Projects The 48 hour coupe

Could the gauge be hooked to each of the carbs with a nice lil tap to help with tuning?

 

Anything is possible right lol.

 

That's a good call about the keys hanging in front of the gauges. #4 is similar, and the key issue gets taken care of - that's the one that I would go with.

 

Agreed I think #4 is the ticket.

 

OK. So I'm on the hunt for a new dash or at lease parts of a '33 chevy dash I can use to repair the bottom edge of mine. I don't have a lot of faith that if I tried to make it myself it would turn out any better than what I have currently lol. Any leads or suggestions would be helpful.






That said I did some more trimming last night and I think I'm pretty close to being able to weld the A Dash and the Chevy dash together. The tab above the gauge area will get welded to the back side of the model a dash. And then the sides will get welded where the A dash meets. 3 points and the areas between the welds are trimmed away to leave clearance for air to flow through when the windshield is open similar to the stock model a

Should work in theory




Got that all marked and left it a little long so I could crudely fold back that edges it wasn't sharp and actually looked like I tried lololin hind site i should have gotten the rust removed before I folded it but here we are.





It was good practice with the benefit that you can't see the end result so if it wasn't perfect it would still be OK.

And the final relationship to each other
Just need to strip paint and rust, weld. Then incan get the rusty parts repaired and prepped for paint and gauges.

 

Science incoming.... results in a few days

 

Looking good

 

Well... it was looking good

Then I pulled it out of the acid and washed it off.

This thing is properly swiss cheesed. I would basically need to patch up a whole entire new dash and even then whatever original metal I tried to weld to is so thin I'd just be burning it away and chasing holes the whole time... the more you look the more pinholes you see .. and there all over not just in isolated areas.





But I'm not giving up completly... im going to do this again with a new 33 chevy dash... think I've found one on FB marketplace and we happen to be driving right past the guy on our way to Iowa next week.
So as long as the guy gets my message and still has it ill pick it up on our way home for Christmas. And then once there I'm also going to make a run to Kansas City where @Tim is currently holding some roof pieces for me so I can fix what's on the coupe currently.

If you happen to have a '33 chevy dash laying around you want to make a deal on though send me a message. I'm going to keep looking until I've secured one.

 

Definitely lightened...but not aka Hotrod style......another day or two and it might have disappeared...

 

You ain't kidding there lol

 

You could tape the front side and glass the back side and that thing would still be thin. Damn

 

We'll get there... same plan... different donor dash. The dude from FB got back to me and I'll pick up my new dash during our roadtrip to Iowa then I'll recreate what I've already done and be back in business.

 

Be even better the second try

 

Headed home from Iowa currently letting my wife take a turn ticking off some if the 1300 miles back to Myrtle Beach.

Short trip but productive.

Dad bought a 4 post lift from his friend so we set that up and put my truck in the air.

Tinkered with the Oakland he's got apart at the moment. well as some off topic golf cart and semi modern car stuff.





We stopped in KY on the way up north and picked up the replacement '33 Chevy dash. It is borderline too nice to cut up... but we're going to cut it up anyway.

Also made a run from Des Moines to Kansas City to see @Tim for some chair time and to pick up some roof pieces he was holding for me after purchasing them from a mutual friend.




I'll use those later to repair and re-chop the coupe. Tim had the great idea to rechop what's on there now to test out the look. And then when I get that sorted I can chop the new stuff once and know it will be where I want it to be. For no though ill remove the rust from the wet drive home and get them in primer before they go on the shelf and wait their turn.
I got 2 reproduction spears
2 what look like NOS corners
And a better than mine rear panel

 

Looking forward to the next year of progress! Great seeing you

 

OK let's try this again... Chevy guys look away cause this new dash was nice.... before I cut it up lol

1st attempt was too rusted out to salvage.


1st attempt at the fold wasn't exactly straight



2nd attempt starting point.






Trimmed it up this time using electric power instead of my hand snips so it went mucj faster and with less sore arms.





Folds turned out much straighter


And this is where i ended up after about an hour or so. Back to where we were before sans pinholes.


Then I sunk it in the citric acid bath and when it comes out I'll be able to prime it and then work on filling a couple holes and making the gauge insert.

After that I just need to cut out most of the stock tank and bolt it in.

Waiting on e brake linkages from a friend for the rear brakes. And new rubber hoses for the front brakes. Once I have some semblance of brakes I think I'll try a trip around the block and get back to the clutch stuff.

 

Looks great Adam! Looks like you, me and @Austin kays all managed to sneak a little hot rod time in today!

 

Productive weekend. Though not a ton that was photoworthy.

After getting the new dash fixed up last weekend I put it in the citric acid to get it cleaned up. Last night I pulled it out and washed the acid off. Then hit it with some self etch this morning so it doesn't flash off again. Next up for that will be patching a couple holes and then welding it to the model a dash.

I finished replaced the front brakes, bearings, and seals that I started a few weeks ago and never finished. Struggled to get them to bleed at first until I realized that the empty chamber of the master cylinder that I had thought was left empty because the rear brakes are non-existent. Turns out that was the chamber for the front brakes and being empty makes it pretty hard to bleed lol. Once I got that fixed they bled just fine... imagine that.

Then I turned my attention to the clutch. Saturday morning I made the couple hour drive up to Wilmington, NC and picked up an F1 pedal assembly that had the linkage and shaft for a mechanical clutch. So with that I took off the hydraulic that I didn't care for.

I also got an f100 steering box that I'll shelf for a future project and a set of rear brakes that included the parking brake links that have been looking for. So now I can put the rear brakes together and make them functional.

next up I'll keep working on making the clutch linkage work and finish up the brakes. Getting close to being able tontest drive I think. There is a cars and coffee I've found here pretty close to the house on the first Sunday if the month. Missed today's but I think that would be a simple goal to get back on the road for the next one. Something to work towards at least.

Cheers. I'll try to take more pictures for the next progress post.

 

Awesome , a month out and close to the house seems reasonable enough

 

2 weeks later and I haven't touched it until today.

Last time I left off with the brake and clutch pedals disconnected. And I had removed all the hydraulic clutch stuff. The clutch shaft I picked up needed to be shortened. So that was the last thing I did last time.

The clutch is where I started again today. The arm on the clutch shaft needed to be bent to be more in line with the pedal. Nothing the torch and railroad anvil couldn't handle. I basically fully reversed what the bend in the arm was to the opposite side




That left me with 2 issues.
1. The shaft arm was hitting the pedal now which still wasn't going to work.
2. The arm was too long so the pedal was very close to an over-center situation which also wasn't going to work

I needed to unbend some of what I did on the arm. However, that only exaggerated the arm too long problem. Which to me meant about my only answer was to drill a new hole and chop some length off. So that's what I did.

Hopefully I didn't screw myself and make it too short to get a proper throw on the throw out bearing. If I did, I do still have the original shaft that was modified to fit the hydraulic setup so I could always use that to try again.

I did operate the clutch and it seems to be working but I wasnt able to staty the car to check if it actually let's me shift gears. It was kinda late and didn't think my neighbors would appreciate me starting basically an open header flathead lol

That done for now I started looking at the brakes again. I was going to just rehook the pedal so i could maybe try a test drive next but looking at the plunger shaft it was bent and when I pulled it out to straighten and that's when I found this.


Yep... that the Heim end shoved into a chunk of brake tubing which was then shoved into the master cylinder. That's where I stopped. Cause I'm not trusting that AT ALL.

I don't want to shit on what other people have done so instead I'm going to just assume this was put in place to get the car sold and that's it. I sincerely doubt this setup has worked for 15 years without failing. If it has, then that dude needs to go buy a lotto ticket cause Jesus he's a lucky SOB. I will not be taking that chance and ordered a new plunger shaft parts

Because the frame is Z'd the clutch shaft I've been messing with isn't under the floor anymore. In fact I had to remove some of the drivers floor to get it connected today. So I'll have to remake something permanent but for now it's kinda nice having the access to work. Plus now I can pretend I'm almost half as cool as the Omaha coupe driving around with no floor lol.



Next up will be putting rear brakes back on the car. I've been gathering the parts and think have pretty much all that I need to do that.

I got backing plates, new shoes, springs, ebrake linkages, e brake equalizer cable.
Still waiting for a coil of hard line and fittings, rubber line, various ts and fittings. And I need to find something to connect the e brake handle linkage at the trans to the equalizer cable at the back. Any suggestions on what I should be looking for would be much appreciated.

Not sure if I'll make that cars and coffee I wanted to get to since that's next weekend but there's always the next month. And we bought a house, which is closing in a couple weeks so driving the car to the new place would be another good option for a test drive. We will overlap with our current rental and the new place for a bit so no crazy rush to get it moved other than that the sooner we're out of the rental the sooner I can stop paying for it.

 

Seeing this would make me not trust anything on the car and I would check everything on it very closely!

 

That's pretty much where I'm at too.

 

Yeeesh that’s sketchy.

I would look at 46’-48’ e brake parts. I think that little triangle bit that e brake loops threw has a threaded yoke on it. Put some all thread from that to another clevis/ yoke to the handle?

 

Aren't 46-48 brakes a lever under the dash? Pretty sure mine was and there was a cable that ran from the dash all the way back to the equalizer.

All thread was my fallback idea too.

 

Yeah I’m talking about using the 46-8 wheel to wheel cable and equalizer. Replace the under dash handle and cable with floor handle and all thread

 

Like that mount the handle like this

I have the template / sizes for that bracket if you want them

 

I have the wheel to wheel cable and that triangle shaped piece and clevis that goes with it....

My ebrake handle is already mounted and even has a link on it like the first picture it's just much shorter than that picture.

I'll get the rears all put together and who knows maybe the wheel to wheel cable will line up with what I have already mounted. If nit it should be easy to extend it to make everything connect.

 

Bouncing around a bit.

Decided to cut out the center section of the dash today, so I could start getting the gauge panel sorted out.

Left about 1/4" or a little more of a flange for the panel to sit against.



Then I verified that size flange wasn't going to interfere with gauge placement. It wont... I've got plenty of room.




So then I welded the A dash to the Chevy dash. Measured about 10 times then stuck it together with metal. Measures the same height side to side and test fit it in the car no issues there either aside from still needing to remove the rest if the original tank. The bottom of the tank is already gone on the passenger side so I either just need to chop the rest out and make a support for the steering column or chop enough to fit the dash and keep enough to still support the column. Or a little of both would work too.

Didn't want to get too dirty tonight and I'm still waiting on parts for the MC pushrod. I should be able to get back on the brakes this weekend.

 

Awesome
Man, moving right along!

 

Think I have all the pieces to make a new MC plunger that's the correct length and not made out of brake tubing.

But before do that I started putting the backing plates on the rear. Including a functional e brake.

I got the passenger side all on bolted down etc. Went to replace the rear wheel seal and its too small. Anyone know the correct seal I should be looking for? The seals I got were supposedly early ford rear hub seals. Apparently they're for a different early ford rear end. The seals measure just shy of 2 7/8" the bore in the wide 5 drums measure just shy of 3 1/4"


Also yesterday after work I took the shifter off so I could bent it to clear the new dash. It was hitting the old dash in R & 2nd gears and the new dash was even worse. It wasn't able to come out of 1st. Took a couple tries but it's works now. Doesn't look great so I'll probably keep my eye out for a different one at some point but it works for now.

While that was out I removed the "pin" that holds the shifter straight. It just had a chunk of bolt in it. That has started to wear threads in the slot of the shifter ball. So I took that out and replaced it with a chunk of an old drift. Which I'm realizing as I type this isn't going to be much friendlier to the slot in the shifter since it's hardened. It definitely helped the feel of the shifter. But having just realized about the hardness I should probably replace that with something else right? Thoughts?