Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

I know the directions of your car is a bit off of this T, but are you going to run a fuel tank set up like this car ?
I saw this car and thought of your build, thought I'd post it up on your thread ...
Like seeing progress pics on the car. Weather has been great for sure ! Lookin good, Pat.



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Not quite! I put so much effort getting the rear end back there I'd never cover it up with a tank! ;D

I've got what appears to be an old Fuel/Oil/Water gas tank that I'm going to try to put above the rear crossmember out back though, so, not too far off. If that doesn't work for me, I have room inside the cab to put a tank and isolate it from the cockpit.

I may just decide I like this view too much to interrupt it with a tank.

 

Gotcha. Builder knows best. [emoji1360]


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Oh I'm not sure I KNOW best at this point, but I'm certainly gonna find out!

I may even end up running an aluminum sausage to hide the transition between the body and the crossmember if I decide to be lazy back there.

 

"Black bananas and aluminum sausages" ... what the hell kinda forum is this ? [emoji848][emoji41]


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Sheee-oot, well I haven't even gotten to talking about choosing lubricants and tie-downs yet!

 

That's the second date ...


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Ya keep changing your mind! Get that thing running!

 

HAH!, Naw, I'm fairly locked in now as far as what's on the car. I've just gotta figure out the rest of the floor, make the nose, close up the back and finish the body. Cut and angle the bones, rebuild the brakes, and put a new tab on for the rear bones... Then rebuild the Flathead and hope the 8CM cam and the EAB heads don't go KLAK!

Nice to hear from ya! Hope things are going good in your hood!

 

Not the exciting type of update this weekend, but I did get the center panels tacked in finally, which needed to happen. I switched by welder down to 0.023" wire and had a much easier time with better results too.



Oh, and my neighbor picked up a project finally. It's a 46 ford cab with a Dodge bed on a S-10 frame (shudder, I know). We were tossing ideas around on how to knock the ugly out of it without breaking the bank. In the pic below we're seeing how his old 34 fenders look.

I think grafting a 46-48 Ford passenger car front end on would be a pretty neat idea, but IDK how close of a fit the hoods and fenders are.

 

Follow steve shepard on instagram. He is building what you want for a nose right now.

 

Found it. Yeah, that one's a bit of a rounded box and I'm going for a V-wedge nose on mine. His work is immaculate though! I think I'm following the build thread here on the HAMB.

 

Like this, @Beau :

 

I was feeling a little burned out with messing with sheet metal and the nose, so I went on to checking another important item off the list, mounting the wishbone brackets and starting to bend them.

I got the plates tacked in satisfactorily, but I didn't get too far bending the heads of the bones back. I made a bit of an oops towards the end of the day and grenaded my cutoff wheel, so I decided it was time to go in for the day.

 

Snow day yesterday. Ended up doing math and pie cutting the bones.

I think I'm going to have to cut and re-weld my mounting plates now, because I'm pretty far out in threads on my tie rod ends now (like, almost 3"), which I should have accounted for, but it just did not occur to me unfortunately.

 

I think

I think
that nose is going on a paticular "single seat racer"

 

OK, so, after learning the valuable lesson "just because you can get your tack weld in there, doesn't mean you can get your cutoff wheel in there later" over the weekend, I moved my wishbone mount plates up about 1.5" to compensate for taking the 0.5" out of the tops of the bones to get the caster flipped the other way. Now I've got about 10° though, so I guess my math was off by 3°

My rod ends don't look like THIS anymore at least.


After that, I was tired of crawling around on the floor and eating sparks, so I started playing with cardboard. I have a rough draft template for the nose now and clamped some 36 headlight/fender supports on there to start figuring out that plan as well.




I started with what looked like a stock height and left the pas side there for reference. The decision is that the stock height looks nice but only if I leave the windshield full height, which I will not do, so down low they go.

 

I was thinking of using an Oliver tractor nose for my A coupe. Not as pointed as yours but will support a radiator. You worked from the hood down which I didn't consider. Nice work. Now I am rethinking my project.
Joe

 

Made some progress this weekend. Started off giving the windshield stanchions a much needed haircut. Now the car looks right finally. I should have done this months ago.


Then I pulled all the fasteners under the hood on the cowl so they don't interfere and ran some machine screws and washers up from under the hood with fender washers on top to level it to the cowl. You can't really see that in the pics I took.

Once I got that where I was happy and cut some bits off the radiator support, I started cutting strips of steel and braking 90's which I then shrunk the curvature of the hood into. So far I have two of the six I intend to make. Hopefully this works out. I'm still trying to plan how I want to skin this nose in the end but these will at least give me a way to make a structure regardless.

 

This is looking good. I have an Oliver nose that I may use on my '26 Chevy roadster if what I do to it makes it not look like a tractor part. It has some nice lines that I think could be made to work.

 

Here's a nose skin I thought looked nice and clean..hard not to think of your car when I see cars like this



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The reflection of the tires against the sheet metal almost give an illusion of air vents along the side.


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Yeah, I've seen crs done that way. One was up for sale last year up here actually.

That's a 40' hood if I'm not mistaken. If you get a pair and clam them together, that's about what you end up with. That's where that flare along the middle of the sides comes from. The Chrisman Coupe has always been a favorite and inspiration to this build.

 

Back in the mid 70s when I thought I had shaken this addiction I walked out of the Carson City Nugget on my way to work and saw the Chrisman Coupe on a trailer in route to or from Bonneville. I went into immediate withdrawals and have been under Dr. Speed's care ever since. Hell, maybe it was the lakester and I went into shock remembering what Barris did to the coupe. Anyway I love the nose of the Chrisman Coupe.

 

One of the next moves I'm considering is to lay the windshield posts back a bit more. My seats are set almost on the floor right now and I actually need to come up a little, so I've got wiggle room to find the right balance.

Looking at this early pic of the Chrisman, I'm looking at the angle of the windshield as inspiration.
My car is VERY different though. It's got a 2° rake for starters.



http://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrxp-1107-chrisman-barris-dobie-gillis-coupe/

 

I'm not sure if it was this coupe or another of the famous old Bonnevile cars that the builders lawed the glass back until they could not see through it and then moved it until they could. That could have been the SoCal coupe.

 

this is the same Oliver grills shell mated to a Avory shell .



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cut , paste , repeat


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Yes Ray, that set up was/is great. Not only because you made it but because it looks cool too

 

Ok, MAJOR progress this weekend. Here she is.



3 days of work and overthinking to get this panel done. It's not perfect and I'd do some things differently knowing what I learned from the process but I'm going to push on and mirror the other side and make it work.



Here's the rest of the pics:

This was the first plan, which could have worked but I thought would be more difficult in the long run. It DID give me a good solid template to base measurements off of though.


Here's the cutting and shaping process. I screwed my sheets together. Since I only had one sheet of steel and the store was closed, I decided to favor the top edge and patch the front lower with a contoured piece later.



The dimple punch DID flatten the metal out a bit even though I put a curve in it beforehand. I had to borrow a socket from my neighbor so I could use my electricians punches on the front row (the curve is deeper there). I'm going to try to put a spine in the center to even out the shape once I do the other side.


I kinda wish I'd held off flaring the back of the panel, because I'm not 100% happy with it. I think I can clean it up though. I used the stretcher, a flanger, and my english wheel. I think I'll shrink the brake edges back down and do a little more loose wheeling (and maybe planishing with a soft hammer).

So, here she sits.