Projects What!!? another 27 on 32 chassis!??. Scratch build body.

Good to see some updates your metal shaping work is inspiring

 

Hey David, great to see progress on your project again. I've had your first video for several years now and I learn a little more each time I re-watch it. The suspension parts look so much better than an out of the box solution. Have you got access to a 7 degree taper ream to clean up the bores of your new mounts where age and recent welding may have pulled them out of true? Resurfacing now may provide some future benefit?

 

Thanks everyone. I have done quite a bit more and I have uploaded photo so I will post a bit more over the next few days.

David

I don't have a 7 degree tapered reamer which is why I used the tapers cut from the steering arm. I have done this before I think it will be ok. I can always buy one I guess but I would have to get it from the US.

David

 

The next job was to drop the steering arms so I set about doing it by taking some measurements of the original position of the eyes to ensure that I maintained this as I dropped the arms in order to keep the correct Ackerman angle.



David

 

Steering and front end on my Modified is now done... I am using a Land Rover Burman steering box with a Land Rover pitman arm. I did the same as you and cut an eye from a steering arm to weld into the LR pitman arm. I can now use a Ford tie rod end instead of a rose joint. I also fitted a Panhard rod made from a Citroen 2CV steering arm;

 

Before I set up the wishbones Glen and I tried several combinations of tyres on the chassis so I had the final tyre combination on while setting it up, (borrowed from Glen) I then bought new front tyres to match what we decided on - New rears will come soon. I need to finish painting my wheels so I can have them fitted.

 

Another thing I did was to cut the torque tube to length. Glen and I did all the measurements using a short section of another torque tube to work from. Glen washed his hands of all responsibility for the result and reminded me that I got it wrong when we did his first 27 T roadster about twenty eight years ago!. I told him it was time to move on!. Anyway it all came out ok but one thing that became apparent was that the rear spring is quite soft and also that with the final tyre combination the car was a bit low at the rear. I decided to change the rear cross member to fix this. More on this next.

David

 

I love seeing progress on this build!

 

Thanks Jack and Mike. Mike (cactus1) I found your thread on the racer you are building - FANTASTIC - I dont know how I did not see until now but to be honest I have not been on here that much. I have not had time to read the whole thing yet but it look great so far.

 

I was trying to sort out the steering box mounting and I realised that I would need to work out the exhaust at the same time as I want it to exit under the car. This is one of the things I was going to make myself but I decided to order these...

From Mack's to (hopefully) save me some time and work. They should be with me in a week or two.

David

 

When I mounted the rear end I bent a piece of 2" dia seamless tubing to give me a drop. Once I had the car on its wheels I realised that the rear spring was quite soft and settled a lot more than I thought with some weight on it. With the final combination of tires the car sat to low at the back compared to the front. It was pretty much level so to get it to the rake I intended I had to make another rear crossmember.

Here is what I originally did...



I then changed it to this...




You can also see where I shortened the Torque tube in this photo.

David

 

Thanks David! I may need to pick your brain when it comes time to start banging out the body panels, ha!

Your new crossmember looks great!

 

Thanks Mike, don't know if it looks great but it will work. I did a bit more since and will update soon.


David

 

LOL, I was following, planning my own '27 roadster build, but with the long gap in updates, I ended up buying an abandoned '34 roadster project! I like your radius rod bracket so well, I'm still following. ;-)

 

Well I am cracking on with it now. Thanks for persevering . I got my headers the other day, they fit!.



I have a little tweaking to do but it's going to work.

David

 

I made the boxing for the rear of my chassis and tacked them in place. First I worked out the mounting position for the shocks.



David

 

At the front end I had bought some forged shock mounts. I heated and bent them to fit. I may need to tweak them a bit yet.


For lower shock mounts I am using Pete and Jake mounts. Good enough for now anyway.
Thursday I am going to have few hours finalising the position of the pedals and steering box.
David

 

Progress looks good man!

 

Thanks skaterman, glad you're still watching. The chassis will be finished soon then it's on to the rest of the body. I have persuaded the guy in the workshop next door to do my interior, he is an upholsterer but not keen on car work. We are contemplating doing it in boat vinyl, seems a good idea because it's gonna get wet a lot here with the weather in Blighty being what it is. Anyone used this and have any thoughts?.

David

 

I was considering boat vinyl too. I think it should be more reasonable in cost. Wasn't vinyl the hot rodders choice of the 50's/60's?

 

Here in the south vinyl requires a towel of some sort in the summer with 90 plus degree days.
How ever it "vinyl" will stand up well rain,sun cold,etc.

 

Yes thats the reason I decided it would be OK to use vinyl, my theory with the boat vinyl is that it should keep the inner cushion a bit dryer. I wondered if anyone had experience with it.

With our three days a year sunshine I should not have to worry ( its not really quite that bad) and I do have a blanket I bought in Mexico the year before last.

David

 

I used marine vinyl on my roadster and marine fabric for the top aswell. Marine spar varnish on the wood too. Toughest stuff you can afford.

 

Thanks for the reply bct. Looks like not too many people have experience with boat vinyl. does the vinyl keep the water out of the seats?.

I did a bit more. A few days ago I cut away the lower portion of my cross member where the pedals will go. I then clamped my pedals into what I thought would be the approximate position for them. ( have no idea what these pedals are from). I worked out where I should bend them and proceeded to heat and bend them until they looked like they would work as they should. They will need to be tweaked at some point to make them exact. Glen came down yesterday and together we worked out the positions for the pedals and the steering and how it was all going to work. (Thanks a lot for your invaluable help Glen). I then made up a new section to add to my crossmember which will mount the pedals and the brake master cylinder.



Below is the new section of channel which will be added to the crossmember. The master cylinder will be spaced way from the pedals and mount to a flange plate and will pick up on one of the pedal mounting bolts. I will use long bolts and spacer tubes rather than captive nuts. The master cylinder will go through the channel piece not below it when finished of course.



I had to notch the front chassis leg where the steering box it going. The box will not mount directly to the chassis side so I made a flange plate to fit inside the chassis.



This will weld in place. It will box the chassis in the area where I notched it so restore the strength I removed. It will mount at a slight angle to allow the column to sit where it needs to and I will use spacer pieces to allow me to bolt through the side of the chassis. This is a Landrover steering box, they work very well are aluminium and reasonably compact so work well and look the part.



I cut the outer tube of the column giving me a small piece that fits into the steering box. I then turned this down a little on my lathe to give me an interference fit in my new column tube.





Here I am putting the section from the land rover box into the new column tube.

.

This is the steering box bolted to the new boxing/flange plate and clamped in place. The new column tube is in place but has yet to be welded to the original tube.



More soon.

David

 

Those pedals look like f-1 though the bracket has been modified?

 

Hi Mike, the bracket looks unmodified, the pedals were cranked over like that but I bent them more, F1 pedals are straighter from what I have seen. The brake lever piece was cut off the top of the pedal (before I got them) I will be welding one on the bottom. Glen said he thought they were truck pedals though.

Here is a link to my facebook page which I created just a few weeks ago. I started Classic Metal Shaping twenty five years ago at the begining of this month so I decided I should have a facebook page to show some of the stuff I have done in that time.

//www.facebook.com/Classic-Metal-Shaping-687088188093830/

David

 

25 years of Classic Metal Shaping! Congratulations, and thanks for your help and tips over the years. I myself have one of your DVD's and find it one of the most practical and easy to follow metal working tutorials out there.

Great to see some progress on the T. Its cool to see a Landover steering box in there, not something I would have expected. Can you share the model it came from please?

 

Hi Tom, I don't actually know the model, I got it with the project. It's fairly common to use them here. It's a British truck box right?. F100 boxes are thin on the ground here. I will try to find out. Thanks for the comment about my DVD, glad you found it informative.

Here is a photo of my column and steering wheel in place.



David

 

I joined the new column to the old one today. I turned the end of the new shaft down to match the old shaft and machined a taper on the end. I then made a sleeve that was a slip fit to the old shaft. My lathe is pretty badly worn and my lathe skills leave a lot to be desired but I got a result which will work fine. I ground the end of the original shaft so that I had a good V and tacked the two parts together. I used a piece of V block as a jig and heat sink. once tacked it looked like this.



I tig welded it fully and ground it flush, I then slid the sleeve in place and tacked it...



you can see where I turned the new shaft down.



I then fully welded both ends of the sleeve. Not pretty but it all came out true and its plenty strong!.



Nothing very exiting but I am progressing one bit at a time.

David

 

Hi David, great to see you making progress on the hot rod keep it up, it just so much more satisfying creating your own stuff than worrying about other folks restorations. All work and no play.... you've more than earned some free time and fun time ... Pendine 2017, Go for it

I haven't forgot I promised you a pint or two this year.. Hope to see you in June .

Many thanks for sharing your hard earned skills and knowledge .