Projects Does the HAMB really need another shoebox build thread?

Thanks for the info Paul. If you could come up with a link that would be great. I've looked around some and haven't come up with much. Your car's looking (and sounding) good.

 

Here it is... I have not done the math yet, but will keep you posted....
http://www.dictator.nl/Downloads/EN/Reg.6/614-E-Selecting_and_Calculating_Gas_Springs.pdf

 

This thread has been quiet for awhile...Any updates?

 

I've been wondering myself.....

Andrew????

 

Hmmmm. well, ongoing projects? ....how about how to install bear claw door latches and putting in one piece door glass and Autoloc power operators?Yeah, I've taken a lot of heat for selecting these operators, but since I'm existing on SS checks, every penny counts, so for 150 bucks, on Amazon, I got these. After writing a two star review, the guy now has dropped his price to 111 bucks for the two door kit. When everybody else wants 295, I decided to take my chances, and so far, I'm very satisfied...(a couple of videos are included in the gallery). By the way, she's got a 383 stroker, 700R4, Jag rear end, S-10 front clip, '51 trunk lid hinges, power steering, power brakes, 1,600 watt power amp, motor operated cutouts, how to fix dash lighting (in "tips and tricks") and the dash is finished (pics in "interior" gallery second page), how to fix a stubborn clock, "first drive", "break in", etc...All covered in great detail with LOTS of pictures and text explaining what the pics are all about..........

https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/The-Doors/

There are truckloads of other pics and vids in the other galleries.. click on the little house in upper left to go to the home page to see/select the other galleries...

Bookmark and check back often..or "follow"........ pics posted nearly every day as progress continues
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/

 

Time will tell. I have not seen a lot of happy people with these.

 

The deck lid turned out great. I turned my 50 deck lid into a 51 when I swapped hinges too but could never get it to fit right took springs out fit better but was never happy with how it say. I ended up buying a 51 off craigslist that no body wanted and the guy said $20-25 or I junking it so I bought it. Have to reshape the license plate but I'm way happier with it.

 

Thanks, Gimpy....

The thing is....that Autoloc sells/sold lots of different designs. I've seen some that simply attach to the original door crank (crappy idea no matter who sells/makes them), and some I've seen have a very flimsy looking guide rail, where the driver tube is actually a separate piece, and some look like the guide rails were stamped out of 20 gauge metal. These have very thick one piece guide rails with the drive tube crimped inside the rail and very tight fitting nylon followers. There is zero "floppyness" in the assembly. The only thing that "could" be a weak point that I've seen is the motors, which, though not labeled, look exactly like a Bosch motor. Sooooo guess we will see......(Side note - when somebody who sells another brand starts badmouthing someone else's product, I have a habit of doing my own investigation, and many times I elect to buy the one that was badmouthed.) hahaha
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/The-Doors/i-CNjZJHq/A

 

Wow, that lid fits very well. Chris at ShoeboxCentral told me that the '49's were the worst as far as the gaps are concerned. I'd have to say that the trunk lid is actually a different shape. Had to do a little cutting on my fenders to make things right........
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/Body-Work/i-RhXVxkR/A

 

Progress?

 

See any?

 

not yet, still waiting

 

Andrew has left the building....

 

It's only JUST starting to get cold up here. He's had an extra two months of working weather. Should have this thing done by now, so tell him to get back in the building!

 

Extra 2 months of working... on the bathroom reno, the dining room reno...

Might get a little garage time over the holidays. I'd really like to say I was making progress. It'll happen.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. What started as just swapping kitchen cabinets snowballed into the whole lower floor of the house. Rewired redone plumbing new subfloors can lights re drywalled half the house new floors moved walls took a few out 1/2 bath redone
Hopefully I get garage time too. Good luck on the reno!

 

haha I hear you. Garage rebuild, bathroom reno, living room refresh for me... Hope Christmas was a good one!

 

Subscribed. Awesome build. Great ideas. Excellent work!
Big ups from me and the rest of the free world (I had my people call their people)!

 

On the advice from steinauge, I read about 2 pages of this build and was very inspired! SUBSCRIBED! I will be using this as an excellent reference for my project. Thanks BIG A for the time spent documenting your build. It will sure come in handy for me!

 

Thanks, gents. I should go back and read some myself, I could use the inspiration

I do have some things percolating, so maybe I'll have some updates soon... ish.

 

I've got some stuff in the works again finally, hope to have a bigger update to report in the next week or 3. In the meantime, I just needed to do something other than sanding to see if I could get myself interested again.

A small job, but one that's been chewing at the back of my brain for a long time. Since I made the dashboard "wings" that wrap onto the doors, there's the problem of the chrome strip that runs through the gauges and glove box and should run into the wings.

I made a paper template and transferred it to some 20ga...



There are some tricky little beads that needed to be rolled, right up close to the edge, so i did that before trimming it out...



Trimmed out. Curves are easy enough with an angle grinder if you use a cutting wheel that's pretty worn down in diameter...



Did a little sanding and grinding to smooth it out...



And just bent it over my knee like I was giving Betty Page a spanking to get the right-ish bend...



Got the other side done too. Still have to fine-tune, they both need some touch-up, and I may actually make them again to see if I can do a better job, but at least I wasn't doing body work. Pretty happy with how they turned out.



Not sure if I'm going to get these chromed or how to finish them. The rest of the dash insert pieces are chrome, getting everything to match is either going to difficult or expensive.

 

Looks great man. I would say if the rest is chrome, ideally that would look best. But body color paint could look decent too...

 

Those look awesome! Chrome!

 

is that a rat rod door opener?

looking good. sometimes ya just gotta step away from one thing and work on something different

 

Watch some Mad Fabricators videos, that'll inspire ya!

 

Nice work.I see you and I share the same supplier for our door handles.

 

Looks good,Andrew!
Good to see some progress with your build.

 

Thanks guys. If I'm going to go chrome I'm going to have to do redo them and do a better job. Not even sure there's a chrome shop within 100 miles of me.

Hehe, somewhere in the chaos of my garage I do have some door handles, but these do the trick for now (except I keep looking in my tool box for a set of small vicegrips and can never find the damn tings )

 

Do what I did,buy another set.Funny part is I looked and looked for mine,bought another pair and the next time I opened the door------- Oh well you can never have too many vise grips.

 

A little more metal banging on the weekend. Since I rearranged the dash and lost the clock, there are a few small pieces to make to fill the gaps...

The shape seems simple enough, but not that easy in practice (especially without a tipping wheel).



But I managed to get it pretty close...



Found it easier to make each piece separately, instead of one long one then cut down. These still need some fine-tuning...




You can see the gap fillers on either side of the glove box. They're just held in with magnets, so not 100% lined up...


First time since I cut it all up that I've had the inserts etc in place. Starting to look like a dash...


But now I'm really unhappy with the first wings I made, so I started to make betterer ones with more accurate character lines...



Lots to do yet. Ran out of time as usual, and won't be back in the garage for 3 weeks. Never enough damn time.