Projects KIWI MADE 1927 T Lakes modified - Journey to the end of the road!

KIWI MADE 1927 T Lakes modified -NOW IN COLOR! Journey to the end of the road!

Well here it is guys and gals, I have finally taken the time to start the thread that will lead me to the end of the road.....for this project.

About 8 years ago I set off on this journey, to do a quick build up on a simple inexpensive car, to fill a gap while the family was young.....Ha! so much for that theory! The plan was to build a 1927 T lakes modified roadster with a tube frame and Alloy V8. As they say "The best laid plans of mice and men......"

I am currently at the stage whereby I have a whole pile of panels away at the paint shop at the moment, the engine is being reassembled and my club is set to host an indoor display mid July....this year! The other big event is our national governing body is hosting the 50th anniversary Hotrod show one week after we hold ours. I am hoping to be ready for both of these events.

I will post up a few historic pictures of the build to date, then work my way to the present time, and then try to keep you all up to date with news as it comes to hand.

If anyone has any questions along the way....jump on in, and I will do my best to answer them.

The first picture is a sketch that a friend did from a photo for me.

 

Initially I laid all the major components out on the table and worked out where I wanted/needed everything to fit/work. From this point I made up a temporary wooden frame for the body support, from there I reverse engineered the chassis to fit around everything.
The front suspension is based around the tried and true combo of Henry's parts, but I didn't want to have a transverse leaf spring. I had decided to go with a torsion bar type set-up to give me some adjustability and tuning capability. To make this possible I found some torsion bars from a 1970s British light weight sedan and then proceded to make them work.

To keep the torsion bars functional I had to link them to the axle some how. On the right side (Drivers and drag link side) I used a spherical joint fixed to the wishbone, which in effect provides a panhard like connection to this side. Due to the two sides of the link arms from the torsion bars swinging in opposing arcs, the left side required a 'knuckle' to allow for movement and avoid binding.

I had also hoped to take the car onto a dirt track one day and the torsion bars will allow me to preload the outside wheel and unload the inside wheel to make it go around corners! Time will tell!

 

Looking great, really keen to see it when it hits the road. Keep up the good work.

 

Interesting project, and some clever ideas. Have fun, Gary

 

I really wanted this car to handle well, steer straight, corner well and not have any bump steer. i figured the best way to do this was get the geometry right first time.

I spent a long time trying to find the right sterring box to make these thing happen, but didn't want to have to deal with 70 or 80 year old parts. Eventually I found an early (80's) Toyota Hilux pickup 4wd solid front axle non power box.

I mounted the box keeping in mind the length of the Pitman arm, length of the steering arm, geometry of axle and steering column positioning. The draglink end of the Pitman arm is positioned directly above the rear mount point of the front wishbone. I have run the suspension through a full range of movement and found that there should be NO bumpsteer at all, even when the chassis is dropped on one side in the rear, so I am pretty satisfied it sould work well.

I also made the column from some bits of alloy I found in the parts box and then set about making the wheel from some 1/4" alluminium and some native hardwood.

 

Keep going

 

Real nice project hope you have seen Kustoms project down here in Christchurch it is along similar lines and is well worth looking at
Rusty

 

jeeeze the place is gonna be overrun with lake modifieds soon
cool ,

 

heh heh heh yeah cool eh!! Btw...lookin good on your wee hotrod Woodbox.

 

Nice work Woodbox, must remember about the Hilux steering box looks like it could fit on a lot of chassis, and easier to find than an HQ one.

Scotty.

 

There will never be too many modifieds!

 

Looking good! I hope you keep the updates coming on this thread.

 

I will be trying to add a bit every night, until I get caught up to date.

Thanks Rusty.

Not possible k1w1.

Cheers Fleet.

Cheers Kev. I do appreciate that from you. are you in NZ for the blowout?
Coming north at all if you are?

 

For tonights episode.........INTERIOR PANELS.

After I got the chassis pretty much sorted out I started to put together the panels for the interior and the fire wall. I was luck enough to get some sheets of 1/8'' card board from my Dad, which turned out to be great for making templates as is behaves in a similar manner to sheet steel and you can trim it, or even add (weld) bits back on with some masking tape if you go too far. It is a lot easier to do all the additions and subtractions in card before you cut it out of steel!

After each template was made to fit, I would throw them in the ute (pickup) and head for my mates coachbuilding shop to use the guillotine, brake folder and swaging jenny. The apprentice in the shop would always watch with mouth open as I wandered in with a template or two under my arm......and then wander out a couple of hours later with finished panels!

The interior floor panels serve many functions, importantly they stop my feet from hitting the road and stop the roadkill from coming up from underneath, but more importantly at the outer edges they fold up and return inwards toward the centreline. This return flange is where the sill panels, that run the full length of the chassis rails, are supported and fastened. I will try to find a picture that illustraites this clearly.

The firewall is made in seven separate pieces to enable its fitting around the spaceframe tubes. The top portion of the fw is hammerformed and wraps around a horizontal crossmember located halfway down the fw. The lower portion of the fw also wraps around the same crossmember totally encasing the xmember. The trans tunnel attaches to the lower fw and the floor panels.

Time for some pictures

 

which coachbuilder do you go to ? just curious as I have a mate up there I've lost track of. We used to work together in Kaitaia in the early 90s.

 

Normans Motors, a local bus company.

 

ok. Doesn't sound familiar. Think he workin in Kamo from memory. We were also in Far North Rod club for a while ...had a great time.

 

No Blowout for me this year.

 

Bugger! Me neither.....had to work!
Next year for sure.......with the car!

 

DEFINITELY keep this one coming. I've got a far back burner modified project that I keep collecting parts for. Just hope I live long enough to see it fleshed out and running. Probably be in my will to my grandson as he is exibiting a lot of McGuyver skills for one so young.

Frank

 

Jeez I didn't realise this was going to be a show car, I'll have to try & get the paint colour right for you (lol).
Russell

 

Just poke it all in a big ol bucket and give it a stir with a big stick Russel!

 

Nice! I'm impressed from concept to where you are just now! Looks like it'll be a T that allows you to sit down 'in' it, & perhaps have a reasonable modicum of legroom to boot? ...and aircraft style buckets that look like the might even be comfy [no hard edge at the front]!

 

Its guna have THE LOOK ! ........ great stuff mate !
..... and thanks RussTee for the kind words.

 

Woodbox , I saw this in the flesh ( and spoke to you about the build ) at your local swap maybe 5? years back . It looked great then , will be a really neat thing when you're all done - I'm looking forward to the finished product .
Rod .

 

Looking good Woodbox.
Great to see something done a little differently.
BTW: I just got back from Beach Hop and the BlowOut, and the BlowOut seemed to be down a bit this year. Still, well worth the round trip of 1000 klicks.

 

Did ya get the Tudor there Bassman ?

 

An exhausting process, made easy!

I dragged out some more template card and some drawing gear, then I had to remember some high school tech drawing theory on developing a cone. Once I had that figured out and made up a template to suit and mocked it all up on the stands, it was time to cut some steel and start rolling.

I work in an oil refinery, and asked the guys in the lagging (insulation) shop nicely if I could use the slip rolls. The rollers in their shop are only 2" diameter which made doing the small end a lot easier.

After the initial rolling was completed I took them home and used a bunch of hose clamps (2 joined end to end for the large end of the cone) to help pull the cone into shape, and a little hammer work over a pipe in the vise.
Once I was happy with the two cones formed and welded it was time to fit up the primary pipes.

A friend owns an exhaust shop in town, so he profile cut a bunch of header plates to my design. I then set these up in the lathe and faced off the gasket face and cut a spiggot on the tube side for a nice snug fit.

To quieten things down a bit I decided to incorporate internal baffling, this is pretty much all guess work at this stage.....but time will tell.

When I was happy with the finished product, the whole lot was sent away and HPC coated inside and out. Outside in flat black and inside grey.

 

Looking really good. I like the hood. I might try one some day.

 

Rod, I do remember that one. That was the cars first public showing, and a real boost to hear people talking about it. Especially when they are talking about it and you are nearby just eaves dropping, and they don't know who it belongs to!

Bassman, Next year for the Hop and definately the blowout! had to work so missed them both.

Cheers mate appreciate that!

When I am in the car my shoulders are even with the top edge of the body, so only my head is visable and I am 6' tall, and there is plenty of legroom for my size 12 boots too!
The cardboard templates of the seats had a soft edge on the fronts, but the steel ones don't, but my legs don't touch them any way.
The top edge of the body only sits about 2" above the top of the rear tyres, so this should keep the C.O.G. pretty low!