Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Don's bucket is stored under tons of stuff. He is in the process of moving, and has stored a lot of his extra household stuff in his portion of the shop (that's one reason I can't get my frame outside to paint it real easily ) plus he has been playing 6 days a week, sometimes two gigs a day, so the T has taken a back seat for a while. Once he gets the stuff moved out of there Dan and I are going to spend a day getting the mounts and various brackets welded up for him. When Summer comes the music business slows down, and he will have time to come over to work on it.

It sounds like those bucket things have been around for a while and used in some other industries, but I just heard about them. The concept is pretty good. Gotta take the burned up shop vac back to Home Depot today and do some more blasting. By the end of today I should have the entire front end blasted, ground, and ready for at least primer tomorrow.

At least, that's the plan.


Don

Don, I can't wait for the little stuff you have to do. Brake lines, fuel lines, and wiring. Then I know your going to be driving it soon.
Brad

Me too, Brad. I think when it gets up on wheels (painted the right color ) that will start signaling the end is near.

Speaking of color, I vowed I wasn't going to post another picture until I had some color to show. Well, how about GRAY?? I spent all day yesterday DA-ing the frame one more time, and filling some of the welds with filler to smooth them just a little. I still want the welds to show, but I just softened them slightly.

So this morning, bright and early I went to the shop, wheeled the frame outside, and applied 3 coats of epoxy primer to the entire frame. I had planned on letting that cook in the hot Florida sun for a few hours, then scuffing it and actually painting on the black paint. But after it was primed I see some more areas that need a dab of spot putty to take care of some minor nicks and grinder marks. I did let it dry well outside for a few hours, and plan to take care of those little spots this week, then I can roll it outside one more time and paint it.

I didn't want to rush it and end up with the mess I had the first time I did the transmission. No sense blasting through the paint process and having to redo the whole thing. Here are some pictures of the frame in primer.

Don

Don---thats a beautifull thing!!! Isn't it amazing how you can go over something like that with a magnifying glass, and find no imperfections---but as soon as you get some primer on---WHAMO!!! there they are, lurking---demanding a bit more spot putty. I think that everything I painted in the last 30 years ended up getting primed about 6 times. Eventually, you either get it perfect, or else give up and finish paint it anyways.

Thanks Brian. Yep, I thought I had it really smooth, after all, it has been sanded down to bare metal about 3 times through the compressor problem and resulting delay. As soon as I shot it I started to see little places I missed. I am not going to go nuts under the body part, because you will never see it, but the front 3 feet, ahead of the firewall, and the back 2 feet behind the body show. So I will at least get rid of the more obvious ones.

You are right that sometimes you just say the heck with it and shoot it, and I am not going for perfect, just ok. If my past performance is any indicator, I will be dropping lots of wrenches onto the frame anyway.

Don

Whenever the frames on my cars have been exposed, I have spent extra time with the bondo, and a varying grades of sandpaper wrapped around a peice of heater hose---resulting in ultra smooth welds, and mega sore fingers.
I always have a quiet little laugh to myself when at car shows, people have came up to me and said "Gee, I sure wish I could lay a bead like that". ---little do they know---

That's what Norm Grabowski said about his " Kookie T" . He kept cutting the frame up and moving sections back and forth to get the right look, and it left the frame pretty cobbled up, so he had Valley Customs make up some sheet metal frame covers that went over the entire frame. People were amazed his frame was so smooth, and didn't realize they were looking at covers, not the actual frame rails. He used to laugh when they would comment about his frame being like glass.

We all have our little hidden secrets.

Don

Don looking good being all one color makes the finish look near.

Don, I'm glad you posted some pictures I was going thru withdrawls.....well maybe just the shakes. The frames looks great, I like the use of the cherry picker so you can get to the underside at the same time. Where was my brain when I would paint one side wait to dry then flip for the other side.......DUH.
Brad

Thanks guys. I wasn't sure how I was going to get under it, or even move it out of the shop. Neither of my kids were around today, so I clamped part of an engine stand base to the front perch with c clamps, and picked up the rear like a wheelbarrow and wheeled it out the door. Oriiginally, I was going to use an engine stand on each end to make a rotisserie, but the high kickup in the rear killed that plan, so the cherry picker was the only shot I had at it. I kept hoping it wouldn't fall off of the front perch, but luckily is stayed there.

I would have loved to suspend it with the gantry, but my Son has so much household stuff stored in the front of the shop I even had trouble getting the frame past it. Can't wait til he gets settled and that stuff goes away.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention, I guess.

Don

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the T today, have to go to a barbque at my Sons tonight, but I wanted to get some things done. The project for today was sandblasting and grinding some of the smaller pieces of the suspension to get them ready for paint.

I really should have bought a Posies Superslide spring instead of the Speedway special I did buy. I have a Posies on my '27, and they really do ride better. For those that aren't familiar, they are like a traditional front spring, but have a formed in pocket that holds a teflon disc. Steel springs have the habit of each leaf grinding into the one below it, and by putting the teflon in there the leaves slide more easily. I didn't buy one because when I bought it I was trying to hit that $ 3000 figure, so every dollar counted. The Superslide is slightly more money, but I really recommend them. But for now I have this one, so it will do fine until I upgrade maybe down the road.

I am going to order (probably tomorrow) the teflon liner kits that Speedway sells to insert between each leaf. My '27 has that on the rear model A spring, and it does a good job, so it will be ok for now.

I disassembled the front spring and blasted then ground each leaf (only got 4 of the 6 leaves done so far) to make it a little prettier and to slide better. I rounded the corners slightly, and ground a little "ramp" on the underside of each leave so it acts like a ski and goes over the one below it. The plan is to continue disassembling the entire front end this week and prepping them for primer, then paint. Most of these are going to be the same orange/gold as the engine, and that color hides nothing, so I have to take some time on these parts.

Here are some shots of the spring I was working on today. The one on the right is the way you get them, and the one on the left is after some grinding work. The second picture shows the leaves I got done so far, and you can see how little of each leaf ends up actually being seen once assembled.

Don

I was thinking about buying the posies super slide spring to replace my Durant mono leaf... Still thinking about it. Your words lean me more towards the posies though.

I was surfing another forum, and there was a thread about these Durant monoleaf springs. The gist was that one had broken and the car had sustained some damage, then more people came on and said they had one break. Another guy said there was a thread on that some subject a while back, and a significant number had broken, usually at the center hole ,but not always.

I am only passing this on, and have no experience with these springs personally. But from the number of people who responded to that thread, I would not own one. That is just what I read there, and that could be way out in left field.

I think you will like the superslide, they are really great.

Don

I'm not defending the mono leaf spring,(I use them on my cars) but I know of a car that had one on it and it broke. Upon inspection of the car I found his cross member at 0 degrees and his axle at 10 degrees, sitting level. If you think about that and what is happening to that one leaf, it could cause it to break and the most logical place I think would be at the locating hole. Just food for thought.

Good point. That was one of the things mentioned in that thread, that perhaps people had added some additional shims to the spring and put it on an unnatural angle, binding it.

Don