Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

Hey where'd Pat go to...

@Stooge you have a very unique hand in art...don't we all right Pat...

Your metal forming skills are admirable and an inspiration and no doubt helpful to Pat at this stage of the Thunder Thrash...

Hey Alligator Clecoes...

Pat are you extending the hood by splicing it into the Nose or just butting it...me thinks the latter?

Cripes you are motivated taking on so many projects...funny your friends Tub reminds me of yours in a way...all good though as the more you do the more you get in the groove...

@Six Ball I've always said Hotrod Custom is a form of Visual Art just as Cars were on the Drafting Table...

So many deny that claim but I stand by my analogy......love that word...

Go Pat Go...

 

We are ditching the quarters because we didn't trust the setup or the way the axle was welded up tight to everything. Putting a Speedway Tribute T-Bucket chassis & front end under it with bresh repop brakes and the repop finned drums (if it ever arrives).

That's hilarious, I wonder if we were ever there at the same time, LOL. I actually like your artwork quite a bit. It has a lot of 'outsider art' and 'folk art' vibe to it that hits right. DO MORE SPOOKY STUFF BECAUSE IT IS SPOOKY SEASON PLEASE!

THANKS! Yeah, I would totally spend the 5 figures on the big toys if I had the money and a roof to put them under though!

 

OK guys, I'm back. Had some life turbulence but I've kept going on the car.



I roughed out the steel skin for the nose yesterday. I think I have decided the best bet is to extend the nose so the hood will end flush to the end of the nose sides. To get there, I need to clean off all that nasty orange paint, bang a dent out, and, critically, lay out and drill the hole pattern on the nose. I am not sure what layout I want to use but I will probably go staggered 2" or something. I may make dimple dies with a curve using my 3D printer to flare them so I don't straighten the metal.

Spoke with my machinist yesterday. He's been swamped but the line hone is done; balancing the crank, boring the cylinders, replacing seats, and undercutting my valves are next up.

 

Progress is progress man, glad to see it

 

@patmanta the Hotrod visually has the simplicity of many dry Lakes racers back in the late 40s in these last few shots...I bet your really feeling really positive and cracking a warm smile when you stood back and took those shots...

I'd go as far to say that's a bit of a 2nd milestone...as the 1st one was very cool too...there are many directions you can take and this is certainly not uncommon in building Hotrods...good on you...

 

Practice makes perfect. It is looking better this time.

 

Thanks all! I'm cursing myself a little for not plotting my drill pattern before I bent the sheet but I'll figure something out for that hopefully today. With at least guide holes done I can bead roll a step along the top to facilitate welding the cap in.

I am undecided about what I want to do to finish the bottom edge. Currently it has an extra 4" left that is marked for trimming so the chin cap can be added but I am not sure if I want to or not.

Yeah, I REALLY like the early lakes cars and this car has long been reaching for elements of that aesthetic.

 

My ENTIRE DAY Sunday at a glance because I screwed it up for 3 solid hours before I got it good enough. Laying out the punch pattern for the nose skin.

 

I wouldn't have found the screwups until I'd punched a few holes in the wrong spots.
Looks good!

 

The new nose is looking good! What are you using to punch the holes? Are you going to dimple/flare them afterwards?

 

Thanks!... I almost did.

I am going to use a 1-3/4" Greenlee punch like I did on the holes on the leading edge of the first nose so they don't resist or flatten the bend. Once I get it all together and welded to the cap, I may try to measure the radius in a couple spots, design and then 3D print a flaring tool or two with the correct radius to flare the holes 1/8"dia. Typical punch/flare tools are about 1/4"dia so I'm hoping this will still get THE LOOK while still being able to work with plastic tooling. But that's not a primary step in the build; it will run just fine if I don't get to that right away (or ever).

Also, I went to see my block on Saturday. We are getting close now. Line hone is done, bore is next, I dropped off the valves so he can do what he needs to do with them. After all that I will take it back to do whatever port/polish work I am going to do then bring it back to him to do my bottom end assembly. After that I'll be dropping in and adjusting my top end and looking to test fire!

I still need a torque tube made up soon though so I can finish up my brake lines.

All this while I am getting my furnace replaced with gas/heat-pump hybrid system and adding solar to the house but I am looking forward to not worrying about oil deliveries, electric bills, and power outages (I'm getting a 3 day backup battery) anymore.

 

Only three hours?! Rookie!

Looking good Pat keep it up.

 

Looking good, @Robert J. Palmer ! I need to get a punch like that. I do myself no favors misusing my sized hole center punches to do work like this, I bent one in the past but I always forget to get a proper punch like what you're using there and don't want to stop what I'm doing for the sake of getting one.

Where are you getting your bits BTW? That is A LOT of drilling, how do they hold up? I can't count the amount of time I've lost to dull/cheap bits to the point that I still recoil at the thought of drilling despite having some better bits (Milwaukee) in the shop now.

 

I punched the nose skin yesterday. It was unnecessarily difficult because of the oversize screw on these HF punches but I got it done. Anybody know where I can get a punch set that uses a half inch screw instead of having to make a 3/4" hole just to get a 1-3/4" punch? My dimple punch sets work great with a half inch screw and I burned up my #4 step bit and most of my energy drilling guides.

Anyway, here we are!





I marked out a bottom row but chose not to drill it (other than the one that I did by mistake). This is becase I am not sure if I want to leave the bottom flat like it is now and punch that last row, or cut the extra material on the bottom off and add the bottom cap to round the nose out which would make those holes a bit close.

 

Holey Moley!

 

Looks good! Like the rolled pan idea, not sure if another row of holes would be too close but you can see it better.

 

THANKS! I still have a similar reaction like ANY TIME I see your car!

OK, so, see that line under the >:C face there? That is the cut line where the bottom cap would go. I wanted to stay somewhere in the neighborhood of 2" out from the seams if I could so I decided to be cautious until I had a definite plan either way.


Now that I have the minimum holes punched and the skin back on the car, I am leaning towards doing the cut and adding the cap to the bottom. It looked cool as is before but with the holes it makes more sense to run the cap down there now. The plan will be to cut the extra material then do another mockup on the car so I can see if adding the bottom row is a go or a no-go.

 

Yea, That is getting close. Even closer if you flair them and it might look crowded.

 

Dang that’s pretty cool!

 

THis weekend I started working on the top and bottom caps. I got them stripped fairly well (it was nasty) with a stripping disk then took the skin over to the bead roller. I am still REALLY liking my 8" roller and motor combo.

Stepped the skin then fought with clamps and straps until I had it set good on the buck before moving on to fight with getting the cap set on there right. Sheetmetal screws are my best friend. I have really good luck with #6 stainless hex caps and my 12v impact driver (the big 18v impact driver tends to rip the heads off and the base grade screws even more so, fyi).





Once I got that all set, I decided the best approach would be to make a filler piece and worry about a hood next week or so. Doing it that way seems cleaner, SO, I cut my hood template off and used a piece of that to start. I added about 2" for safety and to allow for a step to grab a hood like a stock shell would.

 

Nice

 

Pat is the plan to weld the Caps and grill and make it one?

 

THANKS!

Yes, once I get it all set just right with my poor mans clecos. I am not happy with its current mounting situation and once I get it all at least tacked up, I can get the buck/structure out of there and do something a little more streamlined. I didn't think I would be able to take all of it out but I did manage to get things together well enough without needing to attach it permanently to the skin or the caps. It will need some filler, I'm sure, but it should work out OK in the end.

 

A nice improvement over the first one.

 

Holey Hot Rod Batman!

 

OK, so as you saw already, I have the nose fully skinned and almost got it welded up until I ran out of shielding gas this weekend. Sheet metal screws (poor mans clecos) to the rescue! Pictures will tell the story.




THEN I took delivery of my friend's Tribute T chassis. I made a cardboard mockup engine and we scratched our heads quite a bit over the dimensions and placement since this chassis setup is really meant for a glass 23 bucket body. Here is what all that looked like:

 

Look Ma, NO CLAMPS!





Gotten a few things done over the past few weeks. I made up some stiffening ribs that act as deflectors inside the nose to direct air towards the radiator instead of letting it all blow by. I installed those with rivets to make it easy to change if I need to AND since I still haven't gotten more shielding gas (I was out in Oregon last week).

Next thing I did this past weekend was make up some little 16ga tabs to attach the nose to the frame. I'm going to have to slot one to get the fit perfect I think but it's amazing to see it on there without clamps finally. I will probably add at least one more point of attachment up top. I am thinking something like threaded rod or a bolt welded into the top of the nose and a sleeve or heavy washer welded to the top of the radiator support would do that duty nicely.

Here is the eye candy:


ALso, I am going to probably make that build thread for my buddy @justa170 's T (which he calls the Basurati), though it is still kinda relevant to this build. After figuring a bunch of things out about how that Tribute T chassis is meant to be set up, I figured out that cutting that body down was the cleanest way to go. And we came to the conclusion that the coolest build was going to be to do the thing I wish I had done with my car, LONG DOORS. We cut the back half off and test fit the front half. The plan is to remove the B pillars and center skin. We will then bring the rear quarters (with what's left of their subrails removed) around the C pillar and affix the remaining D pillar to the front face of the C. This will give us a fixed point for the read door closure which we will then split the difference between the back door and front door, cut them both, and make one extended door on each side. These doors and this car are NOT too nice to cut up, I can assure you. This is going to remove a lot of stuff that's held together with Bondo.

 

The weather was bad Halloween weekend so I had a little help in the shop with the heat going. Got the dash in where I want it, cut a relief for the column drop, then made a template and plate to back it and mount it (not pictured). Was going to roll the edge on that piece but when I unpacked my new radius dies, the set screws were nowhere to be found so that will be a future update.




This past weekend was light duty in the shop today since I hurt myself on Halloween chasing down a dog that was in my care (tore the skin off my right palm in a bad fall). Made a simple block riser for my seat pad and mounted my go pedal! Small work but big payoff. Got the seat mounted again yesterday too (also not pictured).

 

ALSO, I have started a new thread for the other touring car build for @justa170 over HERE:

170 SLANT POWERED 27 T SHORTENED TOURING, "BASURATI"
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ered-27-t-shortened-touring-basurati.1247107/