Your a cool kid Crewcut. PM me anytime! Those Beam things you refer to are bulkheads. Many racecars from the 50's and 60's used construction like that to keep strength up while keeping weight to a bare minimum. While true monocoque construction is too complicated for your desires, you could easily use some of the same techniques to stiffen a fullframed car. Thin sheet, formed into bulkheads, and using hammerformed lightening holes and rivets to form box section bulkheads would look KILLER on the inside of a bare steel, coupe or roadster ****pit! I intend to use some of this bulkhead construction on the inside of my coupe, mostly in the trunk to cabin section and in the dash area...(if it ever gets on the #@%&# front burner!), although I won't be carrying it over to the outside of the ride. I just want it for the stiffness it will give to the car body...not the potential cool look it would have if you expanded on it for styling. You need to check out some of those European "Specials" that have been popping up here lately! Stay the course your on now Crewcut, don't let your dad get to you...you'll be on your own soon enough and making your own decisions. From the bio you sent me of your life so far, be a damn shame to start doing things in a underhanded way just to get over his time! Things will come around for ya I'm sure. Do your planning now...your gonna be real busy soon anyway! Best of luck!
[ QUOTE ] you'll be on your own soon enough and making your own decisions. From the bio you sent me of your life so far, be a damn shame to start doing things in a underhanded way just to get over his time! Things will come around for ya I'm sure. Do your planning now...your gonna be real busy soon anyway! Best of luck! [/ QUOTE ] now that's some fatherly advice
Kid, Rivets will work just fine to hold sheetmetal together. I don't know of any free bodies but if I can trade into one cheap enough its yours. Problem is that cheap or free in our game more often than not means junk. Why don't you go total utilitarian, build a birdcage frame for the body and then streach light sheet over it. if you stay with a t or a style body it should be pretty easy. You'll still need to come up with a ch***is and I do see those cheap or free all the time. just keep a watch on the cl*** adz. If it makes you feel any better my old man never ever wanted me to pick up a wrench and offered to do me serious bodily harm if I ever did. I still don't understand the whole thing, I spent nearly every saturday of my young life in his speed shop. When he got old he was awful proud of the fact that I could pick up a wrench or hammer and fabricate anything. he even thought that the many projects that I lost money on over the years were pretty cool also. Your old man is right to a certain extent on the loss of value thing. There are folks that make a lot of money off hot rodding, but most of us just have to enjoy our money's worth out of it.
Agh... The avatar is a joke. It's dumb. I will change it. As far as the bulkheads go, I will try to post a drawing of my idea on here (If i can find the time #!$@@ professors). What about that interior green paint? Izzat pretty widely availiable? -Crew
That green primer shouldn't be too hard to find. You should find a book about aircraft riveting, structural repair and painting. I have "A&P Airframe Textbook" and it contains many details about these subjects, and a lot more of cool fabricating techniques. If you want to do the job right, you should learn about calculating correct rivet diameter, hole diameter, lenght and spacing between rivets. There are many types of rivet heads available, the round head, number 470, is better suited for an old style. The rivet number would give you all the information you need. You'll need a rivet gun, a few bucking bars, clecos and cleco pliers. You'll also need a buddy willing to hold the bucking bar for you (you weren't thinking about being on both sides of the body at the same time, right?). Rivetting is not as easy as it seem. You sould practice on s**** metal first. If you start with a trashed steel body, you'll end up welding patch panels everywhere anyways. If you want true aircraft style, why not do an aluminium body. A T modified would look cool and wouldn't be too hard to make. Keep in mind that aluminium and steel are dissimilar metals, and sticking one to another will cause galvanic corrosion. I don't remember all the alloys used in making rivets by heart, but you should check if the rivets can be used on steel. Anyways, all this process would be time consuming, and I don't think you'll save any money in the long run. If you have any other questions, I might be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck. Form a 24 year old college student with no garage except the one my father won't let me use to build cars.
[ QUOTE ] that 'cuda that sold for $1M [/ QUOTE ] only ONE million? A guy up here payed 2 million for a hemi convert crazy btw I love that pic with the rivets willowbilly, thanks
Kid, may I suggest looking for an old Chevy body from the thirties. They were full of wood on the inside and the sheet metal was tacked to the wood framework. After the wood rots theres just the sheet metal left. As a result most people don't want to fool with 'em and you can get 'em pretty cheap. The wood could be replaced with the bulkheads you mentioned. Another suggestion would be to find a model A cowl to start with. You can get the door skins and a roadster pickup cab back skin from Brookeville. The skins alone are pretty cheap and could also be mounted to the bulkhead construction. Just a couple of thoughts. Hope this helps. Good Luck
Sounds good, only problem is is that I cannot stand Chebbies. I may give it a shot- sacrifices must be made. Oh, and on the subject of the cuda? The guy who bought it is gonna drive it every day, or so he says. -Crew
[ QUOTE ] This post ****s............ [/ QUOTE ] I still like seeing your RPU, Jim. What are you working on now? -Matt
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