Projects Giant speedster project

Wood work

Things are moving quickly in speedster land. I started framing out the cockpit area behind the drivers seat. Everything is clamped in place. I've got to drill some holes for carriage bolts and glue the wood together. Next I inletted the sill plate for plate that goes under the aluminum cowl and drilled the holes for the mounting bolts. The doors are next.

Jerry
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Doors

The only thing hard about the doors is getting both of them contoured the same. I cut and welded in the metal next to the jamb hoping I'd left enough space so when I fold the door skin on there will still be room for the door to shut. Then I welded in a brace to hold everything in the right position. After I bent and fiddled with the top of the doors I welded them in only to discover the brace needs to be turned on edge to clear the door skin and inner panel. That should be easy though. Tomorrow I'm making a trip to the saw mill in search of some suitable deck lumber.

Jerry
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WOW- it's really coming along great Jerry!

 

More Bodywork

I call the area behind the drivers seat the cockpit because it reminds me of the cockpit on a sailboat. Maybe someone can come up with a better name since cockpit usually refers to the drivers area. Anyway, I drilled some holes and bolted the corner pieces in the "cockpit." The hardware store had a special on carriage bolts--.10/bolt. That's why they're different lengths. I'll just cut them off anyway. When the time comes I'll epoxy everything in place but for now, I'm leaving things loose so I can take it all apart and paint. I went back over to Don's and surprise--he came up with some real nice cherry for my planking.

Jerry
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Looking good, it's coming along nicely.

 

Cowl

Shortly, I'm going to cut sheet metal and plywood. This means moving some metal and wood working equipment into the shop. To make room, I spent a day moving a '22 Dodge and a '14 REO out of the shop. Then I pushed the Seagrave into a new place. The next day I felt lazy so instead of moving the equipment, I tackled the cowl which I had moved back from it's original position to give a better overall look to the car. But the pedals stayed in the same place and so did the steering wheel which meant I had to cut out the cowl to make room for my feet to go through and touch the pedals. Sounds weird, but if I'd have left it the way it was, the steering wheel would have jutted out beyond the cowl about two feet. This is fine on a pre 16 car like a Stutz Bearcat but looks bad on a 20's racer. I'll make a box that protrudes into the engine compartment and covers the pedals and my feet. You'll see, it'll look good

Jerry
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Don't forget the rudder. HA!

 

I thought about that. Or maybe a tail fin!<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

 

Ugh- the hammered finish is fantastic, but man, what a subject to waste it on!

 

Will you use a "ship-lap" joint on the decking or batten strips? When my son was still in high school, he bought a lovely little Wagemaker "Seafarer" outboard runabout that we decked over in the style of a gentlemans racer, using ship-lap decking, it was easy and looked spectacular. Seems it'd work well on your boat-tail body as well. The cherry is a good choice!

Brian

 

Battens. The plan is to route between the planks and inset some ash or maple strips.

 

i have been kinda following your thread, i have a question, will you be changing the frame any, pinching it in the front or back?

 

The frame layout will be unchanged, except I did take out about 2 feet of length. The finished product will be something like in these pictures. On either side of the boattail the wood will be covered in metal that turns down over the frame. I might put some wood strips on this metal as a sort of step or luggage hold down. If I had enough money to buy some copper for a gas tank in the rear that would be cool too.

Jerry
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Burned out on wood.

I got burned out on wood work so I started thinking about the radiator shell. I want a vee type similar to period Mercedes and Isotta Fraschinis but the shape is slightly complex. I'm a big believer in patterns. Materials are expensive so I figure you should make all your mistakes with paper and wood. I had some old masonite around so after some careful measurements I started cutting. After a few miscuts I came up with something that looked pretty exciting. But when I hung it on the radiator it looked a little too massive. A quick nip and tuck and the finished mockup looked pretty good. Unfortunately, when I checked my brass supply I had less than I thought I had. Still seized with the urge to feel metal between my fingers I dug out a rusty piece of 16 gauge steel and began to cut and roll and weld. An hour later I had a another interesting creation. Now, I thought, should I could continue with the steel, paint the finished product and wind up with a shell that would be very close to what a lot of high end cars of the day had. Or I could order $150 dollars worth of brass and do up something shiny and gold. I'd better sleep on it.

Jerry
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Make it in steel and have it nickel, brass or copper plated. Best of both worlds......

 

how have i missed this build? im subscribed now

 

Brass would look "right", or what about stainless?

Brian

 

I like stainless because it has that "nickel" look. It's easy to weld too. I haven't priced the material though. Something to think about. Plating is really expensive stateside unless you know a "guy." Blackjack, know any plating guys?

 

I buy stainless sheet drops at ALRO steel, it's pretty inexpensive.

 

There's an archaic technique called close plating that might have a use on a project like this.

Basically, you form thin copper or brass sheets around the part in question, and then solder or silver solder it in place. You can then polish the metal veneer with little fear of ever wearing through.

It is a lot of fiddly labor, so you can see how it has not been done in, maybe, 120 years lol. OTOH it provides a very durable 'plating' with low cost of materials and no damage to the part being plated.

Close plating is useful for handbrake handles, pedal arms and the like. Not as good for a large flat surface.

 

Interesting idea plym49. I could solder a thin sheet of brass over my steel shell. You can see in the picture of the Isotta what I'm going for. Today I ground down the weld in the front to see what it looked like. Then I welded on the sides. The radiator shell looks pretty massive but I think that's because in the shop you can't really stand back and get the full picture. I'm going to continue with the steel and see where it leads.

Jerry
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Yes, I think that close plating would work perfectly on that shell. Something to think about, anyway.

 

Would the new metal panel adhesives work for this process?

 

Maybe but I think you'd need the solder /silver solder to fill all of the gaps. Unless you make a perfect shell, there is going to be shaping and annealing. Plus, when you are done you can polish the silver solder as well.

Perhaps this is a situation where you are better off old school all the way. But I am sure that if you are sufficiently motivated you could find a way to do it with epoxy.

 

Brass is one of the few alloys that can successfully be deposited in the electroplating process; copper is the basis of most quality chrome plating. Nickel plating looks great - even without polishing - I had the chassis of my trike done in it and it has held up very well.

The guys I use do work for Bentley, Rolls Royce and Aston Martin. Unfortunately they are just down the road from me in Crewe, Cheshire, UK.

BTW - all the money is in the polishing. Has to look like chrome before you chrome it. Dipping it in the tank costs very little but most chromers work on the basis that they charge the same for the plating as they charged for the polishing. I send some stuff out to a polisher first and then take it to the chromer to be done much cheaper than if they polished it - can't do that too much though as they don't like it.

I have seen a rad shell, similar to what you are planning, made from what we call immersion heater tanks over here. They are large (about a metre high and 45cm in diameter) copper cylinders with electrical elements in them used to heat domestic hot water. They are easy to find as scrap and what was done was to cut the top and bottom off (people make Morgan replica rad shells from the domed top too), open out the big tube and flatten it out. You then have a big sheet of copper for free.

 

Craig's list miracle

Saturday evening, Gene, a car buddy, forwards a Craig's list advert to me. A guy in Eatonton, Ga is selling a firetruck radiator. From the picture it looks like an American Lafrance. Sunday I call and by twelve-o-clock Bernie, another car buddy, and I are on the road. Three hours later,standing in a garage full of junk, we're looking at a beautiful 1919 nickle plated ALF radiator in perfect condition. All these years it had been used as a coffee table! Monday and today I fashioned a cross member. This evening around 5:00 I slipped the in radiator for a fit check--no easy feat, this thing weighs 150 lbs! Well, I think it looks great. Not as sporty as my vee radiator shell, but hell, it's the real thing and it will save me hours of work. What do you think?

Jerry


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I think you should buy a lotto ticket. Lucky son of a gun.

 

Awesome.

 

I never get that lucky............. looks great!