Projects Giant speedster project

Same problem with my scrap Samsung . Hit it and it works

 

Sorry to see the damage to the building!

Jerry, did you say that there's a show in Cleveland this weekend?

 

Very cool build.

 

Jerry, did you say that there's a show in Cleveland this weekend?[/QUOTE]

The big show is in Clarkesville GA on Aug 20-22 at the fairgrounds. Sunday/22 is the big day. Flea market too. I should be there with the REO.

Jerry

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Thanks Jerry- MAN I love that REO!!!

 

Body armature

That sounds impressive doesn't it. I started bending steel around the framework. I'm using round tubing because the sheet metal will fit to it better than square tubing. I'll use square for the bracing and cross members. The last thing I do will be the bowed deck frames. The right door will be a dummy since the hand brake and spare tire will block it's use. That was pretty common in the day. I'm using the large pipe in the rear because of the large radius needed. The two side pieces will meet and wrap around it. I'll trim the top and bottom later.

Jerry
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Body skeleton

I worked on fitting more of the body skeleton together. The milling machine was invaluable for shaping the ends of the 1/2" square tubing so it fit nicely with the 1/2" round tubing. The real work will come when the doors are made but that will have to wait for a week because the family is going off to see Grandma in Ft. Lauderdale. Is there anything car related to do down there? You can see my helpers in the last picture.

Jerry
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nice build, impressive

 

Looks like a tight fit. I have learned that body work is more difficult than first appears. But you have a fine looking crew to help.

 

This is one of the most impressive things I have seen. I am certainly new to Seagrave. You are one talented and tenacious man.

Congrats!

 

Cowl and Door posts

Yes, I'm back. Vacation, then tenant problems have drawn me away from my therapy. I welded more on the body, then started fitting the oak pieces that will bolt to the cowl and hold the doors. Some stout oak pallets provided the 4X4's I cut the door posts out of. A new band saw blade ate right through it. The hard part was fitting the wood into the curve of the aluminum cowl. A mix of chalk and water painted on the cowl revealed the high spots on the door posts. Grinding and planing made the wood an acceptable fit. I will fasten the door post to the cowl with #10-24 carriage bolts to simulate rivets. You've got to grind off the numbers on the bolt head. I found some SS hinges on ebay to hang the door on. Maybe they'll be here tomorrow.

Jerry
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Doors

After the door posts were fabricated I started bending metal for the doors. It's hard to make those fancy curves with my skill level so I cheated and sawed a series of cuts in the 1.5 X 1/8 flat stock. The welder will tidy things up when I've finished shaping the door. I'm still waiting for my hinges to arrive. When they do I'll notch the wood, attach the hinges and weld up the frame. I also tinkered with the arch of the "deck." A six foot radius seems pleasing to the eye. Tomorrow I'll try to hunt up some ash at the local sawmill.

Jerry
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Looks great as usual Jerry-

will try to make it Sat for the show... since it really is THIS weekend!

 

I missed the show. Birthdays, start of school--this weekend was tough. Next weekend is the Food Lion Autofair in Charlotte. Anyone going?
Jerry
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More doors.

Hinges are a pain. They've got to be perfectly aligned or they'll work against each other. A broken hinge or door frame will be the result. To make sure this didn't happen. I drove out the hinge pins, and as you see in the first picture, I made a long pin so the hinges were in synch and the distance between them was the same for both doors. After much sanding and fitting the wood was ready to attach the hinges to. This done, the next thing was to fit the front door frame to the hinges. I had to cut out part of the frame and attach a reinforcing piece to the back so the hinges would fit flush. The slits I made and the reinforcing plate all had to be welded in place. Before everything is tidied up with generous grinding it looks pretty ugly. These pictures represent a day's work. I'm waiting for the mounting screws to show up from McMaster-Carr on Tues. The easy part will be welding on the rest of the door parts. Stay tuned.
Jerry
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What a neat project. I have seen a number of old fire truck over the years and never thought much of them till now. I like this idea.

 

Brad54 and I made it Sat and rained like the dickens, but most vendors were still selling (nice to see) and I got a few good deals- will have to go back next year!

I'll be at Charlotte on Sat and Brad might make it too- see you there.

 

Wood work

Back before car bodies rested on rubber mounts, they rested on a wooden platform. I needed one for the Seagrave Special. Oak or ash is the material of choice. Something you can't buy at the local Home Depot. Luckily, I have a friend in the business. More than "in the business," this friend just happens to be a living legend. If you own a Morgan motorcar chances are you already know Don Simpkins. The number of Morgans running around with his hand built bodies are surpassed only by the number of those riding on his handbuilt chassis. You might say Don is a one man Morgan factory. He's a lot more, but I'll save that for another time. Well, Don not only found me some beautiful ash at a local sawmill, but he beat the guy down on the price and hauled it to his shop too. Following my crude drawing, Don planed and joined and dadoed and cut until we had the makings of a Seagrave Special body platform. I still have to do some hand finishing but that shouldn't be a problem. When I was in business, Don always said I was a quite a chiseler. Well, I don't know why but HAMB won't let me upload picture. Security token is missing. What is that? I'll try later.
Jerry
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Photos

I finally figured out the pictures were too big because I used my wife's camera. So here's Don and some of his handiwork.

Jerry


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man that's really amazing keep it up

 

Good idea! No sense getting all that sawdust in your own camera if you don't have to.!

Subscribed.

 

Wood body

The chassis on the Seagrave is held together with plates and rivets. I had to relieve the wood platform to allow it to sit flat on the frame rails. That amounted to lots of routing and sawing and drilling. When my epoxy wood glue arrives I'll glue and screw the whole thing together.

Jerry
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Bump for an update.

Jeff

 

Misc.

I continue to work on the body. I drilled the screw holes for the sill plate cross piece then I cut some cardboard to check the body sides to make sure they were true. They were. In fact, when I tried the left side piece on the right side--it fit. Somehow, I've always found to hard to build something perfectly symmetrical, but the Seagrave seem to be. I did take extra care when measuring the framework. I welded a plate which will connect the metal framework to the firewall. Next I worked on the cross members the "deck" will mount on. I used a 6 foot radius to make the curve but now I've found out it's not quite right. After some research I discovered that the deck must be a conical section not a circle. The easiest way to make this it to use two battens fastened together on one end with a wing nut so you can adjust the angle. I post a picture next time.
Jerry
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Great post...... looks good!

 

Deck beams?

Is that what you call them when they're on a car? This arc thing is getting complicated. I visited some boat building sites and gathered information about conical sections. The problem is you need a pleasing arc on the beams but the arcs must also align in height fore and aft so the deck planking is straight. The sites suggested a sort of compass affair made of two wood battens. You can see it in the picture. It makes a lovely arc but I not convinced the arcs will line up. In preparation for the final cut, I welded in some new steel deck beams and bolted wood on top of them. Tomorrow I going to do some careful measuring before I cut the arcs. Ash wood is expensive and I don't want to screw this up.

Jerry
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It sure looks like it will work.
So you set the 'Legs' of the tool based on the height of the first section then,
as the body narrows and you move to the next section the tool will become lower
and lower to create a nice flow.

I love it.

Jeff

 

Jerry,

Why not buy some pine to test your arcs? That way if you don't like it, you aren't out any ash!

Looks great as always, Bill

 

Cheap wood will work well for testing the theory and you won't end up "falling on your ash".

 

Deck Beams

Apparently there's no substitute for old fashioned measurement. Using the first beam as a starting point I marked out a grid on all the other beams. With a Chinese caliper I measured the gap between the metal beam and a long straight edge. After transferring the numbers to the the wood beams I found myself looking at a wonderful curve. A little more bandsaw work and voila! Perfect deck curves. With the wood beams bolted in place I double checked them with the compass gizmo and found it was right too. I'd just started it at the wrong height on the beams. Okay, I know this probably doesn't make any sense but you can most likely figure it out from the pictures. As a third check I cut a piece of luan and clamped it to the deck. It fit the perimeter and the curve of the beams perfectly. I'm guessing the deck planks should be about 3 inches wide so after the holidays I'll scare up some scrap wood and check that theory.

Jerry
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