Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Very nice welding man.

 

Motivation dropped to zero for a bit. Setting up the garage and getting the frame back from being welded was a nice little nudge to remind me I've got some work to do! I think progress will still be kinda slow, but I am making an effort to get back on this. I want to finish it so I can enjoy it and move onto the next thing. I've been silently following your build and enjoying every minute of it. Nice job!

 

Wow! The frame looks fantastic! Can't wait to see more as you proceed.

 

Very nice !
The detail is fantastic !
Keep on keep'n on !

 

More exciting news on the belly button home-front : my fuel tank is done, courtesy of @Kiwi Tinbender . It fits better than the cardboard template I made for him to copy, and should hold fuel slightly better too!











Slightly less exciting news - I have been fighting the teardown of the '58 283. Everything mic'd standard and appeared original externally (all the way down to AC Delco plugs, coil, cap, rotor, starter, oil filter housing...), but there were two rods stamped #8 lol. And it looks like it never had an oil change in its life. And #8 cylinder is rusted pretty bad & housing a potentially permanent dwelling piston. I have it soaking in some snake oil and magic potion with fingers crossed. Kids, this is why regular maintenance is important, mmmmmk?




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The tank looks similar in shape to the one I built for my RPU.
Hopefully it was pressure tested.
You should probably pressure test it again if you decide to pretty up the welds before you finish it.

 

Pressure test is on the to do list! I'm not sure how I will finish the tank out yet- it's gonna get banged up from me throwing my skateboard back there and what not so I may take a minimalist approach on this. Your tank came out great!


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I would not mess with the welds at all. If they hold pressure the. You are good. I made my own as well and pressure tested it a lot before all the pinholes were gone. I’m guessing the welder also did this before you got it back. Just call him.


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Success..... kinda....
You know it's a good day when you measure your success by the size of hammer you destroy.


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Somewhat exciting news: the frame went off to powdercoat a couple days ago. I had already spent some time getting things smoothed over before being welded, but one major thing I saw was the manufacturing weld seam on the tubing - on my frame, one rail has the seam inside (not too worried about that), and the other on the outside.

I wasn't sure how much of that would show through on powdercoat, so when I had the trailer hitch bracket coated, I didn't spend much time on that tube weld seam. It is visible through powdercoat, but it is not noticeable to the touch.... perhaps because my fingers are permanently damaged from sanding too much already, but I suppose that's an entirely different issue.

Anyway, I spent some time blocking that exposed seam frame rail and kinda left everything else alone, other than a quick scuff on the tops of the frame back to the firewall and down the good frame rail to make sure there wasn't anything major. Powdercoat guy is going to blast it first anyway. By the way, even though my new-to-me garage is still a complete disaster, it is so much better than renting a storage unit! Mandatory pictures:









Admiring the welds.... they really impress me with their work every single time.







If I have time this coming week, I'll load up that greasy turd of an engine block and haul it down to the machine shop. I'm trying to establish a work flow that my bank account will manage, which as it turns out is a little tricky when the house wants you to work on it, too! Lol.





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At this point you could spend a couple more hours on it and get it chromed!

 

Looking forward to se it painted.

 

Hey Tim.
You're still in the PDX right, at least your avatar reflects that, I thought I saw you were moving to Vanc, maybe I dreampt it.
Well anyway, curious if you are having the same guy do your chassis as did your rearend housing and front axle, boy he did a nice job.
Did you say he sandblasted also?
I'm considering having my 32 chassis done in powder and was wondering if his oven can handle the longer frames.
Looking forward to seeing your T in person, maybe at Beaches.

 

Nice welds, man.

 

Hey Denny,
I did indeed move to Vancouver. I need to update my avatar! The guy that did my suspension pieces blasted, coated, and baked them, but his operation isn't big enough to do a frame. I heard about him because he is the next door neighbor to the guys that did all my chassis welding - he definitely knocked it out of the park. The welding/fab dudes have another guy they go through to do larger stuff, so I'll post up here how that goes. He's definitely got the space to do a larger frame as I've seen Jeep/off road frames he's done in a satin color... I think I'll have to take my headers to yet another guy, as this guy doesn't do the polished ceramic stuff. Fingers crossed on all that! When the bucket is up and running, I'll definitely have to do the PIR/Beaches deal as it's just a couple miles from my house. Of course, that couple miles could mean an hour or more in traffic, but that's a topic for another forum I suppose.... LOL.

 

For your ceramic header coating call Russ Meeks at Finish Line Coatings in Oak Grove (Milwaukie).

http://finishlinecoatings.com

 

That's who was recommended to me. After seeing that Model A of his I have no doubts he will do awesome work! I was thinking of having a couple brackets done also, like tail-light housing brackets and windshield posts...chrome is out of my budget I'm pretty sure. Thoughts?

 

Electroless nickel.
http://www.tfcplating.com

 

I've been thinking of something along those lines also, but I don't have enough pieces to justify it I think. I'm gonna have a lot of black, a lot of body color, a lot of interior color, and ideally offset all that with polished/chrome stuff. I'm still thinking about all that...

 

Sneak peek.... you guys might not know this, but it rains sometimes in the PNW.....


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That's not rain Tim, that's tourist repellant!
Ok, time to spill the beans.

 

Hello, is this turned on?

 

Gah! Sorry for the delay! I have no real update- I picked up the frame from powdercoat and got it home. Overall I am happy with the results, but it is not on the same level of Russel's work. I dropped the engine off at the machine shop and reviewed the plan, or lack there of haha. So hopefully I can get going on assembling the rolling chassis and work on finishing the engine and trans in the next few months.


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Tim, could you PM me some info about the powdercoater if you would rather not say on the open board, I gotta make some chassis desisions myself.
Every time I read a PC review people say it doesn't have the shine or depth, etc that paint has and that it also starts to dull when in the open sunlight a lot, though they claim it's more durable than paint.
I'm going to go satin/semi flat anyway, just wondering how much more money for the extra durability factor of PC, assuming it really is.
Yours appears to be fairly high gloss, is that what you requested?

 

It's just the frame, no one is going to notice (except the real obsessives)...
Tim, I really like your posts and this build a lot, so please don't go down a rabbit hole that you will never climb back out of...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/color-sanding-buffing-powder-coat.1093950/

 

I'll PM you the nitty-gritty later tonight. Standby...

I'll be hopping down the rabbit hole with the pre-determined understanding that I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it. Just a quick cut and buff, then live with it. There's too much orange peel to let it go as-is. Had I not been spoiled by Russel's work prior to this, I wouldn't think anything of it as most powdercoat I've seen has a certain level of orange peel to it...... but Russel's stuff is top, top notch, and bolting that to something noticeably less than that bothers me enough to try the wet sand/cut/buff approach. Within reason. Famous last words.... LOL

 

Tim, please start with a SMALL section of the top of the frame (where the body sits) to try working it out.
I once tried to C&B a small, easy part once that was coated in Imron (many years ago). Paint was 6 months old.
Clogged sandpaper, nasty scratches and soreness was the best I could do...
The thing ended up being blasted and reshot!

 

I'm going slow. I think you can see what I'm talking about in this picture:



Here is at the back after some tinkering - it's hard to capture the finish - still some orange peel but much better and a much more depth/clarity. I wet sanded with a block and soapy water with 1200 and 2000, then machine buffed with Meguiar's #1, switched pads, #2, switched pads, #3, then hand rubbed their #6 cleaner wax. This is roughly about what Russel's work looks like now. I think I'll move forward and do one frame rail side tonight, then see if I can do the top from the firewall forward and the opposite frame side tomorrow. It's not too nerve racking as the coating appears to be thick enough to not burn through. Easy does it!



^^^ those nicks are grinder marks btw. Everything is amplified with powdercoat lol. Can't hide anything!

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That's an improvement that appears to be worth the effort!

 

You guys might not know this, but just looking at black scratches the $#!+ !!! out of it lol. But we are getting somewhere!






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