Hot Rods A 40 Ford Coupe for Uncle Mike Build Thread

No need to be humble, you know what you're doing. Want to see hobbyist level/hack? See my build thread. Nice work. I'll be copying your floor repair techniques when I weld my floor pans in.

 

Nice work ,as always. I'm going to have to modify the tank sending unit access also; seeing yours reminded me. More work, damn.

 

Thanks Okiedokie, Joel and Dan. I appreciate you all and I am enjoying your build threads as well.
Well I worked pretty late tonight and finished up all of the insulation that I can do on the car for now. The rest will have to wait until the body is on the frame.

I am doing the full coverage thing. Probably overkill but should be nice for cruising.....providing the flathead can get all of that extra weight up and moving.

That access panel for the fuel tank just disappears is in a sea of Dynamat logos.


Those white pieces hanging from the upper firewall are the strips of 1/8" strap I welded to the fire wall to attach the fuse block and other wiring stuff too.The two pieces of square tube are welded to the lower passenger side firewall to mount the heater . I will insulate this section after I figure out where to mount the gas pedal.



We took the chassis back to the Muffler shop today. Hopefully the drivers side exhaust will get rerouted so it will allow the clutch to work and be a little lower in the frame so that my left foot won't get fried. That is a pretty crowded area to run a 2 inch pipe through.

 

Are those brake lines touching the exhaust or does the picture just make it look that way?

 

Just curious as to how much total weight you think you will have added to the car? I have no experience, but had the impression that Dynamat was super light?

Very nice build on every point.

 

Man you really went to town!

Dynamat is the opposite of light.

 

No they are not touching but they were within 1/2". Hopefully the clearance will increased to 1" or more when he finishes the modifications I have requested.

Thanks Finn Jensen! I am not certain of he weight. But I will be using a total of 18 24" x 48" sheets by the time I am done. My guess is each package of 9 sheets weighed over 50 lbs. I will weigh a sheet and get back to you on that.

X38 ,Yes I guess I did. Never said I was sane......... and yes Dynamat is neither light or cheap.

 

Thanks, only curious. Please don't go out of your way..

I was incorrectly thinking of Dynomat being like insulation for temperature -- lightweight type foam. Thinking a bit more, obviously an insulation to deaden sound would have to be heavier to be effective.

 

Left side exhaust is tough and I don't have the clutch and brake pedals under the floor. I ran the brake lines along the inside of the left X rail and the fuel lines along the insidde of the right X rail. I don't know if it's better , but it's farther from the exhaust. Great job with the Dynamat.

 

Yes the left side is very tight. Actually this particular area is why I took it to a professional. I was planning to do the whole system myself but I could see that it would cost me a bunch of money just to buy mandrel bent pieces to maneuver around all of that drivers side hardware.

 

I 'clearanced' the hole in the x member a little when the motor was out because i knew the exhaust would be tight going through there.

 

We built an aluminum shield between the mc/booster and the exhaust pipe and had the pipes ceramic coated on my 40 coupe. No heating problems in the brake system. I can't get the pictures I scanned to load, so no pictures.

 

That was good planning Dan I should have done the same. Yesterday I told the muffler guy that it was OK to open that X member up a little to get the pipe through. In this case I will choose function over ascetics.......to some degree. I hope he doesn't get carried away with the cutting (if he does any).

I hope I don't need a shield but if needed I put one in there before the body goes on. Ceramic coating would be nice but I don't think I will do it on this car.
It's hard to get a good picture of this spot but you can see he had the pipe in contact with the X member and the pipe was pitched up to get through the hole then he just continued on that elevated path. The pipe will need to be turned back down to clear the clutch pedal , clear the brake lines and keep from roasting my left foot.

 

As a note about Dymamat, for those who have not used it, it is a foil backed sticky tar type thing (I'm not saying it is tar, but looks like it) and 1/8 inch thick at most, probably thinner. Being flexible, it will mould and comply with all sorts of irregular surfaces and is self adhesive.

For taking the drumminess out of panels, it is excellent and you only need a small piece on a panel to achieve that. Cover the panel and it will dull it right down and insulate from noise. The 39 Guy will be like a private cocoon! It can make a steel car sound like fiberlass when you tap on it.

As far as heat etc. insulation factor, I don't know.

Anyway, carry on. Great job as usual!

 

I was thinking about just wrapping the pipe in that section with that cloth heat wrap. I'm not sure what its called, the motorcycle guys use it.

 

Thermowrap is one name.

Personally, I'd rather run the line around the X-members. A bit longer, but less prone to flex and easier to keep away from the exhaust. And I'm one who hates re-doing things!

 

Looking backward, I wish I'd invested in a chrome grille. That's the only 20/20 eyesight I have. Very nice build.

 

I have used the header wrap on my 39 with good success. Wish I could find the leftovers somewhere in my piles of stuff. We could reroute the brake lines but I hope the exhaust configuration will keep me from having to do that.

 

^^^I'm sure you fellas will figure it out and finish it such that it looks great, works well, and runs no risk of undue heat to the brake lines. Blind faith! It won't go wrong now.
Keep workin'
Al

 

Be careful with that stuff, it retains moisture and can rot a pipe in half pretty quickly. I've seen a few bike exhausts destroyed by it. I'd go with a metal heat shield first.

 

Thanks Hamtown Al ! We will be sure to study all possibilities and hopefully come up with a long lasting and practical solution.

I visited the muffler shop today and reviewed the changes made to the drivers side exhaust. He had tacked it together but wanted me to approve the changes. Looks much better and a metal heat shield should take care of the master cylinder.

The Header to steering box clearance is another story though. I will cover the modifications to the header in some future posts. I may have to put some insulation on the steering box.

 

I dynamatted my 40 tudor over the winter before it went to upholstery. just for future reference, Summit blew everybody else out of the water on dynamat prices. they had an instant rebate & free shipping. I had heard before not to put it on the roof ( I have a black car) so I didn't. I still had the factory cardboard stuff stuck to the roof so we just cut off any pieces that seemed loose. my upholstery guy agreed. he personally had seen dynamat loosen after the sun beating down on a dark colored roof.

 

I have had a dynamat type stuff called B-Quiet on the roof of my 40 coupe for a few years now. Black and in the Oklahoma heat and no sign of it letting loose. After I installed it but before interior I set it out in 100 degree sunshine for several hours with no sign of failure. However I wont use it again because I found that Lizard Skin covered by the product that lobuckrod here on the Hamb sells works just as well.

 

HMMM ,I used Dynamat before on the roof of a 38 Ford sedan with no problems,The 38 was yellow. My coupe is light blue. Both colors should produce less heat than your black sedan. I think if you apply the dynamat correctly you should get good results. The coupe roof has fresh clean white DP90 so I hope I don't have any failures.

I will probably drive this car for awhile before the headliner is installed so I will be able to keep an eye on it.

 

Dynamat Xtreme weighs approximately 22lbs per bulk pack which covers 36sqft. Dynamat Xtreme and Stinger Roadkill Expert can be installed upside down and will not come down if you have cleaned the surface well before installation. Heat is not needed to install the product but you should use a roller tool to bond the material to the surface. Dynamat Xtreme and Stinger Roadkill Expert are made of butyl rubber not asphalt or tar. Lesser products may not stay bonded to the panel if mounted vertically or upside down. High quality sound deadeners are worth every penny IMO. I do not know why anyone asks about the weight. It is a non-issue. 100lbs spread around the car will make no difference in handling or performance but a huge difference in vehicle enjoyment. Both companies also make other foams and carpet underlayment as well as underhood shields to block noise and heat.

I use a Marshalltown roller #19571 & 19564
http://www.marshalltown.com/productDetail.aspx?prodID=19571
They are built better than the Dynamat brand roller.

 

Friday we picked up the chassis. Jerry did a great job on the exhaust this time.

The clutch pedal now has enough travel.

Good clearance for the frame here. I am a little concerned about the clutch ball gizmo clearance. There is a rubber seal in there they may not like the heat from the exhaust pipe.

He remembered the O2 censors this time also. I thought these bungs took 1/2" pipe plugs but mine did not fit. Anybody know what type of plug goes in these things?

Next project is fixing this steering box to header clearance problem. Beating the header with the ball peen hammer made for a pretty ugly finish and it still didn't clear the header.
We did some brainstorming and drew out these potato chip style cuts.
I cut out the first section using my dremmel tool and finished off the cut with a file.
I cut out a cardboard pattern and transferred it to a section 18 gauge steel.

This is a handy and inexpensive tool for comparing sheet steel size. It is called a wire gauge.

After some bending and several trips to the belt sander I got it to fit the hole.
I tacked the piece in and cut the next piece out.
Darn header was hard to hold in a good position for fitting and welding so I decided to mount it on this scrap board. I hope to get more done tomorrow.

 

Continued working on the header project this week.

It took quite awhile to fit these potato chip pieces in.




Test fit showed that there is now a small but hopefully adequate clearance.


All those old welding gloves come in handy some times.


Both patches mig welded well. The ceramic coating had no effect on the welding process.


Metal finished the pieces with a cone shaped carbide deburing tool and some 2 inch flap wheels.


Added some VHT aluminum colored paint


I used some DEI titanium exhaust wrap and secured it with some stainless steel wire tie style straps.

 

Nicely done. It looks like you may be running out of things to fix; that's a good thing.

 

The O2 bungs are same threads as spark plugs. Not pipe thread. . Walker and other exhaust companies make a plug for that, although you could weld up an old spark plug. Don't have part number off-hand for the Walker part.