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

Tweet

Brickman

These are old pics. I don't have any recent shots of the whole car.

Mike

I want to eventually add a top of some kind to this project. I used to have a Jeep and a dune buggy so I know how the sun can beat down on you in an open car.

Going topless might be cool for short cruises, but long stretches on the highway could leave you baked pretty good, not to mention the rain.

I'll figure out the top design later. What I needed now was a way to hold it on. It had to be added now before the insert went in.

I tapped some pieces of 3/8" flat bar and used my router to cut some slots in the inner wood frame. The tapped plates go into the slots and are caged in by the interior unit. They will be under about 3/8" of fiberglass and epoxy when the body is finished, so I think they will be strong enough. There is one in each side and 2 more in the rear.

I also made up a jig that will allow me to locate and redrill the holes in the body after the insert is glued in.

Nice work, I like it. The eliptical springs and the levered shock mount are bad to the bone. Gets her down in the weeds, what is the wheel base of your T?

Thanks, Brickman.

The wheelbase is right at 105".

As far as being low, it looks lower than it really is. I've got about 4" under the oil pan. I tried a 4" drop Super Bell axle when I was mocking it up, but the radiator shell came close to hitting the ground. Had to go with the stock unit and I think it actually looks better this way.

Mike

I didn't get much done today. We had a rare "snow day" around here. Last time we had snow that stuck longer than about 15 minutes was about 10 years ago! It was gone by mid-morning, but, I need to get some fiberglass work done and the resin just doesn't "kick" well when it's cold. I don't kick well when I'm cold either.

I thought I would get caught up on updates. They're minor things, but I had the pics.

I said earlier in the thread that I didn't like the way the windshield frame and the posts lined up. The pivot points on the cowl pieces were too far back and the windshield frame actually fell behind the top of the cowl. I decided that I had ignored it long enough.

The first shot is of the old setup. The new pivots move the post forward about 1/2" and down slightly. I also rehaped them to give a little more adjustablity.

The dash had a cutout in the upper corners for the standard T type windshield posts. I added small extensions to the cowl pieces that will fill these cutouts and keep the windshield "blowing" back from wind pressure. Might be overkill, but if the windshield did flip up and pin your fingers on the steering wheel I'm guessing it would smart a little.

I also got around to slicking up the transmission hump I built earlier. I fabbed it by laying glass over a temporary wood frame covered with thin aluminum roof flashing( sorry no build pics). Works pretty good for simple shapes and the aluminum peels off easy. Trouble is the surface next to the metal is left slick, while the other side is pretty rough. I wanted to finish it now while I had plenty of room to work. I used fiberglass filler for the rough build up and polyester glazing putty for the finer stuff. Since the floor will get coated with bed liner later, I wasn't worried about getting it "paint" perfect.

Another minor thing was the dimmer switch. I have always liked the old floor mounted dimmers and wanted to put one in this car. This presented a couple of problems, though.

The switches that most street rod parts places like Speedway sell mount on top of the floor. That might work ok in a car with thick carpet, but in this car(no carpet) they stick up too far. Just feels awkward.

Under floor switches are available, but the area under the toe board will not be accessable in this car when the inner and outer body panels are glued together. I wound up using an under floor switch mounted to a removable plate. The larger plate is riveted and epoxied to the bottom of the floor. All this will get coated with bed liner. Feels pretty good now.

The switch is from Car Quest. Part #DS50. I don't remember the application(late 50's Chevy truck, maybe?).

I'll tell you Mike, I am super, super impressed with your car. Your workmanship is extremely neat and well thought out, like the way you are planning ahead for the top to have a strong mounting point. Can't say enough good things about any of it. I agree with Brick that the front suspension is very trick

I'm having as much fun watching your thread as building my own.......and I get a lot less torch burns this way !

To bad you didn't ask me, I have this trick about using foam to build a transmission hump, and ...............................................

Don

Don

Thanks for the compliments. They mean a lot coming from you!!

Now, about that glass trick, see I've got this removable top to make and...........

Mike

The secret is to not use any barrier between the foam and the resin. (come on, why should I be the only one with a few failures along the way?)

Don

That dimmer is trick also, you have some great ideas. The tranny hump turned out very smooth, is the box with the slot on it for the E brake?

Brickman

Thanks. You're right, the box is to trim out the hole for the E brake. I can't glue it in until after the interior piece goes in though.

Mike

I reached something of a milestone this week. I finally got the interior insert glued in! This was one of those make or break things, since if it went wrong the body was pretty much trash.

The marine epoxy I used had a long work time and everything went well thanks to help from my dad and son. I'm just glad it's done. I still have a lot to do, but after this I feel like I'm on the downhill side of the fab work.

After the fiberglass body work, I was glad to get back to metal fab.

The gas tank was next up on the agenda. I tried to find a plastic fuel cell, but had no luck. All the race cells were either to big or too tiny. I even looked at under deck marine tanks. Same story.

Nothing left to do but make one. I looked into aluminum sheet, but it was pretty expensive. Since I already had a good size piece of 14 guage steel, I decided to use that.

The dimensions are 31" long, 6 1/2" tall and 15" wide at the bottom. The back side slopes in to 13" at the top. This let it fit the contour of the seat insert better. The capacity should be right at 12 gallons, which should be more than enough. I added a baffle to help keep sloshing down. I don't have a picture, but I put in a small compartment around the fuel pickup to hold gas during braking and cornering.

The local machine shop sheared and broke the pieces. This eliminated the long seams on the bottom. The end seams were welded inside and out.

I wish I could say it all went together with no problems, but I had some warpage on the top when I welded the fittings in. In the pics, you can see the tourch marks where I had to shrink it. It's a lot better, but not perfect. I pressure tested it and was surprised to have no leaks! Believe me that's luck.

It's getting pretty crowded in the bed! I have just enough room to squeeze in the air compressor and valves.

Your tank really, really looks good. Bet you got some welding time in on that one, huh? Some very long welds there. You would have had trouble finding a tank that fits as well as that one does.

Don