Projects garagefind/ survivor 40 coupe build. FIRED IT UP!

Another one of those time eater projects Joel.... Looks like a nice fix though. I cheated and installed the GPS thingy. So far it works well although I get a lot of whats that looks at the GPS sender mounted on the back bumper.

 

I sure considered that last week, but after after I drilled the hole it was so close ; "just a little more and I'll have it". That took about 2 1/2 hours. You're correct, Sam, another time eater, but I'm slowly running out of them.

 

I got the new speedo cable last week and installed it, along with some finishing touches. I added an i/8"thick rubber strip to the wood toe boards and installed the lower steering column mount. See below.

bottom pass side

top

general layout of 90 in. speedo cable

The last 3 pix are under the floor pix
It took a couple of hours to get the drivers side toe board in; the rubber made things tight, but I think it will seal well.

 

Hey Joel what is that copper line for?

 

That's gas line; it's copper plated steel. Here's a pic of the toe boards

 

Thanks Joel, You probably mentioned that before but I blame my old mind on forgetting that detail. I was wondering what the hole was for on that passenger side floor panel. looks like a good place for the switch ... sort of hiding on plain site. Ingenious as usual!Looks nice all buttoned up!

 

Joel, changing the subject a little. I ASSume that is a Richmond 6 speed you have there, I have a new one of those and in 3rd it's a little whinny is your as well?
Good progress on your car!

 

Trams is a Doug Nash 5 speed which is the same as the Richmond street 5 speed. No whine yet, but I just circle the neighborhood and haven't used 5th yet.

 

You spotted my safety switch. The plan is to run the stock type rubber floor mat, so it should blend in.I'm still messing with the front sheet metal and finishing little things when I need a break. I'd love to post something on that but I'm still looking for a solution.

 

Nice work on the car Joel! The only people that know the location of your switch though is just about everyone with internet access. Don't post your PIN. Joking around, love the car and the thread. Good luck on the remainder, and consider deleting that post.

 

Nice work--enjoy watching your progress

 

I had to review my posts because it's been so long.I finished a long overdue house project that I thought would take 2 maybe 3 weeks and I hired it out so I could keep going on the car. It should finish up this weekend.
I did get some car work done and some redone. I have been working on fitting the front fenders and grill to the hood and I pulled the right side header to blast and repaint with VHT white.

This also shows the location of the O2 sensor bung for my AFR guage. The next pic is of my front spring. The main leaf was bending due to not enough support. I first noticed the axle was almost on the bump stops.

removing the old spring using my spreader. It's hard to see, but the slider on the second leaf is about 6" from the spring eye.

My new CE spring and it's installed
I had a little accident involving my radiator and a die grinder, but that's taken care of and reinstalled.I didn't want any pix of that.

I did some hammer and dolly work on the front fenders and inner panels. They fit together better and I'm going to install them again to see if they fit with the hood better. I also been working on the drivers side lower cowl; I'm trying to make it match up with the door better.

 

Love the build. The 40 is such a great shape. Super cool.

 

Yes, Your work is great, Lots of hrs, to make a FORTY look Good

 

Moving right along. Great build, keep it up.

 

Good to see you posting again Joel! Paying attention to all of those little details will make a big difference in the end result. It will be worth it!

 

Make holes from 1/4 to 5/16 inall holes Makes fitting ALOT EASER . add sheet metel to wood floor boards, Makes sound dead much better

 

I looked at using smaller bolts as you suggested and realized all my hole clearance was being cosumed by the misalignment of the front of the fender with the last 4 holes in the inner fender. I used dfrift pins to align the holes correctly , then drilled through the flanges and installed an 1/8 pop rivit in each side. The grille has a lot more movement now.

 

Great Iused same size bolts,Just holes bigger.

 

The weather is closing in; it rains all the time. I decided to get all the remaining spots in prime. To that end I finally tackled a small repair that I've been afraid of . The rear end of the pass. side drip rail had a split on the underside about 1 in long . I decided to try to weld it. I have some pix ; it's not pretty, but done The first go round
I didn't get it all underneath, so I tried again


Better, but a little filler on the end should finish it.

 

I have been dragging my feet, however, there has been some progress. This is stuff prior to the last post. I pulled a small dent out of the top of the drivers door and have been working on the drivers side door/ cowl gap and smoothing the lower cowl.

my plan is to try to finish this with lead.

 

At my place rain time equals shop time. Hope you get a lot done while you are hiding from the rain.

 

Thanks, Sam. In a couple of days I hope to be finishing up the prime.

 

I debated on opening this can of worms . I'm posting these pix for info.

I melted the lead away to look at the the underneath exposed after some blasting lifted the "edge" of the seam. This was the first side and the top pic the second. Pix below show all the lead gone.

The light color is the tinning left and the dark areas are not tinned. These are factory seams.

This side is not as bad; probably each side done by a different guy on the assy. line. I'm going to try re-leading these 2 seams.

 

What pictures?

 

Sorry, Sam, I hit the post instead of upload. Look again.

 

That lead sure covers up an ugly seam on the forties. I don't see why lead won't work there again. We chose to use body filler on my coupe. I believe Mike the painter used some of that fiber reinforced filler for the first layer. I personally have no experience with lead. It is one of the things I would like to try working with on my next project.

 

I hae a place on the lower cowl that needs lead, so these are going to be practice runs. My uncle leaded seams at Studebakers and I'm hoping I hae some of that dna. I cleaned the areas with 3M stripping disks.

notice the dents in the top pic, factory installed. Some pretty rough work by the passenger side guy.

 

When you consider the very limited time they had to do this work ( probably much less than 10 minutes) I consider it a near miracle that they could do it as well as they did. You or I would probably spend at least a half of a day on each side to get similar results. Hope all goes well, Looks like you have it cleaned and prepped well.

 

You called it, Sam; I worked on my first attempt about 3 hours and had to melt it off. I didn't hae it tinned properly. After about another 3, I got some on and kinda smoothed out. I need more acetylene tommorrow. Smoothing it out with the paddle is much harder than putting it on.