Still working away on my rear fenders I have 2 now in place. Next up is filling all the areas I cut out too much Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Was able to get a 36 tire ring off the H.A.M.B. classifieds that I’m turning into my front fenders Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Dec update. I have was able to get a 36 spare tire ring that i cut up to make front fenders for the car. I just now need to finish off one last bracket and the fronts will be finished. The last few days project has been making a hood for the car. this is my first attempt at making any large panel. I started off with setting out some tape lines to get the general dimensions of the hood Next up was to make a paper hood for a pattern then lay in out on some .063 aluminum sheet I cut it out marked some of my bend lines and started to bend it with my oxygen bottle A few more hours of trimming and bending got it pretty close to fitting I now have ordered a few Dzus fasteners to bolt it on and after i get it secured i will do my final trimming along the bottom edge. I have not decided if i will paint it or polish it. Im leaning towards polishing it for now as i can always paint if afterwards.
^ Ditto. I'd love to know the diameter of your tire rings and front tire sizes, if you have the time. I have some Buick spare ring "fender" parts to use on my A, but it looks like I'm limited to a 24-25" tall front tire. Or can you "roll them" increase the radius somehow to fit your tires? Thanx, Gary
Love the hood. Very nice work. Hard to get the shape to match the 32 shell. You hit is out of the park!
The front tires are 560/15 Coker tires and the are a 820/15. I never got the size of the rings as i had to have both sets cut in half to get them shipped to me. I did have a problem that the rear tires were to big to fit them. see the the attached link for a thread i got some advise to expand then a bit. I'm sure you could just reverse the techniques to make them a bit smaller. One thing i would advise that if you use a shrinker/stretcher mark out the fender so out shrink or expand in the same place on both sides. I did not do this at first and caused the fender to start to turn into a spiral. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/increasing-a-radius-for-a-cycle-fenders.1070114/
Little bit of update I have been thinking about my electrical system trying to find a place for everything that is hidden but easily accessible for diagnostic or fuse change our. My best ideal so far is mounting everything under the dash on a swing down panel. That way everything is tucked under the dash but I can get at the fuses with having to crawl under the dash Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
No cruise control, the control box on the right is for my speedometer to talk with the out put shaft speed sensor of my T5. The fuse block on the right is a weather proof assembly that holds 10 mini fuses and 5 relays. I looked at a few of the universal wiring kits but could find one I like or justified the money, so I figured I would just design my own system Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
No cruise control, the control box on the right is for my speedometer to talk with the out put shaft speed sensor of my T5. The fuse block on the right is a weather proof assembly that holds 10 mini fuses and 5 relays. I looked at a few of the universal wiring kits but could find one I like or justified the money, so I figured I would just design my own system I could not figure out how to make my C4 tranny work with the crazy wheel combination so used a GPS speedo and it works perfect, until you run under a bridge. lol
It feels like I have hit the point in my project where I need to start going backwards. I have the car all mocked and I’m happy with the looks after trimming and fitting the hood. I can only think the next steps are to start taking it back apart and doing all the finishing to my tacked together frame and move onto some body work Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I hate to say this, but the last pic above looks strange to me. Almost like the hood is higher in the front than the rear. Maybe it's the angle of camera or the shinny hood, but it looks weird. Have you put a level on the hood while the car is on level floor? There is this nice downward slope of the top of the door and then the hood looks like it changes direction back up? Had the same problem with my build and ended up having a new radiator made that was shorter and notched the bottom of the grill shell to sit lower. Was one of those oh Sh*t moments.
Woodhawg thanks for the tip. I believe it is just the angle I took the photo at. It was -25 our so I didn’t dare open the garage door to get a better shot. I did check to make sure the radiator was low enuf to give a slight down hill slope to grill. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Minus 25? Glad I am not where you are!!! Hope it is all good, but wanted to at least make you check things out.
Things are moving forward had my helper come out and we stripped the car back down the body, amazing it takes 2 hours to undo 2 years worth of work Next up was to start making things solid I welded up the brackets for my seat and reinforced the front mounting point on the car floor. I then welded in all the floors I’m getting ready to separate the body from the frame and I wanted to build door supports to prevent the body bending at the the door openings. I made up these adjustable stops that way I can reuse them and they can slid into painted door jams then expanded into place One more to build for the other side then it’s onto figuring out a one man lifting method for the body Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Minor change of plans I was never 100% on the 49 Ford taillights turned vertical due the the fact they were not quite symmetrical any it always bugged me. I picked up off the classifieds a NOS pair of 48 Nash Kaiser lights that I have fitted. These ones are staying because I cut the large holes needed in the body. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yes those tail lights look much more at home than the shoebox ones. I see the seller of the lights has 20 pairs left. Wow some score. Great build thread also.
Yes I’m not sure how he ended up with 20+ lights but they are truly NOS with cloth braided wires and the chrome is perfect Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Sorry for the poor picture the sun was setting and the lighting was off. But the body is off the frame for the first time in 2.5 years Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
It’s been a few months since the last update. Progress on the car has once again slowed as busy season starts at my worked and we welcomed another little boy to the family. But I’m still finding a couple hours a week making forward progress. I stripped the car back down to the bare frame with little helper Then I move onto finishing all the welding on the frame I went a head a made up some threaded inserts and welded them into the frame fob body mount locations and head lamp mounts Next up was boxing in the front frame horns and welding up the shortened rear frames I have one more spot I want to add a little boxing plate around the rear crossmember then is should be back to assembly, clutch linkage and plumbing the frame Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
I’m still slowly making progress got the rear coil overs mounted and set the engine back into the frame and started mocking up a clutch linkage. I quickly discovered I lacked room for my z bar and I did not want and linkage hanging below the frame so I made the decision to go hyd set up seems like it will be a bit simpler just waiting on parts to start back on that. For the last few months I have been busy with a new garage tool. I picked up a vintage 1955 Logan 11” lathe and spent some time cleaning it up fixing a few broken gears and rebuilding the quick change box. Now that it is up and running I have built a few spacers and some SS end washers for my wish bones. The latest project was building my own air cleaners from some 5.5” aluminum turned down to fit a HD 5” KN air filters. It just needs to get polished when I break out my power polishing wheel Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
A little progress update for the end of 2018 I was able to build a hyd clutch system with a 7/8 master and 1” slave set up. I ended up having to mount the master cylinder back about a foot from the brake master due to space requirements. I will have to create a small access hole in my floor to be able to add fluid but hopefully that won’t be needed often Next up I made a bracket to hold the slave cylinder to the side of the transmission During this I had to create the push rod for the clutch linkage so I got to learn how to thread on a lathe after a few failed attempts I got the hang of cutting threads I also made up my brake lines using 3/16 Nicop line. I found it was very easy to work with and bent very nicely. I made up front frame passthroughs from from 5/8 bar drilled through and the tapped for 1/8NPT that I welded into the frame Next up will be set the engine back into the frame and start thinking about exhaust Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B. a
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