Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Tell your son to have faith in his (and yours, and his brother's) abilities. When my wife and I left on our 2400 mile loop through the midwest last year, I had exactly 54 interstate miles on my coupe. I had been putt-putting around town for a year, but had never taken it long distance at highway speeds. We made it with no complications...

I just saw a weather forecast: upper 70's with only 20% chance of rain all next weekend. It should be perfect roadster weather.

Good. I've been hoping this front would pass and bring some nice weather behind it. Daytona is always 5-10 degrees cooler than Ft Myers, it's more to the north. There were times I would leave here at 5 am in shorts, and when I got to Daytona at 9 I would have to put a jacket on.

We will be traveling by day, so it should be pretty pleasant. Looking forward to finally getting to meet all of you who will be there.

Don

I know it does not get as cold as nothern states, but the last time i checked, 32 degrees was the same everywhere! Like don said ,we get upset when it gets below 70.

Don,
You guys are going to have a ball!! The cars look great.
Ken

What's funny Denny is that at redlights I turn the fan on and get some warmth blowing back over me. That's one thing I have to check out on the T........not sure it is getting hot enough. Gauge comes up to like 130 max, and even after running for a while you can hold the radiator hoses in your hand. Bottom one is luke warm, top one is a little hotter, but not hot. I have a 160 thermostat in it, so not sure what's up. Looks like the cooling system is too efficient?

Ken, where the heck have you been? I was just thinking the other day that we haven't heard from you for a little bit. Been busy on the sedan or work?

BTW, last night we put more miles on both of our cars. Got enough of Don's interior done that we all needed to take a break, so we went cruising. We dialed in a little more toe in to Don's to correct a little shake when he got on it, seemed to work. It was fun playing in traffic and scaring ricers. Don let Dan drive on the way back and all he could say was "what a blast." When we get back from Daytona Don and I are going to spend time helping him get his done. It's way overdue.

Need to run to the upholstery shop today to pick up some more foam and hideum, today we are trying to finish up the interior. That will leave us a couple of days for fine tuning before we leave on Thursday. Watching Don's car run down the road last night I was pretty confident he can make it with no problems, except for the dent in his wallet for gas purchases.

Don

Great workmanship. Both of those Ts are wonderful. My dad brought me up as one of those guys that felt any car needed shiney stuff. You know, if it doesn't move: chrome it. Or at least buff it out. Yours has a nice amount of shiney and is still practical to drive on the road. I wish I could see it in person. Way to go.

Rick

Thanks very much Rick. I really am glad I did it shiny instead of the satin I was thinking of. It makes it a different car sort of. I'm not sure I am up to keeping a black car nice though. Even a quick drive makes it dirty, and I'm not big on cleaning cars so much. Oh well.

Glad to announce that after 4 days of work we have finally wrapped up Don's interior. Basically, we cut up the entire Total Performance interior kit and redid it to make it better. For some reason they use a 4 inch thick roll around the top of the backrest and also the sides of the body. Makes it look like an old carriage or something, plus you get hunchbacked because your shoulders are pushed forward by the thick roll. The side roll cuts into already limited interior space too.

At first we cut the foam down to 2 inches thick, and even that was too much, so we chopped it to one inch thick and that looked much better. Then, their side panels didn't fit right, so Dan had me running around to trim shops buying more GM off white upholstery vinyl (that matched their interior perfectly) and we made up new side panels out of 1/4 inch thick starboard with 1/2 inch of foam over it. Dan was being his usual picky self, and was driving me nuts, but tonight when the job was finally done I had to admit it is now much much better than if we had used their kit as it was.

Once we got done at about 1:30 am we took both cars for a ride and went to Denny's for breakfast. Had lots of people taking pictures with cell phones and asking questions. As we were eating a Sheriff walked up and said "are those your cars out there?" GULP!!! Turns out his Dad has a fuel dragster and he has some cars too. Just wanted to BS a little, which was a real relief.

Both cars are running great (knock on wood) and Wednesday we are going to change oil and tighten everything up one more time for the trip. Tomorrow night Don is playing for a Bike Night thing and wants to take both cars, so it looks like we will be taking the night off for a change.

Here are some pictures of how his interior came out.

Don

Looks awesome, but the hump in your back does look uncomfortable...
Makes me wish my dad never sold his T.

I must agree, I could never figure out why they wanted the top rail to look like a bumper car. Your work look's so much better. Maybe Mickey will be at Daytona and you can grab him and make him look at what quality should look like.

Have a great, safe, trailerless trip.

Ron

Thanks guys. No, I couldn't agree more. It would be so much easier for them to give you one inch thick foam for that top section than the four inch they supply. It is also harder to get all the wrinkles out when you are stretching it that far.

Worst part of the kit is the instructions. I would sit in a chair and read a paragraph over and over aloud, and between the three of us we still couldn't understand what it meant. The instruction sheet is a 4th generation copy and the pictures are so dark they are useless. Finally, we just used our insticts and did what we thought would work.

I did call TP yesterday because for the life of us we couldn't figure out how the final welting was supposed to fit. We turned it every which way and reread the instructions over and over. The guy there was very helpful but the way he told me was backwards of the way the instructions read. When I told him that he said "yeah, they are a little confusing sometimes." Mickey does go to Daytona every year, and I always stop to see him. Nice guy and I am going to ask him what his logic is for using such huge foam. He could save a bunch of money because four inch has to cost more than one inch foam.

It looks like the toe in change cleared up the front end shake Don got when he got on the gas hard. Coming down our road last night he nailed it and it didn't have the problem again. Dan said he was surprised to look back and I was still on their tail. I didn't let them know my foot was deep into the firewall. It was the hardest I had pushed my T so far, and what was cool was when it shifted into second the tires broke loose and it went a little out of shape. That felt pretty good.

Don

Don, If I rmemeber correctly, your running an s10 rear end. thats not a posi though, correct? Hows that working for you?

Oldrodder43 asked this on another thread, and I want to answer, but not hijack the other thread, so I'll answer it here. He asked:

By the way Don, I been meaning to ask you, on Dan's new frame, how did he get the square tube bent like that? Any progress pics on his RPU? oldrodder43


There is a company in Pennsylvania called Autoweld and they do mandrel bending of most any size box tubing. Mostly they do backhalf subrails for things like drag cars and prostreeters, I think. Dan has used them before when they bent up a frame for his one S10 pickup, and he went to them this time because the rails in the bed of his revised truck are going to be totally exposed and he wanted them to be smooth.

He sent them detailed drawings, but they interpreted them differently than what he drew, so they came back longer and higher than he wanted. He says it was his fault as he measured one way and they use a different method. No problem, he is just going to section them on both planes and reweld them to what dimensions he needs.

While he was at it he ordered a brand new 9 inch rear end and Moser 31 spline axles. He also got a four link suspension setup and Posies quarter eliptic spring package. This gives him a clean slate to start with. As it turns out he simply changed his mind on what he wanted the car to end up looking like and felt the best way was to save what he liked and toss out what he didn't like. Pretty much the only parts he saved were the cab, engine/tranny, and the front axle with brakes. He even sold the wheels and tires to his Brother and is going to go with blackwalls this time.

Don and I have vowed to spend lots of time helping him get his car on the road when we get back from Daytona. We both owe him so much for the time and money he has thrown at our cars. The only problem is Dan likes to work alone and will probably only need us to help lift stuff as the car gets heavier. We're shooting for Billetproof at Don Garlits place in March to have his '29 running. Hope we can do it.

Don

Don

Don't ever worry about hijacking my thread. It's all just for fun anyway!

Mike

That's the way I feel too Mike. I figure threads are for shooting the breeze, and every once in a while they wander a little. I just didn't want to step on your toes though. At least Uncle Bob hasn't "honored" you with any of his little cuties yet. lol

Don

Alright Don! Let's see the T!!! I know it's done cause I saw it over at the HAMB. Just wish I could be at Daytona to see it in person. Seems like I've been waiting forever, and now that it's done, I might have to wait even longer 'cause I will be in PA while you are dodging raindrops at Daytona. Terrific job, one very, very nice T.

I thought your son's blue and white T was beautiful, until I saw yours. WOW. And all for just a little over $3k. Who would of thunk??