I sealed all the floor seams with seam-sealer. Did the body work on the firewall and painted it 1940 Dodge gray-olive green. That will be the color for the car.
I got a little out of sequence with the last few posts. I actually had the frame on the rotisserie for painting before I used it for the body.
I like sun visors on some cars. I think shoebox woodies are particularly good candidates for visors as they have kind of tall forehead look to them. I got a Fulton Sun Shade with the woodie project when I bought it and picked-up another Fulton at a swap meet. I like the look of the Fultons, but thought they could fit the roof-line of the woodie better. I sectioned one of the visors, shortening it 2" at the outer edge tapering to 1" shorter in the center. I had to also shorten the dog-bone and change the forward attachment point. Here's a look at the stock vs sectioned visor.
Here are some shots of the finished chassis. I added tubular a-arms, mounted 2 compressors for the air bags and had the exhaust run to the rear bumper. The rear end is a 9" from a 1960 T-Bird - nice and narrow as I will be running reversed steel wheels at both ends.
When I put the body back on the chassis, I covered the chassis with plastic to protect it from the primer and paint. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Turned out to be total pain in the ass. After much frustration I tore out the plastic.
I made mention earlier of a 6 x 2 manifold for my Chevy votec motor. Here are some pics of the manifold made by Ed Umland of Eddie's Chop Shop. You can see the fuel rails run along side of the manifold and will place the injectors in about the same place as the original manifold. The carbs will bring in the air like the original throttle body. I made some brackets to relocate the coils to an area below the air vent tubes and will use some Offy valve covers to dress-up the motor.
I dragged the hood and visor over to Eddie's Chop Shop and we punched 90 louvers in the hood and another 20 in the visor.
Aligned the fenders and hood reasonably well with the hacked-up original core support. Got a universal cross flow radiator from Summit, made up a new core support and added a fan shroud.
Shoebox woodies have sliding windows in the 2nd seat area with 2 drains on each side in the lower channels. The drain tubes just end behind the wood paneling. It seemed to me that it would be better to run the tubes out. So, I extended the tubes so the front ones drain thru the rockers to the ground and the rear ones into the wheel well and on to the ground.
The woodie project is my 10th car build. I don't consider myself highly skilled, but I've become pretty comfortable with most tasks of car modifying/building. However, my car woodworking experience has been limited to the things you need to do with wood in a model A. So, one of the many reasons that I choose a shoebox woodie is that several "wood kits" are available. Since I'm in Northern California, I've seen quite a few cars which had wood from Wood N' Carr (SoCal) as well as Rick Mack (Seattle area). Since Wood N' Carr's kit is about half of Rick Mack's price, I opted for the Wood N' Carr kit. I was able to buy a kit from someone who bailed on his project at a little lower price. Once I got to the stage of fitting the wood I learned why the prices are so different. Wood N' Carr's kit requires a great deal of work while Rick Mack's kit is much more refined. Here are some pictures of the first fit of some pieces. The wood that shows beyond the metal of the car must be removed before sanding and finishing.
The wood kits are designed to be assembled with mortises and tenons. I cheated and used a Kreg joint system that uses pocket screws and I used Gorilla Glue on all joints. In addition to the Kreg Joint tools, I bought a power planer, a bench-top belt/disc sander, and a 14" band saw. I already had a compound mitre saw, a belt sander and numerous DA sanders. The band saw was not up to the task of cutting the hard-rock maple. So, I got some help from a commercial cabinet shop. The fitting, cutting, planing, sanding, repeat, repeat, repeat took about 2 months at my pace of 3 to 5 hours most days. If I had it to do over again, I'd pay the price and use Rick Mack's wood kit. I did purchase the insert panels already finished from Rick Mack.
Amazing build Hupster, I have loved the Hupster from first sighting. Now my heart is pounding over this build. Out-friggin-standing my friend. ~sololobo~
Thanks again for the encouragement. I hope it's not a "heart stopper" - I've had enough of that. I'm now pretty close to current with the posts. Doing final body work and blocking primer in prep for paint. I won't be doing the paint. I'm using a great local body shop - Artistic Collision Center in Rancho Cordova for the paint. I can't remember if I mentioned I'm using a 49 front group with the center bullet rather than the 51 with the 2 smaller bullets.
Very nice work on the wood and I love the color! I dont know if I could do a wood car ....if I cant weld it I think I should stay away lol!
We got the body to the body shop for paint. Should be green next week. My very understanding wife let me put the fenders in the living room.
Wow very cool build. I have never seen anyone redo the wood on a woody, great job. Was the install very difficult? subscribing
Thanks, Koolkemp. If I could just weld the wood back together when I make a bad cut it would go a lot easier. Thanks, Rock. Thanks, McNally. Yes, the fitting and installing the wood was/is very difficult. I still have to do the final install after the maple wood is varnished. Sorry Loco, I already sold the stock visor.
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