Projects Giant speedster project

I have a box of those in my truck for those special moments of skin removal.

 

Paperdog Special

I jammed a 20 gauge shell in the exhaust and hit it with a hammer just for paperdog. I don't know why the pic came out so fuzzy. Maybe it was all the gun powder smoke in the air. Waddya think? Next I dug up the original exhaust tip and stuck it on. Then I turned it sideways to match the curve of the body. Mmmm. I sent a pic of the speedster to Corky Coker. He said anything with a 1000cc was okay in his book. Cool! As for the wound. I've always felt electrical tape had some special antibiotic properties. I've never had a wound become infected if I wrapped it in electrical tape. When I got home it kept oozing. My wife found some stuff in the medicine cabinet that looked like sterilized dirt. I sprinkled it on the abrasion. It burned like cayenne pepper but the bleeding stopped instantly and a scab formed. I love this stuff. I threw everything out of the first aid box. All I have now is a vial of sterilized dirt mixed with cayenne pepper.

Jerry

 

Jerry,

Take a look at the last page or two of the 1894-1994 racing thread. Herb (ebtm3) took some pics of his son's ALF speedster- it's one of the earlier (if not the earliest) fire engine to speedster conversions and VERY well done!!!

Oh, I like the last exhaust idea

 

Dang Jerry, that original tip has character.

 

I vote for the Elmer Fudd Blunderbuss Mishap. In polished brass, perhaps?

 

Maybe do the exploded gun barrel thing, but make it easily removed and replaced with something less kitchy, like a fishtail, it kinda takes away from the beauty of the rest of the speedster. My $.02

 

They're easy to change, keep both. Use the original one, sideways, for regular shows, the Paperdog model when you wear a Dick Dastardly costume.

 

I am so proud of this development that I am doubling my meds to nite ......
EARLY

 

From hot rods to medicine? Or should this be in Tech week?
My 84 year old father in law recently discovered or was told to put white pepper on small cuts and scrapes, he claims it is almost a miracle cure for old blokes who have trouble stopping them bleeding. (I even gave it a try, seems to work) I don’t know about using cayenne pepper and dirt but I might try that too.
Brendan

 

Do and Redo

After studying the left side running board I'd installed a few days ago I realized it wasn't square with the right side. I had to take it off and square things up by bracing things with wood. Then I built the right side running board. I cut and welded and bent and ground and bead blasted and built the right fender supports. I figured I needed something to correspond to the muffler on the left so I made up a little luggage rack. I'll put some better wood on it. That was just some i had laying around. I'm thinking walnut, a bit thicker and rounder. Now don't worry about those ugly bolts sticking out of the running boards to hold the fenders. I'm going to trim them up and you won't see them on the inside because the the running board will be lined with ash and covered in felt.

Jerry

 

I like it, starting to look like one of those endurance rally cars. When do we get to hear the full exhaust system?

 

now is the time for the laminated light/ dark wood,s along with the with strips of sheet aluminum and brass between the colors
GO GO GO GO

 

Taking a leak

Sunday, my usual day of shop therapy, I spent fixing a leak in the main water line into my house. The earth around the house has settled about 4 inches and it put the water line in a severe bind which eventually broke it. Nice.

Monday was a school holiday, so I spent the day watching kids. When I took a break and went to my shop I found a guy stealing an old RV generator out of my shed. He took off in his van and I called the cops. He left a half empty can of beer with some nice prints so we'll see what the police can do.

Today I worked on the running boards. They're becoming quite a project. I finally finalized the design so maybe I'll finish them up tomorrow. I was going to weld them in place but I decided to make them removable. It'll make for better service.

The last picture is a little test I was running. About four months ago, when I was renovating one of my rental units, I waxed the linoleum floor with some real heavy duty commercial floor wax. Just for the hell of it I wiped some on an old Toyota truck I have. The paint on it is absolutely dead. I haven't looked at it until today. You can see the difference. It still has a shine. Well, maybe shine isn't the word, but it looks way better than the other side. Cool. I also put some on my sneakers which were scuffed down to the quick. They took a good shine too. I think I'm going to rebottle the stuff and call it miracle wax. Is this too long?

Jerry

 

Paint

I'm always thinking about the future. Today's future topic is paint. There are two ways to go--the perfectly restored super paint job and the faux out of the barn look. I know some Hambers get all weird if you mention faux paint but I'm not talking about rusty 50's looking old hot rod stuff. If anyone's been to Hershey a few years ago there was a '13 Mercer Raceabout that was restored to look like a barn car. It was really neat--weathered and checked etc. Well. I'm not thinking about that extreme either. More like just slightly weathered. Like a 30's car put in a museum and never restored. How hard would that be to replicate? The advantage would be: price maybe, the finish might not have to be as perfect because every last ding, dent and nick would not have to be removed, also it would give the car something of a history (even if it was a faux history.) You can kind of see what I mean in the picture of the Isotta below--although the finish is a little obvious. Anyway, got any input or advice or pictures.

Jerry

 

You can always use the theme park term we used around Disney and Uni... "Scenic aging and graining"....

If its done well.. it's pretty damb convincing...

The guys who do it the best.. look really close and dissect the colors and wear of the real thing.. rock, wood, metal.. in this case.. a turn of the century survivor car and "see" where the wear, tear, dents and fade would really fall...

Seems like the big mistake the less experienced ages would make at the parks..Not do their home work and try to get by using just a light gray, dark gray/black paint wash and scuffing/aging the base paint arbitrarily.. the end product looks flat and dull.. something that you would see at a local Halloween haunt...

 

The worst is fake wear in places it would not wear - that calls attention to the fake-ness. I've seen that and it's worse than flat black & dents. But it could be done well I think.

Try a muted color, enamel or true lacquer, brushed on thin in several coats, for base. Then lightly fog in a spray coat of a slightly darker shade of the same paint for highlights, and drive it for a while. Get some honest wear getting in and out, some road dings, and then wash & wax.

 

I love those ALFs! Where can I find one cheap?

Jerry

 

it will age gracfully in the corner of your shop the accumulation of crud will be natural as the only wear will be where it gets touched to drive and you fidget with it
having the kids karate class climb on it can start it sooner

a good oily smoke filling the shop will do wonders to the SEAGRAVE SPECIAL MIRACLE MUSTACHE WONDER WAX

 

... I'll leet you get the 2ND cheap one I find ...

As beautiful a car as that Isotta is, that "patina" makes it look like one of those fake antique toys cars you can get at Hobby Lobby.

Make it as nice as you did your other speedster- time will give it the patina, as needed.

 

Hang in there

I just finished welding the running boards. I can't even explain all the cross pieces and such or why they're in there but suffice it to say they all have a reason--I think. Finally, I put some sheet metal in the bottom. So now I have to visit Don the Morgan King and have him cut some wood strips to line the inside with. Or maybe I'll put that off because the aluminum I ordered for the step arrived and so did the DOM tube I need to make the front fender supports mounts. BTW here is a picture of the pipe that ruined my Sunday. Mac the Yac, I think you're right, just being in the shop and getting knocked around the speedster will develop it's own patina.

Jerry

 

battle scars ... and storie starters ... lies and truths all from the .. "explain that bit?"

 

Front Fender Support Supports

The old fire truck had an energy absorbing bumper in the form of a steel bar attached to the front frame horns with big coil springs. The bumper and mounting rods were all bent up but the mounting brackets were big hulking things. I cut off most of the bracket and welded on some 3/4 id DOM tubing. Into this I will insert some 3/4 rod bent perfectly to support the front fenders. Unfortunately I don't have any 3/4 rod but I will find some. I had to pretty up my welding with bondo to give the upgraded bracket the look of a casting. The old brackets were some kind of cast steel, not cast iron. They welded real nice with my old, old Lincoln buzz box. I love that thing.

Jerry

 

go go go ............

 

That ISOTTA belongs to the father of a HAMB member in California, haven't seen it personally, but I've seen the MERCER at Hershey. There is a maroon one as well as a yellow one, best faux finish on an antique I've seen, he did a Stanley Steamer as well. I got my butt kicked on a thread I started on the Rolling Bones faux finish, I like it, it looks very nice and warm to me. Bob

 

WOW! I skimmed through that thread. People were getting pretty ugly about paint jobs. I hope they don't find my faux comment on here.

Jerry

 

Well if they give you any guff about it just tell 'em "Faux Q" or maybe "Faux Cough".

 

A trip to Don's

Don said he had some 3/4" rod so I went over there today. After rooting around in the remains of the so-called goat hut we found the rod. Some history: Don's compound used to be a the Demorest Broom Factory back in the day before vacuum cleaners ran them out of business and he took it over and turned it into Morganfab. It's located on the now defunct Tallulah Falls Railroad line where Disney filmed the Great Locomotive Chase. Back in the day there were several interesting features at Morganfab, among them: Auschwitz, a low concrete structure where the broom factory people used to bleach the straw with burning sulfur and, of course, the goat hut. The goat hut was tumble down lean too that was the last stopping point for all things mechanical before they were shipped off to the scrap yard. A decade ago, Don destroyed Auschwitz with a jackhammer nearly detaching his retina in the process. But the goat hut just gradually collapsed of its own free will. You can still rummage in the remains if you get an archaeological bent. The 3/4" rod turned out to be 11/16. Close enough. After some bead blasting and heat it took shape. I was going to thread the bottom but I soon found out 11/16 nuts are very, very rare. Why?

Jerry

 

Couldn't find them in McMaster- Carr catelog. And they have everything! If they don't have it you don't need it.

 

Jerry,

11/16 is pretty close to the od of a 20 MM thread. Maybe?

(Just don't let the Metric system invade you like it did here!)


Absolutely nothing to do with speedsters but I thought you would appreciate the conversion of a WWII universal carrier that I just acquired. It started out like the gray one & after much conversion including the removal of 24" in the width & 32" in length it is what you see here today. It is more fun than should be allowed & will go almost anywhere (its Ford flathead will push it well over 35 mph if you can take it!)

 

That's awesome! I take it someone converted it long ago. You should paint it desert storm and mount a .50 cal machine gun on it.

Jerry