Projects Haulin' ass in fiberglass

Did you ever find any good info on putting in your door hinges/latches? I just ended up with a 2nd '32 Ford 5 window project in a trade deal. Doors and trunk are like yours. 2 pieces and no hinges. I'm not going to build it, a friend is. I have a nice body to pick up the end of this month so he gets to play with it and I get some room back in my shop! Would be interested to see what you found. Like the way yours is coming along.
SPark

 

I did some reflecting and wound up taking a left design wise. There will be absolutely no door or door opening framing. Since this is a thinly veiled race car and will have a double hoop funny car style roll cage, I'm integrating the latch striker on the "A"pillar hoop upright and the hinges on the front "B" pillar hoop. If I wanted to, I would be able to drive it with doors and no body.
Hoping I never have to test the cage out, but ya never know so better safe than sorry.......

 

There's a lot going on here that needs explanation.
(from right to left)
The right arrow is the bellhousing ear I had to cut off so I can,
move the brake pedal (red line) to the right 1" and back 3" so I can,
move the steering column (circle) as far to the right as possible.
The left arrow is the motor mount bracket with the open center so the steering shaft (and brake line) can go thru it to the front. The steering shaft will be 3 pieces (and 4 universals) to the column with two 3/4" heim joints to stabilize the center shaft. One heim on each side of the mount and the center shaft will run parallel to the frame rail thru the mount.
Where there's a will there's a way........

 

Looks like there'll be a little delay. If this car runs under 9.99 or over 135, I need to run a flexplate safety shield as well as the trans shield. Need to get one so I can mount it before I make the final cuts on the firewall. It's always something......

 

Been waiting on the flexplate safety shield to get here so I can trim the firewall (and save my feet if shit happens). Getting an idea what I need to do 'glass-wise and how the trans tunnel will come about. Wound up cutting out most all of the chassis reinforcing the PO put in, so it'll be all my way from here on out.

 

Took out the grinder and cutoff wheel and went at it this weekend. The firewall "feet" are now resting comfortably in their new location (4-1/2" back from where they were originally). I tabbed in the top of the FW to get everything in place and will be glassing it on to the cowl as time permits. Minimal itching so far, but I have a lot of grinding to do. Put the seat back in as the steering column is on it's way and wanted to see how much I'll have to shorten it. Cockpit will be a tad tight, but it'll only bother me a 1/4 mile at a time, so no big deal.
Pics tonight.

 

Read on the internet that using Melamine board as a backing for fiberglass works well (and releases decently with just wax). I figured since I have to reconstruct the cowl feet and attach the setback firewall to the cowl, I'd give that a try as well as using Pam as a mold release (another internet tip).
Fit up the pieces to reconstruct the cowl foot, hot glued them to hold it together, then used silicone (done after the pic) to radius the joints to make glassing easier. Will it work? We'll find out next weekend.....

 

Got the column today. Nothing special.....no tilt but came chrome (didn't really care). Problem was (isn't there always something even when it's this simple?) the DD end is drilled as so many are. I use steering u-joints with 2 set screws and jam nuts so a drilled end doesn't work well since 1 set screw won't make contact. The fix? Disassemble the damn thing, get out the cutoff saw and shorten it! Took 1" off but may have to take another inch off. We'll find out when I start mocking more up.
Next up, is a neat little setup I need to make with 2 steering shaft supports to get from point A to point B.

 

Been following along. Your cutting firewall out for the BBC brings up my 32 memory this am. Long story short, traded my Roadster for a glass 32 3 window, SBC, unfinished, finished it up. Then I get BBC idea, I like BBC, purchased a 454 w/TH400 at local speed shop (junkyard) I rebuilt engine, mild build, have tranny done, about 6K invested. Now I start thinking on install, start measuring, would not fit in the glass body, then I find out when ordering a glass body, they move firewall, trans tunnel back 4'' I was told. So........... rather than cut up fresh paint, new interior, all the other changes you are doing, I installed a speed shop 355 crate engine. Kick Ass car you're building, in the class, "Shut Up, Sit Down, Hang On" Woo Hoo !

 

The wife hasn't said anything, but I can tell from that look in her eyes she's saying "this one you probably shouldn't build".
Not to get too philosophical, but a few years ago when my Dad died, I looked around and took stock. Sold off most all the projects and toys and decided to get serious about building mu own shit and pushing what I build and make them all learning experiences. I have a lot of scrap..... but the good thing is, good or bad I designed it, built it and run it. If it isn't how I want it or doesn't work there's only 1 person to blame.........
(fixed that BBC thing above too )

 

Just waiting on a few column pieces, but have enough to figure the column angle. This car will be a tight package and a few compromises must be made. With the size of the engine and as narrow as the passenger compartment is, I have to angle the steering column 2" to the left at the firewall to miss the back of the driver's cyl head. Not uncomfortable at all, just kind of optically odd. If this didn't have to be street legal I could have straightened it out a bit but it is what it is. With it having suicide doors I needed to make the steering wheel removable to making getting in and out easier. Looks like I'll need to shorten it another 2-3" or so to give the upper shaft better u-joint angles.

 

The pic above wasn't centered with the seat. This shot shows the actual offset..... not as bad as the other pic made it look.

 

If it's a tilt column, consider putting it in slightly rotated from true vertical. That way you can have the wheel square with you at "normal" steering wheel angle. Just a thought.
SPark

 

I've mentioned this before, but here goes.
For my roadster I built a stubby column (also with quick release hub), put a support on the end of the column mounting off the steel structure in the cowl side and put a joint just inside the firewall with an intermediate shaft angling through the firewall to another joint and support bearing, this eliminates the need to fudge over the column.


Did something similar on my Suburban.

 

One more from inside.

 

This is a non-tilt column. I didn't want a tilt column because of the internals. If you've ever seen the mechanism inside a tilt column you wouldn't want to go 150 mph with it.

 

I'd thought about going stubby on this, but didn't feel with how the roll cage reinforcements will lay out it would be strong enough. Pushing the firewall in as far as I did changed things that would otherwise be simple. Again, not that big of a deal. Most people don't know how common angle columns were in production cars and they never knew it.

 

And you wound not want one to pierce you.

 

I'm trying to avoid a LOT of stupid stuff from happening if things don't go right.

 

The fun part is going to come when I mount the master cylinder/booster. With the firewall pushed back 4-1/2" that means the booster needs to go back the same amount for the pedal to come through the floor in the right location. It also means with the taper in the frame I'll need to make a new mounting bracket that will push it about 1" or so further away from the rail. And when it's all done it'll look "normal"........

 

Got material today! Here's what the steering linkage will look like. I'm creating a jackshaft to get past the motor mount and keep decent angles on the u-joints. Other little details that made this necessary, but I'm happy with the concept. When it's welded and finished it'll look cool.

 

Looks kinda like a tow chain bracket, but it's a bit more stout. Probably overkill, but hey it's steering.......

 

Would ears just off the frame mount and not overlap the the top frame rail work?

 

I'm sure it would. Since the bracket for the motor mount extends onto the top of the rail I thought I'd try to give a cleaner look after welding. I'm trying to make it more about function than form, but I slip back into artsy-fartsy sometimes.

 

I would drop them down to the top inside edge of the frame rail. Top of the plate flush with the top of the rail and you would also gain a good "V" to weld. Remember you will be adding some height to the heim ends with nuts on both sides of the plate when you put it all together. That's going to raise your heim at least 1/4" if you use thin nuts.
SPark

 

I hear what you're saying, but I don't want the welds in shear like that. That's why I purposely extended the top plate onto the rail. The welds aren't in shear from weight or torque (the driver's side will lift from the torque). There won't be any jam nuts on the top because the plates are actually tapped and the jam nuts are on the bottom. The steering plates will add a bit more strength to motor bracket top plate as well.

 

Trying out steering components from Bous Performance, so mocked up the column and joints tonite. Did you wonder why I did what I did on the heim joint plates? This is why. To make this steer as smoothly as possible, I made it so the intermediate shaft could be adjusted by raising one or both of the joints. By putting an angle on the shaft, it minimizes the u-joint angles.
Very pleased with the joint quality, great price and can't wait to see how well they work in action.

 

Got tired of supporting the seat with a 2x4 and it's time to redo the frame reinforcements, so out came the oxy/acetylene. Bent up the seat mounts to give me the height and recline I want without burning down the garage so it's a good day. Still need to gusset them but now I can layout where one of the new 2x2 reinforcements will go.

 

Better make the seat mounts strong because that FORD power will be putting a lot of force into your body.

 

The only place those brackets will move is at the bend so that's why they'll get gussets. The mount to the floor will be to the NHRA required 2x2 frame connectors. The front outer bracket bolts will go straight into the frame rail as wiil the harness brackets. Looks like NHRA will also require either a steel or aluminum floor, so I don't know how I can make this stronger. I could save weight by doing some of this in aluminum but not set up to weld aluminum, so steel it is.