I got the stainless straps for the tank today from my tin bending buddy Mike, and the copper "covers", and got the tank in the car. The tank, if you haven't been following the build, is a BEAUTIFUL stainless, 21 gal. tank Mike made from laser polished stainless. I'd wanted brass or copper straps, but concern for strength led us to go with stainless, the copper is just a cover. Under the car it looks GREAT, and I can now hardly wait to get the thing plumbed and fired up! I also have the roll bar fully mocked up in PVC, and can now have the main hoop bent by a local fabricating wizard. I'd built the frame with pads for a 6 point cage, but mocking it up the other day, I realized that entry and exit over the side bars, even with the top down, is impossible. With the top up, there was absolutly no way to get out. So, it's a 4 point roll bar, the rear legs angled in towards the center for diagonal strength. The three point belts will mount to the bar, it looks suitabley "racey", and is about 2" higher than my head with 3" of very firm padding in the bomber seats. Good enough.
Nice looking project! The roll bar, although very functional, looks to be too narrow in proportion to the rest of the body. Can you bring the posts out and anchor them to the perimeter frame? Or is there something in the way? I like the pvc mockup concept. Beats cardboard! My 2 pennies... Nice ride Man.
Yeah, it is narrow looking at it with the top down. However, the top dictated the dimensions of the roll bar, as it has to clear the bows with the top up. The bows in this car are '02 Sebring, which have much more "tumblehome" (for those not into boats, tumblehome is the tilting inward of a boat hull from the waterline to the sheerline) than a '36 Ford has. In this car, with the top up, the roll bar actually touches the sides of the bows. Thanks for the compliment! I figured it was much cheaper to cut up PVC pipe into unusable chunks than DOM tubing. I have LOTS of short scraps... Brian
I have the same issue with my '28 ford track roadster. I am contemplating rollbars, but also want to run a top. I've been kicking around the idea of two single hoops -- they serve the purpose, yet give the look of a race car. Similar to what you would see in a porsche, honda roadster, miata, or other convertible. This design would also support a 3 point seatbelt. What do you think? Hmm. Might look cool on a fenderless ride. I'm going to start a thread requesting pics of roadsters with roll bars.
I thought about a double hoop too, and the guy bending the tubing suggest it as well. My thought was it looked a little to sports carish, buy the car does sort of look British with the fenders on. It might look better as a double hoop than the narrow single, now that you mention it. I'm going to the fabricators tommorow with the pattern, so I'll discuss it with him. I'm using 3 point shoulder belts from the back seat of a '93 Chev conversion van I parted out for the drivetrain of my Diamond T pickup project. The seat tracks from the captains chairs are now under the aluminum bomber seats in the roadster, and came with the latch for the belt. I had to swap them right for left for the upper belt mount to mount to the roll bar, so the belt will pass from left shoulder to the lap. The retractors bolt to the floor backbone, which is a skelton of 1 1/2 x 1/2 steel tubing under the 20 ga. floor.
The Jalopy Journal
