Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[Itoldyouso]

I bet you are really enjoying working in that new garage, huh Jim? Lots of room. Funny how your stuff expands to fill the space and pretty soon you realize you need more room yet.

Keep hitting on the T, only 271 more days till Turkey Run.

Don

[Mr Blue]

Hoods looking good!

[hotroddaddy]

Woohoo! looking good! good to see ya back at it after a break.

[J. Robinson]

I bet you are really enjoying working in that new garage, huh Jim? Lots of room. Funny how your stuff expands to fill the space and pretty soon you realize you need more room yet.

Keep hitting on the T, only 271 more days till Turkey Run.

Don

Yeah, it's nice to be able to work without having to move the coupe, my Harley, and half my equipment outside just to make room... You're right about "stuff", though. When I retired I had to bring my Electrathon cars and all my other stuff home from school - guess where it all went... Turkey Run? I had originally planned to drive this thing to the T-bucket Nationals this year, but it looks doubtful. Maybe in two years when it's east of the Mississippi again.

[J. Robinson]

Thanks Mr. Blue and HRD. Hopefully I'll be able to keep crankin' on this thing now.

OK, I ran out of time before I got the hood halves put together Wednesday night, so... Putting the two halves together was a pretty simple proposition. The piano hinge I used here is some heavy duty hinge I bought at a surplus store in Orlando. If you've ever looked at piano hinge in your local ACE Hardware, you know how expensive it is just for the lightweight stuff. A 3 ft. section is over $20. I got a 7 ft. piece of this heavy stuff for $9.50! It says it's stainless steel, but it is apparently a low grade of stainless because it's a dull gray color and it welds beautifully with ordinary mild steel wire.

I clamped the hinge to one hood half and put 3 good tack welds on it (1st pic). Next I clamped the other hood half in place, aligned it with the opposite side, and tacked it (2nd pic). Finally, I set it on the roadster to check the fit (3rd pic). It's not real obvious in the picture, but the sag is gone. It's also rigid now. Before, I could flex the center down with one hand; now it doesn't move. I'm not going to put my 230 pound fat ass on it to find out, but I believe it would support my weight now...

[stovens]

Wow that came out great Jim. Nice score on the piano hinges too. Any thoughts to louvered lower panels?

[J. Robinson]

Wow that came out great Jim. Nice score on the piano hinges too. Any thoughts to louvered lower panels?

Already done, Steve. Long story about the louvers; if you're interested you can scroll back and read it... Anyway, here's a pic of the louvers on the left side panel.

[J. Robinson]

Well, the hood is hinged, but still needed a positive means of keeping it on the car. If it was a one-piece hood top I could just use Dzus fasteners in the four corners. However, I chose to make it a hinged two-piece to make it easier to check oil , etc, so there has to be something to hold the center hinge in place (similar to early Fords up through 1936).

Something I didn't illustrate in the earlier posts, when I cut the hinge to length I carefully left the center rod an extra 3/4" long on each end (arrow - 1st pic). I discovered that 1/4" brake line fits perfectly over the center rod, so I cut a 3/4" piece for each end. Then I cut, shaped, and drilled two pieces of 1/8 x 3/4 flat stock for the brackets (2nd pic). The piece for the front is longer because I need to shape it to raise the front of the hood slightly. I welded the brake line tubing to the brackets and then ground down the welds slightly (3rd pic).

The 4th and 5th pics show the ends of the hinges with the brackets in place under the hood. The rear bracket holds the hood at the correct height with no alteration. I had to bend the front bracket so that it is about 1/4" higher in the center.

[Itoldyouso]

What I love about your builds Jim is that you are really inventive and make a lot of your own parts. That hood looks great on there.

Don

[oldrodder43]

Hooray Jim, so glad you're back at it, and with a spanking new workspace! But it's too clean though. But then, so was your old workshop, as I remember. Gives me inspiration to get on with mine, if ever the many feet of snow goes away, and the temp gets more in my favor. 10 below last night!
Perley

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, Don. You know the old saying - necessity is the mother of invention. (In my case, sometimes, necessity is a mother!) Anyway, I have to fabricate most of my stuff; I build such odd one-off things that nobody makes parts for them! It's like my coupe - who makes a kit to install a Jeep axle on Nissan torsion bars under a homemade Deuce frame? Besides, FABRICATION is FUN!! (I have to keep telling myself that.)

Perley! Good to hear from you; it's been a while. Man, cabin fever must be fierce; 10 below isn't fit for human habitation!! Yeah, I'm finally back at it on the roadster and putting this new garage to good use. Hopefully I'll stay on it now until it's done...

[stovens]

Jim cool solution for the hood support! Clever and simple is always the best!

[The Bat]

I like the way that was done a lot,your rod is really coming out nice. I like it. Been some time,and I missed some stuff not being on site.

A tought;The thing I think you may wish to redo at some point in time after having fun a little ,is steering coming out of cowl*,the bump steer is real bad as is,just jump up and down on your front frame some how near axle and look at your steering wheel turning a lot as your doing that. You can drive as is fine, but pick smooth roads,it's only going to act up on big bumps. A bumps input is what helps start wobbely if every thing is not just right. This was fine on a dirt track were we're sawing like hell on the steering wheel racing,but not so good on the street,I know it a look thing,like those guy the use them ribbed tractor tires on the front cus they some how think it looks good to them but they don't brake or steer good on street at all, except in ruff dirt racing.
*If you do deside on fixing that later and don't have the design worked out already[knowing you, you do],send me a email and I'll send a layout for much less bump.

[J. Robinson]

Never fear, Bat, the bumpsteer is pretty minimal on this. First, the picture above is not a true representation of how the drag link runs on this car. In that pic the drag link looks like it's running downhill as it goes forward. Since that pic was taken I built a different steering arm for the front spindle that puts the drag link level with the ground and parallel to the radius rod (see page 35). Also, the rebound on this frontend is pretty stiff, so the axle moves very little. I can jump on it with my 230 pounds and it only moves about an inch.

When I started this build I considered cross-steering it like my coupe, but I wanted the steering to more closely replicate the track roadsters from the 40s and early 50s. If it proves to be a problem I will change it later, but the geometry on this is very similar to my old C-Cab and it was a pleasure to drive. Thanks for your input, though. I know you've been at this (building race cars) longer than I have.

[Itoldyouso]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, sorry, Jim. I fell asleep waiting for an update on your car. What the heck have you been up to? We keep talking about wanting to see it at TR.......think there is a shot at that?

From the pictures in Feb and March it looks like it is coming along great.

Don