Thread: Another project? Sure, why not!!

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Don -

The shift pattern for my Hydramatic in my 57 Olds, is P N D S L R. Made the mistake one time of pulling it down too far and catching the R when actually going forward. Eye popping surprise, didn't take long to realize the mistake. According to my Olds manuals, the S actually stands for Super, not Second. Works like a manual kick down.

Steve, he is coming along pretty well. Sure are trying for Daytona. I told him if I have to tie a rope around his axle and tow him with my T it is going. It's the weekend, and usually he and I go on Friday night and stay until 5 or 6 AM, and then do the same thing Saturday night and almost as long on Sunday, so we should get a whole lot done this weekend. He mentioned he would like to start shortening his frame this weekend, so maybe next week I can take it to have it sandblasted. I think I better take a nap because it is going to be a long night.

Bob, thanks for that info. My shift arm only clicks into 5 detents, and yours shows 6. Do you think they changed it in 59-60? I put in in all 5 positions and none of them lock it up like a normal park position would. I could still spin the driveshaft in every one of them.

If it doesn't have park I will have to install an emergency brake I guess. I was trying to avoid that.

Don

Don I was online looking for the street rodder article on Ken, when I stumbled across this http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/...ina/index.html
I think you mentioned doing something similar. Looks cool.

Yep Steve, that's it. Dan just told me the other night he saved an article in some magazine on how to do that process, so that might be what he has. I'm going to have a sign shop do some door art, maybe "Don's Speed Shop....est 1945" on it, and then sand some of it away to age it too.

Kinda dumb, I know, and some people won't get it, but I have one shiny car, so this will be my beater.

Well, time to head for the shop to get some actual work done on it and Dans car............later.

Don

That would be very cool. There is a member on here with an old chevy truck that is beige with an old sign on the door. Very clever with the est 1945!

I figure it would be the truth too Steve, I was "established" in 1945.

This is going to be a short update. It's 6:30 AM and I just got in from pulling an all nighter, and I am toast right now. Mc Donald's breakfast burrito tastes like the best meal I've ever had.

I got tired of you guys beating up on me for my cardboard interior , so I started replacing it with tin tonight. The hardest part to form is probably going to be the square box over the bellhousing, so that is what I worked on tonight. I took the cardboard one and used it as a template, transferring the shape to some 22 gauge sheet metal. I would have used 18 gauge, but I didn't want to cut up the piece in the shop because Dan will be using that for his floor. The 22 gauge is ok, and easier to cut anyway.

Once I had the shape transferred I cut it out with nibblers and air shears, then rolled a couple of beads in it for strength more than detail, but for doing it all by myself it came out pretty well, I think. I've never used our bead roller by myself, but Dan was too tired after work tonight to go to the shop, so I had to give it a try. Not that hard to do really, I was surprised.

Then I bent up the tin into a box shape, and used cleco fasteners to hold it temporarily in place. Dan will want to weld it up for me, but I want to use pop rivets instead. I had aluminum interiors in two of my drag cars, and the interior was done with pop rivets, and I always liked that look........sort of drag-racey. I probably am going to use spatter finish on the entire interior of the cab, once all the flooring is in.

Here are some pictures of how it all went tonight,

Don

And here is how it ended up. All of those clecos are holding two pieces of strap steel I put behind the box to keep it's shape and give it some strength. Pop rivets will replace them as soon as I do a little more grinding, etc.

I slid it into place, and it fits pretty well for the first try. The rest of the tin work should go pretty easy now. Wait till Dan sees it tomorrow........he thinks he is the tin-master!!

Don

Nice collection of vise grips you have there. I now have vise grip envy.
Nice metal work, do you have a pan brake? Is your bead roller still a crank? Mine is the HF one beefed up and I intend to put a steering wheel on it.

you must have been tired Don if a mcdonalds breakfast burrito taste that good. excellent looking tin work there.

Don-That looks great to me! I think the pop rivets will Carry the theme of your truck nicely ! McDonald's breakfast burrito???
Ken

An Egg McMuffin I might be able to handle, but a breakfast burrito BTW Don, the big swap meet at the fairgrounds here in Springfield is coming up shortly and I'll keep my eyes peeled for a red metalflake steering wheel. Any particular size?

I like the box look with rivets. Hey what's wrong with McDonalds? At 1 a.m. coming home from work, nothing beats a Happy Meal!

Thanks everybody. I feel like I was out drinking all night.

Willowbilly, It's funny how many tools you drag out to do a simple job. I had vice grips holding vice grips. Yep, we have a brake that really makes it nice to do this stuff. Luckily, I had used it a few times to help Dan bend up stuff for his car, so I kinda knew what to do. No, we bought the motorized bead roller. The vendor in his video suggested that the motor makes it so much easier, especially for one person, and he was right. I was able to put those in last night with very little effort. But for as much as you really use one of these things a manual model is fine.

Jyardgirl, I hadn't eaten since about 3 the previous afternoon, so I would have been happy eating the box from a happy meal!

Ken, I think so on the rivets too. If I were talented I would do what Bill (Gastrick) did with his '32........he used real rivets and bucked each one in place. He must have put 1,000 rivets inside it, and people are in awe at car shows at how great it looks. But I'm going to take the easy route here and pop them in place.

NTFDay, a 14 inch would be good. I was watching one on Ebay, but it has gone to $65 already with time to go and lots of people watching it. I have a nice black wheel that I might use, but if you see one cheap grab it and let me know. Thanks.

Well, Dan's up and it's time to do it all over again!!!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEE!!

Don

Hey Don just saw on ebay, not sure if this is what your looking for, but the price is right! Red flake steering wheel. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ayphotohosting

That's the one I was watching, but I bet it tops $ 100, and is less than perfect, according to the ad. It's nice, but there are other places I need to put the money right now. As I mentioned, I have a couple of other wheels that I could use for now, just to get it on the road, and then switch out sometime later on.

Thanks for checking that one out Steve.

Don