Thread: how do you all do the transmission hump?

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Hey guys, got a question. when you are working on your rod and replace the transmission I am sure many of you end up with a big cutout where it was made to fit. I have this and now need to make a piece to cover this up and have for when it gets carpeted. I saw a real slick 49' I think Ford in a magazine that the guy made one out of fiberglass, not sure that would work for me. was thinking of making frame out of some 1"x1/8" steel and then hand shaping some thin sheet metal to go over that.

any other ideas? pictures? all helpful and appreciated.

Red

metal brake and bend them up i have done them this way or roll them thru a metal roller made them this way out of steel and alum . glass would take more work and money. i make up a patterns out of art paper /card board then see how fit then transfer to metal

I take some spongee rubber packing material that is smooth on one side and sort of egg crate on the other ( Procharger uses it for packing material) put it over the trans with egg crate side toward trans and use waxed freezer paper on the top side--apply layers of glass overit

End up with panel that is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches clearance from trans
Use as many layers to get thickness you want/need

Pull out chunks of sponge after cured--about the simplist way I have tryed in my 67 years( On 3-13 )

My Kid did a steel one in his '29 (not done yet) but he made a form out of 1/8 round rods and sort of made a skelaton first, then welded shaped pieces of 18 gauge sheet metal over it, bent to fit the contours. Worked pretty well.

Don

if you do it out of glass you could use fiber jell works better then resin and use very thin alum for a backer when the glass sets up just pop it off the glass .if you do not have any tool s the glass could work but i made them both ways.i like to weld them down helps tie every thing back in have made them out of steel for anglias and the 34 willys were there not much room and others both ways work

a few ways of doing it ..........
If your rod is made of fiberglass , thats what you should build one with .
If its metal , you can hand form one from flat 16 - 18 guage sheet metal, or look into speed shops like Jegs , as they have pre made ones , make sure you get a metal one to weld it in solid for strength and safety or you could go to salvage yards and cut one out of a junker thats close and fit it and weld it in .

not real hard just some fitting to get it right .

Yep mine was for a glass car

For steel try Bitchin Products in Arizona

Jerry

My T is glass, so the tranny hump is too. After one failure building one ( I wasn't smart enough to realize resin eats styrofoam if you don't put a barrier between the two! ) I finally got a system that worked.

I made my shape out of stacked pieces of styrofoam insulating material I bought at Home Depot. I cut it with an electric carving knife to the basic shape. Then I put a layer of drywall joint compound over it all and sanded it smooth. I wouldn't have had to do the joint compound, but I salvaged my styrofoam before the resin from the first go round ate it all up. The compound filled in the low spots.

Then I put a couple of layers of Stucco Tape over the entire surface to act as my barrier and release agent. This red tape is similar to duct tape, but used to mask around windows on stucco homes, so it sticks like glue. Once I had the entire hump done in red tape I started laying up layer after layer of resin soaked mat until I had a new hump made from fiberglass.

When it cured the styrofoam and tape pulled out like butter on a hot knife, no sticking whatsoever.

Don

a bout 32 years ago i made one for my 34 ford truck used chicken wire for a form and laid fiber glass over the top of it that was my first one it work i was 12 years old

made mine as a simple 3 section piece from the back to front made a light angle iron frame that cleared the transmission and then riveted the side sheets on and tech screwed the top panel on over stick on door seal.
this way i can remove the top to access if needed.

Pat Back in 65 made a dragster nose by cutting some profile ribs, hardware cloth(like chicken wire) over that and then wall plaster, shaped/sanded , waxed ( mold release) to make a plug/form to then make the body part from

lots of work but did turn out nice--won many ISCA shows--

Best part of that was that show cars are supposed to be runners and I think we had to fire it up at Cobalt hall in Detroit to break a tie with another car--when the fuel hemi lit off the other guys concided the show as they didn't have any internals in there driveline---memories

Jerry

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Pat Back in 65 made a dragster nose by cutting some profile ribs, hardware cloth(like chicken wire) over that and then wall plaster, shaped/sanded , waxed ( mold release) to make a plug/form to then make the body part from

lots of work but did turn out nice--won many ISCA shows--

Best part of that was that show cars are supposed to be runners and I think we had to fire it up at Cobalt hall in Detroit to break a tie with another car--when the fuel hemi lit off the other guys concided the show as they didn't have any internals in there driveline---memories

Jerry

cool jerry . my landlord that i rent my shop from works with glass he builds air planes now he is back to building boats have watch him make plugs he makes a lot of cool stuff with carbon fiber

When I put the AOD in a 68 falcon, I did thus:

Made hoops from 1/4X1/2" bar stock. Then shaped a piece of 16 Ga over that. Nothing as pretty as the first metal form, just cut some taper wedges in the ends to get some contour. It was STIFF.

Pat

back then carbon was either coal or diamond--no fiber

I have seen guys use wheel barrows for the trans hump/firewall.......as crude as it sounds ,it works and looks rather well...........Think of the view looking at the wheel barrow from the front standing on its wood handles.............. I saw the finished product and it looked very nice .......though it would be much cheaper and probably quicker to just buy the pre formed metal one ,if you need metal,if not the fiberglass mold style will get you the correct clearance for your application and let you make the most out of foot room available.