WOW! Congrats.....lessee, we can roll me a new tranny hump, an inner header panel, some trick floor panels, louver my hood top etc etc etc.. I'm so happy for us.
HA!!! I'm so happy for us too. Maybe I can get you to come visit so I can get a ride in that Rad 34 coupe!!! Honestly, though you know me... if you want to come up and make some parts I'm all about it.
And NOW the fun begins.Tuck is gonna have friends that he did`nt even know he had. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
How big is your shop anyway?! I can tell in the background of the various shots that it's a big one, but good God man. If I put that mofo into my garage, the car would hafta go in the driveway.
Brad- its about 60x100... I'm in a high poverty area and there is a ton of space in the building I'm in that is available but nobody to move into it. I'm very lucky to have this spot. One of the benefits of living where I do that offsets the parts that suck... For sure- Serious anxiety. The forklift weighs 8700, that thing 6700. I did manage to smash the fender a bit with the forks too... oh well. Its broke in now. I think the first thing I'm going to do is make a curved louver die that matches the louvers that were on my shoebox- they were punched in 1961- and are a great size/perfect profile. The hood burned in the fire but I kept it and always wanted to reproduce it... plus I can make extra $$ punching louvers in the summer. @cactus1 Thanks man!!
The way this guy builds cars, I'd let him louver anything. Just awesome. Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Great score Tuck - with winter around the corner, firing up the heater in that awesome shop of yours will have some great production going on in there! We're all anxious to see how the Pullmax P-9 works!!
I finally got a few hours in the shop but instead of working on my roadster I mocked up my axle dropping jig. The big wheels in the back will get changed to steel or aluminium wheels. the rear section is going to be adjustable. I plan on slotting the I-beam so you can widen it for 32 heavy axles and move it fore and aft to change stretch or no stretch. The stops for measuring the drop height are drop-in. I plan on making this press dedicated so I'll make legs and casters so I can move it around. The press part is manual. I'm going to put a big steel wheel overhead to make it easy to turn. I think this should work great. If not I'll switch it to a hydraulic ram on top. I have a 2" solid rod that I'm machining down to have a nipple that locates in the perch hole with a cup on the other end that slips over the press bearing. The stop in back isn't pictured but its similar to the one up front. Pretty sure I'm going to hole saw some holes in the I-beam for fun. I made one of these before but it burned in the shop fire and I've always wanted to make another. I've had Titus drop the last couple axles... but I always seem to come across cheap axles here and there. I just scored a $10 32-36 axle last week and that set me off... I had sort of collected all of this junk to make one. The i-beam, the old press etc.. I figured I could collect a few axles and drop them all in a day and then sell them at swaps along with louvered hoods. My buddy Sam Nelson is helping me machine up some louver dies for the P-9 that match the old curved louvers I had on the Hex. I saved the hood because the layout was bitchen and I wanted to reproduce it. I thought I could do the same thing. Spend a day louvering hoods and then have them when I hit swaps. I'm not really setup to take orders or do stuff for people, just don't have time... but it would be fun to drop a few, louver a few, sell a few on my terms to make a few extra bucks. We hit up BMX this weekend too- Maple took home her first trophy and Winter (far left in the group pic) raced her first race. Maple held up her trophy and said DAD I WAS WINNING, and the OTHER KIDS WERE NOT!!! I had to laugh because shes never been competitive- she just loves to BMX. Maple has a micro mini Redline- were gonna hit the clinic tomorrow and work on going through the gate.
Well... things got a little crazy. Changes like phases of the moon: PHASE 1 the Full moon Pulled the axles and cut the tube 2" The axles are weird in that they're tapered. So I could for $398 order new axles... or I could weld up the surface, grind and re-spline them. I was going to weld myself but I'm actually going to hire that out and have them speciality welded to reduce hydrogen embrittlement etc., then we will use the 4 jaw and chuck up the axle and grind to the right diameter and then re-spline the ends using the bridgeport. My machinist buddy Sam Nelson is going to help me do the machine work so I don't screw them up. Big deal if it doesn't work. This is a chance to learn/try something new. Axles are forged and if the spline job didn't hold up for some reason worst thing that could happen is I have to call roadside assistance. PHASE 2 the Waning Gibbous I'm getting a new spring made for the rear. It's re-arched so that it lifts the frame up 3" extra in back. When I got the body where I wanted it the body was sort of wedge channelled and the frame was lower in the back. I had 4" to raise the frame into the body. Ok... so what this did was give me more ground clearance and keep my cool stance. bennies: more ground clearance for scrub issues, keeps the same stance/profile, shock mounts get raised by trimming them an inch or so, the floor will not have to be built around suspension wishbone. PHASE 3 the Waxing Crescent Solid 1/2" spacers to raise the hemi up in just in the front. The only thing I need to adjust with all of this stuff is adjust my ball mount a degree for the rear and the pinion will be back where I want it. This is a tweak to help exhaust clearance a tad by the steering box and keep my oil filler nut well within scrub. So thats that. I've had college classes on top of work which has prevented me from working in the shop much at all... its been sort of painful but I plan to get back in there this weekend and finish working on some of these things. Oh- I did plan on putting the generator out in the breeze.... but I think I can mount it low under the right side of the engine tucked up next to the mount. Tuck
Glad you saw that you're rear diff was a bit too wide and made a needed change - hard to tell really how much from the pictures. As I figured, you have a sharp eye for detail! Glad to see you're back at your roadster Tuck AND the Star Destroyer!!!!!
I have punched some using the factory dies that I got with the machine but My machinist buddy Sam is making dies to punch using the upper pneumatic cylinder. They’re getting close to being done they will match the louvers that were in the hood of the hex.
Thanks man- The offset of those mags pushes the wheels out and doesn’t help- but it shows off the crazy drums! I took 4” off total which puts the rear around 50” wide or so- I’ll measure tomorrow.
Really excited about those louver dies. I’m going to make serveral hoods for the model A to change up the attitude and one of them has got to look be chock full of Louvers
Me too man! You’ll have to road trip up and visit, we can have a punching party!!- I was thinking I could punch a hood and sell one or two at swaps and help make this thing pay for itself... besides I have a ton of hoods laying around (-: (-:
That's great Tuck! That 50" wide measurement from backing plate to backing plate? I have an important question... Since you're running those finned drums, what back spacing is needed (or your back spacing from your wheels) so that the finned drums just extend 2" from the wheel's edge? Contacted So-Cal and have NOT got back to me yet about my Buick style drum covers - thanks a lot for any info!
The new rear spring is being made at S&S spring in Rock Creek. Axles are getting welded. I'm making an alignment bar for the rear end. A thick 2.25 or 2.5" diameter bar of 1018 cold rolled that I'll make doughnuts that'll slip in the carrier and then pucks that will bolt to the end caps and slip on the rod. This will make sure my tubes are still aligned after welding and will keep me from burning up bearings if I were to weld the caps on the way they are now- if they're off a little bit it'll put torq vectors on the bearing and they'll prob burn up earlier than need be- this way the bearing cup stays in alignment and you can heat and bend the tubes by heat shrinking if they need minor adjustment. I just didn't want to take any chances and it will be nice to know my tubes are aligned with the centerline of the axle housing. Thats all I got. Tuck
The Jalopy Journal
