Very nice Mike! Gonna keep an eye on this build! Yeah, I'd lose the 454 emblems, since you asked.......
Ordered my bear claws from chevy38 454 here on the HAMB today. I'm thinking I want to build the door sub frames, hang the doors, and put in the floor and bulkhead before I take the body off to start on the chassis. Going to use 1" sq. for the door frames, and attach them to the floor. I'm thinking about running the tube all the way around from one side to the other so I'll have a mount for my dash. I 'm thinking that will also help tone down any cowl shake also. I'd like to make the dash separate so I don't have to stand on my head to work on the gauges. Do we think I can get away with 1/2" marine ply for the floor and bulkhead? I'm building up sub floor out of 1" sq. to go under the floor. Conventional wisdom is to build the car in two assemblies, chassis, and body. I'm wanting to have this paper thin body a little stronger before I take it off to start on the chassis. Before, the body was mounted to the cage in such a manner that it only had to support it's own weight. I've looked at a lot of 'glass bodies lately, and I still think that a layer of mat, and two layers of cloth will thicken the old body up to street weight. Especially with a floor, and a bulkhead and firewall. I need to be careful that when I'm building up sub flooring I don't change the shape of the mount for the body. It would be bad to get the chassis all done and find the body doesn't fit any more ! I haven't come up with any ideas for a rear crossmember. The frame stops above the rear end and doesn't go any farther back. I need to design some sort of support for the body, and I would like to incorporate a mount for a 1 1/2" receiver to pull a very light trailer I have. No trunk. And I don't want to cut the deck lid open and weaken the body any more than it is. There is a tiny hatch cut out of the top 8" or so of the deck lid to get to the battery. As a race car, that was where the little five gallon fuel tank was. The fuel tank now is 12 gallon, and goes behind the seat basically inside the roll bar to be installed. Another reason for the roll bar. I bought the assembly manual for the Speedway Lo-Boy car years ago, and got it out last night to find it full of good ideas for scratch building. Looks like my $40.00 wasn't wasted after all! The Pate swap meet is coming up the end of April, but after digging in all my stuff, it looks like I'm close to having all the parts I need. I'll listen to all the opinions and advice that comes. I'm not saying I'll follow all of it, but I'll listen, nonetheless. Thanks, Mike
Certainly those front shocks aren't doing much damping at that angle. The max lean over angle shouldnt really be more than 30 degrees from vertical. The frame mounts would need moving to the outside of the chassis rails.
Done my research. When the car was an altered, it worked on the drag strip fine. But that was a table top smooth surface, far from Texas roads. When the frame gets torn down to add the roll bar and supplemental middle crossmember bracing, the front shock mounts will be moved, along with the rear coil-over mounts. I'm going to have to study where the lower mounts for the front shocks will go. I'm considering some kind of mount off the lower bar of the wishbones. Another reason to consider moving the front spring from a suicide mount back to under the front crossmember. My friend is also going to fab a new driveshaft loop out of 1" tube to replace the one I foolishly cut out. Thanks, Mike
Mike I am sorry I did not see this earlier. On the windshield. I made my sides of the windshield frame longer so that the bottom rests on the cross piece between the posts. This prevents blow through at speed.
Fuzzy Knight, Since it's a glass body I have to make everything fit. My dash and the top of the cowl are just different enough that I'm going to have to do some "mating" here. After I installed the rubber gasket that goes on the bottom of the windshield there is very little space between the windshield gasket and the top of the cowl. I plan to make a lip on the dash, maybe a 1/4" or so higher than the top of the cowl to keep the windshield from blowing backwards in the posts. I found out yesterday that the faces on my Auto Meter gauges are obsolete, so the fuel level gauge is going to be slightly different. Oh, well... I will have a 160 MPH Stewart Warner speedometer and three 2 5/8 Auto Meter gauges. I don't plan to run an ammeter, an idiot light will suffice, either the alternator is charging, or it isn't. I'm not a fan of a lot of gauges on the dash. I'm wiring my headlight switch so that the "running" notch will be low beams, and the "headlight" notch will be hi beams. My son gave me a beautiful pair of 3 1/2" running lights that I will wire to the switched side of the loom through a toggle, but I haven't yet decided where I want them. Thanks, Mike
Uploaded with ImageShack.us Dash mock up. Learned some things; 1, DO NOT leave masking tape on fiberglass for two years!! I'm still trying to get it all off! 2, I think I'm going to downsize to a 15" wheel, I'm beginning to think the 17" is just too big. 3, my steering box mount is too far forward on the frame. My steering wheel is too low. I will either have to move the box back and fab a new drag link, or notch the dash to raise the column up. Holes are cut for the gauges, so we will have to live with the arrangement. I'm looking for ideas on where I should put the headlight switch. Still have to get a fuel level gauge. It will go to the left of the speedo. Thanks, Mike
Uploaded with ImageShack.us Another shot. Hi beam is just above the speedo, and turn indicators will be on either side of it. The idiot light for the alternator will go to the left of the steering wheel. No radio, you won't be able to hear it with sprint car headers anyway. Thinking of going to the home store and getting some sort of nice door handle to put on the right side of the dash to make getting in and out easier. Need opinions, should I paint the dash blue to match the car? I plan to do the interior in a dark red, maybe Oxblood. Thanks,Mike
Hi Mike I don't run a rubber on the bottom of my windshield because it fits really tight against the cowl. But each to their own. Good luck on this project
Always safer to run a rubber....LOL. Seriously, I'm getting ready to put a floor in so I can take the body off and start on the chassis work. I'm thinking I need to establish the fit between the body and chassis before I take the body back off since I've gotten the doors open. I'm amazed how flimsy the body is without the doors glued and bolted into the body. So.. a floor is going to be made, even if it's without a cutout for the transmission. I can extrapolate the position of the transmission hole from the body mount bolts. Wood will go in behind the seat now, as well as a wood plate behind the dash and a firewall. Then the body will come off and chassis work will begin. Since the body is going to set on the trailer outside the garage, summer will be the best time for the chassis work, and winter will be when the somewhat fragile body will come in and the chassis will go out on the trailer. I'm considering a rental space, but that's lots of money I don't have. I'll build a tent to fit the trailer out of PVC pipe and blue tarp to keep the rain and birds off the body. Thanks, Mike
This is what I did for my 28 RPU. Made from 16 ga. Wrapped with some 1" x 1/8" and some 3/16" round for bead. Made an insert from salvaged SSteel dishwasher front. Need to remake, I added more than I had planed and messed up the spacing.
I like that, dlotraf. I like stuff that looks hand crafted. Anybody can leaf through a catalog. I'm getting ready to cut wood for the floor and firewall and the bulkhead behind the seat. It's going to get complicated! One nice thing about the big fellow in a 'glass A with a 2x3 chassis. I can put things anywhere I want them. Now that that is said, how much space does everyone have between their distributor and the firewall? Thanks, Mike
Nice project, Mike. Consider a removable sheet aluminum firewall with a plywood frame around the inside, about 4" perimeter. 'Glass the wood 'hoop' right into the body, and bolt the firewall on. If you need clearance for the 454 distributor, you can make a poor man's brake from 2" angle iron 'jaws' and your vise, bending tabs on the edges of a 12" square piece into a nice aluminum box...cut out a square hole to fit it, insert it from behind. Screws around the edge look 'Racy'... On the wood floorboard, use nothing less than 3/4", and before you finally set the floor onto the frame, dark stain it ($6 from Lowe's or Home Depot) and brush on 2 good coats of Marine clear Varathane. (Waterproof, and hard, shiny skin) If you have to attach fiberglass cloth to steel, first grind ALL paint and oil off the steel. Next, run a thin coat of Bondo on the steel where the fiberglass will be bonded. Resin will act like it's gonna stick to steel, but after a while it'll cure, then lift away from the metal. Bondo will stick to the metal, and resin will bond deeply into bondo.
Thanks, Mike. I never entertained the thought of building a "form fitting" firewall. I was thinking of a flat firewall that sets back in the cowl. I could build a box for my distributor, and pick up some much needed foot room. With the big block in there, my transmission hump is going to be pretty large. Thanks, Mike
Cool hot rod brother, bad ass big block. Computers are a challenge sometimes, but you are doing great. Keep on keepin on man. Love it. ~sololobo~
solobo, gathering information is/has been the hardest part of the build. I just realized today that I've owned this car since '97! Granted, some of that time was as an altered, but nonetheless, I've owned this car longer than any of the 60 others I've owned. I'm not looking forward to the titling process, but I'm really enjoying the build. Thanks,Mike
Uploaded with ImageShack.us I'm proud of my self! I got some bear claws from chevy38454 here on the HAMB, and they came without attachment plates. OK, I could go to Speedway, and buy ready made ones, almost all these latches are made by Tri-Mark, so they would probably fit. Then it occurred to me that part of this build is the learning and doing curve. I enjoyed metal shop in school. let's put those skills I learned to use. I started with some scrap 14 ga. 2"x2" square, cut a piece 4" long. Then I split it into two pieces that made two "L"s. From that point it was a simple matter of marking outlines with the sharpie and cutting out. No fancy machines, two hacksaws, one with a round,cut in any direction blade, the bench grinder, and some files. Took all of 20 minutes for the driver's side, the next one will take less time. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Thanks, Mike
Uploaded with ImageShack.us I think I will have enough space in the door jamb for these screw heads. If not, I'll countersink and use flathead 1/4-20's. Thanks, Mike
Uploaded with ImageShack.us Shapes for wood bracing are all made, all the rest will be simple 1x2 hardwood. The local home store gives me a choice of birch, or red oak. The birch is way cheaper, and still hard wood. I started some 'glassing yesterday, I'm going to have to experiment with the hardener. I don't think the instructions are for 80 degrees and 80% humidity!! Thanks, Mike
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