Projects built lots of cars, but never a 32 roadster...

I wasn't aware this was even fired up let alone moving under its own steam! I must pay better attention. Let the fun times begin!!

Chris

 

...just in time for snow! What alignment shop do you use?

 

There must be helps here for setting toe-in, the only adjustment on solid axle rods.

I'll try to explain my method.
Place a three foot long piece of masking tape on the garage floor, under the center tread of each front tire. Of course, wheels need to be straight ahead.
Use a large framing square. Stand it against center tread on rear of tire. Mark where it touches the tape. Then move to front of tire, center tread and mark where square is on the tape.
Repeat on the other side.
Measure distance of rear marks.
Measure distance of front marks.
Adjust tie rod length so front distance is 1/16" to 1/8" less than rear measurement.
Now roll the car ahead so you can repeat the process, to double check your work.
Adjust drag link length to center the steering wheel.
DONE.
It takes as long to write about it as to actually do the adjustment.

 

McCoy's in Exeter - wouldn't go anywhere else. They treat hot rods and muscle cars right!

 

McCoy's used an alignment rack to first ensure that my rear-end was in square to the frame, then straightened out the front end. Both operations required adjustment to the trailing arms/wishbone rod ends. I took it to them with all nuts/bolts loose, when all was good, they tightened it all up. I'm very happy with the results.

Now trying to get it registered/licensed in NH. If anyone has experience getting a non-serialized car on the road in NH, I'd really appreciate some advice.

Starting on the interior Wednesday evening.

 

Thanks for the tip on McCoy's, I have an OT gen1 Camaro that needs a real alignment shop. I was also told to try Lloyd's Tire in Belmont.

 

Happy New Year everyone !

I'm trying to keep my car late 40s, or early '50s in appearance... What do you think, should I have it pinstriped or not? I definitely don't want any horizontal stripes on the body bead- I think those make the car look longer (which I don't want). If I did pinstripe it, it will be on the hood, trunk, lid, headlights and maybe gas tank.
Thoughts?

 

Then no.

 

I am really a dinosaur. I put a small pop rivet in the center of each tire with the wheels pointing straight forward. I measure and adjust until I get an 1/8 th difference from when the nails are at the back. Very primitive but when your nearest front end shop is 30+ miles away you gotta do your best until you can get there. Has worked on dozens of straight axle deuces, many of which never saw the front end shop. Maybe I was just lucky?

 

Interior is starting to come together, got one door panel done today

 

Looks great.

Are you bringing it to NEVD?

 

Very nice!

 

Looks really good, nice straight lines. If you made that panel, your sewing skills are way better than mine.

 

Northeast equine veterinary dental?

 

North East Vintage Drags
New Oxford Raceway, Oxford Maine
Memorial Day weekend

https://facebook.com/groups/750522002645284/

 

Charlie Babbit made a joke,

 

How many toothpics did I just drop?

 

I took the day off from work and got door panel number two done as well as cutting out the waterproof cowlboard for the kick panels.

 

I learned a few things today while working on my interior.
1. As someone mentioned in the upholstery thread, don't drill the holes to mount your trim or anything else through loop carpet because it will wind up the carpet threads like no one's business and rip off in rows. Having read this, I even melted out the holes with a soldering iron before drilling and it's still wound up the carpet threads on one of the holes .Luckily, I was able to stop quick enough to have only a small 3/8 in square spot sticking out from underneath the shifter boot trim. Using my experience from the movie industry in fixing screw-ups, I was able to super glue some carpet "fuzz" on to the bare spot. When I put the shifter boot with the trim ring on, it's not really noticeable unless someone points it out.
2. When you're planning out where to drill the holes to mount your shifter boot trim ring, make sure to consider if there's any welds in your transmission cover/tunnel right underneath where you plan to drill the holes and put sheet metal screws in to hold the trim ring. The moral of the story is self-explanatory. Looking back, although it would have been much harder to bend, I should have put the four screw holes in an X pattern versus a plus sign pattern.

 

I'm too tired to write much and post a bunch of pictures, but I'm on to the seat upholstery tomorrow...

 

Looks real nice. I do most of the work on my projects, but I don't have the courage to try to do my own upholstery. Congrats.

 

Nice job, the sesats might be a challenge but I bet you are up to it! The end is near.

 

Thanks! As you may have seen in my early build thread posts, I cut down a seat from an 82 S10. The factory cover was in tact, so I have that to use as an example/template (thank God). That should guide me in the right direction.

 

Made patterns and have all the seat back panels cut out and ready to sew.

 

Scott, you know the trick with the garbage bags when installing the new upholstery?

 

No, but it'd have come in handy today...

 

I need to stuff-in a lot of batting to fill out the seams and wrinkles

 

Great idea using clear vinyl as your patterns! Nice job!

 

The good thing about it...if the clear vinyl won't conform, the Naugahyde definitely won't.

 

I used some old plastic shower curtains. They worked pretty good too.