Hot Rods 28 modified build downunder

Exactly right. Every supposed taboo is out there. Split bones, suicide axles, drum brakes, external headers, no fenders...you name it and you'll find it on a fully registered car.

That's why I'm pushing ahead how I want it because if you didn't do everything that someone told you not to do, you'd do nothing at all. There are a couple of things that I know my engineer is not happy with (the split bones and spring mounted to the bones are not among them!). One thing is that I don't have any certification for the bear claw latches on my doors...can you believe that? Not really a big deal. I just need to buy one, do a destructive test on it and record the results. More of a pain in the arse than anything.

I'm pushing on and not getting hung up on it. I have a foot in the SR permit camp also. Just in case. The log book scheme for Victoria seems to have gone very quiet though.

Anyhow, back to the scheduled viewing...

 

In our last episode we had steering. With that steering box in place there will be no hanging pedals for me. And with a 4" channel job there's not a lot of room for master cylinders under the floor either.

After two aborted attempts to use pedals procured from swap meets I bailed out and decided to fabricate my own. When you have such a small space to work in and 3 pedals to fit in, it's the only way



The pedal box is welded to the centre crossmember. I am using a HQ Holden master cylinder for the brakes and a remote mounted, cable operated HR mater cylinder for the clutch. Just didn't have room to put them both under my feet.

 

Sweet looking Rod!I'm also going for the same kinda look with the '39 Ford pick-up I'm building in South Africa.Hoping to have mine finished before the end of '08.

Can't wait to see you rod finished!

 

Drop a pic or 2 of yours in for a look!

 

I'm going to break my own rule. I'm trying to get my pics up here in roughly the order I took them but I'll just fast forward to the present to show how that pedal assembly went together

 

Looking great Pete. You sure have done some awesome fab work. Can't wait to see it roll into the picninc/Kustom Nats.... go go go!

 

My highest compliment: I wish I owned it! Nice work! Good Luck!

 

I cant wait for more!Great thread!!!!!

EVIL

 

Something I recommend any builder to do is start with a clean sandblasted frame. I procrastinated over this for ages. Mainly it was the cost. In the end I bit the bullet and realised I should have done it at the start.

I was forever grinding crap off before I could weld on my frame, but I decided that before I close it all up with boxing plates, I better blast it.

It came back like this





This one shows the mountings for the lever shocks on the rear. The tubes will allow access through the boxing plates to the mounting nuts



And this is the tapered bung for the front radius rod. I think you can see the fish plate that backs up the cut from the front frame sweep. It also provides extra support for the rod mount.



The bung is surrounded by a short tube that welds to the boxing plate, like the rear shock mounts

 

Thanks Brett,

Did you ever get some stripes on that Holden?


Thanks Dan and Evil.

Dan, looking at your avatar I don't think you should be too envious

Pete

 

You all like the fuel tank. Here's the mounting I made. It will have leather hold down straps

 

great build, im definently watching this one

 

Back to the running gear. I want to keep the '48 banjo out back because it's highly visible from the rear. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense...401, Muncie, banjo...but I'l try to look after it. It needed an open drive so I made this one



It uses a TH 400 slip yoke with the middle bored ot to fit the banjo coupler inside. It's a press fit and is then welded in







Chooped the end of the torque tube off, capped the end, machined a hole and pressed in a seal









Like most things I do for the first time, I see a lot of things I would do different. I could certainly improve on this set up but I'm not so anal retentive to go and do it again. I have no intention building this whole car twice.

 

I wanted to get the body in one colour for a more unified look. I was so used to looking at the individual parts I started with that I couldn't see past it and see a complete body. So some rough and ready prep work and I rolled it ouside for primer.

I need to say that it has never been my intention to make this body flawless. It's more about the "vibe" than the finish. Don't get me wrong, I like nice shiney paint jobs, but the time to get them there I think is inordinate to the cars overall build. I know of some cars that I would not like any better for having a slick paint job so... have I justified my laziness enough?











You might have noticed the recess under the hole for the sector shaft. I had to move the draglink to the inboard side of the pitman arm for tyre clearance when turning right. That required a bit of bodywork.

 

Hey Pete looks good primed too!

No stripes as yet on the EK, just stone chips

 

I hate to ruin your day STRIPER but in think you mounted everthing on the wrong side of the car!

....Just kidding, very cool build!

 

No, I just got my negatives printed back to front

 

Striper, you're work is just outrageous! I just can't believe that you are doing many of these tasks for the first bloody time! Man, it took me several passes just to learn how to brush my teeth.

You've got me hooked now, so keep the photos coming - PLEASE!!!

 

Interesting and well thought out work.

Stunning workmanship as well.

You may as well put the steering box seal in now.
Darned steering boxes seem to find a way to leak no matter what.

It looks like the seats are going to be low enough to get you out of the wind.
A photo of you in the car could help other builders in deciding how tall to set the seats etc.

One thing I really like about the car is that it's low without being too low.
Part of it perhaps an allusion, but it has the look and will turn out to be a fun car you can drive anywhere.

Besides, ya gotta love a car that gets pinstriped during the build....

 

i've already mentioned it once, but I gotta chime in again. This build is awesome. I'm hooked! It's obvious you've really spent a lot of time thinking this build through and to be doing some of these things for the first time and have such nice results is amazing. Well done, my friend, well done!

What would you do differently about the open drive conversion? Looks nice to me! We're about to tackle that project on a T that I'm helping a friend build so I'm collecting info. Thanks...

 

Too bad you're in Australia.....this is the sort of car I'd love to see in person. By far one of the best threads going on the HAMB right now.

-Lee
Atomic Radio
www.atomicpinup.com

 

This is a terrific build. Tons of ingeniuity, creativity, resourcefulness. Great Hot Rod building at it's best.

 

Just learned how to do "multi quote". Carps would be proud.

Some of the things you are seeing are not my first time. I've fucked a lot of things up along the way, so it might be my second or third try e.g. my pedal box.



I'm running out of older pics. I'll be up to the current stuff soon. I had a big break from happy snapping so there's a lot of stuff missing. Still more to come though

Thanks for the worknamship comment. I don't see it. I look at the work of Bass, Dodgerodder, Sloppyseconds and there I see workmanship. I am by no means of that caliber.

I take your point on the steering box but it's full of grease rather than oil, so we'll see how it goes. I know I should do it but as I said above, I am not as consciencious as some.

The seats are real low and I am fairly happy with my position in there. I am trying to get some angle on the base to support under my knees otherwise I think it'll be a bit uncomfortable on a road trip. I've built a Hallock style screen that is fairly low. I can look over it but I think it'll be enough to deflect the wind over me. I'll get a pic in the drivers seat making brrrm brrrm noises.

You picked up on one of my key design points. Low but not too low. It was always my intention to get that look. It started out with 8" clearance under the rails with 4" of ssuspension travel front and back. I've worked really hard to tuck everything up so nothing hanges below the rails. I didn't quite achieve that. Those "A" frames are skinny. A couple of bits hang maybe 1.5" under the rails.

In the end it looks like I will have 7" under the rails with 3" travel. Like I said in an early post. I find it hard to estimate the final ride height.

Main things I would change with the open drive are 1. I would shorten the slip yoke a bit more (already shortened it quite a bit) 2. I would leave maybe 1/2" to 1" more on the end of the torque tube when I cut it. It just looks like the uni joint is fuether forward than it should be. If it was a bit shorter I could have a longer drive shaft which would be good (slightly improve its angle).

Thankyou. I feel like a fraud. It's really not that good. But I appreciate the comments.

I like to think of it as traditional rod building. The result might not be a "traditional" rod but I hope the approach to the build would be considered so.

 

While I'm back talking about the body, it needs a floor. This is one area where I did get some outside help. I could have gone with flat sheets cut out and welded in but in the interest of the bare bones styling I want, I probably won't be covering the floor so I wanted the floor to look good. I got a guy nearby who builds panels and stuff (you know the ones with all the gear, E wheel, brakes, guillotines, bead rollers) to make me some panels to my templates. I was happy with the result but ended up paying way too much for what is still just a floor.







Getting close to current pics now. Once the floor was in, I constructed the trans hump. I even incorporated a piece of my '52 Chev front fender in it. It's a very incestuous breeding program I have going on in my shed

Then I etch primed it all and went crazy with the seam sealer

 

I mentioned earlier that I built a Hallock screen. That was in my "no photos" stage which is very unfortunate because it was an interesting build and would have made a good Tech article. It is fabricated out of 1/8" cold rolled steel. The glass will be glued in.

In the pic below you can just make out the frame. No glass.



You can also see part of the windscreen frame in the next couple of pics although the main focus of these pics was my headers.

I always wanted lakes style megaphone headers. I can't remember seeing many of these on the lakes in the historic books I've read. But none the less, I like them. (maybe they should be called 90's style megaphone headers )

I always envisaged the standard straight off the heads, half way up the cowl look. When I mocked up the cones I didn't like them. I remembered the beautiful pipes Vern Tardel made for his AV8. I also remembered how good this style of pipes look on flathead powered cars in general because they sit nice and tight to the frame rails. So I mocked up the cones down low and ...yes. This about doubled the amount of work I was about to undertake. Not to mention the extra bends that I didn't have. Nothing good is ever easy







Those three show just the right pipes tacked. Anyone who has made headers knows I just finished the easy part. There is so much welding and grinding to do, I thought I'd never finish. And of course then you have to do it again and make them match.

The next couple show them just before I took them to be Jet Hot caoted

 

You clever bastard! Looks great.

 

Thanks Kev....again

 

Hi Mate,

Uni was taking its toll but I've finished up now. Finally!

This build is amazing. Might have to come out and get you to build me some headers, they look fantastic! More pics more pics!

Danny

 

Hey Striper, Where in Central Vic are you? anywhere near Woodend?

 

Yeah I could make some, then I could say I'd done it twice. It'd be easier anyway. Not so many pipes on a flattie.

I think if I made you some and charged $5 an hour, you'd think they were too expensive.

Not too far...Kilmore