Hot Rods A 40 Ford Coupe for Uncle Mike Build Thread

We flipped the frame over today and finished some welding.


We decided to use the anti chatter rods on this car. My 40 frame didn't have the rods on it but I have a 39 frame that had a set we could use.
The bolt on these rods is built like a flathead screw.It requires a 5/16" square head tool to turn it. We found a piece of 5/16"tool stock and used a 12 point socket and ratchet to turn it. It actually came out pretty easy after socking it some penetrant and applying some heat with a propane torch.
The rods were bent a little but were easy to straighten.
The bolts socket was damaged by the removal process and I was determined not to deal with that odd ball square socket during assembly of the car. So I modified it.
After bead blasting the bolts I filled the socket with weld metal.
Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I ground the welds flat.
A 7/16 jamb nut (or 1/2 nut) was then welded on. Welding in the thread socket only. Notice the yellow color of the nut. That is a discoloration you get when you weld on something that is galvanized. Breathing the gas put off while welding galvanized metal is not good for your lungs. Do it in a well ventilated area and wear a mask. It will make you ill (Fever and chills as I remember.
I then ground the weld off flat with the top of the nut and Don gave it another bead blasting.Now I can use a simple end wrench on these anti chatter rods. since it is a half nut it should clear the floor pan.

 

Today we delivered the frame to Mike the painter and picked up the coupe body. It was a beautiful day for making the swap.
After removing the coupe body from the rotisserie we set frame up and balanced it out. After this photo was taken we had to take the frame off the rotisserie and roll it over to get it to balance. If you need some license plates restored Mike is very experienced and does a nice job.
Man that car sure looks nice out in the sun! Mike the painter is on the left rightfully proud of his work. Thanks Mike for a fine job. I wish I owned this trailer. It is pretty handy for transporting a project like this around town.

She's come a long way from this.
After about 4 hours of rigging and driving the body is home.
We should get the frame back in about a week. We have plenty of stuff to do this week though. We have a lot of small pieces to paint for the frame and we have some stuff we can start installing on this body.

 

The car is turning out great! And the GMC wall art over the entry door to the building is unique; I like it..

 

Now the real fun begins.... BTW what a great looking shop.

 

Looks great! Now is the tedious part. Can't scratch the new paint, wish I was there.

 

Great work--gonna be a top flight 40

 

Thanks Finn! That GMC entry is pretty cool. The headlights light up at night too.

Yes it is great too be entering this stage of the build. Yes Mike's shop is very nice. He keeps it as neat and clean as a doctors office. When we were working around there yesterday the tools we had been using would disappear in the middle of the project only to be found right back in their tool boxes. A very good habit that I should adopt.......

Thanks Joel, Yes I was A lot more nervous about handling the body yesterday than previously. I was looking it over when I got it home contemplating all of the parts that would have to be bolted on and thinking that each new part that would be added was an opportunity to scratch some paint........

Thanks olscrounger!

 

Really liking this thread. Just rediscovered it. Last time I saw it you hadn't fired up the dremmel yet. I'm thinking all those little parts numbers are going to come in handy later. Thanks for all the detail ....this old Tacoma boy is SUBSCRIBED!

 

lowcoe, Thankyou! I am glad you found the thread again and will be following it. I am on my second dremmel tool now. I had the first for ten years but the first gave out under the heavy work load. I use a cut off wheel shown below that is a simple twist lock on type.
They are not cheap but they hold up real well and are easy to change out as needed. They do not explode like the little cheep 1 inch cut off wheels and last much longer. Oh, and I see another part number in the picture....... Well I better quit playing with the key board and go and get something done on that coupe project.

 

Set up the portable paint booth in the shop today and started painting chassis parts black.


I use an old Gen Air fan. The fumes exit through the old wood stove wall thimble.

A cheap furnace filter....make that very cheap furnace filter is taped to the side.
The 3/4" PVC structure allows for plenty of places to hang the parts.

 

Here is my paint knock-down paint room we are very close in design. I use a small paint booth from Pascahe.

I use a small spray bottle of water before the paint to keep the dust down.

 

Nice portable booth there Tonyimpala. What are you using for a fan? I neglected to put plastic down on the floor this time. I think I will have a 9 x 9 black spot there when I am done painting all of these parts.

 

Wow Sam, you made some real progress from the last time I was over there. Looking very nice.
I'll be back home mid April. You should be rolling around town by then.

 

The small inside hobby booth has a built in fan

The small spray booth inside has a built in fan. http://www.paascheairbrush.com/products/spray-booths

 

Thanks John, I am actually hoping to have it done by June but there is a lot of work to be done. I got the frame back from the painter yesterday and returned the body to him for some touch up. I hope to have the frame rolling on its tires by next week.

I think you could come up early this year as it appears winter is over already up here.

 

That is a nice small booth. It would be great for small parts. thanks for the reply tonyimpalla

 

No problem with the black 9x9... just paint some kind of logo on it or cute saying and... VIOLA! You will have a "personalized" garage! Heck, whip up a Rolling Bones themed logo but update it to look more like it belongs to a 39 guy! You are on your own as to how!
Keep workin'
Al

 

Al, I did end up with a 9x9 black stain but it is wearing down fast as we are busy assembling the chassis. Had to put all of those shiny black parts to work...... Have you ever noticed that those fabricated parts that fit so well before painting no longer fit so good?

 

^^^^^^^ Yep! Happened too many times to me, too!
Great craftsmanship going into the build.
Keep workin'
Al

 

Keep in mind you can't use automotive paint in that thing!

 

We picked up the painted frame and set it up on horses. After looking it over I decided that I had miscommunication my painter. I had told him I was not too concerned about the finish and he must have taken me literally. I decided to re-due some of the paint on the X member and apply a little bondo the top of the frame rail in the engine bay area. That's Don appling the magic bondo blanket.
Those fancy spring hanger brackets I had made earlier no longer fit after I had done some last minute welding before painting. So we had to remake them. They fit good now.
I installed the fuel tank and installed the Stewart Warner fuel sender.
We did as much assembly as possible while the frame was up on the horses ( much easier on the old knees) but then it was time to put it back on it's wheels.
I think the local fastener store guys are getting tired of my daily requests fro nuts and bolts.
I thought this phase of the build would be a slam dunk quickie deal....... but it seems the that the chassis is fighting me at every turn.

Her is one of those items I did not expect. The bottom shock hanger that I had assembled a year or two ago was assembled incorrectly. Notice the hanger is making contact with the tire. The tire was hardly turned . The turning radius would have been horrendous and the possibility of puncturing a tire very real.

This is the way I had it installed. it needed to be rotated 180 degrees.
Here it is with bracket rotated. The tire is no longer touching the tire when turned.

The turning radius is much better now.



The sway bar is in. They are a tight fit.


I tightened the sway bar dog bones up and was looking for the cotter pin hole. It didn't have one... So I had to drill the pin while laying on the floor. There is not much room for inserting the pin either. We had to rotate the pin in the axle on the first one to get it clocked correctly for the pin insertion. The second was was drilled in the correct position.

Even the spring U bolts were not easy to bolt up. The Posies spring must be thinner than the stock spring. Since I wanted to use the castle nuts I had to shop around and find some heavy washers for the 9/16" U bolts to get the cotter pins to engage the nuts.

So I have to get the headers on, bleed the brakes install the steering gear and a few other things before next Tuesday. The chassis has an appointment at the Muffler Shop.

 

Thanks for the update, great work as usual.

 

Gettin'closer. I kinda hate for this build to end, the tutorial has been very helpful and informative.
Thanks!

 

Thanks okiedokie!

hotrodA Happy to hear you find the build thread helpful. It is a long way from the finish though. I really want to have it on the road by June but there is an a lot left to do............. I plan to hire out the interior work but have not decided who will do the work. I imagine that will take a month or so to get done so I better get an appointment with someone soon.

 

The other day when I started to prepping the transmission for paint I noticed I didn't have the fitting for the manual overdrive cable to transmission lever. I figured it would not be very easy to find the fitting so I came up with a plan.......

I have found some very good information on this trans on the VanPelt Salse sight.

I oiled up the bushings on the old lathe and machined a piece of round stock to fit into the lever.
Test fit. It had to be just the right OD to allow it to turn on the round stock with out being sloppy and just deep enough to allow it to rotate when the washer and attachment bolt where installed.

I actually had to make this piece twice. I broke off a small bit in the first one and could not get the broken piece out.


That is just a piece of tie wire in the fitting for testing the function. It is a pretty simple looking piece but it required several machining, drilling and tapping operations and took me all afternoon to make.
I probably would have spent more time than that to find the missing stock piece.



There she is I think that is the last thing the transmission needs except oil.

 

I finished the fan shroud .

We brought the body back home this week. I decided to cut the hole out for the master cylinder access before installing the Dynamat insulation.
.

I made the majority of the cuts with the saws all and finished them off with cut off wheel on the dremmel tool.



I made a pattern from clear plastic and then transferred it to some leftover floor metal.

I decided I only needed to bend the tab over on the left side. The left side tab was bent back over on itself and the void under it was later filled with silicone. That filled in the strengthening bead in the floor allowing the plate to seal better. I had to hammer and dolly the area around the original MC hole to flatten it. I cut the tab off of the right side and did a little dolly work on the shallow bead area there.

I got carried away with the bead rolling phase of the project and forgot to take pictures of that part of the project.

I painted the cover plate to match the undercoating on the underside of the floor. I will put a seal on the edges of the cover after I finish the interior insulation project
.

Today we loaded up the chassis and hauled it to the Muffler Shop .

 

Started installing the Dynamat. The pieces are 24 x48 inches. I thought I had asked for the old silver type. This is what they sent. It is OK but I preferred the lighter color.

I set up a table near the car and got out a few tools I thought I would need. The roller is home made from roller off an old boat trailer and a piece of pipe. You really have to have a roller to do a decent install of this stuff.

I strung a line down the center and marked a center line with a tri square.

I lay a strip of tape along the center line. I should have just used a pencil.
Having the body on the rotisserie is a big help. I am able to roll the car on its' side and stand inside to place the insulation rather than trying to hold it overhead. The large piece was still difficult to get on the center mark. As you can see I went over the taped center line. I had to carefully pull the insulation up off the tape so I could
remove it.

First piece rolled in.

Once the two big top pieces were in I started making paper templates for the smaller pieces. At first I used the contact backing paper from the insulation. That proved to not work too well since the markers and masking tape would not stick to it. So I scrounged around and found some old butcher paper that worked well.


The pattens were transferred to the Dynamat. Most of the time I worked with the dynamat face down. Make sure you have the pattern in the correct position so that you do end up with a backwards piece. I only did that once so far but I was able to use it on the opposite side of the car

This is as far as I got before my back started doing it spasm thing so I will have to take a couple of days off and let it settle down. I intend to do the entire inside. I know you do not have to do that for sound but I am installing for thermal insulation also.

I noticed that the more of the insulation I installed the more top heavy the body became. I should have stopped and adjusted the rotisserie to compensate but did not. As a result I had to start holding the body up as I worked which probably caused the back strain. Yes the rotisserie has an anti rotation lock but I did not want to use it as I was constantly rolling the body to get in and out for fitting the insulation templates.

I tried doing some light work yesterday. This picture is not all that great but this inside door gizmo was missing a spring. On my second try I bought the correct spring.

I need to figure out how to take better close ups. You can barely see it here but the only way to get that spring in is to take the cover off. I bent the ears back with a screw driver and hammer. Thankfully the ears were made of some pretty malleable steel.

Once the spring was in I put the cover back on and pounded the ears down with the hammer. Pretty easy but now I have to paint it again.

 

The insulation project is progressing well. I reached the trunk area today and decided I better make a bigger hole in the floor to allow better access to the fuel sender and fuel pump cover.

We took some measurements of the new tank.

We came up with a plan for this rather large hole.

I masked off the area and cut the hole with my dremmel tool.

Don cut this cover piece out of some 18 GA steel while I was cutting the hole out in the trunk. We put three stiffening beads in the middle of the piece first.

Don turned the wheel while I tried to stay steer the piece around the perimeter to make the offset edge.

Just a long shot.

After a little time with the rubber hammer and anvil ( to get rid of some warpage) the cover was screwed down with some #8 self drilling screws.

It fits well and I applied the undercoater paint to the bottom side tonight. Should finish it up tomorrow.
The muffler project is still in progress. I will post pictures when it is done. The insulation project should be done tomorrow.

 

Heck of a difference in a true craftsman and a hobby guy like me. Darn nice work on every single piece. Glad I have friends with skills like yours.

 

Thanks okiedokie ! I still consider my skills at the hobbyist level but I am honored to be considered a friend of yours!

Lou Wells thanks for the Like!