Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[Ron B.]

I watch them cut up and reweld gas tanks on shows like American Chopper all the time and wonder how they do them with no leaks. Never been my experience. Maybe if you do it all the time. I've even had ones I repaired and they still needed sloshing compound to seal them up.

Looking good Jim, and glad to hear your Boy is probably going to make Orlando.

Don

They pretty much all use a tank sealer, I have a couple of tanks i've gotten for bikes and they all say to use a sealer. I have a vintage trials bike, the tank had several rust pin holes i took it to a local radiator shop 12 years ago and had it sealed and it's still good today.

[J. Robinson]

I have the turtle deck mounted on the roadster now; I'll have the pics & how-to up on here in a day or two. I also have fabricated the rear bumper, but don't have it mounted yet. I got shut down temporarily by a problem with my computer - seems it got a worm. Fortunately, I caught it in time and took my computer in for a major cleaning and tune-up...

It's interesting that we were talking about gas tanks... I had to take another break from the roadster the last couple of evenings and help my son again. It seems his sedan developed a habit of dying on him, starved for fuel. We replaced all the fuel filters - didn't help. Checked the vent and replaced the fuel pump - didn't help. Carb checked out OK. Finally, we narrowed it down to something in the tank. This evening I took the fuel gauge sender out and looked down in the tank with a flashlight. The bottom of the tank was covered with silver dollar-sized rust flakes floating loose. We drained and removed the tank, put detergent & water in it, added a shovel full of rocks (to break up the flakes), and started shaking it. After about an hour of shaking and beating and flushing repeatedly, we finally got it clean inside. It's back in the car now and working fine. Moral of the story - if you're going to use junkyard tanks, have them hot-tanked first!

[J. Robinson]

OK, back to the matter at hand... I have come to the point where I wanted to fabricate the rear bumper for the roadster. In order to do that, however, I needed to have the turtle deck mounted in its correct position. Using a variety of welder's magnets and wood shims, I blocked the deck in place only to find that it is warped! It's no big surprise, really; fiberglass parts often are found to be less than perfect. Regardless, it was a problem that had to be dealt with.

The first step was to get the front end of the deck bolted in place on the body. Ignoring the rear of the deck for now, I leveled and centered the front flange to the body, then drilled and bolted it in place. This is all pretty straightforward work, so I didn't bother to take pictures. When I assemble the body for the final time, I will permanently bond the turtle deck to the body with bonding adhesive that is made for assembling Corvette body panels.

With the front of the deck leveled and secured, the left rear corner was just over an inch lower than the right. I used my floor jack and a wood block to jack the low corner up until it was even with the opposite side. I used a tape measure to check the height from the floor. I also measured the rear of the frame rails to the floor to make sure it was also level.

Once everything was square and level, I fabricated a pair of brackets from 3/16 x 2 flat stock. These are just simple straps that extend downward at an angle from the rear corners of the frame and then flatten out to catch the bottom rear corners of the turtle deck. The turtle deck has widened flange areas in both rear corners to accommodate the mounting brackets. All that was left was to drill through the fiberglass and install 5/16 x 1 bolts. Finally, I removed the jack. One last check with the tape measure confirms that everything is straight and level.

[brickman]

Nicely done, now that way with the T-Deck I see you have created enough room for one of those little Batterys maybe above the axle? I love the car and the set up, will there be any need for a rear sway bar as light as the car is?

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, Brickman. No, I hadn't intended to put a sway bar on either end. As light and stiff as this thing is, it shouldn't be necessary. If anything, I may need to soften up the suspension some, especially on the front.

[Itoldyouso]

Looking good Jim. I always liked the turtle deck T's a lot. You are right about all of them having some warp to them. From being stored mine had taken a twist toward the drivers side and I had to clamp in in place while I did the glass work. That solved it.

Don

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, Don. I never bothered to mention it before, but my body was also twisted slightly. In order to make it fit the frame properly, I had to shim the left rear corner up 1/4 inch. Everything seems to be straight and level now.

The next step, finally, is to fabricate the rear bumper. For this I used my trusty Harbor Freight pipe bender and some 3/4" OD tubing (1/2" black iron pipe). The nice part about this little stuff is it bends without kinking and you don't have to pack it with sand.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory as to how I did it. The idea here is to accomodate the license plate in the center and surround the '48 Ford taillights on either end. It all fits within the width of the rear of the turtle deck. I won't get back to this to fabricate the mounting brackets until after the weekend; my son and I are going to the Rumblers' Groundhog Gala in Orlando.

Would a real track-T have had taillights and a license plate? In some cases, yes. Back in the late '40's and early '50's when these cars were terrorizing the local short-tracks, a lot of them were flat-towed to the track with a tow bar which necessitated taillights and license. A few, in rural areas, were driven to the track, headlights removed, raced, headlights re-installed, and driven home. Those were truly the good old days...

[Itoldyouso]

Jim, how did you fishmouth the tubing so it butts up so tight against the other tube? Grinder? I like the style of the nerf bar, it will really dress up the rear.

As I mentioned, my body got twisted from the way I stored it on top of my '27 for a few months. I had to pull it into shape, clamp it, and tape down the high corner until the resin set up.

Storing it that way was not the brightest thing to do.

Don

[J. Robinson]

This small tubing fits so close with such a small gap that I didn't bother notching it. I just filled the small gaps with my welder. If I needed a tighter fit for some reason, like maybe TIG welding, I would have used my Harbor Freight tube notcher. I used it extensively when fabricating the frame and radius rods.

Fiberglass can do weird things. If it's pulled out of the mold too soon, it will warp; if it's left sitting unsupported for a short time, it will warp. The warmer the ambient temperature, the faster it deforms... Years ago, a friend of mine bought an old Anglia gasser body that had been sitting for several years in a storage shed. The body was all steel except for the one-piece tilt doghouse which was fiberglass and had been sitting for years with boxes, etc. piled on it. When they pulled it out of the shed and set the frontend against the body, the fenders were so deformed it looked like it was about to take flight. Needless to say, the one-piece frontend got trashed and replaced.

[J. Robinson]

Well, we made the "maiden voyage" with my son's sedan last Saturday. He and a buddy were in his car and I followed in my coupe. The first stop was at a local Shell station so he could fill up, and then it was on to Orlando.

As we passed through the town of Bithlo, approaching the outskirts of Orlando, the sedan started skipping and stuttering. My son whipped into a jiffy-mart to get out of the traffic. It took just a few minutes to discover the problem - there was water in the fuel! Jim Jr had been driving this car around since Tuesday night with no problems, so the water had to come from the gas he'd just got at the Shell station. This would be the first of four such stops!

We drained off some of the watered gas and added two bottles of gas tank drier, but there was just too much water to absorb. We finally made it to the Groundhog Gala... 2 1/2 hours late. Apparently, we finally cured the problem because there were no further problems on the trip home and no problems since.

Here are a couple of pics. First, a pic I shot through the windshield of Jim Jr's sedan leading the way. Second, the two of us with our cars together at the Gala.

[Itoldyouso]

I bet he is as proud as can be, as he should. That's fantastic that it got done in time. Looks great too.

Water in the gas is becoming a real problem. There is one gas station I avoid now because I have gotten bad gas twice so far. You might consider adding a marine water seperating fuel filter in line. They really do a good job removing water from the system and you can just spin off the filter like an oil filter and dump it and replace it occasionally. I would have put one on the T but was limited on space.

Tell the Boy good job, Jim.

Don

[Gastrick]

Congrats on the maiden voyage and show. I wanted to come up for that but just couldn't make it this year.

[Hotrod46]

Congratulations on your first road trip!

Great looking car too!

Mike

[J. Robinson]

Thank you all. I will have him read your kudos for himself...

The trip over was a trying experience. At the last stop to remove more water, he was disgusted and ready to go home. I convinced him that we were so close (about 4 miles) it would be a shame to give up. Once we got there and he saw some old friends, everything was fine.

He's already planning trips to some cruise-ins around the area. His excitement reminds me of me when I finally drove my own first hotrod to its first event. Also, building this car together has been a great experience and a great way to spend time together.

[Itoldyouso]

Jim, you and we other rodders who have lived with these things for years understand that even the best hot rods break down, but that is hard to convey to younger rodders sometimes. Like when Don's T swallowed that valve on the way to Daytona, these things happen, all part of the game.

I'm glad he hung in there. Driving these things around town is one thing, but when you take them out on the road it sort of becomes like our forefathers taking a trip in their Model T's, you have to be prepared to baling wire stuff together and get going again. Plus, you guys really didn't have a lot of shake down time on his car before heading out.

But now he has a great little sedan to be proud of and has gotten the first outing under his belt. Good for him and for you in keeping his faith up.

Don