Technical If ya can't buy it, make it!

I've been doing the floors on my 47 Olds coupe and one of the problem areas were the floor braces. Specifically, just the ends. Seeing as the Chevy coupe of the same year has the same body shell, I assumed the floor braces would be the same. I ordered up a set of repair pieces from Chevs of the 40's, and they aren't really very close to the Olds pieces. So, I modified the ones I could and made a set of the only ones I couldn't modify. I didn't really think to take pics of all of them, but did take pics of a couple of them. The first 2 pics are the same brace I had to modify to fit. The piece in front is the original unmodified part, and the one in back is what I had to turn it into. The next several are the last set of braces before the rear tires, and had to be made from scratch. I'm pretty happy with them. Not perfect, but will do the job nicely.






A quick coat of weld through primer and they're ready to install!

 

Sporty, where you from in the N.H. boonies?

 

Barrington. Where are you at?

 

Fl now was in WRJ, Vt

 

Nice over there. I always liked that area

 

Very nice work just like my signature line “it’s not what you can buy it’s what you can build” Hobo Jim

 

Band saw, belt sander and mig welder. Some hammers, files and a drill press. Make or modify what you need. TIG would be good, but I don’t have it. I had a lathe, but traded it off.

 

Close to factory...nice

 

Very nice

 

Its why we hotrod, why we H.A.M.B.

 

There are days I go to the garage deliberately looking for things I need, but I can't buy, just so I can build them!

 

That's the way to do it! Great work.

 

Nice job, well done!!!

 

My wife calls me, "Bracket Man!"

 

Even if you can buy it, it's a whole lot more satisfying to make it.

 

Ive made em but they werent that pretty a little undercoating or black paint will subdue a lot of ugly if you dont look too hard
Great job! I like

 

I HATE the thought of buying a billet widget to hang on my car so it will look like all the other cars at the rod run. There is precious little that satisfies me more than needing a part and going to Pick-A-Part and spending a morning digging thru dozens of junk cars until I find the perfect part to restore/modify to fill the need. If the junk yard fails me, then I get excited about the challenge of building the part from scratch. After all, rodding is a pleasure, not a job and the greatest pleasure comes from creating something that never existed before that fills a need.

 

Thanks guys. At 62 I'm just getting to the point of doing half assed kinda decent work!

 

Nice work! I'm 66 and still at this hot rod hobby!!!!

 

Very well done. Similar idea for a 51 Merc convertible.
Floor to frame and inner rocker pieces.. 1/8 in. steel.

 

I'm 69. Glad to see you youngsters getting into the hobby.

 

You and me both, 69......
From when I started to build cars way back you could not buy the stuff, so.... you had to make it, and I find myself still thinking that way.
Oh........and never ever throw anything away...... cause you might need it.

 

Very nice work

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

Not "you might need it" You WILL need it and usually the next day after it's in the landfill.

 

Have you ever been almost done with a piece, see it from a different angle, and realize that you have just spent way too much time and effort to over complicate it?

 

Absolutely. Add to that, the cars I have built didn't/don't have aftermarket parts anyway; '36 Willys with a 331 hemi, '57 Metropolitan, stock, '39 Willys pickup with SBC (still had to make brackets - Really tiny engine compartment!), '36 Pontiac 4-dr sedan with a 230 Chevy 6cyl. And dad taught me to SAVE EVERYTHING. He always said when his shop full of valuable junk was used up, he would die!

 

Yup. This piece in particular could have been made a lot simpler, but I wanted to at least try to replicate the factory part. I will probably always do it that way, just the way I am I guess.

 

Metal shop, freshman year: Shop instructor announced parents' night was coming, and there was a 'loose' (non-secured) 3/4" gas pipe running out of and up the classroom wall. He mused he hadn't ever seen a bracket that might fit, I volunteered to make something.
Less than 25 minutes later, I had a nicely shaped strap configured to attach to the wall with 2 lag bolts, and 'saddle' the convex shape of the pipe; a stainless steel radiator huse clamp affixed the pipe to its 'saddle' nicely.
The instructor was surprised at the proper method of securing the bracket on both its ends, and asked how I configured such a 'shape', as it was 'duplex' in design. (??!?)
I shrugged, "Heck, Mr. Malech...I build scale control line model airplanes."
That just may have been my first real 'bracket solution'!
Still like doing that stuff...

 

Well done sir. Your braces look " sporty".

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