Finished welded brake assembly, painted and assembled today, happy with result, works as it should, whole assembly including steering coloum mount now super strong. A few pics, Glen
Started making a seat recently, used a old bus seat found on market place, I ended up remaking most of the frame and used one piece of foam from the original seat. I purchased new memory foam and plan to cover with a Mexican blanket at this stage. I plan to make all interior panels in steel with beads, dimpled holes, solid rivets etc, all painted black so I feel the Mexican blanket may suit the theme of the build. A few pics, Glen
My seat is coming along nicely, added sliders today, I am waiting for my Mexican blanket to arrive before I can finish ( I have purchased a distressed look blanket - it is so cool, just wait and see ). I also received a present from Santa recently, a pair of CNC ported AFR race heads, this car is gunna be a beast, a few pics, Glen
I mounted door trims onto doors today using nutserts / rivet nuts. Overall I'm pleased with how they turned out, I am a novice with all this metal fabrication stuff, but enjoying every second of the time spent in the shed. The trims will suit the overall build theme with there imperfections. Still yet to sand and paint, a few pics. Glen
Today I fabbed up the rear bars for my roll cage, next step is to mount seat belt brackets to cage. I have a plan on how to mount seat belts and will tackle this next week. I was going to make a full cage for this car but will just leave it as a 4 point for now as there is not much room for the front bars to mount without running into issues with leg room / throttle pedal location. A few pics, Glen
Roll cage finished with seat belt mounts etc. also trimmed seat in my new stressed Mexican blanket, I think the seat looks so cool and with go with the theme of the car. Glen
I have been busy lately but still making small steps, Recently took car for first engineering inspection with good results. Engineer stated all work on car so far is ok and we have formulated a build plan going forward. I purchased some headlight buckets from a swap meet ( 37 dodge I was told ) and I purchased some solid aluminum to fab some bezels and used some Ebay Honda motorbike headlights for the lights as they were the size I needed. I am happy so far with the results, unsure weather to paint bezels or polish, leaning towards paint. A few pics. Glen
if you paint them nobody will notice and appreciate the work that you put into them. If you polish them, they will grab people’s eye and they will look twice. Either way will look great ! Amazing work on everything on this car.
Thanks Clem, I still have some work to go on these lights, I plan to machine some more of the inside diameter and round the front of the trim as I feel its to bulky from front on. I also need to open up underneath to have a way of mounting trim to bucket. I am leaning towards paint as the car will have a distressed look to it, I am even thinking of leaving the buckets the way they are so a polished trim would look out of place. I'm happy for people not to notice every detail as the one's who do notice are the one's who will appreciate it anyway. Glen
I machined some more of my headlights today, I think they are just about done now, will paint them soon to see how they will look. Glen
Been busy lately crack testing welds as this was a requirement for the engineer, most welds tested good and a couple required re welding, now I plan to prime chassis to prevent surface rust. Next project is to fab headers and exhaust system. Also pictured is my new rear disc brake setup - another requirement for engineering car with a supercharged engine. A few pics, Glen
I spent approx 6 hours with a wire wheel cleaning up chassis over the past 2 days, sprayed some primer on this afternoon, turned out ok. Glen
A few pics of new front axle, engineer needed proof of origin of axle, axle had to be a forged unit so I purchased this drilled So-Cal axle. Glen
Those are neat have you thought about making and selling those headlight trims? I do hope you polish the trims it would be a shame to cover your beautiful work with paint ? Just sayin'
Duecesteve Im not really interested in making parts for others (my friends are always saying that I should make parts for others when I show them a new part I have made) as I dont have enough time at present. With work / family life any spare time is spent on my own cars. Maybe in the future when I retire from work I may consider this but the downside to making stuff for others is the amount of time spent could make the item to expensive to sell. Another downside is dealing with some people is not always a pleasant thing. Thanks again for the nice comments. Glen
I get it I make custom rolling pins they sell for 50 bucks but some I hate to part with and some are more than an hour of labor to make and glue up . Second one is made with Purple Heart and Accoya from New Zealand
Great progress. If you plan to manually shift the car, say at the track, would suggest sitting in it with belts or harness on and see if you can reach the shifter. Yours looks quite low. You can guess how I know that........
Pete I am unsure what type of transmission cover to fabricate at present, it will either be fiberglass or a removable steel or alloy unit, but whatever type I use it will incorporate a provision for the shifter. The plan is to run this car in some nostalgia drag events so the shifter will be in a suitable position. Thanks Glen
Ironically thats where I went wrong. I fitted a harness into my at the time 32 to race in Nostalgia as only had lap belts and when I was strapped in couldnt reach the shifter. Felt pretty silly but ran consistent times lol.
In high school my friends '66 Chevelle had a 4 point cage and he hung a set of 5 inch round headrests from the top of the roll bar it looked really cool and kept you from whiplash when he sidestepped the clutch lol
That's the reason I don't tell many people about the stuff I make anymore. I grew tired of most of my friends trying to convince me to start a business or build stuff for them. Did it a few times, learned my lesson that my time is more valuable to me. I just discovered your build thread, really cool car and fabrication. I like your under-dash brake setup and the whole support structure!
The Jalopy Journal
