Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Well I feel pretty good tonight.......THE T FINALLY HAS THE FLOOR GLASSED IN !!!!

I worked on it yesterday, wiping down the entire interior three times with acetone to remove any wax, then sanded the interior with 80 grit, then scuffed it with 24 grit to get lots of tooth. One more wipe down and I was ready to glass it.

Or, almost ready. I still hadn't cut holes in the floor for my brake pedal or master cylinder ( so I can remove a tin plate and add brake fluid in the future) So, I got those cut out, put the body on the frame, bolted down the floor, and made sure everything was level and square, and finally glassed in the top edge of the floor where it meets the body. I laid up 3 or 4 layers of glass in this entire area, progressively moving further and further out into the floor and body so that the glass would have a really strong, stressfree bond. After I put in the rest of the wood I will flip the body and do the same thing to the underside.

Here are some pictures of what I got done yesterday and today.

Picture 1 is the interior after the acetone wipes and sanding.

Picture 2 is the floor all cut out and ready to glass in

Picture 3 is the mat I precut to have it ready to glass in

Picture 4 is the floor after the actual glassing

Picture 5 is what I will be doing tomorrow and beyond. I have to cut "stringers" to go all around the perimeter of the body and also vertically every so often. These will give the body strength and a place to attach the upholstery.


Don

Woo hoo, your getting close. You seem a little more fired up these days, i think that small break did you some good, are you going to daytona this weekend? im going saturday

No, I can't make it. Wish I could. But if I keep my momemtum I should make it in November........driving instead of watching for a change.


Have fun there.


Don

Bob Velia (this old house) MOVE OVER. I spent the entire day today cutting and shaping the wood stringers for the interior of the T. Never ate so much sawdust in my life, between the bandsaw and belt sander.

There are a couple of ways to wood the interior of a fiberglass car, like a T bucket. Total Performance directions say to glass pieces of small wood every so often around the perimeter of the body so you can attach your upholstery to them. I don't care for that method. Instead I like to build an entire wooden framework throughout the interior, and glass each piece of wood down to every other piece. It just makes for a stronger, flex resistant body IMO.

What took so long was shaping each piece of wood to conform to the curves of the T body. These things don't have one straight section to them, so each piece had to be cut and belt sanded until it fit tight against the body. Some pieces took about 20 trips back and forth to the belt sander, grinding a little off and trying it for fit. But, I am really happy with where they ended up. I am about 2/3 done, and the second side should go faster now that I have done one side.

I used 3/4 inch plywood for the backrest portion, and 1 x 2 and 1 x 4 select pine to do the actual stringers. After I get them all cut and numbered ( so I can put them back in the same place) I will start glassing them in.

Here are some pictures of what got done today.

Memo to self.............buy more clamps, LOTS more clamps.


Don

Say Don couldn't you have scribed your boards and made less trips??? I know when I put in cabinets I have to scribe the sides to the walls. Somtimes even have to scribe 1x2s to mount on wall then mount cabinets to them. Just a thought. I don't want you to get worn out this late in the game.

Nice looking woodwork, Don. Almost a shame to cover it up...

You may already know this.., but after you get all your wood pieces cut and fit, mix up a little bit of ordinary body filler, slather a strip of it on the back of each piece and stick them in place. In a few minutes the body filler will kick, permanently gluing the wood pieces in place. Then you can finish glassing them in without the clamps in your way.

Nicely done IToldyouso, looks stout as hell. I take it the next step is glassing all of those to the body?

I love the tip J. Robinson, what a great and simply fantasticly simple thing that would help alot.

Damn don i thought you were just a mechanic, nice work, im impressed

Thanks guys. Yeah, I've heard the body filler routine, and I'm sure it works well. But I have always cut some mat the same width as the wood, laid up a couple of layers of it, and clamped the stringer into that wet mat. It gives it somewhat of a cushion under there that will conform to the irregularities. I bet John knows this way from working at the boat factories. BTW, I'm still sneezing up wood dust.

I had to head back to the shop tonight........Santa came today in his brown truck. Got my headers. I LOVE 'EM. !!! Sanderson did their usual good job, and they seem to be aimed just the right way to deflect the exhaust down and out away from the driver. I am going to order a couple of end caps from them in plain steel and build my own baffles, then have them jet hot coated to match the headers. I think that should quiet it down a little.

Of course I had to bolt them to the engine for a look see, here are some shots.


Don


PS: Yes, I am going to paint that red distributor cap the same color as the engine. Sticks out like a sore thumb now.

Don great work missed some days and wow your moving great . You are moving on it hope you stop to eat a bit now and then .

My wife and i at sams last weekend she saw a hummer your engine color and complimented on how it looked good so i had to tell her how you painted the block of your rod that color.

Thanks. Oh yeah, you saw one huh? I liked it too when that guy came in to work with one, it just looked old timey to me somehow. Choosing a color is such a tough ordeal. Some days I walk by my engine and say no way am I going to like the whole car in that color, but other days it looks fine. I guess I won't know until I spray it. The first thing to get color is going to be the frame, so that will be sort of the acid test. If it looks ok on it, then the rest should be ok.

As for making progress, yes I am. This body wooding is going to move me ahead a huge amount. Dan and I went out to dinner after the shop tonight, and were talking about the next steps. Once the body is wooded it can come off and I can get Dan to wrap up a couple of little welding items. Then it goes to the sandblaster. I will immediately prime it with epoxy primer, then mold in the brackets with body filler, and shoot a heavy coat of primer surfacer over that, and sand the heck out of it. At that point I can shoot the color on it. I know once I get the frame and running gear painted I will have the incentive to get it going as soon as possible.

Being laid off helps too, now I have the days to do this stuff.

Don

Nice Pipes Don, sweet! They really make the engine color jump out at you. I'm with you on it being hard to pic a color. On thing I decided was that what ever colors I chose it was going to be because I really like it, not because everyone else does.

Don,
Is there a Hobby Shop in your area that sells RC aircraft?
If so, see if they have a thing called a Woodpecker made by Top Flite.
It is a tool used to perforate wood to allow gas to escape when using their film coverings.
One of the little known benefits to this tool is in glassing.
You roll it across the wood before glassing.
The perforations allow a deeper penetration of the resin into the wood making for onehelluva strong bond.

Brick, thanks. I'm probably like most guys on color, I never really know what it is going to be until I walk in and lay down some money at the paint store. Then the decision is set in stone and you go with it. I hope my choice works out 1/2 as good as yours looks.


Tom: Woodpecker huh? I can see the concept and how the resin could seep deeper into the wood, interesting. Is it an electric tool or mechanical? From your description I would guess it is hand operated and you just roll it across and it has some spikey things that punch down into the wood?

I will have to check and see what is around here. Fort Myers area is kind of sparse on big city kinds of businesses, so it will be surprising if we have RC places here, but I will look to see.

Thanks for the tip.

Don

I used to watch some guy named Norm Abrams (I think) on a TV show called New Yankee Workshop (I think) and always marvelled at the woodworking skill this guy had. He is a Master Carpenter, and had a special tool to do everything in the shop, and made jigs to hold every item he built. The reason I mention this is because I am far from this guy in my woodworking skills, but I have to admit the past few days of cutting and shaping wood for the T have been fun and a pleasant change from burning myself with hot sparks and lifting heavy pieces of steel. I see why some guys really enjoy working with wood.

So, today I did more of the interior wooding, and got just about all the pieces cut and fitted. Once they were in place I numbered each piece so I know exactly where it goes back when I start glassing them in. Resin kicks in about 15-30 minutes, so you have to keep moving quickly, and I won't have the luxury of trying to figure out what goes where.

I also drew a permanent marker line around each piece of wood so that it is very clear to me where it should lie, again to speed up the process. The final part of that is a chart I quickly drew up showing where each numbered piece goes, so I can refer to it as the glassing moves along. I will precut lots of pieces of mat the same width as the stringers so I can put those under each piece of wood to bed it in and hold it firmly to the body.

Here are some pictures of the things I mentioned above.


Don