Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

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Worked out great Rog! Nothing got broke and nobody got hurt so it must have been a good plan, right???? That's a really nice heavy duty table to set the body on!!! What's next on the build up???

Dave,
Need to finish a few things on the chassis, like fuel lines, some work on the tranny mount plate, mount horns,Dave headlight conduits threaded into the frame, etc, then blow it apart for for prep and paint. Also plan to paint the underside of the body so it hopefully does not have to come off again.

Jack,
Pretty slick double come-a-long trick! I struggled with the approach on the cart, and finally downloaded a frame spec sheet from Wescott. With their dimensions I just used some wood and wheels laying around to build a rolling cart for convenience. Also have an old king sized mattress, and will flop the body on its side to work on the bottom, and to paint.

Just a quick post to show I've been getting a little bit done. I know that this basic stuff is probably boring to you guys who have built lots of cars, but a rookie approach may be of interest to others like me that are going through a first build.
As I stand back and look at my chassis there is no comparison to other builds on this forum (like Ken Thurm's ) where everything is run inside the frame with access plates, but mine will be safe and functional, and I did try to keep it neat and from being too ugly.
I mounted the fuel pump in a protected gusset which is still readily accessible from the bottom for future maintenance needs, but somewhat protected from road debris. The fuel filter is immediately downstream of the pump. Lines are mounted with Adel clamp pairs in tapped holes on the frame. Due to the congestion of the master cylinders (brake & clutch) on the driver's side I elected to go back to front on the passenger side, hugging the front crossmember and sneaking up the driver's front corner with both supply and return lines. Edelbrock put both fittings up front, but on opposite sides, using a crossover tube in the back between the two fuel rails. The front crossmember required some simple standoffs, which are just 1.5" aluminum angle with a little buffing. I also addressed master cylinder access, cutting a hole in the floor and using the piece removed as a "locater" for the panel, gluing it to a square panel with Bondo. I plan to add a couple of velcro tabs in the corners to hold it down, even when there is carpeting to cover it someday. Last is the horns, which I tucked in behind the master cylinders on the driver's side with a simple SS strap bracket, again drilled and tapped in the frame (Thank you, Mike52!!). Yesterday was getting the AC receiver/dryer and the coil mounted on standoffs that will be tucked up in the front corners off of the frame rails, hidden by the splash apron; and ordering some AC heater fittings so I can be sure of the clearances inside before I cut bulkhead holes. I also glassed in some little barriers on the back side of the dash to form a sealed plenum for the defrost air, and revised my approach on how to route that defrost air onto the windshield. Busy, busy, busy...

Very nice clean work. The braided stainless looks fantastic. It's a bugger to work with! Hopefully you don't have any stainless steel slivers!

Steve, thanks for the comment. Actually the sheen in the fuel line pictures is deceiving - the fuel line is the Russell Pro Classic 3/8" line that Edelbrock supplies with their Pro-Flow XT EFI kit, and is a black poly/fabric braid material which is much easier to work with, much like nylon rope fibers. I elected to use what they provided rather than replace it with higher dollar stainless sheathed tube, figuring I can change it out later without much trouble if I don't like the way the Pro Classic stands up over time. For now I think the black cover with blue dot highlights will be OK against a black frame.

Good job, Roger. You have to respect a good jury rigger.

Throughout my entire build, I never had a single person help me with lifting, moving or installing anything. That was part of the fun for me.

The first time I removed the body on my '34, I used an engine crane. However, I had a bit of difficulty keeping everything balanced, and it liked to swing around a bit too much for my comfort.

From then on out, I used two come-alongs attached to angle irons lagged to the ceiling rafters. On the rear, I had a 2x6 that spanned the trunk opening. On the front, I attached to the Bear Claw latch studs. I had to go from front to back to raise or lower the car, but it worked out pretty well.

The body cart is similar to yours, just built a little differently. I thought I'd add method to the thread just for another way to approach it.

Oh, and I did double check the loading on the ceiling (which was the floor of the bedroom over my garage) and the pull-out resistance of the lag bolts. Not a problem.

Jack, Roger, like both of you I wanted to lift my body off but was alone. I came up with a rig something like Jacks! I checked on the lifting capabilities of lags and set 4 into the ceiling joists of my house at the time. Then, built a substructure into the body with 2 X 4's. Using some pulleys and 3/8" line, I could use my come along to shorten the line and effectively raise the body slowly and smoothly all by myself. Here should be a couple pics, if I do this right! LOL..

And here's another view. Seems we all came to roughly the same conclusions!

As the old saying states, "Necessity is the mother of invention", and some add that ingenuity must be the father...

Originally Posted by rspears

As the old saying states, "Necessity is the mother of invention", and some add that ingenuity must be the father...

So True! So True!

At Springfield, talking to the guys from N&N and looking at the cars I decided that I really wanted to go back to a hood top for the '33. When I got home I called Duane, he put one in the queue for me, but had one already done so I made a run to AR Friday 6/4 to pick it up, and to attend a HS reunion on the way home Saturday. When I got home Sunday, having previously set the body, grille and splash aprons back in place I set the hood on and was dismayed to find it 3" short! I called Duane on Monday and we chatted about having to lay the grille back, which for me meant having to shift the bottom forward to stay out of the pulleys with the fan. Soooo, I set the engine back in place, and started the chase for clearance. Bottom line, the hood is going to work fine, and the grille will look a lot better laid back three inches at the top - a more aggressive line. In order to get the three inches at the top and stay out of the pulleys I trimmed 7/16" from the motor mounts and relieved the tranny mount a little to slide the engine back, slid the bottom of the radiator forward and let it lay back and inverted the fan shroud to drop the puller fan lower relative to the water pump pulley. I cut out the radiator mounts and made some new ones to kick down and out, welding them in place thinking I could use the splash apron to "adjust" the final resting position of the grille - a bad assumption. I kept fighting the hood, which was now playing a part in positioning the radiator/grille instead of simply setting in place on them, and things just were not right - every time I pressed down the back edge the front popped out and the radiator layed back into the pulleys. After messing with it for several days, including re-mounting doors to do another trim on the headers for door clearance I stepped back and started measuring alignments and taking a new tack on mounting the radiator, which is the top mount point for the grille.
A few mis-steps and re-do's but I think I about have the hood fitting licked in the big picture. Like I said, I made a mistake of trying to use the splash aprons to "adjust" the final radiator angle and that did not work - they are simply fillers to hold the grille shell, and need to be used that way. Unfortunately I did a bit of trimming on the aprons in the process, which I should not have done, but I would have been extending them more anyway as it turned out. I came to realize that my radiator mount angle was off with my new mounts, which was causing me some big headaches, but more of an issue was that it sat a bit off-square with the body by about 3/8" when aligned "as received" and I had maintained that mis-alignment with the new mounts. Once I got that figured out things started falling into place. I cut out the new radiator brackets, made another set and tacked them into place followed by the grille and hood - still off a little so I ground away the front tacks and angled them up a tad more and clamped a piece of angle beneath for final fitment. The hood layed in place nicely with no stress, and my fan to pulley clearance was a bit over 1/2" - cool beans!! I bolted the splash aprons to the frame, shifted the grille forward a bit for AC condenser connection clearance and found a nominal 1.5" gap between splash apron and grille. I took some thin aluminum siding flashing and pop riveted it in as a backer plate, waxed it and the grille shell, and glassed the gap using bondo gel resin and six or seven layers of woven cloth - should be plenty strong, but I may add a top and bottom metal brace inside where it is hidden just for grins. Here's the "look" with the radiator and grille layed back a bit, and the hood top in place, and a couple of the very rough gel resin fiberglass fill of the gap. Today I will take the splash aprons and grille loose to pop the extended aprons off of the grille to trim the front edge to the cut line on the back side, and will do a bit of conturing to see if I need another layer or two of cloth in the thick places. I think it will be a pretty good profile once it is done. Oh yeah, with the grill pushed forward the SS "V" spreader bar would not even come close to fitting, so I boxed the front of the rails, too. Still need to do the rounded cap on the front edge and weld the bottom side when I flip the chassis, but they will look better than the open rails. One more piece for the "..why did I order this??" shelf...

34-40, who made the body?

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

34-40, who made the body?

Sorry for the long wait in a reply. We were on vacation and just got back last night. The body is an old Gibbons. I got it out of MI. After I picked it up I called over to "He who will not be named" and they estimated it was an 80 or 81,82 by my description of construction.

At that point in time, Gibbon was making a good body. That was when they were located in Nebraska. Things went downhill after the business moved to South Carolina.

Originally Posted by rumrumm

At that point in time, Gibbon was making a good body. That was when they were located in Nebraska. Things went downhill after the business moved to South Carolina.

I am happy with it so far. Most everything fits like you would want it to. The fenders and running boards, the hood, all fit well "right out of the box" as it were.