Thread: I couldn't build it for $3 K either!

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Yeah Mike, wasup?????? You get us all teased, then leave us hangin'.

(The crowd is getting unruley, better post SOMETHING !! )

Don

Hey folks!

I'm still here and I really didn't mean to leave everyone hanging! I was really suprised to see this old post show up again!

I was wrapped up in two wheeled endeavors off and on during the summer. I repaired my dads GL1500(he and mom don't ride anymore) and my wife and I took a little vacation on it. Been riding every chance we got(which isn't as much as I would like).

Also, my son is a senior in high school this year and I've been following his last year on the football team a lot closer. They grow up fast! He'll be gone to college before I know it!

But, all that doesn't mean I haven't been working on the T though. Just that the blog has suffered. My hat's off to Don and J Robinson, keeping up a running commentary isn't easy(for me a least).

Major stuff I've done since the last post:

Installed the dash and gages
Fabbed the steering column supports
Installed the column
Fabbed a door hinge support and beefed up the hinges
Fabbed a door stop and installed the door latch
Hooked up the steering shaft
Fabbed and installed the brake pedal and booster/MC
Installed 2 different shifters(didn't like the first one)
Rebuilt the Lokar shifter so that it worked like I thought it should
Added wood to the body
Put in 2 driveshaft loops
Cut down and installed a Speedway battery box for a small Optima battery
Built a gas pedal

I'm about halfway through my "todo list", which will finish up the fabrication stage of the build. Then I can move on to the paint and finish work. My goal now is to get enough fab work done so that the state inspection process can start. Don't know how long that will take! The last person I spoke with at the State office didn't seem to be very interested in what I was doing and couldn't answer any questions. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much at their mercy.

I'll post pictures and some more build notes as soon as I can(got to sort and resize the pics). I'll try to get something up this weekend.

Mike

Looks like you've been a busy little beaver there! Yep, we'd love to see the pictures of what you've done.

Don

There isn't much to add about the windshield after the last post. I did notice that the mounting points were off a little when viewed from the side. By that I mean that the windshield frame and posts were at slightly different angles. The cowl hinge points will need to be pushed forward on the cowl and the pivot points on the frame will need to be raised. I wanted the frame to lay just in front of the dash, but it didn't work out that way.

Since everything is just tacked together, it's an easy fix, but I put it aside for a while to concentrate on the getting the dash mounted. That way I could be sure to get the right relationships. I didn't realise it would be this long before I finished it!

The dash is a cut-down 32 Ford that came with the body and mounting it was just a trim and fit job. I had to cut a couple of notches in the ends to clear the new winshield posts and trim the top to match the cowl.

Since I wasn't trying to get by super cheap anymore, I decided to add some shiny stuff to the dash. I've always liked the old Stewart-Warner dash panels, so I ordered one of the 5 hole units from Haneline(nice folks by the way). It JUST fit the cut-down dash. No way the 6 hole panel would have fit.

The gages are Series 1 VDO and the speedometer is electronic. They have an old style look, but no way are they traditional. I lucked into these on EBAY. These are the same gages I have in my 46. The speedo is easy to calibrate and has never given me any trouble. If you've never used an electronic speedometer before, I highly recommend them. Makes recalibrating your speedo the easiest part of a gear or tire swap. Saves a lot of hassle and frustration.

After I got the gages in it was apparent that the dash was going to shake. The mounts just weren't stiff enough to stop it. I added a brace from the bottom of the dash to the firewall. Now it's pretty soild.

After the dash was finished I moved on to the firewall and steering column.

The internal firewall was glued up from 3/8" plywood to get 3/4" for the most part. I had to make it this way because it needed a cavity for the toe board portion of the interior fiberglass unit. I'll waterproof this with fiberglass and epoxy it to the firewall when I'm through adding stuff to it. I'm using the same type of T-nuts that Don used on the back of the wood for threads. It's also bolted through the front to angle iron brackets on the lower portion. These also brace the front body mount holes.

You can also just see the cowl cross-bar that I added. It had to have a bow in it to clear the recessed part of the dash.

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

I was wrapped up in two wheeled endeavors off and on during the summer.

Dont I know what you mean!!!! I spent most of the summer months on the ol Harley.....I made more progress on my T coupe in the last three days then I did ALL summer!!!!.....

T42

I see you're in Tenn. There is some mighty fine riding in your state. We trailered a bike to the Knoxville area a few years ago for the NSRA Southern Nats. Spent 4 days riding in the eastern part of the state. It was great and I want to go back!

Mike

I decided to use a Speedway column. The price seemed right for a stainless column and I wanted a simple look.

It's a VERY simple unit. Just a piece of 1 3/4" stainless tubing, a couple of 3/4" bore flanged bearings that fit the tube and a 3/4" shaft. The shaft has a double D machined on the bottom and comes with a quick release wheel mount up top. You could make one pretty easy if you have the materials and maybe a milling machine. But, it doesn't look bad and saved me the time building it.

I made up a dummy column out of scrap pipe and all-thread and bolted a steering wheel to the top. I used a piece of MDF screwed to the firewall to support the lower end. That way I could adjust the length and find a comfortable angle. After measuring the angle I screwed two pieces of 3/4" MDF board together and set them up in my drill press. I used a 1 3/4" hole saw to cut an angled hole in the boards. Those boards were screwed to the firewall in the right location for the bottom of the steering column. These then became a guide for the hole saw in my hand drill to cut the bottom mounting hole. This gives you a much better chance of getting the hole right on the first try.

I left the MDF guide in place and slid the steering column through it. It worked out just right. The fit was tight enough to hold the column in place so that the upper mount could be done.

The upper and lower clamps were made from 1/2" steel, but they could be made of aluminum. I just don't usually have much aluminum laying around. The hole was cut with a hole saw and they were drilled and tapped for a 3/8" fine thread clamp bolt. The last step was to split them through the top portion to form the clamp. The lower piece was cut on an angle to match the firewall. The upper bracket is just two pieces of angle iron with a piece of 3/16" plate welded between them for bracing. The dash hides all this.

After I got it all done, I noticed some side to side flexing in the cowl if you pulled on the column. I added a diagonal brace to the center of the firewall and took most of it out. There's just not a whole lot of rigidity in a T cowl.

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

T42

I see you're in Tenn. There is some mighty fine riding in your state. We trailered a bike to the Knoxville area a few years ago for the NSRA Southern Nats. Spent 4 days riding in the eastern part of the state. It was great and I want to go back!

Mike

Yeah, well you are right about EAST tenn......Im too close to Memphrica, and its not near as nice!!! The further east you go, the nicer it gets!

After the column was in place I made up the steering shaft. It worked out pretty good. The joints are not at bad angles and there's pretty good clearance between the shaft and engine. The picture makes it look closer than it really is.

In this picture you can see I've added the radiator support rods. These are from a 32 Ford. I had to cut them down some, but I think the A model rods would have been too short. I stuck the 3 duece setup on to check clearance. It's tight on the front air cleaner. I want to use the helmet style air cleaners and I hope they will fit. The open style will work with no problem though if I have to use them.

I've also been kicking around the idea of using a generator instead of an alternator. I think it fits with the look of the car. It's only 30 amps but since most of the time(daytime) I'm only going to be pulling an electric fuel pump and possibly a MSD box, I think it will work. The Carter fuel pump shouldn't pull more than 5-7 amps and MSD claims that their 6A boxes only draw 1 amp for every 1000 RPM's(seems low to me, anybody have any real world info?). Two 60 watt headlights should draw about 10 amps and I'm going to use LED taillights, which shouldn't draw much at all. That should leave me with about 10 amps to spare( I hope). The only real unknown is the MSD box and I can ditch that if I have to and just run the points. Of course there's always Pertronix

I thought it was about time to get the door hung and latched. Notice I still haven't fixed the windshield.

This body was setup for a fiberglass interior unit that gets epoxied into place and stiffens the whole unit up. You're not supposed to need wood or other reinforcement. Well maybe not, but the more I fooled with it, the more I thought it could use a little added support.

One area was the door. The original setup had the hinges screwed to the fiberglass door frame and relied on the box structure formed by the interior to hold everything aligned. If the hinges ever needed serviceing, you were just out of luck. Once that interior section gets glued in, it ain't comin' back out in one piece.

I fabbed up an inner door post out of 3/4" square tube and a peice of angle iron heavy enough that it could be tapped for the hinge bolts(1 x 1 x 1/4", I think). Luckily I had room to squeeze it in between the body and interior unit. It ties into the cowl bar at the top. At the bottom, I added a bolt-on bracket to the side of the chassis and the door post bolts through the floor to that. The door hinge support is now as solid as the car frame and independent of the body for the most part. If the hinges ever need to be removed, I will still need to cut an access hole in the kick panel area, but it's not going to weaken the door support or throw it out of alignment.

I also had to reinforce the hinges. They were made of 1/8" material and were already starting to bend, as you can see in the picture. I just added another piece of 1/8" flatbar and now they're pretty solid.

Another peculiar thing about the door frame was that there was no door stop. My first thought was to build an inner ridge all the way around the door. About halfway through the build I realized that this was a bad idea and would just give me something to trip on when getting in or out. So I cut it down to just the latch side.

I started by making a template of the door opening out of paper and transfering that to 1/2" plywood. The inner wood form was just as important as the opening as it gave me something to form the metal around. The stop is made of 1/2" square tube with a 16 gage wall. The gentle bends were made by hand in the vise, working just a little at a time. The tight curve at the bottom was made by slotting the tube, clamping it to the form and tacking the slots back together. Once I had the shape, I welded the slots and ground it all back down.

The tabs that are welded to the piece in the pictures were there just to clamp it in place. After it was fitted, they were removed.

A piece of 3/8" keystock was ground down until it would just slide inside the top of the tube. This was welded in with a couple of rosette welds and gave me something to drill and tap for the door latch(striker?).

The whole thing got a coat of paint and was attached to the door frame with epoxy and 3/16" pop rivets about every 2". The rivets were reinforced with fender washers.