I had to cut-down the passenger-side wind window just like the driver's side but the cast housing for the gear-drive on the vent window crank was broken, allowing the worm gear to push itself out of mesh whenever it was cranked. Thoughts of just putting it in, inoperative, to get closer to completion crossed my mind but they also didn't sit well and went by the wayside as I tried to come up with a fix.Epoxying everything back together might hold, and then again it might not. A better fix was to lengthen the rear backing plate, having it grab around the side to keep the worm gear in mesh with the drive and also have it wrap around the bottom to hold the broken housing together. Then drill out the top rivet and replace it with a bolt. Cinching-down the bolt in the top rivet hole applies clamping forces to pull the rear support bushing close to the drive and and pulls everything tight around the bottom at the same time. Everything pulled right into place with the tightening of just the one bolt. More importantly it stayed there while in operation. I can comfortably put this thing back inside the door without having to worry about pulling it back apart later.
Beginning of the front 'bumper'. Once they're made, this piece will go between the two front nerf bars and carry the bottom grille shell lines forward. The piece in the top half of the images is the lower part of the interior windshield trim. It holds the windshield in, but I'm adding defrost to the car and have cut slots in the trim for the warm air to blow through.
Construction of this little quickie forge can be found around April 2015 with the fabrication of the radius rods. It's just got a supply of compressed air connected to the bottom with a valve for throttling and a few holes drilled to disperse the air. Here a small fire is being built with scrap wood pieces to form the nerf bars out of some heavy-wall tubing. It gets the coals hot enough to quickly turn the tubing cherry red. I could easily overheat it with this dumb little set-up. The first one is already bent in the background. Two identical bends cooling while the fire dies down: The radius where the fenders used to meet the grill shell is the bend we were after. The tube obviously won't mount back here. It's just being held here to compare the curves. The nerf bars will go directly in front of each frame horn. Like this: It would have looked OK with just the uprights in front of each frame rail, but we wanted to give things a little better look... besides there's metal and fire going on. The tie piece is welded together and should bring the lines from the bottom of the shell forward as planned. Having had enough fun for one day, we're left with the requisite mock-up. The small pieces in the back will be cut into mounts.
It was 18F outside (and in the unheated, detached garage) this passed Saturday, so I stayed inside and started rebuilding this thread to keep my head in the game... but I couldn't do it for two days straight. Since it warmed-up to a balmy 23F on Sunday, I went out to make and add the brackets to the front bumper. There's nothing like cold metal to suck the heat right out of your hands and I'd stay out until they started to hurt, go inside the house to warm-up for a bit, get a cup of coffee and get the feeling back, and then go back out for more of the same. I did this 2 or 3 times throughout the course of the day, finally ending-up with this:
^^ That was Saturday & Sunday. Tonight, after I got home from work, I sat down to finish rebuilding this thread. (All the previous images and links to videos are working again for anyone so inclined.) But right in the middle of everything, my older son comes in with a small box addressed to me. "It couldn't be!", I thought to myself, "I only ordered them two days ago!" Sure enough, my Hot Rod Latches showed up, and the quality and make-up of these things are way beyond my expectations. Built with the strength and pride of craftsmanship from days gone by.
A couple of nights ago I told my wife I was going out to garage for a few. "I shouldn't be long.", I said. It was pretty cold and I didn't feel like going through the trouble of layering up. "I'm just going to look to see how everything fits, maybe do some quick layout." And that's just what I did: and then I made a quick cut, just to see how it would go : and once I got started... well, why stop cutting?: Once I got this far I had to try a fit... then roll-up the welder and tack it in place real quick... and the next thing you know: But by then, the cold was coming through and I decided, even though mounting the post on the jamb required all the skill of drilling a hole, that the job would be better-off waiting, and I'd be better-off getting something warm to eat.
If you recall back to Feb 2013 when I was raising the windshield after the chop, (on page 3 of this build) I showed there was no defroster: so I cut some holes for vents, knowing I'd eventually get around to putting some in: Today turned out to be the day I was thinking about back then. I recently picked up two defrost vents from a '53 Panel: Stuffing the camera up under the dash, you can see the mounting: I cut the trim down to match the chop & still need to weld the pieces together, but it looks like this from the top-side:
' cut about 3" out of the original hydraulic shock links: welded the lower mounts to the radius rods: and finished the front suspension:
Long time, no see. I'm glad to see that you are still at it and making progress; inspiration for me to get back to my project. PS: The garage is mostly done, finally.
Greetings Woob from hopewell nj ( on the west side of bridgeton ) ! Really nice workmanship and vision ....how long since you escaped "the garden state"....?
WOW! Great to hear from you! You've been missed. With yesterday's work complete, this thing is one investment in rubber away from going down the road. It will still need glass to become legal, but it will be the first time in 5 years that it's been outside and who-knows-how-long-since it has moved under its own power. Thanks for the kind words, KF. I know right where you are. We owned a home in Malaga and my wife worked in Bridgeton. We left in Sept 2002 (about the time the Regional Hospital was being built on 55) but went back to see family and friends every year for the first 5. ' miss many things about that state; the ocean, Jersey tomatoes and Silver Queen corn, Lead East, and would really like to get to a least one of the Oilers Race of Gentlemen in Wildwood.
Very impressed and inspired... especially with your front end. I have a 1936 Chev front axle and have been mulling over the three different mounting methods for when I finally get onto building a roadster... parallel leaf, quarter elliptic and transverse. Your method is similar to the transverse idea I had but I hadn't found any photos of it done... until now. Thanks for posting. Glen.
Glenn you lurker! While you're thinking about your options, you might want to take into account that the front frame horns have the same arc as the unloaded front leaves: My original plan was to house the leaves inside the horns, mounting them right at (and through) the crossmember for strength: Since their width tapers, the horns would need to be widened in the front only if they're to stay: or they could be left off completely and we both know there's more than one way to skin a door. I'm just sharing what I found when I was going the quarter-elliptical route in case you can use any of it. I was obviously going for a chopper/dragster-inspired stretch at the time and went to a transverse set-up only because the end-ownership of this one changed direction right at that time. The current set-up puts the axle only 14" forward of its stock location and places it neatly under the grill shell: but there's no reason someone couldn't just fab-up a set of shackle mounts to bolt to the axle spring pads like you're thinking. Maybe on the next one:
Thanks for that. I do still like the quarter elliptic idea. I don't have a chassis so will probably build one from RHS and have it narrower at the front with the springs mounted on pads off the side of the frame. I'm still a long way off starting though, so anything could happen. The sedan is looking great. Glen.
The rear window surround support structure needed some attention so I rebuilt the bottom half over the last couple of days ago and gave the glue a chance to dry: And yesterday I solicited some help putting the back window in. It's obviously a cut-to-fit installation and we finally got it to where we wanted after the third edge-sanding and a lunch break It really would not have been accomplished without this help right here: ' goes after the job, uses his head, makes suggestions, fun to be around... just plain good to work with. Afterwards he stuck around and helped me make some patterns for the sides. I went to work on those towards the early evening: The light reflecting on the inside makes the other side look yellow in the pictures But a view from that side shows it's the same. The doors, wing windows, and windshield will eventually be clear auto-glass. Only the back half will be orange.
I made a cardboard pattern and pulled-out the old glass cutting saw to cut the windshields. There was a very slight difference between the two sides, but not so much that I wasn't able to use the same pattern for both. An edge view shows the double-paned laminated safety glass: My cardboard pattern didn't allow for the full thickness and once installed, the gap a the center "v" for the division bar was too small. I had to take it back out the first time and trim the length for the division bar. Here's the final fitting: and one with the division bar going in:
I love cutting glass! Or not. Glad to see the windshield in. I stored mine in a "safe" place. It will now make a nice template for the next one.
Hey Woob, I've been following your project a couple years now and really enjoy your innovation, presentation and approach to the work. The video in the link above on glass cutting was great. Any chance you could share some details on what is under that sheet of plywood? Just a plain tile saw or another one of your repurposed creations?
Happy to ! The saw is only "slightly repurposed". It's a standard, hand-held tile saw just like a regular circular saw only smaller (4" I think) with a glass cutting blade installed instead of one for tile. You know the kind where they sprinkle the edges/teeth with some diamond (or cubic zerconia) dust or something glittery. The saw cost whatever a saw cost and the blade was somewhere around $10 - $20. It did a fine job cutting through double layers of laminate when held by hand, but it would quickly gum-up, looking like a cotton candy machine as it melted and flung both the glass and the plastic laminate from the friction of cutting. The first try only made it about a foot-or-so through a windshield before the blade became totally unusable and as soon as I stopped, the goo dried hard to the blade... but I knew I was on to something that would work. I just needed a way to keep it all cool. That's where the bucket and small, decorative yard/patio-fountain pump came in. If I recall, the old video mentions some antifreeze leftover in the bucket and I still use a couple of drops of dishsoap in the water just for the added lubrication. I don't know if it's necessary, but as mentioned, it certainly doesn't hurt. I used some scrap EMT to keep the discharge hose a little more rigid and keep the flow pointed where I wanted. The "nozzle" is a ball-point pen body minus the innards. I'd say you could use the saw by hand easily enough and just keep a small stream of water on the glass but I liked the idea of a table so I cut a slit in a piece of plywood for the blade to stick through, stiffened the perimeter, and screwed the saw-base to the underside. No coolant hits the saw motor with a small but adequate-enough flow to keep the blade cool and that's a good thing since it wasn't designed for such use. If I were to do it again (and just might) I'd go with a piece of stainless for the table. There was no real need to make it as long as I did either, standard table-saw table dimensions would work just as well. Providing support where the glass hits the blade is all that is necessary. If you do one, post it in the Homemade Tools and Equipment thread. I'd love to see it and the machinists on board seem to be getting the best of us over there. I hope this helps.
Well played! I just tossed one of those for the side window. ' was saving it for 4-5 years and the next thing you know it's a template. I have to confess though, having suffered through various other methods over the ever-increasing years, I now enjoy the process... but I also learned on some tv show yesterday that "everybody" hates wiring too. I wish I knew. All these years I thought I liked it.
Hey WOOB, I have followed you entire build. Great to see you keep the boys involved. I suspect they are in for many fun times and more great memories in your project. That video was a real "WOOHOO" moment! Thanks for sharing.
^^ Thanks for following. You know it hasn't been without its challenges but as you can see from the response it was worthwhile. I'd say he's been definitely been bitten by the hotrod bug. ' time to start looking for one of his own.
Love this thread. Just started the chop and 2 door conversion on my '36 master deluxe. How much did you chop out? Sent from my SM-N9005 using H.A.M.B. mobile app
If you saw this video, you know I ended-up putting some back in... but I was at 3-1/2 out of the top when done and then stretched the windshield opening back up 1" Thank you. I appreciate the compliment.
I was looking at some earlier video and pictures of the fabrication of the radius rods and front bumper and put together a couple-minute something at I thought I'd share. Here's a link:
The Jalopy Journal
