Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Good idea, don't need that driveshaft wacking you in the bean haulin' down the road at 100mph. Actually at any speed!

Originally Posted by brickman

Good idea, don't need that driveshaft wacking you in the bean haulin' down the road at 100mph. Actually at any speed!

No, you are right. I had one break on my Mustang bracket car one time, and my two sons were sitting in the back on the aluminum interior with pillows under them (they were about 8 or 9) When it broke it sounded like a bomb went off, but luckily the driveshaft loop contained it.

My kids haven't been right since. I wonder why they are motorheads too???


Don

Don,
I don't mean to disrupt the flow of your thread but I believe you might need to revise your debit accounting.

If I'm not mistaken, you purchased the body and frame as a combination.
Once you found the frame unusable for your intentions, you purchased materials to create a new one.

I therefore submit to you the following;
"Under the HotRod Builders Assessment Act of 1984, any project budget overruns in materials due to faulty, improper fitments, or brain flatulence may be deducted from the build at fair market value..."

Can I also deduct alimony?


Actually, I did just sell some parts off of the build that I didn't use, like I got $ 135.oo for the T bucket bed on Ebay. Interesting thought Tom. The frame became a base for our metal brake, so that should count for something.


I like your thinking. You must work for the Law Firm of Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe.


By the way, cool comment about the DNA being twisted too tight. (Inbreeding)


Don

I too like that law, that would cut my build cost in half if I can drop the cost of learning!

Today was actually a pretty productive day. I just got in, and it is Midnight, and I started about 12 noon, so to say I am a little tired is an understatement. But I really got some work done today.

The first thing I did was finish up the driveshaft hoops. I welded the hoops to the angle iron supports, and made two plates for the bottom. The bottom plates are held on with grade 8 3/8 bolts, and when I need to service the driveshaft I can remove them and drop it out of the bottom. Finally I got the whole assembly welded to the crossmembers. Man, this thing weighs like 30 lbs, so it should add some strength to the frame also.

Here are some shots of the final assembly and after it was welded in place.


Don

After that I began work on the underdash steel support framework, which also supports the windshield. I decided to tie the windshield into the 1 x 1 bar that runs under the dash, and to do that I welded a couple of flat stock "ears" on either side of the crosspiece, made out of 1/4 inch thick stock. These ears are shaped like the inside of the body, right up under the dash.

I drilled and tapped these plates for 3 bolts on each side, which match 3 holes I drilled in the windshield post I built out of flat plate. When the bolts are torqued down the windshield is supported by the steel skeleton, not by fiberglass.

After I got the dash support made my Kid offered to weld the windshield posts to the plates I had made up, so we built a jig to hold everything straight and did the final welding on the windshield posts. So, for all practical purposes, the windshield is done. We got so involved working on the jig and making the posts fit that I didn't take any pictures of that phase, but here are some pictures of the final windshield mounting.

I also went to Autozone and picked up a 68 Mustang master cylinder for a car with manual drum brakes, so this week I can start making up the brake pedal and master cylinder mount.

Thanks for looking. Time for a shower and late night dinner.


Don

Don,
the car is really looking good, and im gland you decided to go with the new tranny. keep up the nice work..

Harmon

Thanks Harmon. I think it will be so much easier in the long run.

Last night at about 3:30 AM I woke up and had an idea how I am going to do my shifter. I have no idea if I was dreaming about it , or what, but the idea is actually pretty sound. I made a drawing before I went back to sleep so that I wouldn't forget it. Now I just have to round up the pieces.

WIsh I would wake up with the winning lottery numbers, but no luck.


Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Thanks Harmon. I think it will be so much easier in the long run.

Last night at about 3:30 AM I woke up and had an idea how I am going to do my shifter. I have no idea if I was dreaming about it , or what, but the idea is actually pretty sound. I made a drawing before I went back to sleep so that I wouldn't forget it. Now I just have to round up the pieces.

WIsh I would wake up with the winning lottery numbers, but no luck.


Don

Don,
on that note i figured out what im going to do with my shifter also ( old school race look it will match my grill and and the visor)

Harmon

Originally Posted by CHEVYBOY

Don,
on that note i figured out what im going to do with my shifter also ( old school race look it will match my grill and and the visor)

Harmon

Ok Harmon, don't keep us in suspense. What have you decided to make it out of? Have you worked out the details yet???


I went over and started to work on my shifter tonight. I didn't get a whole lot done because it took quite a bit of digging around in all of my hidden stash of leftover parts and stuff to find some components to build it. Once I had some of the most important parts I began to make the main brace that will bolt the shifter assembly to the transmission.

I can't take full credit for this part of the buiild. I pirated part of it from the way Lokar and Gennie do theirs, and part of it from a gallery on CHR. I wish I could remember whose gallery it was, because I'd like to thank him, but I liked the ideas in his shifter.

I bent up the main support out of 1/4 inch x 2 strap iron, and used the same pulley idea I used to bend up the driveshaft hoops. However, the contour of the trans is different than the other ones, so I dug out a bigger pulley to give me a bigger radius.

Here is how I bent up the flat stock after heating it with the torch.

After a little bending and then putting some reverse bends in the ends, I rounded the corners and drilled two holes that will locate the hoop into the two depressions so thoughfully supplied by Chevy on their 350's. I am going to tap some threads into there so I can thread a bolt into a bushing. Then I will add another plate to the top of the hoop and fasten that to the other hole Chevy has back there. Once this mount is done I can start to build the actual shifter mechanism.

Here is how the hoop came out, and how it looks mocked up on my dummy transmission.

Nice ride man! Is that a Speedway Motors body? I didn't even go back to read your first page, I read this all before and keeping up with it. I am wanting a 30's vehicle right now very badly and found an original 31 4 door sedan but was really wanting a pickup, 5 window coupe, roadster or T and I like the stance of your T a lot! I wanted to do a early 50's I guess it would be style with bomber seats, plane or bomber looking guages, brown interior and black paint with the spoked wheels, and NON white walled tires. I like the cheater slick look too but first want what I just explained. Anyways, great progress!

Thanks alot. Yeah, I think it is a Speedway. I bought it on Ebay, and it was advertised as a Total Performance body and frame, and it was only about 150 miles from here, so I bid and won it. When I picked it up it wasn't a TP, but the guy seemed legit that he honestly had been told that when he bought it ( he also bought it used) plus, it had never been cut or mounted, so I paid him. It is just the typical T fiberglass body, nothing fancy, and you still have to do all the finish work and wooding. My '27 body is a Speedway, and it was in daily use for years and never developed any stress cracks or problems, so I think they are a good value.

Don't discount the 4 door body, they can be built into a really cool rod. However, you must know up front that the entire subframe on a 4 door is WOOD. The tudors ( 2 doors) coupes, etc. all use steel for the most part. The bear is that the wood rots and you really have to use box tubing to build a suitable new subframe. The wood kits are like several thousand dollars, and are still wood, and will never be as strong or resistant to flex as steel.

As I have mentioned about 30 zillion times (sorry to be so boring) my Son is building a fordor, and he said he never realized how much work it would be to subframe it. He also bought a tudor that he is storing for the next build, and it requires a fraction of the work to get it strong. And, just in case I haven't personally bored you enough times with pictures of his fordor, here are a couple. I thought they may give you some idea of what is involved.

Thanks again for the nice words.


Don

PS: That interior shot is just the first stages of the resubframing. The entire body, including the door jams, roof, etc are now steel tubing. The body is just a sheet metal skin with no strength of it's own. The subframe is the real strength.

I PMed your son on The HAMB about that car. I would like to do mine like that but not THAT low, probably 4 inches higher but I like how the front end is stretched up forward like that and the chop. I want mine like that (this one has the fenders and I will hate to NOT use them but oh well) and in gloss black with bomber seats and gauges, etc. I am really into the whole WWII kind of deal like the bomber planes and was at first thining of painting it silver and then the interior like seats, gauges, etc like a bomber but not sure. First I have to see if I can get the car and if I like it enough when I see it tomarrow. If not then I will get me a roadster body or T like yours. Ever see that 29 RPU on Rod and Custom mag in that maroon looking color and brown interior, etc that is real low with the bed in the back? I LOVE that thing!
Can you send me some more pics of your sons car please? Thanks a lot!