Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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It was over 90 degrees F here in central Ontario today---gorgeous day. I ran out of engineering work at noon, so took a bunch of my fancy new brochures advertising "Rupnow Machine and Automation Design" and drove up to Orillia in the roadster pickup and went around to about 15 factories handing them out. People didn't care whether they seen me or not, but everybody came out and fussed over the roadster pickup!!! The kickup looks good. I am attaching a pic of the chassis I built for my 27 roadster about 11 years ago---the kickup on what I built looks a lot like what you are doing.(I used 2" x 6" rectangular tubing, and shaped it to replicate a 32 frame from the firewall foreward)

Really nice frame Brian, and it doesn't look like it will ever break.

Made just a little progress today on the frame. I went over to the shop about 1 am the other morning and worked until about 5. It was nice and cool (if there is such a thing as cool in SW Florida) But at least I got the front part of the frame cut out for the tubing crossmember. There are several ways to do it, but I have always liked the method of punching an appropriately sized hole saw through the inner wall of the frame, and then leaving material on the outside in the shape of the tubing. I think it gives you more to weld to, and a stronger joint.

Here are a couple pictures showing that joint. After it is welded, we will bend down the flaps in the front around the tube, and weld the entire assembly together.

Don

Today I worked on the kickup portion in the rear. I had previously cut out little backing plates made of 1 1/4" x 1/8" flat stock, and today I mig welded them into place, to hold them until the final joints are completely welded. I learned a few things today:

1) In addition to all my other bodily functions starting to go away, my math skills are also not so hot. I labored over making 16 backing plates last week, and today I discovered I only needed 8. How I did that I will never know.

2) Self darkening welding helmets shut off after a few minutes. I flashed myself pretty good when I struck the 2nd arc and the mask didn't darken. Still seeing little yellow spots in front of my eyes. May have to use that potato in the eye trick someone suggested in another post, if it gets worse tonight.

3) The 1/4 inch holes I drilled to do my plug welding through were too small to get good penetration into the backer plates. This doesn't have to be a super strong weld, but they shouldn't just fall off like my first attempt did.

The pictures down below give some idea of the concept of the backers. They form a tongue and groove sort of affair, and when you slip them inside the other tube it allows you to leave a bigger gap to weld. This, coupled with the extra metal of the backer allow you to crank up the welder and get a deep, but flush weld joint.

None of this is new to most of you, but I thought it would be helpful to those just beginning to do this stuff.

My Kid is out of town for the weekend, but when he gets back we plan to clamp the rails to the jig and start final welding. Hope none of this is boring any of you, hopefully when the frame gets welded we will really begin to move along.

Thanks for looking,


Don

For you younguns out there, drilling a hole and welding through it is called a rosette.

Thanks for the ongoing progress reports Don....nice work

FRAME IS FINALLY ALL WELDED.


It's about 12:30 AM, and Dan and I just put in a 12 hour day getting the frame for project $ 3K finished. Well, almost finished........there are still a zillion things to do, like build a front perch, hang the radius rods, etc. but at least the entire main frame is all welded, thanks to my Son, who gave up his only day off this week to spend it welding it for me. Thanks Dan. He says it is an early Fathers Day present, and I like it.

First of all, we got all the final grinding done so that the weld joints would be beveled. He didn't like the way I did them last week, so he had me regrind the angles a little sharper to give him a better area to weld. Trouble with perfectionists like him is that they are usually right, so I couldn't argue.

After that we clamped the side rails to his welding table and finished the kick up portions. When that was done, we clamped both rails to the frame jig and trued it all up, and triangulated it. For the rear I wanted to use a Model A rear crossmember, so we cut off the ends and slipped the remaining piece into the rear of the frame, and welded it all together. We are going to add some gussets and two tubular crossmembers right at the kickup, so we punched some holes in there to slip the tubes into.

Now I can start channelling the body and getting it into its final position, and if I feel up to it tomorrow I will start on that. But right now I am totally wiped out from the heat and lifting steel tubing all day, so there is a hot shower and a cold screwdriver in my very immediate future. (the drink, not the tool )

Here are some pix of what we did today.


Don

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Don iot is really looking great. Good progress

wow, this thread is awesome! im new to the forum and just wanted to say awesome job so far. I cant wait to see it complete and if it will end up being around budget! cool idea!

Thank you, and welcome. This forum is gaining members daily, and we love it. The more the merrier.

I sometimes worry about posting some dumb little bracket I made for the T, but then I remember how I love looking at other peoples posts of what they are doing. So I guess it is ok.

I know some of the old timers on here (in experience, not years ) probably fall asleep on some of the stuff I have posted on this build, because they have done this and so much more, but I hope some of the younger or just starting out builders can learn something from it. I know I am learning from it, because I haven't built a ground up car it a lot of years, and my approach was always to get 'er done. My work was far from show quality, but the cars generally stayed together and were fun drivers.

Ever since my Kid has gotten involved doing the welding and helping me with this car, it has taken a slightly different directiion. He drives me nuts with his perfectionism, but he has a great eye, and has corrected me on some of my thinking about what this car should end up as. He actually had me nervous the other day as he was watching me cut stuff with the cut off wheel, and he thought I was going crooked. So I try to sneak over the shop like at 1 AM when he isn't around.

But thanks again for the encouragement, and if it gets boring at times, just hit the ignore button.


Don

PS: I stopped over at the shop tonight after work, and he has made a lot of progress on his '30 roadster pickup. I can't wait til that car is done, it is really something beyond what I could ever dream up or build.

FRONT SPRING PERCH GOT BUILT TONIGHT.


After work I went to the shop and started cutting out the pieces of steel for the front perch . I used a section of C channel for the top, and cut off one leg, and then I cut two side pieces that cradle the tubular crossmember. My Son showed up, got involved, helped me prep the parts, and then he did the final welding.

We still have to weld it to the crossmember, but since it is 2 AM and we just got home, that will have to wait until tomorrow night. It looks pretty good, and is really strong, so it should work fine.

Here are a couple of pictures. The first 2 are of the cut out steel pieces, and the other two are shots of the perch mocked up on the crossmember.

Since I get up at 6:15, morning is going to come really early tomorrow, but at least one more step is done on the T.


Don

In my last post, that got wiped out when the forum was down, I mentioned that the front perch we spent a day building ended up setting the car too low. That's rod building, clearances and things change as you go along, so you just have to salvage what you can and move on. So I ordered a front perch from Total Performance because I have one in the shop on a frame, and it looked perfect for what I needed. Plus, I really didn't feel like spending another day building a new one. (Sometimes easier and quicker to buy something off the rack that fits.)

The perch came in, and it is just what I need to get the front low, and yet still put the frame about 5 inches off the ground in the front. I am not going to weld it on until the motor and trans are hanging on mounts, because I want to see how far the frame settles before I commit.

So today I started on the engine mounts and transmission mount. I picked up a 1961 Chevy stick transmission mount at Advanced Auto Parts. They had one in stock (go figure) and it was like $ 4.50. It is exactly what I need for the '61 3 speed trans I am using, and I like to use off the shelf parts when I can, so if I break down 300 miles from home I can get parts easily.

For the transmission mount and also two other rear crossmembers, I am using 1 and 3/4 inch DOM tubing .125 wall. I have two that will reinforce the rear kickup, and one more under the rear of the transmission. I cut some flat plate to use as a perch to weld to the tube and this will be where the trans mount goes.

On the front, I cut 2 triangular shaped plates out of 1/4 inch flat stock, and drilled 3 holes in each of them to bolt to the block. I had a spare 350 empty block that I used to make the mock up. From that, I cut a section out of tubing that is 2 x 3 and will have this welded to the triangular plates. Then I will mount early Ford biscuit type rubber mounts to the ends of that and build a mount from the frame to join the two together. I ordered the rubber mounts from Speedway, and they will be here Tuesday. The engine mounts are nothing special, and have been used on thousands of cars. They are simple and easy to make.

All I have to do now is get Dan to weld the pieces onto the frame, and I can finally get the engine supported without all those concrete blocks and pieces of wood.

Here are some pictures of what I did today.


Don

Once I had the triangular plated bolted to the dummy block, I needed to cut the arms that come off of them to hold the Ford mounts. To get the correct angle, I put a piece of flat stock across the machined surface where the oil pan goes, and then used an angle finder to plot the angle. I then put it into the bandsaw and cut some 2 x 3 rectangular tubing to that angle. I then cut the outside part of that piece a little rounded to give it some detail. The first picture is of the flat stock to give me a straight edge. The second is of the bandsaw being set up, and the third is of the finished mounts.

Don

looks good. it looks like you have abit more room with the stick if you can run the pedals

Thanks Pat. I remember I had an Austin Healey Sprite, and there was about the same amount of foot room, and they got 3 pedals in there, so I think if I make the pedals thin enough they will fit. Good thing I'm only 5' 9" and 170. Us little dudes can sort of squeeze into these tight T's.

Don

yes it looks cool . yes some small pedals should do with a spoon gas pedals and a blast to drive with the stick i would not know about the 170? about 40 over that but get out the shoe horn

I'm also going to modify the Hurst shifter to tuck it tighter and further back on the tailshaft to get it out of my lap. My '27 has one, and the handle is shaped to move the shifter over to the passenger side about 2 inches. I plan to cut and weld this one the same way so the shifter is more in the center of the car.

It's looks like there is going to be room for the steering box and all that stuff. Now that I am almost ready to support the weight of the engine on the mounts, I can finally see how the car is going to settle.


Don