Hot Rods The Hitchhikers Guide:The Hot Rod Ford Model A or AV8 Coupe. Post war 40's build.

8 gauge (.172) on mine.

 

Lookin good!

ob

 

today after using a Makita electric die grinder and grinding stones( like a big dremel) to grind the peak I went at things with a 50 grit soft sanding disk on my 4 1/2 inch electric grinder.....It makes smoothing stuff easy! Just enough give for my taste..... I've got a coupe spots that look like they were never welded on. .....and a couple spots with holes to fill still I'll have to go back over. I know it will need some filler too, But over all I am surprised how well things look after today. Pictures later.....

 

I'm not sure why, But for the life of me I can't get a good picture of where I have been welding and grinding. If I get close enough for the details to show it is all fuzzy and when I am far enough away to be focused it is to far away to see enough detail. I think my camara broke. I can see some smoke escape every time I take a picture.

 

If you've got the option to manually focus the camera switch it to manual focus and do that. A lot of times when zoomed too close or in low light situations the auto focus doesn't work right.

 

Smoother than it looks, but needs more.....I'm a hack, what can I say....

 

Use Macro setting and shine light on where you are focusing, don't use the flash.

 

That looks good enough. As long as its not high then a bit of lead or plasic filler and it will look as good as the metal masters. I like Rage extreme. I also use a bit of fiberglass resin in with the filler for a creamier consistancy. It's an awesome tip from Kevin Tetz's "Paintucation" video's.

 

thanks!

 

I'm assuming that I don't have to worry about pinion angle since there is only one u joint?

 

Just try to keep the joints parallel.
But it one of those "ask five people and get five opinions" kinda deal.
Great build, and keep us updated!

 

Dang, looks pretty good to me Matt. Keep on it.

 

I could be wrong, but I didnt worry about mine. I set the carb base level on the engine with the wheels and tires, and the suspenion set up the way I wanted it to be, with all the rake and everything. The only problem I have is, My car has so much rake the the goo from the rearend runs up the torque tube and doesnt drain back into the rearend.... I now have a torque tube baffle from Mr.Tardel, just havent got around to tearing it apart to install it yet. No troubles from the U-Joint area though.

 

thanks guys!

quick little update....I got a rear panel a few weeks back.....



and I got tired of grinding. I needed another little project to reinvigorate me.... ...so I cut some stuff....



and welded some stuff.....and we have headlights.



Back to the grind.....

 

I looked around for a Closeup but theyre on my old computer.. Here's a classic Vern tardel frame step. simple , effective cheap and traditional.

 

funny you should mention the rear step...I just bought the metal for it a couple days ago. I hope to get to that next week....then I need to save to have my axle dropped.

 

Looking good! Them MIG welds are a PITA to grind down smooth, uh? You did a good job straightening out the curled lip on the back of the roof too.. Good to see that I'm not the only one who's getting his sheet metal skills challenged. Yours looks better than mine though but I haven't really been focused on smoothing out the rear panels (excuses, excuses, I know..). I've been working on gathering stuff to get my frame rolling.

Before I forget to ask; are you using a shrinking disc?

 

No shrinking disk.

 

That's the thing. There is only one u joint at the back of the trans, Nothing to keep parallel. I think if i keep it from having crazy angles it will be fine.

Anyone?

 

So you think you should be able to get the back part of the roof where the chop is all welded in without too much warping? I'm still new with welding gaps across large relatively flat areas of sheet metal. The panel I did came out better than I thought but could use a little shrinking on one small part so I just wanted to inquire.


iPhone - TJJ App

 

Sorry, I meant the axis of the trans and the axis of the rear where the u joint connects...
What I tryed to do on mine was to have a 3degree angle on the transmission down, and made the rear end point 3 degrees up, to compensate for it.

 

I honestly don't know. I'm going to try and gas hammer weld it and see what it looks like.... I've never done any of this before, So I am just taking my time.....if I use the mig on it I will only make a tack every minute to a minute and a half to help keep the heat out of it. I'm note opposed to a shrinking disk, i just haven't used one so i don't have a opinion on one yet.

thanks! that's what I was formulating in my head.

 

Heres a few pics of how I did my frame step in the rear. Be ready to do some rear subrail mods. Its worth it in my opinion though!

 

You have it all wrong. Heat shrinks so when you weld , it shrinks.
A little tip, use an air nossle on your air hose and use the mig. Do a tack and blow it, do another an ich away and blow it. It speeds up the time and you won't temper the metal by using a cold wet rag. Hammer welding creates alot of heat and shrinks. Thats why you have to hammer the weld as it streches the molecules back into positon. You should have taken the class I set up with Russ Divers as he is one of the NW best hammer welder and actually is a metal artisan. After he is done , no welds are seen and no filler is used. In 2 1/2 hours, we learned more than you could learn in years by being self taught. He has been doing bodywork since the 50s and works at his cousins shop where they build over million dollar streetrods!!! Anyway, take your time and don't overheat the metal.

 

Keep up the Build. What a parts finder King!! Looks good.

 

Thats how I did my first Model A. I didn't have the Bishop/Tardel book in those days so instead of stepping it the full height of the frame rail, I just raised it the height of the wood block, used the webbing between the body and the frame, and didn't have to cut up the subframe rails. It must have been stepped about a couple inches???

 

i just love seeing old hot rods being built this one will turn out awesome

 

there is a guy in woodinville that drops axels, i can get ya his number

As for welding the back of the roof whippet is right, the metal shrinks, so that is why you hammer the weld to swell it back normal, Ive never used a shrinking disk, but that would be handy after you hammer it too much and need to shrink it back. I just heat the swelled stuff back up a dime sized area at a time with a o/a torch to swell it further and hammer it back into it's self instead of a shrinking disk

 

How's this thing coming?

 

Your pm's are full...can I get that #?