Projects The Wee Terry Coupe Build Thread

1 day I might have an A as well detailed & as good looking as yours!

 

Thanks for the kind feedback folks. Really appreciate it.

 

Still here, still admiring your work.

 

Well Pendine Sands Hotrod Races are only a few weeks away and I still have a bit of a list of prep jobs to do.
@uncle max has kindly given me some direction on carb setup. I hadn’t changed the power valves, believing that it was the main jets or idle screws causing my problems. I now understand that the power valves can affect performance when standing on the throttle, even from idle. Mine must have been dumping way too much fuel in. With #69s in it seems much more responsive. I will try and do some more road testing this weekend.
Last night I got my race class on the car and fitted the bonnet strap, as I wasn’t happy with my previous attempts on either.

 

Love the build. Where did you get the fasteners for the top? I've been looking for something similiar.
Andy

 

Thanks. They are called Tenax fastners. There are plenty of suppliers here in the UK if you do a google search on them, but I'm not sure about in the US. I'm sure you will find some.

 

The good lady of the house has finished off my roof panel today….

 

Looks great!

 

I’m loving the roof panel, the material suits the car.

 

Thanks Mitch, I’m pleased with how it has turned out. Not watertight, but will keep the worst off. Here’s a wider shot.

 

Looks great, the roof insert is perfect
I gather the water will run around it, but would 'waxing' it work to help with water proofing? It's an Early method of water proofing...

 

Yes there are a few posts about waterproofing the roof a little bit back in this thread. I would say it is already water 'resistant' but not properly waterproof. The main issue would be the gap around the sides - the way the studs work means that there is a small gap between the car panel and the roof. When driving, water will be blown in that way. With hindsight I should have tried to countersink them into the body a little bit and maybe left a long fringe around the outside. But I don't have any side windows remember! At least the rain will hit me in the side of the face, rather than running down the back of my neck.
This roof is more as means of providing some protection when the car is parked up, also partly for the pleasure of making it and the look.

 

Perfect

 

Scott has been working hard on lights and gauges this evening…



We had success:



A bit of tidying up to do behind the dash and a couple of minor connections to make and it’s about done.

 

Another nights work done and we have now got gauges, lights and signals. A big job that I’m so glad to have finished.

 

Awesome work, excited for you

 

she’s a runner! I took the car for its first proper run today. All looks good so far (apart from the driver) and it drives well. But it’s LOUD! I had a huge grin on my face the whole time.

 

Kick ass! That’s awesome!!

 

Excellent!

 

Here’s a little ride-along video

 

Here's another shaky clip of me out on the road in the coupe. Our local roads are pretty rough, but the video makes it look worse!

 

from this .



To this



Epic . Great build and brilliant result.
Environmentalists take note . This is the ultimate in recycling Save the planet, build a hot rod .

 

I like the trunk lid, lots of other great details I’m gonna have to check out here.

 

Thanks for that. Funnily enough, when I bought the project from Ian (Redoxide) he had emailed me a picture of your avatar car saying that he was heading that direction with the build. I liked the style and originally planned to run fenders, but decided to try it without first. I still have the fenders and running boards that came int he pile of parts I had from Ian and maybe one day will make the necessary mods to get them fitted. Yours is a lovely coupe by the way!
Mark

 

That’s awesome Terry. The cool thing about these things is that you can swap stuff like this back-and-forth. I say if a guy has a good set of fenders at least put them on there once. As for my coupe, my son loves the fenders so mine will stay as is. I’m itching to build something like an RPU that I can swap stuff around like I did on model cars when I was a kid

 

@Little Terry awesome job on your bitchen ride!

 

Thanks man! I appreciate your support along the way.

 

Well the wee coupe made it down to Pendine Sands for the annual beach races and my best average speed was 76.75mph at the end of the 1/2 mile track.
It ran well but still has more in it I am sure.
I had a great time though and it was nice to be back on the race card (it didnt feel the same being a spectator last year)!
Thanks to the team that put the event together.


After a good amount of driving it around, I felt like my plugs looked way too white & lean. I retarded the ignition by another 4 degrees and that seemed to improve things a lot. Some of you experts will no doubt give me some feedback. I have #43 main jets and #69 power valve with NGK B-6L plugs.
Before:


After:


It was too misty to race on Sunday but I was lucky enough to get 3 runs in on Saturday. Here are some more pics:

 

Congrats! Looks like one heck of a showing and good time!

 

At the risk of opening up a can of worms that every keyboard jockey knows how to tune a carb, I will make some suggestions.

By pulling timing from optimum, you're going to lose power and vacuum. The carb responds to vacuum. I'd suggest putting the timing back where it was as long as it was not pinging, and adding fuel. I'll admit I'm not familiar with the insides of a 97, but very familiar with the 4150/4160 4bbl carbs. I'm working on the assumption that they are similar. You'll need to check your vacuum at cruise speed. Your power valve should open not too much below that. Your plugs should read tan if you don't have a wideband to put a number on it. More fuel is safer. You can get a tool to read the bottom of your plugs deep inside the well, where the true color is. Barring that, you can cut one up to check, but on a flathead with multiple carbs, I'd want to read all of them.

Devin