the rear and then I can scribe a cut line after aligning up some frame holes on the left end. Its just metal right? Measure twice, cut once and then weld the shit out of it. Jury's still out on the INE welding wire. It seems to be doing the job but is not any sort of miracle salve for shitty technique. I laid some very good beads and then some not so good ones. I think it is all in my angle and comfort. I do best horizontal working left to right with a fairly steep gun angle. Small arcs seem best as when I do small circles I seem to miss the middle leaving round doughnuts that I have to go back and fill the hole with a tack. I have extra time on the car this weekend as the wife and kids are away, if all goes well I hope to make massive progress.

 

Man, you are having to make some major repairs to that frame, and it appears that you are going at it in a careful way and doing a great job. One of these days I've got to get up there and check that out.

 

So I had to quote myself, massive? Questionable. Saturday was pretty good. But I was so worried about making a fatal error I must have measured twenty five times if not fifty. Many trial fits, cutting a small bit at a time.


I slowly whittled both ends down until I had a tang left on the frame with a hole that was matching in the replacement section. I stuck a pointed cold chisel through this registration hole, has to be lined up right? Now lets cut for real.


Final mark with a silver Sharpie, I wound up cutting off the long top I left, too much work to weld it in.

So I got the angle stock in and welded on the bottom ans tacked on the top, also welded up a seam on the replacement section that had previously only been done from the outside.

My welds are getting better, I guess it is practice. The new roll of wire is more than half gone, that is the most welding I have done in 10 years.

So this is where it goes down hill fast. My time for a PSA. I am a ardent believer in gloves, long sleeves and pants, face shield and hearing protection. My father worked in a factory his whole life and is nearly deaf without hearing aids, and had a hand caught in a machine and nearly took two fingers with it, safety first right? Well I was cleaning up the splatter/slag with a wire cup on the 4 1/2" grinder getting ready to finish weld the upper angle in when it caught an edge, kicked back, ripped it out of my hands and it came flying back at me. It it me in the chest and wound down my shirt taking my shirt and skin with it and twisting them up real good together. I could not get it unstuck and had to pull the cord. I'll save you the pics but my stomach looked like the milky way galaxy all pinwheeled up and two days later I had and still have a week and a half later a ugly ass 1/4" high scab that looks like a sunflower. Worst part is I messed up my grinder, its making funny noises now and I lost the Sunday work day. Could have been worse. Onward and upward and back on the horse.

 

Dang! Glad it wasn’t more serious! Things happen fast sometimes. I had a wire wheel in a grinder grab a piece of a glove and strip it rather forcefully off most of my hand. I was lucky enough to just come away with bruises and soreness.

 

Whoops A cup type wire wheel can be very dangerous as they can grab stuff and jerk around at lightning speed in directions almost totally unprdictable. Anmything to do with an angle grinder require more care than we realize sometimes.
As a result of an accident years ago with a 9" rigid disc on a big powerful grinder, of course with the guard removed for better access, I now work in the shop always in bib overalls. It kicked back and that T shirt I had on didn't provide much protection at all when it kicked back at me
Just glad you didn't get any more serious injury than you did.
I agree, your welding is looking much better. Keep up the good work.

 

Slow and steady. I have a complete frame again.


I went back to the Giving Frame and cut some boxing material for the forward most join. I found that the frame has a slight raise, gentle inner curve and taper from mid to front and that if you cut a chunk from the forward section and reverse sides it will fit inside the rails very nicely. I cut them to fit around the angle stock.

Squeezed them into place. This still gives me access for running board and body mount bolt holes.
And used up some more Italian welding wire

These were some of my best welds to date. I used setting #3 instead of full power #4 as I was welding on the edge of the frame and it is thin stock and wanted to keep it from burning back. I cleaned it really well prior to welding and was rewarded with nearly zero splatter and a prettier join. I think my welder appreciated being used at less than full power and laid down some nice beads.

The Giving Frame came through again with body mounts. They are pretty pitted but strong enough and paid for and took nearly 2 hours to free from the frame without damage, damn rivets!

I cleaned up the body mounts and the frame on the joining surfaces and hit them with some spray paint/primer and bolted in place. I welded the nuts to the inside for the body mounts and the front Chassis Engineering parallel leaf mounts as they will be inaccessible once the kick-ups are fully box plated which is yet to come. I also need to remember set up for a rear axle bump stop as well before boxing. I am getting close but need to spend a few bucks to get some supplies. I think I may move forward with front suspension to give me something else to do for a bit without having to purchase anything. One piece at a time......till next time.

 

So I had to remind myself this is a "low budget" build now and went ahead and re-used the Chassis Engineering kick-up boxing plates that I carefully removed earlier. I really wanted to get some of Wolfe Metal's solid plates but they did not seem to go any farther forward than the ones I already had and were paid for so use them I did. I cleaned up all the old welding from them and since they are 3/16" thick I ground a sharp knife edge bevel all the way around and cleaned up the frame where it would be welded to as best as I could.

There was a pretty big gap all the way around and I decided now was as good a time as any to try some new wire.


To fill the gap I choose Lincoln Electric .035 flux core wire. It is .005 thicker which was noticeable when trying to bend the wire vs. the 030 wire. The .035 is at the max for my welder and I had to run it at #4 full heat all the time. In anticipation of this I added two 20amp plugs to my garage, one in each ceiling over each bay on a single new 20amp breaker. I have to say this was by far the best bead I have laid all project, definite rock star quality for flux core.

No more Italian wire for me, Lincoln from here on out. Now the whole thing did not come out this nice, I am after all an amateur. So I decide to grind and finish mostly to see if I could. With the deep bevel and insetting the plates a bit into the frame I did not have to worry about removing the weld strength. Also the edges of the frame were pretty crapped up on the side I did not replace and this made them look much better, if a bit skinnier.

The boxing plates come up a bit short (about a 1 1/2" away) of the rearmost crossmember legs which are pretty much cut off about the same place.

I am trying to figure a way to tie the two together. I have been looking at the Giving Frame for bits and I think I might be able to get a small piece of the forward section of the outer rail to fit inside the x-member legs and extend over onto the boxing plates. But that will have to wait till next time as I used up my whole 1 pound roll of the new wire putting in the boxing plates, that was a big ass gap to fill. One more evening and the frame should be "finished" with welding/strengthening that is. Probably still looking at doing suspension next to make it a "roller". I would like to paint it and make it look like something has been done but with so much body work and drive train instillation still to do it will get all crapped up if I do.

 

Nice looking beads Larry.

 

Alright the frame is "finnished", at least for now. I added these small sections from the forward outer frame rails to bridge the gap between the kick up boxing plates and the x-member rear legs.


I then took the frame for a walk over to the other bay....


I decided paint was getting ahead of myself and a waste of materials knowing what lies ahead. So I slipped the frame back under the body and they are one again. Now it pretty much looks like it did two years ago but I have a solid foundation to start on the body. I need to get my doors in good shape first. I was lucky enough to get a good passenger door at the NSRA Louisville nats two years ago. Thought it has a good sized dent at the bottom right corner and a skim of mud under the deep purple paint it is solid but gutted. It was less that the cost of the EMS door bottom kit so that was a no brainer. I stripped the old door and transferred over the hinges and hung it. It fits OK but needs adjustment in time. I need to fix my drivers door bottom/lower skin as I have not found a cheap replacement. So I will be looking at getting an EMS door bottom kit for x-mass this year. I ran out of time and did not take a pic of this but will for next time.

I also need rockers. Any advice on which ones? Drake's have been out of stock for over a year ( they now have these new two piece long ones listed that would be $400 for the pair they are out of stock as well), Carpenter has them in stock (both the 42" "patch" and the $500 out of my budget one piece full length) and so does EMS I believe. I am sure I can get away with the patch as that will show with the door open and fab up anything that needs fixing towards the rear or front.