Projects KIWI 1939 COUPE DU JOUR - Runnin from Johnny Law!

you are just like every mad scientist.............BRILLIANT!

 

Wade....If you only have `clean` metal where your weld seams are, will that affect the coating process? I presume you will HPC them or similar, yes? Interesting solution. Plain steel tubing is getting hard to get here as well.....

 

I am pretty sure the coatings will stick to any metal without issues. I plan to wrap with heat proof exhaust wrap, so none of it will be seen any way.

 

Will you also be facing off the ends of your cut donut portions?

 

I did that with a file!

 

There it is. One side complete to the collector flange. I am working on the next stage below the flange to the 2 into one transition piece.

 

Nice work....................as usual. JW

 

I dropped the body on today. This involved a bit of unscrupulous hacking on the fire wall and floor to clear the engine and trans. I am planning to make an entire new firewall and tunnel anyway, so no big deal there. I threw in a seat and found an old Camaro column that I had lying around. I wanted to sort out positioning of the column and universals so I can clear them with the headers tubes on the right side. I looks like things should all fit with a few odd angles on collectors and flanges (this will not help my OCD!).
The shifter position looks to be pretty damn close to spot on in the factory location, relative to the seat/wheel/pedals etc.
Back to work in the morning, so not much happening for a couple of days.

 

This is the drivers side (right) header mock up in plywood. Differing from the left side to clear the steering shaft and U joints for the wrack and pinion.
I have kept the collector square to the plane that the side of the head is on, but canted back to point the transition piece away from the u joint. The piece of plywood taped to the chassis is to maintain a clearance distance.
Tomorrow I will be able to use the measurements from these wooden pieces to cut all the tubes to length and get the aluminium removal under way, after facing them all off in the lathe.

 

Slept today, then cut up the tubes roughly to length and dropped them into the caustic to remove the aluminium. One end of each all done. I have turned them over for the night while I am at work. Tomorrow they will be ready to face off to exact lengths. Off to work for the night at the petrol factory.....woohoo!

 

So much for getting anything done on the job today! I got out of bed at 11a.m. and proceeded to jump in the roadster and drive to the opposite coast........for a charity poker run.....in the rain! You really do gotta wonder sometimes! Any day on the road is a good day!

 

So far today. Faced off the tubes, cut the bends, tacked it all, full weld individual tubes, then assemble and weld.
Tomorrow, Collector, flange, cross over tube and weld up.

 

All i can say is......Slick!!......JW

 

Nice work, makes me wanna go out to the shed and do something.
Just Gotter finish cooking these stinky mutton birds first.

 

I decided it would be easier to whip the engine out of the car and bolt everything together with shims to allow for gasket thicknesses. Initially i stood the block on its butt end to reach as many welds as possible. Now I have rolled it down side up, to reach some more. Then I will stand it on its nose end. Damn phone wouldn't let me post all the pictures together, so split posts will have to do.

 

Doing it this way is so much easier than trying to do it with the chassis bolted to the jig table. Most of it would probably have been impossible to reach anyway! You can see the card spacer/shims I have used between the deck and the head to allow for gaskets. I have had to do this because the two side are linked by the crossover pipe. Normally you would not have to bother because both sides are independent of each other.
The crossover pipe sits close to the underside of the sump but will be wrapped to keep the heat in (as will all of the headers) and not affect the temperature of the oil in the sump. This piece is designed to be able to drop it out when drag racing and fit short dump pipes to the header flanges.

 

Very nice and you obviously have put a lot of thought into your exhaust system Wade. I believe the whole car will be low to the ground permanently so does explain why you have chosen to have a single pipe/muffler/s to the rear ?

 

Yes the car is set to be low all the time. Running a manual box means a third pedal and not much room for exhaust. I didn't want to be dealing with heat, fuel line, brake lines, etc. So have chosen to go for a big single set up.

 

I get the feeling this one will be must see in the flesh as per your T. JW

 

Oops! Got the power bill today. .....she is not too happy about it! I might have to organize some OT this week.
But the headers are complete and they are looking pretty shit hot!

 

Amazing how a welder can make the electric meter spin.

 

I should have wrapped the lead around the wheel.........but I have one of those new fangled digital ones......dammit!

 

You need a long circuit....................................where you run the power lead to the neighbours house JW

 

There we go! All back in the hole, nice and neat, with clearance in all the right places. I had better find something to do for a while that doesn't consume too much power! Wait till she gets the bill for the bottle of argon too!

 

Wade, those headers came out nice.
Hope you don't get in trouble with the wife, gotta keep em happy.
Remember, its better to ask forgiveness, than permission.

 

I am busy today cleaning the roadster for a magazine photo shoot tomorrow. I hope the weather gets a bit better by then. I don't mind the cold.......it's the friggen wet that will make thing messy! Just getting to the end of my drive way turns into a mud run!

 

The headers came out darn awesome and I do like the way the four pipes are all on the same level before turning down and match the other side. Looks like the neighbours better locke up their wheel barrows as I could see the upside down cut to fit wheel barrow trick been done on the Coupe.

 

Today I was putting some bits of steel into the molasses bath for my daughters science project when I found some parts I put in there quite some time ago. I had forgotten they were even in there. I gave them a quick water blast, then a dip in the carbonic acid to neutralize. Some scrub with a pot scrub pad then primer paint. They have come up nice and clean with very little damage.

 

Have you heard of Hold-Tite? You can rinse with it and leave bare metal outside for a year or more without any adverse effects. I found out about it when I sand blasted my T almost 2 years ago and still have parts in bare steel with no rust. Doesn't have any effect on primer or bodywork either.

 

Eric, in NZ you are never that far from the sea and salt can travel miles with the wind. JW