Been doing boring stuff as of late, trying to keep motivated to get the chassis apart for paint. I got all of the spot welding and little patches made to stitch the floors all together from the bottom. I went ahead and seam sealed the entire underside and tunnel. Body is just about "done" for now. This week is brake lines. I'm using these neat little weld-on bicycle brake line tabs to run my brake lines. Allows you to put a metal zip tie around the line to keep held down. Need to run the separate lines to the rear drums and I'm done with brake line work for now. I'll rebuild the drum guts once I get to putting it all back together. About all I have left to do is figure out what I want to do for rear shocks and finish shortening the driveshaft. Then it's time to blow it all into a million pieces! In between waiting for parts and to keep myself sane with all of this small tedious stuff I started digging into my '30 Roadster I'm gonna put together after the coupe is done. Been documenting the process on a little Youtube channel my buddy and I have started. I wanted to show more of the nitty gritty we have to graze over in the Eastwood videos I do at my day job. For the average casual viewer it might be a little more boring, but I figured it would show more of the "reality" of what goes in to saving this rusty old junk for guys looking to get into redoing one. If you wanna watch that one you can here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaIIoFbVqP6NNF78iit5-Xg
Seen your videos on YouTube and just ran across your thread. Love the east coast style you having going! Gives me inspiration for mine. The floors and sub rails are hanging me up, I like what you did. Keep it up!
Coolest heads Ive ever seen. This is such a great build! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Busted ass this weekend to get the chassis blown apart, finish weld everything,and prep it all for primer/paint. The weather was perfect yesterday afternoon and I got a coat of epoxy primer on the chassis. Going to put another coat on tonight and then paint later this week. Hoping to make it a roller again by next weekend. Don also invited me over to hear my little warmed up flatty before he pulls it off the stand and gets it ready for me to pickup. Pretty damn excited to get this sucker in the chassis and running!
Been busy this week already. Laid a total of 2-3 coats of epoxy primer on the chassis, then 2 coats of 2K Eastwood Chassis Black, then a couple coats of our 2K matte clear to bring the gloss down. I'd like to keep the "sheen" down on the chassis as I don't want any one thing to stand out too much on the car. I also welded up the relief cuts for caster in the wishbones and welded in a plate for the old steering hoop on the drivers spindle. Moving right along! My dad is back from his Florida winter hibernation this week and hoping I can get his help to make the chassis a roller again tonight! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've been watching your coupe and roadster videos since you hit Youtube. Great videos, thanks. I recognized you from your Eastwood tutorials. Always being broke, supporting a family 1st, but still wanting to muck around in the garage, I'm a huge Eastwood fan. Both the Iron Trap and Eastwood videos are great because you do a good job narrating them. (I can't watch anyone's car videos with just music or mouthbreathing, no matter how cool their build is, just can't do it) I also am really struck by the flagstone shop, with the massive I-beams and poured floor. What was that place originally, if it was a barn or basement, how did it get that steel work? From your photo of the exterior it looks like it's what remains of a huge barn that was taken down? Keep up the good work, you're really helping out a lot of us out here that have limited fab experience.
Hey man thanks SO much for the kind words! My goal has always been to try and share the process of building stuff and the things that I had to figure out on my own and make it relatable. Sometimes I worry some of the more involved videos are borderline boring, but I think back on if I had a detailed video before I started the process how much easier it would have been to work through that part of the project! We're all on a budget and never have enough tools/time/money/resources to do what we want no matter how good you get, so there's always room for learning and improvement. I'm glad people have been getting inspiration to tackle stuff with watching my stuff, it's been a fun process! The shop is REALLY unique and I searched for a year house hunting to find the place with the perfect shop and house that all had the "look" and the space I needed to work. The house was built in 1930 and the shop I believe was built in the 40's sometime. I bought it from an estate and their parents were the second owners of the property. One of the family members told me that the building originally housed 1-2 small planes and the original property owner used to fly out of the fields that used to be next to the shop (now replaced by a community center, YMCA, and town homes). Originally the front facade of the building was different and had no pillar in the front with curtain style sliding wood doors so the planes could get in and out. In fact, the original tracks are still in the ceiling and the grooves are in the floor for where the doors curved around the front corners of the shop. The massive beams still puzzle me. They actually set them into the stone walls and the back and left wall of the shop are underground. The beams are WAYYYY overkill and I still think the original owner must of had ties with Bethlehem steel (about an hour from here) or with the railroad to get them moved here. I've been searching the web and asking locals like crazy to try and find old aerial photos or something to maybe catch a glimpse of what it looked like originally. The great thing about how they built the shop and the amount of overkill used during construction means that it makes it pretty simple to put a second floor on the shop. On the back side of the shop the roof is only about a foot off the ground and would be simple to lay fill in to make a mellow ramp up into the second floor (just like an old barn). Also the massive beams on the roof mean that I can simply lay a subfloor down and build up from there and the beams can easily handle the weight of a few cars and "stuff". My 3-5 year plan is to build the second floor and make that more of a storage area where I keep the "drivers" and free up space in the shop for more tools. Here's some more photos of the shop from when I first bought the property that better shows the beams and the outside of the shop. It's super deceiving walking up to it as the shop doesn't look that massive until you're inside.
My dad couldn't make it over last night, but I'm impatient and stubborn and I threw the axles underneath the chassis to make it a roller again. Got some other junk bolted on and started making my list of stuff I need to check, tighten, etc. Got the call that the engine is off the stand and ready for pickup. Hoping to grab that this weekend if I can get time. Should be able to get the drivetrain in then next week/weekend. Really pushing to have the car together and almost road worthy by a little shop-open house I'm having one evening in mid-May.
Ya. This IS a really interesting out building. If you know about old buildings it's clear that it might be some odd purpose-built structure. Planes might answer that question. You usually don't see that kind of old steel unless its carrying an incredible expanse. I vote second floor with loft!
Unfortunately with the holiday and all I didn't get over to pick the engine up this weekend, but I did get some more stuff painted and reassembled. Got all the brake lines, pedals, etc mounted. I also dug out a roll of webbing and applied some spray adhesive and got it mounted to the frame. Also punched the body mount holes out. Hoping to have the brakes all bled by the end of this weekend. Time is going to be short this week with me hitting Carlisle Wednesday, going to look at an old property with old cars and parts on it later in the week, and the Early V8 club swap in Leesport Sunday. We'll see how it shakes out.
Im enjoying the iron Irontrap videos too, learnt alot from them and the eastwood videos. From my point of view the more detail the better! Its good seeing the whole process of making something rather than skipping out steps. I would like to see a video on the cast iron looking parts that you make if poss. Sent from my SM-G920F using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just stumbled upon this thread. Great job documenting your build. I'll be checking out the IronTrap videos on YouTube next.
Not a lot going on last week with Carlisle and some digging for old parts at a local place I got into. I did manage to get over to Don's and pick the engine up. Waiting on a throwout bearing and some other odds and ends and I can drop the engine and trans back in. I also got a buddy to whip up a sleeve for my driveshaft so I can weld up the two halves. Hoping for a big weekend assembling stuff and I'll have the complete drivetrain together. From there it's just running the rest of the brake lines I made and bleeding the brakes before the body can go back on hopefully the following weekend. Pushing hard!
Busy weekend of swap meets and trying to fit working on the car in between. Got all of the wheel bearings greased and all of the wheels tightened down and all that jazz. Had to remove the drum weight on one drum that was making the right rear wheel not sit right and was freaking me out until I realized what it was! Also got the clutch together and go the drivetrain in the car with the help of my little lady. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155318819708000 Threw on some more parts and shortened the driveshaft this weekend. Torque tube parts are all greased and assembled and such, but realized I misplaced or lost the torque tube flange to rear paper gasket so I couldn't get that installed last night. Hoping to find some gasket material today and cut one out and get it all bolted in. I am shooting to put the body back on this Sunday, but also planning to hit Rhinebeck Friday and Saturday so I need to figure out how to squeeze some more hours out of the day to get the stuff I need done by then!
Never enough hours in the day eh Matt? Running a business and a wife and two kids make getting in the shop a challenge sometimes! If the business would just run itself.... Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I hear that! I don't even have kids, but I can't seem to find enough hours in the day! My buddy Jamie came over and gave me an evening of help. Made up the rear>torque tube gasket and slide the entire mess together. Went pretty smoothly and I'm glad that part is done and bolted down for a final time! Going to try and get the brake lines I made all buttoned up tonight and maybe even try and bleed them if the stars align. Only a few more things to do before I can plop the body back on the chassis. Getting excited!
Must say you and your better half move quickly! Stay the coarse and you'll be there before you know it.
Haha we sped it up so it wasn't too boring. She was apprehensive to work the hoist, but quickly got the touch for lowering it slowly! She really is a good sport helping me sometimes and going on wild goose chases for parts and to look at rusty old junk! Haha like they say, ultimate happiness is when you can no longer distinguish between work and play! Thank you for watching the videos, great to hear people enjoy them!
"ultimate happiness is when you can no longer distinguish between work and play!" That is how it should be, I'm about 85% there. Ryan.
Great Weekend Haul from Rhinebeck despite shopping in the rain all damn day Friday. Took home a ton of good stuff and had fun catching up with people. One of my favorite swaps of the year! Sunday I kicked it into high gear and hooked my clutch linkage up and some other last minute odds and ends so we could hoist the body up and set it on the chassis. Had a little drama with needing to clearance the wheel wells some more for the rear wishbones ( I may do a little more once I put some more weight in the car and see where it's at). Eventually we got it all bolted down and I threw the grill and radiator on the car and stood around and stared at it for a while. Cool to finally see all of the parts I've been gathering for years coming together and being all bolted on and together. I have a big list of stuff to get buttoned up this week and I'm going to really push to try and have the car wired and possibly running by the end of the weekend, but we'll see! Lots of long nights ahead. Next weekend Gene Winfield is town and staying with me for a metal fab workshop he and I do at Eastwood headquarters each summer and I'm having a little informal BBQ at my shop after the class Saturday night, so I want to have all of these random parts laying around on the car and not cluttering the shop!
Nice score on the parts! The Coupe looks great. I make a point to shake Gene's hand when he is at the Syracuse Nationals. It's very cool to think about what those hands have built. Ryan.
The Jalopy Journal
