Thread: Followed Me Home II

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Glad to see you posting, Roger. Doing the build thread on my Track-T helped keep me working on it even though I had hundreds of interruptions. Same thing is happening with my '32; if I dawdle too long between postings I start getting questions from folks wanting to know what's happening. It helps to get me back on track.

Dawdle? It's an old school teacher term - sorry, old habits...

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Dawdle? It's an old school teacher term - sorry, old habits...

It's a well known and commonly used word here in New Zealand. Essentially it means to prevaricate.

I had to be away this morning, and got home to high humidity - that soaking wet in 20 minutes humidity but I decided to get a couple of things done anyway.

I'd made up a pair of mounting tabs for the Rodwell top at some point in the past, pictured here.
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I noticed in a picture of another roadster that they had offset the tabs to put the mount about 3/4" outboard. Took one off, figured out the bends only to find I had no 1/8" x 1" steel, so that's an errand for tomorrow morning, Royal Metals. I figure that it's probably best to have them chromed. Any other finish is going to get scratched & chipped. I expect the chrome will suffer too, but seems to be the best choice, and hopefully the 1.5" greater spread will make it easier to engage the bolts into the holes!

I'd picked up a pair of Carolina Customs Hood Supports, again quite some time back, and after a bit of sittin' & thinkin', then some thinkin' & sittin' I made a wood template, duct taped it in place and drilled it! Seemed to be OK so I reversed it on the other side, drilled that one and somehow they're pretty well matched! Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.
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More later....

Nice work as always Roger, the hood and supports look great! Love the look of the "butterfly" hoods when they're open!

Another of those soaked in 20 minutes days here. Ending up 95F, heat index above 100F and humid.

After several stutter steps I ended up fabricating the modified top mounts, and bumped it up to 3/16" x 1" flat stock. I've got to do a couple of tack & fill spots if they're going to be chromed, but they're close to done.
I needed a couple of flap sanding discs for the angle grinder, to dress the mounting tabs so I decided to run to Fastenal and get them plus a 3.375 hole saw I'll need to mount gauges. Got stopped by a train going, pulled up to their building to see a sign saying "Registered Account Holders ONLY, NO EXCUSES! All Others MUST order On-Line and Pre_Pay". I was not a happy camper, left there to stop at the hardware store back across the tracks, and.... stopped by another blinkin' train! Of course the hardware store didn't have the 3.375" hole saw so I'll be ordering it on line, but NOT from Fastenal! I tried to buy local boys, but Amazon or EvilBay will get my money now.
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I looked again at the gauge bezel that came from the PO, and it's growing on me. I think I'll use it vs mounting the gauges direct to the dash. The gauges are VDO, but not really the style I'd pick, and the bezel dresses them up a bit. Tach & Speed centered over the wheel, little ones out towards center. Key & lights maybe centered beneath the little gauges? Still thinkin'.....
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The BBT came today from Lincoln, bringing a universal exhaust kit, a pair of collector adapters and a pair of universal hangers. Once the body is off I'll fab the exhaust before blowing the chassis apart for final paint. The BBT will be back tomorrow or Thursday with a pair of mufflers, electric fan, longer steering column drop and some pieces to redo the radiator fill on the '33, all coming from Summit. With the '33's radiator tilted back so far adding coolant is a chore, so I'm swapping to a fill port in the top radiator hose.
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This is Chase. I don't believe I posted that I lost Bones September 2 last year. He had emergency surgery for a bleeding spleen, and the biopsy was a highly aggressive blood born sarcoma. He recovered from surgery and was like a pup, but only for a few weeks before something else started bleeding. I wasn't going to get another dog, but in mid October I got a call from a friend, also a Vizsla owner, saying that a single lady had picked up a new Vizsla pup on Friday, and by Sunday night realized she'd made a mistake and needed a home for a new puppy. He'll be 11 months July 10th.
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I like the bezel now that I've seen it with the gauges in it. The black ring around the gauges is a nice contrast to the polished aluminum.

Chase looks like he has assumed the position of parts inspector...

Chase is the Lord of the Manor!

Didn't get a lot done today, but did tote the top out to the barn to see how it fit with the mounting tabs biased outboard and that's a BIG WIN! It's amazing how much easier it is to get the bolts in place with washer & nut with an extra inch to inch and a half. Glad I noticed that picture!
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The BBT visited again today. Got a Moroso 5 degree wedge mounting plate for the carb that eliminates any and all concern with the angle of the engine & tranny relative to the differential. Just adjust the pinion angle to match the engine/tranny drop and I'm done.
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The Summit box also had a pair of glass packs, which should be mellow bordering on loud!
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Ya'll likely don't need such things, but last Christmas I ordered these garage work mats from Husky Liner for my boys, made from the same material they use for their bed inserts, and I ordered one for myself too. I've gotta say, that dense foam padding and soft surface are a joy to my old bones when I need to be on the floor, which is a LOT! Here's the link - https://www.huskyliners.com/Garage-Mat
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Things are looking good!

Originally Posted by rspears

Chase is the Lord of the Manor!

Our Rosi is about 1 1/2 years old, I'm glad I got six months of advancement on the puppy stage over you

Roger and everyone - I also spend some time on my back under my car and even with it sitting on the wheel dollies it was a close fit. I saw these supports on one of the cable TV car shows, so I can't take credit for the idea, but I made mine fit in my wheel dollies. Now the car is an extra 6 inches off the floor and I can slide under there easily on my creeper plus I can still move the car around as needed. It's just a bunch of 2 x 4 lumber, cut and screwed together, cheap and easy to make. They are not permanently attached to the dollies, so easily removable, too.

I'd seen the 2x4 stands, but not sitting on dollies! Another good idea!

I used the same dollies with the 2x4s under our pontoon boat easy to move around in shop

Jim Robinson asked me to post a picture of the firewall mount I used. I picked up my '33 roller back in 2009 from Duane Noblett at N&N Fiberglass Reproductions in Belleville, Arkansas, now retired. As I was going through that project Duane had a bunch of cool tips that he'd picked up through the years, and he didn't hesitate to share when asked. One was that you could pick up a short chrome exhaust tip dress up part at the auto parts store, and mount that on the firewall to constrain the bottom end of the column where it penetrates the firewall and add a bit of shiny on the firewall. The "Pencil" tip, rolled in leaves a smooth, polished look that I liked on the '33 so I used it again here.

Here's the pencil tip exhaust pipe with the column in place. Yes, the first hole in the firewall was too high; the second one, still not patched was too far inboard and barely cleared the head with the column barely through the firewall; and the third is like Goldilocks third bowl of porridge, JUST RIGHT! Blind squirrel again...

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The inside, showing the tabs welded to the sides bolted through the firewall. This time I had the old tube from the first attempts that I couldn't use, so I cut a strip of it about 3" long, made a pair of relief cuts to form a square welding tab and flattened the rest. Bent 90 degrees, I twisted it to match the angle marked from the firewall with the column bolted in place, and welded them. Once welded just drop it in the hole, insert
the column and bolt down the column drop with the column seated, align the tabs and drill them for bolts. It worked slick! Carpeting will cover the tabs. i may cut off a couple of inches of the inside part, closer to the tabs.
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Had to shorten the upper shaft about 1.5", pull the column back and slide it all in place. I like the clean, simple look of the pencil exhaust tip, and I like that one only costs about $10 even better. It's just kind of old school cool, and once the firewall is patched and painted it'll be perfect!
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Been wracking my brain to see that I've taken care of everything I need to before I lift the body to tackle exhaust, fuel line, and gas tank mounting before blowing the chassis apart to paint. It may be coming off tomorrow.

Nice TIP! (pun intended lol) I like the way it looks too.