Projects The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread...

Being your basic OCD nut case, I can't concentrate on anything too damned long before the next phase of what I'm doing is explored. Knowing this about me and seeing how I shot these in order, I took a break from the drill press and grabbed my little elephant buddy for his, ah, drilling. How do you find the center of an elephant? you guess! Well, that and look very carefully! So, center punch him I did!

Drilling the hole was more "close one eye, hold your thumb up, hope and drill" kinda stuff. This again was done on the drill press.

So, ya, as uncomfortable as that looks, I started it with a starting drill, (They are about 8.00 at Harbor Freight, and some of the best money spent!) and then drilled it up for the next phase... WARNING! THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS KINDA GRAPHIC!

We are tapping him! The expression on his little face made me wince a bit as I carried out my mission, but fear not little buddy, it's hurt lots less from here on out! 1/4"-20 is the rule here.

 

LOL...so it is. Still could have been worse. You did use some lube on there, right?

(Thanks for the laugh...)

 

So back to my aluminum blanks. They spent a few minutes on the belt sander getting some of the ugly knocked off, course belt screaming away! Kinda like this...

Next I wandered over to my nut and bolt bin, and grabbed a long 1/4"-20 bolt, and a couple of nuts, and screwed the whole deal together through the 1/4" holes in the blanks, then mounted them in the drill press. I then took a minute and changed the belts around so that the drill press was just flat rockin', going as fast as it could.

'Cause now it was time to start making this thing round, and giving it some shape. We are going to do that with a highly scientific way, with sandpaper and a backing board... We'll start with really course stuff to get the shape.

Just realized this all the lower piece with the super shallow step.

 

Very kool. Can't wait for a picture of the finished product.

Gary

 

SQ nuts is a must right? LOL or just a match up with blockhead engineering.love it!

 

Another example of how to make something with basic tools. We do it and we love it

 

Okay, Back to the top piece with the step you saw machined earlier. It was shaped the same way you saw earlier, but more so, so that the base has a slightly round contour, we can't have this looking like "billet" , after all. I don't have any pictures, but the step we made earlier was sized and refined with a flat file CAREFULLY as the drill press was spinning away. CAREFULLY being the operative word. I simply filed at it until it fit snuggly into the radiator neck hole in the shell. Then the whole deal top and bottom was finished up and cleaned up with 180 grit sandpaper back on the drill press. Looking exactly like this... Though not quite as blurry in real life, for some reason the nice copy wouldn't load.

Leaving us with this...

And with a 1/4"-20 stud and nut and bolt, we ended up with this ...

And that folks, is how you turn your basic antique store chochski into a cool and different little radiator mascot...

 

awesome

 

Chip, you sir, are one of a kind, same as your radiator mascot! I love it!

 

Nah, like Blue One said, just doing the most I can with what I have.

 

Modest, too

 

I don't remember if I ever told you guys what my elephant is? Judy found him in an antique store here in town last spring, and at first glance I figured it was a child's toy. I think he set me back all of about 5.00. After looking at his shape for a bit, I realized he was a bottle opener... Hmmmnnnn. A quick Google of elephant bottle openers gave me the full story. He was a give away to delegates at the 1916 or '18 Republican Convention! I can't remember which year the convention occurred, and I'm too damn lazy to look it up right now. They have been re-popped a couple of times over the years, But mine holds all the markings of being an original! One of about 600...

 

Hi Chip.You have now been doing so much with so little for so long,that you are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

One little item like that will set your rod apart from others but we all know you have to be careful not to junk it up. I have added little things to my roadster and had to remove them.

 

Good point, Gary, but that elephant looks fun to me

 

Ya, that's about as far to "whim sickle" as I go. I'm not into hanging stuff off the car hither and thither. Lean and hungry always looks best on a car, and probably the reason why I'm not into customs. But having one simple focal point like my elephant, can be a conversation starter beyond the obvious appeal of the car too.

Nah, it's good to have a little fun every now and then. Keeps a car from getting too full of itself...

 

When it comes to customs, for me, I prefer them to be cleaned up, not adding a bunch of crap to them just because you can. Like shaving the hood, deck lid and door handles...,make the lines flow smooth. Same thing on any hot rod I like.

 

And the fact that the the pachyderm is functional is a always an argument against the fact it's a trinket!. Russ

 

A couple of other things that I have been tinkering with over the summer while I have been working a million hours on other's stuff.

I had to make a new seat base. I let Kurt drive this thing earlier in the summer, and he is your basic Migilla Gorilla shaped guy. I'd say about 6'6" and 265 ought to be about on it. He took off down the road, came back with load of hardware, and later I jumped in the car and knew right away something was wrong... he broke the seat base! no great loss, as it was made of scrap crap that he and Roy found in the alley, and it showed. I was determined to do better.

I used a chunk of 3/4"marine ply that I had laying around from a previous project. It needed to be sanded a bit to smooth it out further, so out came my handy dandy Bosch sander, complete with 220v to 110v converter, courtesy of the Hong Kong airport. See, Judy's brother in law's Brother, (wheh!) beyond being one hell of a neat guy, wants so badly to come over and play hot rodder. he swears soon he'll have his visa and be able to spend some time here, and I'll corrupt him the best I can! Well, long story short, he is an A&P mechanic at the Hong Kong airport, and every time a tool is de-commissioned due to a flaw, (and with those boys a scratch or dent is enough for a throw away) he grabs it and saves it until Judy gets to town. Then he sends it home with her with the simple directive, "use it to build hot rods". I frequently send him pictures of what I'm doing, and hope he gets here some day soon.

So, ya, I used this cool sander to make things all pretty.

A very important design element on this one was very simple... Rounded corners. See, when you stretch vinyl over something, it is always happier going around a radius without wrinkles than it is going around a square corner. Sounds ridiculous, but it's very true.

So that done, all got sanded and all the edges rounded so that the foam and vinyl will lay down nicely with a minimum of fuss. Next on the list was the hole and the webbing. Tell you what, this webbing is the coolest thing I have ever done on one of these seats in a bucket! It literally gets me down about 2-3" over just the foam, and makes for a downright comfy ride. moments after this was shot I went out and bought the rest and did Judy's side, finally.

Ready for what comes next... White Vinyl!

 

The other minor accomplishment of the last month or so was finishing the polish and detail of the new headlight stands. See, the cool old Cal custom ribbed units that Roy unfortunately gacked a hole into for the old turn signals, are slated to go back to him. I grabbed a cool old pair of Offenhauser units off his wall that he thought were junk. Not even close! After lots of sanding and some fill welding, they were looking pretty good.

But, they have a rough cast recess on the back side, and that wasn't something my tired hands were wanting to sand any further... So lets paint these bastards! And so I did. Hugger orange, of course, followed by a coat or two of clear. Note the masking on the shiny side.

So, without fail, when you un-maskify something like this, it always leaves a rough edge. how do we fix that? Well, my paint supplier has been selling something they call "gun wash" to me for a bit now, that is about the most effective solvent I have ever come across. So with a simple folded paper towel, some of my beloved nasty solvent, and an old sanding block, we set to work.

A little bit of careful wipey-wipey and the edges become defined. by this point I had taken the sanding block out of the mix and was going it like a tough guy. After that, I let them dry a week or two, and then did some more polishing, and a bit of color sanding and polishing of the painted stuff... And there you have it, a once junk, pitted, rough up pair of vintage headlight stands that I pulled out of a swap meet 5.00 dollar bin and pointed out to Roy, now pretty and waiting for that not too distant day when I have time to drag the welder out, and fill the existing holes in the frame and drill the new ones these will need...

 

About the time I was working on all of this stuff, over on Face Book, my friends started annoyingly posting what they were eating for dinner. My family has always celebrated the traditional cocktail hour. Not as a means of getting fall down drunk, but as a means of unwinding with our favorite drinks. I started my Face Book Cocktail hour... A large Sapphire and Tonic with half a lime in my favorite tin cup please...

Nature's most perfect drink! The Europeans created gin in to 14th century to ward off the plague, so there is no chance of my catching that. The tonic water was a clever way to get English soldiers in India in the 18th century to take their quinine to protect against malaria... No chance of that here. The limes were kept on English ships in the 18th and 19 centuries to protect the sailors from scurvy and rickets, so basically I'm protected from damn near every semi-ancient disease that could befall a guy... Who could ask for anything more!

 

And here I just drink because it tastes good...never thought about the disease prevention angle....


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Hey, Chip;
Uhm... just how big is that 'tin'? Looks more like a... pail! . It's all good, more of it, will probably just keep a greater mass/mess of the nasty mossies & other diseases away longer... .
Marcus...

 

I like those headlight stands better anyway. Nice orange the notsougly roadster will look good painted that simple color.

 

Chip, I just can`t stand it. I probably should just let it go, but I can`t. One of my pet peeves is evident in your Finished Elephant on the Radiator shot. Pleeeaase....TAKE THAT CORRUGATED DONKEY you-know-what UPPER RADIATOR HOSE OFF THERE AND PUT A FORMED, TIDY, WELL FIT ONE ON!!!


There. I feel better now....It`s been a long week.....

 

OUCH


OUCH

 

Hey guys just to share some good news, just became a grandy for the second time, baby girl 7lb born this afternoon at 5.30pm nz time.

 

Congratulations! I just became one the first time around a month ago!

 

Nope!

I actually did a bit about this back at the beginning when I started this mess. went down to my wholesaler with the intentions of finding a nice molded hose as you suggested, 'cause that is current "correct way" kinda stuff. Before I did that, I took a little lunch break and read some old mags while I was eating and noticed that to a car, ALL of the 'Buckets I was looking at in '63 had the corrugated style! I mean every one! It's funny too, as guys that know their stuff about the era have since complimented me on it. Just wish it was a Gates Green Stripe like the lower...

 

Big, Big, CONGRATS!!!