Projects Olds Rocket 324 in a 32 Ford; "trying to finish it thread"..

Love the antenna Frank, man that's so 'fifties". Subscribed.

 

You probably guessed already.... recolor the cloth with Exorust flat white oil base primer. Put it on with a mini-roller. The second coat went on this morning, so it is still shiny in spots, especially the glued seams. It might look good at 20 feet, but at least it beats a steel roof, I think.

I have no great idea about doing a headliner....so maybe I will just spray the underside with the same paint for now...rather than make a mess of that job

 

When "Tommy" on hamb stripped his 32 roadster down to bare metal, he found the same two brazed-up holes, and he also "just HAD to" drill it back out and install a antenna again..

 

Old school flowing thru your shop's walls and doors sure hasn't hurt anything here. This is beautiful sh#t !! More please.

 

Very cool!

 

Hey F&J, I'm using the same dash and wheel in my '28 Model A roadster pickup. Now you have me wanting to shorten up my wheel! (It's still the stock diameter, and a pretty tight fit). Your project is looking really great.

 

Frank, great progress on the car. Going to be a killer for sure............keep at it.

 

Glad to see you're back on it! It's looking great.

 

Still suffering from Murphy's Law on this car...
I painted the 2nd final coat of white oil base primer on the roof last weekend but the temperature dropped really low. The top looked fine till Monday morning, then I saw a few minor wrinkles showing up on the main flat part of the roof.

The roof was off the car still, so I brought it outside in the sun, and the wrinkles went away in 10 minutes. But at dusk, in shade, they started to come back. So for 5 days, I drag it out, watch the wrinkles go away in 10 minutes...till today....they did not flatten out. I have no idea how to fix that.

Today, I sprayed the underside in white, then a friend stopped by and we put it on the car. We wondered if there are trapped gasses under the "sealed" cloth, so I pin pricked a few bigger wrinkles, then weighted the cloth down, to see if it will get flat overnight.

My son said "heck, you want it to look like a cloth roof, and some old roofs I've seen, have wrinkles"

 

Looks real good.

 

A hamber asked for some pics and ideas on building window tracks. It's a lot of effort to do the text and pics to help just one person on a PM, So I choose to do some posts here, if anyone else asks later.

The side tracks in the door are the easiest part to make on my mostly homebrew door conversion. BUT, you can't know how wide of a groove they need, until you know how thick your chromed frames around the glass is. Once you have the glass frames, then figure out what "black fuzzy" "window run channel liners" can be ordered. They come in different groove sizes and different outside thickness. Once you how wide they are, then you can make the steel channel from square or rectangle steel tubing.

I asked on hamb years ago what to get door glass frame material from,. One person said they cut/weld/spliced some together from late 50s chevy truck frames. I could not find that, and they used 4 frames to make two.

So I made my glass frames from 1/2" square steel tubing, leftover from my roof framework. But there were not any premade black fuzzy window run liners in that wide size, So I used thick felt for a liner inside my channels that I made from 3/4" x 1.5" rect tubing. I cut the 1.5 width right down the middle, to make two 3/4 x 3/4 three sided tracks. All my steel came from the scrapyard.

here are the window side channels with holes drilled, and a lower L bracket to attach inside the door

The L bracket are at the bottom, I will show how they attach in this thread.

When you make tracks, you want them to go forward in the door as much as possible, and put the rear one as far back as it can fit. That is because once the glass and their frames are in, you need some sort of rubber seal to have the window seal to the car body(like windshield post, and the roof). On my doors I got the channel right at the very front, but just like most car doors back edge, you can't get as close: Here is the front of driver door; see the one screw hole at the top? That is where the top of the steel channel is attached with a machine screw/and nut:



Now the back of the door showing that I can only go so far back with the track. :



I will now show the different method to hold the top of that rear track. I can't easily bolt it like the front will be, so I stole a method I saw on a factory made channel. It is a flat "hook" welded to the very top BACK edge of the rear channel, as shown here:



In this pic below, a pencil is pointing to a sheetmetal tab, or wall, hanging a bit down in the window slot. That hook slides up from inside the door, onto that "wall", then just one machine screw/and nut on the lower door back edge, holds the track in place. The lower screw point shown in next pic below that.

Lower track mounting screw below: That screw holds the L bracket on the track bottom.


Here is a pic of the glass frame rolled down with both stationary tracks bolted in, with the unfinished homemade garnish moulding.


Here is a pic inside the front of the door, showing the simple L bracket with just one lower machine screw/and nut holding the track to the front of door: The L bracket is the rusty thing way up front, at the right.




I need a break from this LONG post; I will add more pics/text on the way I made rubber seal holders on the windshield posts, as well as on the roof to seal all 3 sides of the window....later..

 

I forgot to talk about the length of the stationary side channels. They need to be as long as will fit down in the door. Think of how you bury a fence post in dirt; if you don't get the post deep enough, you can move the top real easy. So, when the glass is all the way up, you still need a lot of window glass framing, going deep into the door....then the window will be stable.

As some cars have lower door skins that curve in, you can sometimes only get the track near the bottom before the end of it hits the inside of that curved door skin; See the curve on mine:



Now the rubber weatherstrips that the window closes against; The convertible coupes and cabriolets up till the mid 30s, only had a front rubber seal on the winshield post. That was covered with a silky, (slippery) black cloth that I think was called moleskin? It helped the window slide as it moved. That stuff comes on a roll, self stick. I will show that too.

Anyways, those early convertibles did not have a rubber seal at the top and back sides on the glass frame. They had a "curtain" made from the top canvass cloth, that hung just inside of the top itself, so when you close the door, the window only sealed against that cloth flap. I wanted a rubber seal, and because it is a hard top, I made the parts to do it.

Here is how the passenger roof underside looks without any way to mount a rubber seal:



and here is the part I made to screw to the roof framing, which holds the rubber seal, and the roll of that moleskin. That metal channel material came from scrapyard, with flat metal added:



and here is the other side of car, with the seal holder screwed onto the roof, and rubber installed in it's groove:


Now a pic of how I did the seal on winshield posts. Same channel screwed to the back of windshield posts. Then I had to make a "outside garnish moulding" to cover that channel. It is painted the car color and two screws hold the garnish on. Rubber not installed on this pic below:


Here is the other side of car with all rubbers installed, and window rolled up to check fit:


one last important thing on design of the glass frame and seal pre-planning; You need to figure out if you can reach to the window edges with whatever seal system you build. Look at this side pic to see where the seals and their holders are, on the front and back of the window, right at the top of the door. Hopefully you can see that the front seal retainer "reaches" back to the front of the window, and that when I designed the roof and it's seal holder, that rear gasket can reach forward to the back edge of the window.

Also in this pic, the window not up all the way; you see that as the window has angled sides, the sides are not dragging on the seals. The window frame never hits the rubber, until it gets all the way up. That helps the window go up without sticking to one side, and getting crooked, or jammed.



Here is the basic shape of the window frame, not finished yet. The lower bar is where the center mount cable lifts the glass, that will be a bolt-on. Also the next round bar up from that will be replaced by the lower U channel that will hold the bottom of the glass into the frame. I put this pic up to show that there must be two parallel straight lower sides of the frame, to slide up and down in the perfectly parallel stationary door tracks.

 

man this thing looks good. And distinctive. You NAILED the roofline, and the colour is perfect too. REALLY nice Frank.

 

The roof always looked too flat at the 2nd bow......until I did cloth and that rear hidem welting with chrome end tips. It now kind of looks a tiny bit more like a Carson, but only at this one view.

That stuff is so hard to get right when you plan out the shape with wire and masking tape. then build a frame, then skin it with metal....and it all starts to look wrong. Too late now, no more changes

 

great to see your back at the 32 ...... seeing your posts that wake up the past make this site.
enjoy the inspiration, and thanks for sharing

 

I just finished swapping a 1965 Mustang rear end into my 1932 Nash, so I can choose from many aftermarket axle ratios, and scrap the 40MPH Nash 4.73 rear.

Been waiting for a day of no rain or snow, to move the Ford back into the work bay where the Nash was. As soon as I took the pics it started to get dark and raining....so I did not get time to drive the cars around much.

I still don't really like the Ford grille, but I need to get the car done soon. I guess I will try to get the windshield and door glasses made, after figuring how to cut slots in my homemade door glass frames which are made from mini square tubing. Then wiring, and putting newer guts in the 47 Plymouth gauges. Then hook up the back brakes and some other forgotten loose ends..

Nice to have the cars yard drivable so I don't have to push them around.

I stole the 35 year old? Napa Facet electric priming fuel pump from the Nash, so that I can start the Ford when the carbs dry out so quickly. It started right up after priming, then the Olds pump takes over.

arrrgg, both cars are dusty and covered in mouse pee. Garage Kitty died last fall...

 

Man Frank, your '32 is just bitchin.

 

that time of year Frank. Shake the dust off and get moving. The 32 is sure looking nice.....how long have you had that Nash? Can't remember seeing that one hanging around there.

 

Wow... that's all I can say... wow.

 

I've been working on getting the back brakes fixed up on the Olds rear. I also had NORS e-brake cables for it, so I needed to figure out how to hook the cables to the 33/34 handbrake lever.


A couple years ago, I already had almost no room left near the Buick trans, and X, to fit a handle. I ended up with the 33/34 connecting link going up over the center X member (which is a 35 Ford turned around backwards).

My driveshaft is so close to the floor, that it took a couple days of thinking how I could get both cables over the passenger side, to the handle. I could not come up with any idea that would be "self equalizing" cables....but the 56 Olds parts car never had an equalizer...so I had an idea to make a bellcrank deal around, and under the driveshaft..

The passenger side arm has two clevis holes; One to go to the handle, and one for the Right cable. The left arm has one clevis hole for the Left cable.


All 3 clevis are salvage Olds, and the upright levers are made from a E-brake linkage bar from the 56. I'm running out of scrap to finish this car, lol. The cross shaft is solid 3/4" that I faced and drilled/tapped the ends on the lathe. For the mod to the upper e-brake link rod from the 33/34, I cut off the back end of the long slot, and welded in a threaded piece of an old 56 Olds cable adjuster

TOO late in the day today, I tack welded the unit onto the back of the X tunnel back wall. You might see that this car has a rear wishbone. It is a 32 front yoke welded to 35/36 rear trailing arms. And the 32 yoke ball fits into the original ball socket on the 35 X member...that is one reason the X was installed backwards. That wishbone setup was not in the way too bad.


it looks crooked in the pic but I don't think it is....but I will check it before welding it solid

 

Great ingenuity! I'm glad to see you're still chipping away at this one. It's a sweet little hotrod.

 

Brilliant; hot rod ingenuity at its finest!

 

Great looking car!

 

When I took the other pic yesterday of the E-brake handle in the car, I remembered that I still have no room for a gas pedal.

the early Olds and Cad have extended bells which intrudes into the toe kick area. I made the tunnel and the trans cover to fit as tight as possible to the bell and trans.


I used 1960 Chevy pickup pedals, and I had cut off the bigger Chevy pedal pads, to use something smaller to leave more room for a gas pedal. I found some unused really early pedal pad covers at a swap. I made steel plates the same shape to weld on, for those covers. I welded them on horizontal, and that ate up the room for the gas pedal. (I added a temporary spoon gas pedal just so I can drive it around during the build.

Today I decided to try to get a cut off wheel under the pedals to cut them off AGAIN. No room to work or see, so I got real lucky to find the system to sneak both pedals out without dropping the whole cluster bracket.

But the 60-+ year old rubber pads are baked solid, too slippery and crumbling.. So I looked around for a non steel belt tire and found a new temporary spare It was thin enough, so I cut the shape out with a knife, then used a 4.5" angle grinder cut off wheel to shape the stepped notch it needs, to sit into the trim part.



I am thinking I need to mount the pads vertical, to get more gas pedal room...like in the next pic.

I also found an aftermarket aluminum gas pedal from a 1955 VW bug. The notch on the right side should let it get closer to the hump, and the notch on the left side of it, should help near the brake?

 

Just a quick update on this way toooo frigging long "trying to finish it" thread.

Got back working on it early July, finally getting rear brakes hooked up including e-brake. This week I wanted to finally get antifreeze in it instead of water which quickly rusts the block, making me drain water each time I need to run the engine.

Had to put the Olds heater/defroster unit in, but had to take it all apart to lube the bearings in the heat blower and the blower for defrost, then paint it. Then remembered to go buy a new temp sender for a 70s Ford truck, to use with my modified 47 Plymouth gauges with 70s Ford truck guts (which are not done either)

So a friend shows up and it would not start...he spotted a wire off on the dist ..

Fired it up and told him I want to drive up to the house garden hose to rinse the car later.....and just wanted to get the damn car out of the shop....and I wanted to test having 4 brakes instead of 2.

So, I start driving up there...... it was sounding real nice with the muffler downspouts I just installed...and running nice... so he is waiting by the house and I passed right by and sat there at the top of the driveway....and I said F-it..I'm going out on the state road.

Ok, no drama, just went to our other old unused driveway, but shit, it did change my outlook on this nightmare build. It actually finally got on a road.

My son stops by later after work and said he'd help switch my rear tires with the 30 chevy RPU in our other building. I had used junk wheels/tires while painting the Ford. He gets done switching tires before dark, so I told him I did sneak it on the road. He's all grinning, so I did it again. I stop next to him after that spin, and said "this is fun" ...."here, see if you can drive it with the relocated 3-pedals".

He took it out on the road two or three times, and I heard him try to poke it a bit LOL. As he was coming back down the lawn from the road, the car has never looked so "tuff" to me before, the chop and rake just really works for both of us.

working on door glass frames-final fit, and will get all new glass cut local next week, then wiring, and gauge mods. It is close, dammit

crummy cell pic he took that night:

 

Oh man!^^ I never noticed till now that you ditched the stock tank, period perfection! Loving the hood top with no sides too! Why doesn't anyone else build like this?? Hell, all you gotta do is look at the old magazines, it's not rocket science...

 

That rear view pic is going on my desktop. Sweet car, Frank!

 

excellent!

 

I hadn't notice that either. Frank, where is the new gas tank? In the trunk?

 

Thanks guys.. It's starting to look like an old build...because it's taking so freaking long!

George, I never had a 32 tank, and I am just too lost in the old east coast stuff I saw as a kid in CT. As far "build like this"? Part is my childhood; AMT models since maybe 59? Then my first hotrod was one I found local when I was 20, full fender 50s built. The first thing I did was tried my best to make a hood top as it had no hood. I don't recall if we needed a hood for MVD inspection, but that is the likely reason. That look stuck in my head all these decades.

I tried to make this car as a highboy, but it always looked bad to me, because there never were any here as a kid.

I never would have thought to put the taillight like that, but they were already there when I bought the rear fenders from a 50s built 3w . So it stayed that way, but with a slight 4-5" channel cut to bob them to look better with no tank

I have two tanks to decide on. one is a NOS old T-bucket RPU tank, rectangle shape to fit in those shorty beds. It is 10 gallons, and with me test driving this non-progressive 2x2 Olds on a 1 gallon can, it won't like a small tank. LOL

the other tank is a teens-1920s Cadillac pressurized type tank, that is 20 gallon. That is the tank that has the special gas filler & neck the old Bonneville guys used with the hand pump at the dash.
Hamber/moderator Gwhite runs that Cad neck/cap I believe.