Thread: '37 Oze build

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All I did was stand on the end of the frame rails and jump up and down.
A classic example of how “Mechanical Engineers” perform tests to insure safety. No doubt about it, your test will absolutely apply more stress than a pot holed laced road at 60 mph. (this is not intended as an insult to real "Mechanical Engineers")

As for pretty welds also mentioned, mine never "stand up" because they have plenty of penetration.
Or, perhaps you do not know how to weld.

With TIG or gas you can go over an area or the whole length of a weld to increase penetration or add a little filler.
Which if done incorrectly can make the weld even more porous and susceptible to cracking.

Still not worried in the least. My shock mounting brackets and their welds have many times the necessary strength and they are stronger than what I replaced.
And you know this for a fact because of your superior welding and testing skills.

Up until now I was not trying to criticize, I was only trying to help you recognize areas that needed more attention.

I now believe it’s time for you to STOP before you hurt yourself or someone else. Swallow your pride and LEARN how to do it correctly..

It may be time for the moderators to post a disclaimer on your thread to protect the innocent from being hurt by your BAD technics and practices.

Sorry if I offended anyone…..

Dave,
What is the status of AlumiCraft making a new grill for you?
hammer

After many months, Dan Baker (the owner) figured out that the modified grille I sent him (which fit my car perfectly), required a whole new welding fixture. He says that it will take 100 hours of his labor to make. Maybe he can get to work on it later this year, after all the major car shows. I have little hope that it well ever happen. I'd be amazed if I get a new grille, a year after I sent him mine. There's no incentive for him to make one, unless he has orders for more. The welding fixture would be worth at least $5,000 in labor and it takes a lot of grilles to cover that investment. It might speed things up if I offered him $5,000, but I'm going to try making my own grille instead. I may have 200 hours into it, but my time is worthless.

I have no clue what Tim Taylor at Oze is doing. His grilles are all chrome plated steel crap, not worth putting on your car. His fixtures force the builder to place welds on the front side of the center rib, which looks awful. The grilles made by Oze in Canada are not made this way. I looked over a 2005 model (Canadaina) chrome plated steel grille and it looked flawless.

Don't know if this is any help at all, but when I was looking for the Grille for my '35 I was looking at all options available-I put it out there, and Dave Tucci (of Tucci Hot Rods) offered to make me one-I ended up having Alumicraft make mine, but I certainly would have considered Tucci (as Dave Tucci does some nice work)-

Tucci Hot Rods

Dave,

On another note, I would like to thank you for posting how you installed your E-Stopp-unashamedly I stole your design for your cable bracket, and mine turned out great thanks to you-

Originally Posted by 35WINDOW

Don't know if this is any help at all, but when I was looking for the Grille for my '35 I was looking at all options available-I put it out there, and Dave Tucci (of Tucci Hot Rods) offered to make me one-I ended up having Alumicraft make mine, but I certainly would have considered Tucci (as Dave Tucci does some nice work)-

Tucci Hot Rods

Dave,

On another note, I would like to thank you for posting how you installed your E-Stopp-unashamedly I stole your design for your cable bracket, and mine turned out great thanks to you-

That's why I post things like the E-stopp install. Hopefully it will help someone else in their installation.

The grille is a big problem, that I've been fighting for over 2 years. Unless you have the computer program to laser-cut the 50 fins, it's darn near impossible to make this type of grille. Even then, you need an accurate welding fixture, or the actual car, so the side mounting rails can be bent to match the hood sides. I'm making some progress on my grille, but it's going to take a lot of hours. I may post something next week, but maybe not.

I'm seriously considering trashing all the posts in this build log.

Dave, Ever considered getting a grill close (or purchasing one that they already have a form for, if still possible) and making the hood sides and hood fit the grill? Fiberglass is easy to work and even if the grill is made by the one you sent I think tweaking is still going to be needed, and tweaking a chromed metal or aluminum grill probably won't work, but bringing body panels to the grill would be easier. Mine was made in Canada and you are indeed right its pretty nice & flawless but fitting the body to it was still needed, I will venture to say even if you make your own grill it still will be needed as welding always warps and distorts especially with as many welds and fins that are needed. Maybe bring the water to the horse, instead of bringing the horse to the water!

I could ask about a Wild Rod grille. Supposedly, Alumicraft makes those, these days. The only Oze fixture that Alumicraft has produces such a poor fitting grille that it would also require significant mods to the lower edge of the fenders. Some of my early posts show the first grille that I got. I suspect that the Alumicraft fixture produces something similar.

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Originally Posted by daveS53

I've put a number of people on my ignore list, in an attempt to return this thread to a true build log and avoid their abusive posts. Can others of you still view those posts? If so, I'm going to continue to erase my postings, so all that's left is the responses to nothing. Most of the first 8 pages is already gone.

Dave, no matter who you choose to "Ignore", and I'm likely one of them, everyone can see everything you post, unless they have made the choice to "Ignore" your posts. In the event that they choose to "Ignore" you, every time you post it still pops up in the thread, regardless who's thread it is, but the text says "You have chosen to ignore this persons posts. To read this post click this box, or you can choose to remove this person from your "Ignore" list, 'HERE'". You choosing to ignore people doesn't make you invisible - your wisdom is available to all, at their discretion.

Dave, I am going to go over with you what I would do if I had your previous grill and one of the problems you have had. Keep in mind that great gaps and fitment are not factory, not on a factory muscle cars to fiberglass streetrods, the gaps are made that way by the body man, I've done cars with original fitment that was much worse than the pic of your grill, its simply a challenge for the body man, the factory muscle cars sucked on gaps, you even have to make them right, by either using a wire on the edges or shrinking metal or whatever. My wildrod didn't have even close to perfect gaps, maybe not as bad as what you have but they simply have to be made perfect.
Ok the folowing pic was your 2nd grill, several things I see that you already know, the grill is to high in front, low in back, and it didn't follow the edge of the hood sides and in this pic that had already been filled, the yellow line shows where I would have cut a pie cut section out of fiberglass (exaggerated) as indicated by the yellow line, this would have brought the front down and back up, and your fenders I believe would be uneffected by this, on the backside you would have taper the panel and use fiberglass cloth and resin to bridge the gap and to strengthen the panel, a tip is make sure that the gap on the front is ground down slightly below the surface and use good filler (like Rage) as if the new resin is left to block it will eventually shrink slightly.
I realize that your problem was not just that one plane or gap on the grill I am just trying to help you understand what other ways there are to skinning that cat.
Trust me here, I had to cut a lot of glass to get great gaps, my wife use to tell me that she thinks I like to just cut glass and metal to see if I can put it back together. Great body manufacturers don't always have the problems like this, but your car is a complex shape and it can be done. Until Lexus came out with that ball bearing rolling down the gaps the American car gaps pretty much sucked, they are better today but I just saw a new truck that wasn't good either, after spending the time you have to spend to get this stuff right you start noticing this stuff more, not just shiny paint.
its up to the body man to align, tweak and flatten them, now you know why most built cars they let someone else paint them and do body work as the actual painting is the gravy.......
DavesGrill.jpg

Dave, If you want to go ahead and delete everything its your own choice, but some people might be actually trying to give you sound advice. If you don't want help with a problem I would suggest not putting your problem out publicly on a forum, build thread or not. Just one picture is all thats needed a picture of the final product. If you are telling us how to build rods write a book, but you are on a build forum thread, whether you like their (or my) replies or not.
Trust me here I have got way better things to do than help a guy 1/2 way across the country that I don't know with a problem that I or someone else might know something about, forgive me for trying my best to help, I have better things to do......

Originally Posted by Matthyj

Dave, If you want to go ahead and delete everything its your own choice, but some people might be actually trying to give you sound advice. If you don't want help with a problem I would suggest not putting your problem out publicly on a forum, build thread or not. Just one picture is all thats needed a picture of the final product. If you are telling us how to build rods write a book, but you are on a build forum thread, whether you like their (or my) replies or not.
Trust me here I have got way better things to do than help a guy 1/2 way across the country that I don't know with a problem that I or someone else might know something about, forgive me for trying my best to help, I have better things to do......

Your responses have always been appreciated. That picture of the grille I sent to Alumicraft was taken after I removed quite a bit of length from the top fin that was hitting the body way before the the mounting flange. I later cut the grille in other places to get the angle of the top fin much closer to the angle of the hood. The last cut I made in the grille's mounting flange released a huge amount of welding stress and allowed a group of fins to move sideways, so they were wider than the body. I belt sanded those down, to make a proper fit, before shipping that piece of junk off to Alumicraft. At least he Alumicraft has a far more accurate model to work from, than they've ever had before.

The fit of this grille was far better than the first, but the construction was total junk - deep scratches and flaking off chrome, plus broken welds, before the grille was ever used. As I noted, I worked in a chrome shop for awhile. I know how it should be done and what good chrome looks like. I also got to look at a Canadian built chromed steel Oze grille this year - it was flawless, with no visible welds. Truly impressive.

I have deleted almost all of this thread. The last barrage of negative comments about alleged welding problems was more than I could take. A couple of pictures I made from a distance is not an appropriate basis to judge anyone's welding ability. That alone is proof to me that several posters are total morons. I won't post on a forum where people ignore the obvious and post that I can't use a tape measure to determine squareness and now I'm supposed to prove that I can weld. I didn't work in manufacturing since 1971 without learning a few things. I used to stick weld 5th wheel trailer hitches all day long, for a living. Nobody in the machine shop thought my welds were inadequate.

I've had all of this that I can take. I wish everyone well in their endeavors. I may add pictures to my photobucket library (but it's now private). There will be no more posts in this thread.

Dave,
With all due respect, I suggest that you PM Bill, mrmustang UserName, and ask politely that he delete this thread in it's entirety. By your actions of deleting all but a handful of your posts you've pretty much taken away any value that was ever here. It's of course totally up to you, and of no concern to me what action you choose. I hope you get your problems resolved.

At the risk of sounding negative and abusive;
Dave, PLEASE get your TIG welding professionally tested before you put yourself and others at risk....
We really mean you no harm, only wish you to be safe...