Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Funny, I was thinking he needed a pool light out of the bottom of the door that had his face shining on the ground!
Tim, that's coming out beautifully. Again, working until it's as you planned.
I liked Amon more, but neither is going into rotation, at least until I try to wood mine like yours.
As you said, different generation. I've got a room of LPs and CDs.

 

So, Tim;
Since you've now got both doors operable, that means that you ended up w/a rare *Canadian* 'glass T-bucket... ? .
Marcus...

 

And weren't they for export to South America?

 

Got both doors fitting really nice, but for some reason my striker pins on both sides need to be lower to work smoothly. I’ll take a look at that early this week. Overall a pretty productive weekend!

 

Don't let any of those loco skateboarders shoot the gap through your car!

 

Update time. Been fiddling around with some bits and pieces not worthy of pictures yet, but I did manage to get the cowl nice and braced up by making some diagonal braces from door hinge pillar to firewall. You’d be surprised how much more solid the car feels with those little pieces glued in. The lower ones will serve as mounting locations for the toe boards, when I get that far. Lots to do still!

 

I know it's overkill, but it saved me from having to learn: a-woodworking, b-fiberglassing, and c-how to get that stuff off of my hands, tools, floor, workbench, etc.
The firewall is sandwiched between 2---1/4 inch thick aluminum tooling plates, and supported by the 1 inch tubing bracing. And I plaigerized Marty's floor flange concept to bolt the bottom of the body to. There's no flex in any of the body. And yes, I am an engineer who overthinks everything! And I make myself more work because of it!

 

Time for a text update, mainly to motivate myself to get moving again, partially to update you guys as I was reading the "build thread etiquette" thread, and that seemed to be a common request/complaint. Last weekend, I spent some time fumbling about, working to get the door latch/striker pin assembly more compact. It's a balancing act as each piece of the assembly needs to be in a specific location, and held to a pretty tight tolerance, to accomplish what I'm hoping to achieve. I ended up re-making the striker pin bracket on the passenger side 4x.... finally got to where I was happy with that. So far I'm on the second passenger side door latch bracket, and I'll likely need to move onto the third as it's not quite what it needs to be. I'll post an update, with progress pictures and thought process, once there's something to show off.

Last week I had my coin purse sliced open so the ol' water cannon can't deploy any more swimmers, and I only took a few hours off work cause I'm gonna be on sabbatical for the next month, and I got *lots* to do before I'm off work (approaching the 48hr countdown, so the finish line is in sight). What does this have to do with hot rods, you may ask? Well, my goal for this particular sabbatical is to get the car on the road, in an unfinished state. Even at that, there is so much to do it's disgusting. I don't want to half-ass it and end up re-doing it later, so I guess time will tell if I pull it off or not.

At the very least, I'm hoping to provide daily updates of progress. I've had one other sabbatical in my time, and of the 40 days off, I spent 39 of them 10-12hr days putting in pavers/retaining walls/digging in the yard, running power to the garage for a sub-panel, etc. I can only hope this time around is as productive. In those days I was fueled by energy drinks and heavy metal music, but this time around caffeine has been left behind. I will need to be very strategic with my playlist, diet, and tasks at hand to stay motivated and focused. As we are all aware, life gets in the way of building hot rods. And that's ok. But this is my chance to regain some of that ground I've lost. Fingers crossed.

@Bandit Billy posted this picture of a bucket entering the Good Guys show up in Puyallup last weekend, and it really got me fired up. The dual quad small block, the 5 spokes, the cute passenger… this speaks to me. “Tim, time to get the car on the road. You’re missing out!”

 

Eradicating those free swimmers is a step toward having more car time and money. The world needs more nice, traditional T buckets. There were only a few at the Good Guys show up North.

I'm heading over to Beaches in a bit. I'll see if there are any about and report back with more inspiration.

 

Appreciate the reconnaissance! I've got an evening meeting where I'm hoping to close out the remainder of my deliverables before I'm out. Perfect day to go to Beaches, too... not too hot, not a cloud in the sky.... Sigh... Focus, Tim! Focus!

 

Tim I dig all of your updates, but life first! Rather than try to make each part perfect first time, try to fail fast, as Adam Savage says. You've already proven to be a 'do it until it's right' person, so just be mindful of changes being easy to be improved upon.

Having it go around the block is going to add new and different things to the list, so I wish you the best.
I found a dead pedal on the left helped. Easier now than after upholstery.

 

And remember Tim, "Better is the enemy of good enough! " Learned that at the research firm 39 years ago. And I have to fight the urge every time I'm making something...

 

Also sit on some ice

 

Daddy, what's a "free swimmer"?

 

@DDDenny this is the internet. If you can't find the answer in 5 minutes, ask your mommy.

 

@Tim_with_a_T is there any weatherstrip planned? I could see a bit of rubber causing the striker to change yet again if it is installed. Heck, ask pro painters about how they still have to refit a little after the final coat and cut and buff. Parking in the sun after a bumpy road could change it a bit, although your bracing looks to be more than enough to keep that at bay.

 

You're in my brain. I'll explain my approach to this when I post about the latch, striker pin, door gap, door panel, and all the other variables in this area. Lots to consider for sure.

 

I said all that to say, don't sweat it until it's in it's final form. Otherwise, you will adjust it 14 times and still have to do it once more...
So long as there is a little adjustment, move on!

 

There's still a lot to consider. Finished thickness of each part, and final assembly considerations are important things to at least guess at this stage. The door latch and striker are relatively unaffected, but how it all goes together as an assembly is a different story. Like how is the door panel going to mount, how does the interior handle work, how much thickness will x and y add, etc. I've spent enough time thinking about it, I have a vague idea of how to move forward.

 

Sabbatical, Day one.

 

Dig the video update!

 

Nice! Also, more videos please!

 

Sabbatical, Day two. Hit a lot of dead ends today. I’m juggling a few other projects as well, one of which is the daily decided to blow a head gasket Thursday night. Oh the joy. Spent about an hour yesterday and a couple hours today starting the tear-down. Hopefully tomorrow is more productive, on all fronts.

 

Sabbatical, Day three.

 

That works great now! Persistence pays off.

 

Sabbatical, Day four.

 

Sabbatical, Day five.

I had to run some errands today and roll around under the daily for awhile, but I managed to get a few things done. I had a goal of getting all the driver’s side brackets and linkage cut out- I got close but I’ll have to pick it up again tomorrow.

 

Sabbatical, Day six.

Today was a massive struggle. I successfully completed nothing from my morning list. I did make progress, but slow. I’m about 3ish hours away from having the driver’s door caught up with the passenger’s. I’ll hit it hard again tomorrow.

 

We all have theese days when things dont go as planned.
But the last weeks of progress have been really impressing.

 

Keep after it Tim. I'm counting on you so I can plaigerize your ideas! Assuming that I get brave enough to cut my body...