Back in Black! rpu build thread

Lookin' fly man!

What ever happened with the airbag chassis? The last I remember you switched bodies on it and now it appears you have gone a whole other direction. I must have missed something. ha ha ha

 

You are making me wanna cry! Just remember, the meaner my remarks, the more i like it.

 

Didn't you turn it into an engine stand or something, Dan?

 

Thanks man! Well, Striper is correct, it became the worlds most ridiculous engine stand. I dunno, I just lost that loving feeling with it. If I was smart, I would have finished it up with the fordor body enough to be drivable, safe & fun. The problem was that I learned lots thru that build, and by the time I got near the end, I hated the things that I did early on. Counseling may help

Now my dilema with this rpu is figuring out how to put a damn bubble top on it

Thanks llonning, it's getting there. I want to finally stop imaging what it will look like & actually finish it haha

Wow, you sound just like a girl I used to date

Thanks scotty, I appreciate

Bingo..... I prefer to say that I brought it full circle. It started out as scrap steel, it ended up as scrap steel

 

Thanks man! Hey, your roadster is partially to blame for my doing the chassis & motor in black!






.

 

Love it love it love it. I was lookin at a pair of those headers today and thinking about making something similar for my pick up. I saw earlier in the post that you put a baffle in, where are the baffles from?

 

Thanks! I got the baffles from Sanderson, they are corkscrew looking baffles. They make little difference in volume. it's tough to tell inside the shop, it seems loud as hell either way

 

Well, it's been forever since I did an update, but I have been getting a lot done. I did a couple small projects, like making hinges & getting the tailgate mounted:



Made brackets & got the tail lights mounted. I originally wanted to mount these low, but you could never see them & I'd end up getting rear-ended by an SUV:



Then I moved on to getting my floor done. I made some poster board templates, then transferred that to 1/8" masonite. Once that fit right, I got ready to use that as a pattern to cut out the real thing in 18 gauge sheet metal.

I used an air nibbler to cut it out. The pattern has to be smaller than the size you need, because of the way the foot of the nibbler is set up.
With my nibble, I need to undersize the template by 3/16" all the way around so that the finish size comes out right.

I trimmed the masonite to lose 3/16" all the way around, then clamped the template to the sheet metal & started cutting. You can see how the sheet metal comes out 3/16" bigger than the template:



After getting all the way around:


If you have ever used a nibbler, you know how it leaves a million "c" shape slivers everywhere. They are stupid sharp, especially if you kneel on them. After the first 1,829 times you get used to it.



Now I had to roll some beads to stiffen the panel up. I decided to roll beads in parallel lines from front to back. My problem is I suck with the bead roller, I can't get 2 lines straight & parallel, let alone to 8 I needed.

So I tried something. The die set on the bead roller is 1" wide. I set up 2 pieces of 1/8" thick 1" wide flat stock & clamped it to the sheetmetal to use as a guide. This made a channel for the die to follow that will not allow it to wander, so it has to be straight. It worked great! All the lines were parallel, and lined up perfect between the 2 floor pans. Here's some pics showing some of how I did it:







Perfect straight line:


I used a small piece of 1" wide stock to clamp it up & get it all lined up:


Almost done:




And here they are clecoed up in the car. The beads lined up perfect. I could have NEVER done that without the guides:




You can also see the templates I made for my soon-to-be door panels:





I had to do a lot of altering to my dash rail to make it line up with the doors, but its all done now too-the dash is all mounted up as well:



And now a million pictures as it sits. I am getting excited though, I think I can see a distant light at the end of the tunnel! Thanks for looking guys

Dan

 

Oops, here they are:

 

Dan,

I have to say, it is a rare car that I can't find something I would do differently. You are making it very difficult to prop up my psyche...

 

Wait! Get rid of that blue tape!

 

Damn! That looks great! The guides for the bead roller is a great idea, I'll be stealing that.

 

Very nice stuff. Good to see an update. Gary

 

Wow Dan. Youy and your dad do great work but this is just amazing. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Besides the pink slip saying my name.

 

cool!!guy you are doing a great work,look savage.....

 

The awesomeness continues, Dan..........

Thanks for the update.

 

Thanks for the update, you are building a reeeeeealy nice car, lots of thought and it shows!

 

lookin great dan!

 

outstanding work as usual ! nice tailight and tailgate brackets , floor looks great too !

 

Guys, thanks a ton, I really appreciate! I feel like a truck ran over me today though............

 

looks great

 

very cool. gonna be badass for sure

 

It's fine..I guess. If you like than kind of thing. .
Sheeet .

 

It's looking fantastic! The guide for the bead roller is smart as well.

Nice work!

 

DUUUUUUUDE!!!!!! It's lookin' GREAT!!!!!! Very excited for this!!!! Love how clean everything is!

Very slick idea on the bead rolling guides. I didn't think of doing it like that. I'm going to need to try that.

Keep going!! Post more!!

 

Very nice!!!

 

WOW!! Dan your truck is looking incredible! Love the bead roller idea as well I will definitely try using that.

 

Thank you all, your support really means a lot! Sometimes I forget how far it has come. I bought the Brookville body in pieces, unassembled. How many boxes could it take to fit every piece of a body in?? About 1,726

Piece #1:


2,3,4,5....






So I guess it's getting there. It does feel really good to see it become a car.

Mr. Bass, if you would teach me to tig my next project will be nicer!! hehe, thanks again guys




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Oh, I forgot. The bead roller guide trick is a life saver! I makes straight lines effortless. I am going to put this in my new book "bead-rolling for dummies"

I can't roll a 2" bead that is straight

Dan

 

your not done yet? jeeees louis.,...

hahahaha

looks totally RAD bra..