Looks like one happy kid..
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Looks like one happy kid..
Mike & Cade, thanks for letting us share the ride along with you!
Beaming !!!!!!!!!!!
and behind those eyes he is thinking more power ...lol
Thanks guys, we're having a lot of fun.
Cade's mom came out to the shop for a bit this morning to check up us. She jokingly said “that looks dangerous” .......of course I had to say “it’s a Hot Rod it’s supposed to look dangerous”.
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Great progress Mike!!! That young man will never forget these days spent building his first Hot Rod with Grandpa!!!!!!
Wait til she see's it motorized and with a flame paint job! :)
I see by the ride height you have decided to motorize it eventually.
I don't think I could have passed up the chance to make it a suicide perched belly dragger, even it it would mean re working the suspension for the motor later.
Its the mothers job to worry its the grandparents job to see that the parent dose there job. I always love doing things with the grandkids that the parents disaprove of.:eek::LOL::LOL::LOL:
I gotta say,that I'm in the same boat as Whip..My first wife decided that she didnt want kids,,(didnt mind too much at first)and I thought that maybe she would change her mind..Nah,,not so long as her rear faced south..When Lynda and I married near 13 years back,,it was too late,,so I too,feel a little cheated..But life goes on,and,yes,other folks kids can be handed back...:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiplash23T
I'm resolved. Soon as I get back to GA, I'm gonna borrow my nephew and find out if he remembers pressure settings for acetylene.
First, going to have his grandpa start scrounging material, so we can get a running start.
Feel the same too, no kids by choice when we married, but over the years wanted kids, but my wife didn't. Hard decissions but I have several nieces and a nephew to spoil if given the chance. Makes stories like these all the precious.
Mate....i never even had a chance to get to know my nieces too well,as they were raised in Australia,and now have their own lives..Lynda's nieces and nephew,likewise..Yup..Keep these stories comin..Love to see them.Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
Wow,same story here.. I guess there are a bunch of us that made these choices. And yes, sharing the story with Mike and his grandson makes it so much more special...Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
Wow my first marriage yieled 3, 2 boys one girl. Both boys worked in the garage as soon as they could walk. Both built and repaired there own cars. I remember one time I put a hasp on a tool cabinet and they both came unglued :eek: It was OK after I told them there weren't any tools in that cabinet. The second marriage :) my wife (Chris) had 2 boys again works on repaired there own cars and did good work too. Even Chris worked out in the shop she wanted to lear to weld and use plasma cutter and tourches.. Shes darn good at it along with all her other crafts she welds up sheperd hooks to hang her plants
Now there you go Mike, and you wanted to know if we would be interested, I would say that when you and Cade go back out into the workshop,not only will you have your Father and Grandfather looking down on you with huge smiles, we all here will be watching over your shoulder too and just think of the positives, you only have to have a drink of pop for the young fella and one cold adult beverage for yourself.
This is a pretty cool thread and enjoyed reading it tonight. I have pics of my daughter handing me wrenches when she was around 4 and then she turned into a girl and would not touch anything with grease or oil. That is until I rebuilt a Ranger for her a couple of years ago. She helped replace the shocks and change the oil, plugs and wires. I even have pics of a newly manicured hand with oil all over it. I think that is one of my favorite pics. I cannot wait to do something like this with my grand-kids, well yes I can wait, but you know what I mean.
“......Now there you go Mike, and you wanted to know if we would be interested,....”
I am really kind of surprised at all the positive response this thread has received and I want to thank everyone for the great comments.
I’m actually even a little more surprised that I have found myself in this situation of even having Grandkids. I married my wife Donna when the grandkids mom Missy was 16 years old. Missy and I had a pretty rocky start (that we laugh about now) but over the years we bonded and for all intents and purposes I feel she is my daughter.....and her kids are without question my grandkids. I can’t say I love one grandkid any more than I love the other, but I love them all for different reasons and each is special in their own way. In Cade’s case he was my first Grandchild and a boy to boot. He was born 4 months pre-mature and for a while there was a question as to whether he would make it. He’s been following me out to the garage since he was 3 years old and that time is always the high point of my week.
“....I don't think I could have passed up the chance to make it a suicide perched belly dragger, even it it would mean re working the suspension for the motor later......”
“........I'm resolved. Soon as I get back to GA, I'm gonna borrow my nephew and find out if he remembers pressure settings for acetylene.
First, going to have his grandpa start scrounging material, so we can get a running start........”
I hate to say it, but in the back of my mind I’m already planning another one of these builds for when Austin (my youngest grandson) gets older.....provided he shows any interest in it like his brother. While I’m not actively looking at this point, I am keeping an eye open for something we can make a belly tank lakes car out of.
Cool! :):cool::D
Motorizing the car is a down the road project but I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t have to completely rebuild the car to do it.
Cade had asked why we couldn’t we just run a pulley on the axle and belt it to the motor instead of using the transaxle (smart kid). I explained that the little motor we have probably wouldn’t have the power to pull the car without it being geared down quite a bit more than we would be able to do with just pulleys.
The transaxle has a few things going for it (besides being on hand :LOL: ). It’s single speed, with a forward, neutral and reverse, which makes the direction the motor rotates a non-issue. As far as I can tell it’s geared at about 20:1 not counting whatever the ratio we use on the engine/transaxle pulleys. Hopefully that will allow the little motor we have to be able to push the car around. It also has a built in brake.
The down side is I have to rotate it 90 degrees so the driven pulley is vertical instead of horizontal. It will eat up a lot of ground clearance that way but as smooth as the yard is that really shouldn’t be a problem. I will also have to extend the axels a couple of inches on each side, but that shouldn’t be a big deal either.
We made the rear section of the floor removable in anticipation of adding the engine. Earlier in the week I went ahead and cut a second floor panel to use as a template for the steel floor that will go in when we motorize it. I did an initial test fit of the transaxle and marked where I’ll need to make the mounting brackets and then marked where the axel center line would be. I then bolted the original floor panel back in and set transaxle and template aside till we get to that point.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ransaxle2a.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...transaxlea.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...saxleplate.jpg
The axles on the transaxles are 3/4" and have 2 flats milled into them with a bolt and washer to retain the wheel. I duplicated that on a piece of 3/4" round stock I had lying around.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...stom/axel2.jpg
We bolted the axle to the frame with a pair of pillow blocks and put the back tires on.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...abrearaxle.jpg
I wanted to show him that on turn one wheel turns faster than the other and why real cars have differentials in them. So we set the frame down on the ground and I had Cade try to turn the car. He was kind of surprised when one tire tried to turn backwards (LOL).
So back up on the saw horses where we pulled the axle back out, cut a section out then supported the inner ends on another set of pillow blocks (with reinforcement plates under them). Grandpa even got a bit of a break on a couple of bolts as Elise worked the ratchet from the top and Cade held the bolt from the bottom (all I had to do was watch). It turns a whole lot easier now and Cade was able to actually see that the outside wheel has to turn faster on a turn than the inside one to prevent the tires from skidding around corners.
It’s kind of a balancing act when I’m trying to explain how things work to Cade. I want him to understand, but at the same time it’s easy to overwhelm with too much information. Actually showing him what is happening makes it a lot easier.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/Sun2.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/Sun1.jpg
With the rear axles done we moved on to the front end. The front axle and steering we got off the old mower was a little tall to use like it was and really set the nose up in the air. During the week I cut a section out of it and re-boxed it back in. I really wanted to put more rake into the car, but didn’t want to cut any more out of the front crossmember so I ended up settling on it sitting level. I did add gussets where I removed the center but that was mostly to show Cade how to strengthen something after you remove a section like we did on this.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...frontaxle1.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...frontaxle2.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/Sun3.jpg
With both the front and rear end and tires on it was off the saw horses and back on the ground and the body was set back on with a couple of bolts on each side to hold it. Austin got into helping on that part, removing the bolts we had left in the frame. When the body was back on that was about it for working on the car for today. The rest of the morning was spend with the kids getting in and out of it and in general just having a ball.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/Sun4.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/sun6.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/Sun5.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ustom/Sun7.jpg
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I know the kids are having a ball...But I bet grandpa is too.
Looks great Mike, you certainly seem to draw a crowd out in the shop when you're working on it!!!!
The smiles say it all! Does Cade know we are all watching this??
Those will be treasured pictures for a lifetime.....
Great job!
Next, to figure out the brakes..
That is one lucky Grandson!
Love the way you are using old stuff and making it work on this project. You can't imagine how much of this learning experience will mold those kids later in life! One day one of em will need to cut something shorter, and they'll go hum, what did grandpa do to make this stronger, oh Yeah I remember, gussets!
Those seem like some very happy grandkids! I agree with Bob, those pictures will continue to keep this memory alive!.
After a couple of week break we were back on the car today. I spent some time explaining to Cade how we would make the steering work and what we would need for brackets and braces. Then it was removing the nose piece so we could get measurements for the brackets (Cade did all the measurements this time).
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ecustom/U2.jpg
After we got measurements we went ahead and unbolted the body and got that out of the way so I could build the brackets during the week.
Austin’s getting more comfortable being out in the shop now too, and enjoys helping put Cade’s tool away at the end of the day.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ecustom/U3.jpg
Cade did say something today that did make me feel good. I have the head, igniter, and piston/rod sitting on the bench from the waterloo Boy engine I’m restoring and he asked me if they were the parts we took off last week or were new. I told him they were what we took off and he said they really look like new......I told him that’s some of the stuff I’m teaching him how to do and he just grinned.
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glad you are back at it again. This is one of the threads that I specifically look for on Sunday night/Monday
Very nice work with your grandkids! Keep it up!
Sunday was building the steering. There was also a carnival in town so Grandpa was informed he wouldn’t get to monopolize all the kids time :LOL: .
We’re keeping the steering as basic as possible; a simple bracket at the front of the car and a hole in the dash to hold the steering shaft, and an arm and tie rod connecting it to the steering arm on the front spindle.
The steering shaft we’re using is actually a Dodge truck steering shaft. It works out really well as it’s collapsible for length and with the right adaptor makes installing the steering wheel a snap.
We got as far as building and installing the front bracket before the kids had to go today.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...stom/VCade.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q.../VBracket1.jpg
I went ahead and kept at it a bit longer after the kids left, I wanted to build the tie rod so we can get the body back on next weekend to do the final test fitting before we start paint and body work.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q.../VBracket2.jpg
Of course then it was time for the big test.......seeing if the darn thing actually worked. It did but it turned VERY hard, Cade could probably handle it but his sister definitely would not have been able to. The fix was pretty simple, an extension on the steering arm that effectively doubled its length (and leverage). When Cade comes over next weekend I’m going to take the extension off and have him try the steering then show him how much difference the extension makes.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...BracketExt.jpg
Well that’s about it for this week, with any luck it think the kids will actually be able to push each other around in it next weekend and I’m really looking forward to that.
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Cade's going to be one good smart cookie when he grows up, learning this stuff from you now!
I came across this on another site and thought it was kind of neat. At 20 MPH those little tires have got to be rally be spinning.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps56640d5c.jpg
February 2, 1939. "Builds own Jalopy. Thirty dollars was all it cost Robert Preston, 16-year-old high school senior, to build this midget automobile. Weighing approximately 250 pounds, the 'jalopy' is powered with a washing machine motor of ¾ horsepower and has a maximum speed of 20 miles an hour. His license tags for this year will cost 32 cents."
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neat old pic Mike!!! Pre-war and everything, some neat fabricating for the day! Hope he let Mom use the engine on clothes washing day!!!
LMAO :):LOL::3dSMILE:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Severson
Shoulda searched for a bigger family as they might've had the Maytag twin cylinder! LOL...
Well, another Sunday. I had put the body back on during the week so we could finish up the steering. While I was at it I also cut the plywood that would form the seat area and eventually be upholstered.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps0b51a635.jpg
After some test fitting, Cade moved on to installing the headlights.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...psa34fec34.jpg
After setting the nose piece back in it was time for the first big road tests. Cade let Elise and Austin have the first spin in it…….
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...psc658fba5.jpg
and then it was his turn, of course besides Elise he also got a bit of Mom power.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps8d221767.jpg
If you notice Austin got the best job…..shotgun.
I think it’s safe to say we all had a ball today!!!!!
VID 20120923 100959 - YouTube
VID 20120923 100732 - YouTube
If the weather holds, next week is sandblast and body work and possibly upholstery.
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Good job on building memories grand-pa
Cade looks like a natural in there Mike!!!! Want me to talk to Wolfgang about starting to build his USAC midget now, or wait a couple more years?????
Awesome Job! Way to go G-Pa!
The cool thing is that this will be around for many years. Someday your grandson may be pulling it out of storage to "restore" it with his son or grandson.
One of the "BEST" threads of 2012 and, Mike, you are the real deal and Cade is a blessed young man.
If there was a Grandpa of the year award, you would have a majority vote here on this Forum.