Great job! I dragged my two kids around new England for 20 years in my 34 two door! They still talk about it! And I still have the car, but it needs a redo
Yup that was the plan but it's taken me far too long to get it on the road. I've been without a hot rod for almost 15 years now. If your the Bob I'm thinking of (red hair and beard) we've met before. A long time ago. You used to have a green Chevy pickup with a mural on the tailgate. The wife loved that truck and still remembers it. I remember you being a hell of a nice guy. Post up a picture of that sedan. I'd love to see it.
I finished up the heater and I think it's gonna work out perfectly. I picked up a dash insert on FEEBAY as well. And I sold the greyhound and opted for a regular radiator cap. Not sorry I did either. The greyhound went for big $$ and I think the regular cap looks way better. Man the dust shows up in those pictures. Now I'll have to dust things off before I take pictures..yeah like that's gonna happen.
Nice build - I like the way this is heading and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished. Not 100% sure on the red wheels with the Washington Blue, but happy to be wrong. I hope your family are as involved with you working on the car still. I'm sure they'll love riding in it when it's done. Cheers.
Thanks man. I hope the red wheels look good too. Wheels and tires can make or break the look of a car.. I got my fingers crossed that it works for me.
Saturday I ground the fiberglass down on the floor till it started to rain then inside to work on the exhaust. I welded the flanges onto the headers and the mufflers. I'm using V-band clamps so it can all be taken apart in sections if repairs ever have to be made to the car. I did some practicing before I welded on anything. They aren't the prettiest welds but they wont leak that's for sure. I flap wheeled them smooth so they look less hideous...LOL Then on Sunday it was still raining here so I did some more work on the exhaust. What do you guy's think is a good minimum for ground clearance? I'm at about 5" now. Hell after all this it's staying at 5"! The wife is so cute. "Why don't you just run it straight (flat) out the back?" I told her because that would be too easy and personally I think it looks like crap not tucked up. Besides if it's too low it will get hung up on things like that racoon you hit at 2AM coming home from that long trip. I still have to clean the welds up a bit and hit them with high temp paint so they don't rust. Because it is going to be modular I may have it ceramic coated some day during a long winter. I'm hoping this weekend is going to be nice so I can finish up the floor. One step closer I suppose. I know it says 7-1/2" but its on 2-1/2" wheel dollies. It hangs a little lower than my wishbone mounts (about 1-1/4"). I don't think it will be an issue.
Wow I got lots done this weekend. I finished up the body work on the floor, cut the holes for the shifter & master cylinder, and got the passenger side exhaust just about all done (just needs hangers). Okay, so.....the wife was right. There I said it! Well she's kinda right. I ended up doing a bunch of research on running the exhaust under the rear end and it turns out a lot of people do it this way especially cars with triangulated 4 bar rear suspension like I have. So with the rear suspension at full droop I gave myself about 2" clearance under the rear axle tubes and 2" under the gas tank. leaving me 10" clearance from the bottom of the tail pipe to the ground. But I still tucked the muffler up into the frame. I have a coupling on the tail pipe so it is easily removed if I ever have to drop the rear. Now the real trick will be to get the other side to match. So technically I didn't run it straight (flat) out the back... I'm covering the bottom with bed liner so it doesn't have to be perfect because lord knows I'm no body man.
Thanks Kan. I'm thinking get that other side exhaust done and fire this bitch up! That will add some spark to the project. Pun intended.
The floor is done. I did it with liquid bed liner. I was going to use undercoating but I didn't think it would be durable enough. I used the rustoleum 2 part epoxy. Cool stuff and it dries hard not rubbery. The only down side is it has sand in it so when I put it back on the frame it wont slide on the cloth webbing. I think I have that figured out though. I'm going to put long set screws in the mounting holes and place the body on like locating pins. Then we flipped her over and started to work on the firewall. The after shots of the firewall do it more justice than it deserves. I really suck at bodywork. I shot it with some primer so I can see where I need to do more work (basically everywhere). Did I mention I suck at bodywork? I'm getting it roughed in for my buddy Bob who will be doing the final bodywork. I'll be glad when this part of the job is done (itching like crazy) damn fiberglass!! I also played a bit with the exhaust tips. Not quite sure how far they will stick out (all these decisions to make).
Besides the hangers the exhaust is done! Is it perfect? No. But it didn't cost me a boat load of money either. Before anyone points out the mufflers aren't equal distances from the drive shaft; I would like to point out this was done intentionally because I didn't like how close the muffler was to the brake switch and frankly I still don't but it is far enough that I could put a heat shield there or as suggested by my buddy Bob I could just move the switch. He also thinks I over engineer everything and it will be fine the way it is. I also built some legs for her to stand on and she is off to bodywork. Work your magic Bob!
Jim, that 15 year wait is coming to an end. Nice work as usual, but I really like your heater. Having just got home from a Winter blast to the supermarket, no side windows, and snow on the hills, my thick jacket isn't enough, so I've been looking at compact heaters. One like yours would be to big for the small amount of room I have.
I worked on my dash this weekend. I made the two pieces for the glove box door and worked some more on the center piece. I cut the hole for the center gauge and also cut the opening for the gauge insert. The parts are all just polished for now I still have to do the engine turning. I rattle caned the dash just to make it all one color and installed everything just for some inspiration. I also picked up some defrost vents from an MG Midget and they look like they're gonna fit. Amber helped me get the windows out of the car this weekend and I cleaned them all up so once the car is jammed with color they will be glued back in. The wood around the back window was all dry rotted and coming apart (plywood) so I picked up a red oak stair tread at HD and made a new one. Just waiting on a 1/4" rabbiting bit so I can make the groove to set the glass in. The old one looked like a 10 year old made it (no offense to all the 10 year olds out there). I like the T handle what do you all think? I have to make a spacer to get it away from the door so You can actually get your fingers in behind it but I think it's gonna work out fine. Okay pictures or it didn't happen! Stay tuned.
That looks GREAT!. I like engine turning, I've done some myself. It's fun to do, but I did mine on a Bridgeport Mill.
I'm not lucky enough to own a full size mill or even have the room for it but my Grizzly lathe and mini mill work fine for what I need. Of course this picture was taken when I first got them. The place is a total mess now...LOL
Both of those machines are nice. I'd be happy to own them. I'm lucky enough to be a tool and die maker, so I have access to whatever I need. Sure is fun to be able to do it yourself.
I'm by no means a tool maker but I too "had" access to what ever I needed till they moved it all out of my department and gave me a ton more responsibilities. Now I'm lucky if I have time to piss once a night and maybe a sandwich while I do my paperwork. So I just went out and pick those two up so I can tinker at home now. Sure was nice getting paid to do government work though...sigh! The good ol days.
Played around with the milling machine doing some engine turning with a hard 3/4" rubber bar stock and some valve lapping compound. It would look better if the aluminum was polished and I have 80 grit lapping compound coming. I think it's going to work out great once I get it dialed in.
I used a 1/2" wooden dowel, and some cutting oil. My aluminum wasn't polished, I didn't want it polished. Your piece looks great!
Gave it another shot this evening. Better planning and more consistency this time (still not perfect but what is on my car). I used the lapping compound again this time mixed with fine blasting media. Almost too much grit. I would be happy with this though.
I finished up the engine turning on the dash and the 2 pieces I mad e turned out so good it made the already turned dash look like crap so I gave it a re-do. Then I stopped over my buddy Bob's house and caught him squirting some high build primer on the body. It's looking really good. He has most of the belt/body lines all smoothed out and a lot of the fiberglass defects fixed. He told me that so far there is ZERO body filler on the car (that'll change once the doors go on). He is hoping to have it in a guide coat for blocking by next weekend.
The dash looks good! I like that body. It has the hinges, and it looks like a steel body. It has an opening windshield too right?
Thanks. Yes the windshield opens but the whole set-up doesn't work or fit very well and it was decided long ago that it will be glued in but the cowl vent (reluctantly because they always leak) is going to stay.
The Jalopy Journal
