Projects altering a '30 cowl, reversed firewall, '51 truck dash.

Had a big chunk of Christmas eve dinner's ham for breakfast... then...
I slid a pair of cut off sub floor sections into the extensions, lined up the holes with the wooden blocks and screwed them down...
I bent an angle onto a couple pieces of scrap...
slid them in from the front till the met the subfloor extensions, welded them in...
these plates will be where I weld in some re-enforcement to bolt down the cowl front...
don't drill the holes till it is time, a '32 frame will be a little wider at that point...
A =27.5".
while I had laid the cowl back I bolted on the rear hood retainer and welded on a couple nuts to mount it later...
also drilled a 1/4" hole on each side through the cowl side into the tank top's inner flange to secure it without the firewall...
shortened the toe boards so they will better match the closer firewall...
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The 2 cowl / tank bolts cleared the reversed firewall that had the 1" offset removed...

 

Had a "cut off" coupe, sport coupe or cabbie subfloor... what year ?...
added '30-'31 front sections that slide under the cowl's subfloor extensions...
needed a few patches... [7].
will make the trapizoidal shaped rear kicks from the 4" x 3/4" channel when I drop the body on the rails... steel floors will mount atop the subfloor...welded in the reversed firewall...
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The pile is transforming towards a coupester body...
bolted the cowl through the 3/4" plywood to anchor it... and still move it around a little...
more to come..
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'30 coupe door, narrowed, shallowed and shortened...
'38 car dash...
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'30-'31 coupester door and '30 cowl with '32 cowl top, reversed firewall, narrowed A pillars, tilted back and narrowed w/s posts... "c-clamped" together...
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lookin good! keep at it. Looks like you are going to be snowed in this weekend so you will get a lot done!

 

Great work and imagination.

 

got a plowtruck… let it snow !

 

Give 'er hell, man!!!!

 

Looking good, may work on mine this weekend. Bob

 

What ya gonna do with the Dash and Door top fit?

The Wizzard

 

Don't know, it was not so blatant in a closed car...
thickness of the upper section of the closed car door hid some of the depth...
maybe a '31 cc dash rail with a '35 cluster ? or a '33 truck...
still will be a little tall as I sectioned the doors a couple inches...
pix when I try something else ...

 

Nice work and looking great!

 

Just thinking out loud...what about trimming away the top air intake area and leveling the top of the dash with the top of the tank? That's near two inches on the sides. You could even leave a slotted intake so air could still pass into the lower dash area. Its obviously now an open car anyway.

 

When I put the 37 Dash in my Roadster I went lower to start with. It actually mounts with a Flange to the inner frame brace. I wanted to bolt the stock 40 column mount to the stock 37 dash holes and have the 40 steering wheel fit where it was comfortable. This is where it ended up. When done it will have curved ends that come out to the A post to finish it off. I know your working with a different unit, but just maybe. I actually like seeing the closed car upper rail.
The Wizzard

 

stuck a '33 truck dash in it...

 

Don't know how traditional your trying to keep it but how about just building a filler extension.on the door at the cowl. Maybe bring it back into the door a couple inches with a nice curve from the door into the windshield post. Be a perfect place to mount an old long stem chrome rear view mirror.

 

Both dashes look fine but the height factor hasn't changed.

Something like this...regardless of dash it would be in line to the Tank or close to the Tank level dropping it down losing the stuck up in the air look....



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It's very difficult to get that Roadster look with any Fixed windshield posts. Take note in the photo in post #14 how the door tops go to the top rail. They are not squared off.
The Wizzard

 

stogy,
the truck dash has a radius much closer to the A dash bar than the '38...
FYI... a buddy told me that most of the bolt holes from the '30 dash rail line up with a '32 truck cowl's threaded holes...
tighter radius pulls the truck's outer edge down...
making the dash top closer to the door top...
I am not trying to pass it off as a roadster...
please compare it to other coupesters...

 

I guess that part I saying to remove is in fact what the windshield rests against. I wasn't thinking Roadster perhaps more Cabriolet if anything. Doing this stuff is like design school and walking can be a little more difficult than it looks thats for sure.

 

When Henry tilted the w/s posts back in '31 he altered the filler panel in order to keep the bottom of the windshield frame flush fitting against the filler panel with out having to design a new w/s frame,
s/w is the taller of the 2 in pix #1 and #2...
which he made taller with the required altered ridge , letting the w/s seal along the bottom even with the tilt.... try it and see, this is not my first coupester…

 

Waiting for the 12" plus storm ...
blocked and tackled the B pillar and rear quarter...
couple 10-32s through the skin and B pillar...
going to weld a few inches of the leftover door "caps" onto the quarter so the door and quarter flow at the elbow rest and the jam...
looks like it is gonna be ok...

 

SJ, I am sending an additional 8 inches your way tonight......that ought to keep you in the garage a bit longer

 

8" of snow plows...
but power out means setting up the generator... and all that goes with that...
… or are you sending me the lower 8" from a sport coupe / coupe ? ...

 

Well, 4pm here and it is coming down now and the forecasters are saying to expect 2-3 inches an hour. Tried like hell to send all this up your way Smitty. My powers are slipping, guess I should just stay out in the garage!

 

Been considering stogy's comments,
not going to mess with the cowl to w/s frame, came out good...
thinking of sectioning the dash bar [what the dashrail bolts to]… maybe 1" or so...
I want to use the polished aluminum w/s frame I have... it has the inward model A flange... [mock-up does not] may section the dash bar enough for that flange to mount "over" the dash instead of sliding underneath the dashrail...
trial fit an A dashrail… little less obtrusive, the only one I had handy was a Vicky...
41", shorter L - R than the 41.25" '30 dashrail... also mounting holes don't line up...
got about 10" of snow now, weekend's 18" or so will bury the only '30 cowl I have that still has a dashrail on it...
… spring had better sprung !
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Note the top of the dashrail is about flush with the top of the lower section of the w/s frame...I may section the dashbar to lower the dash top...

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...gotcha...I guess that dash mount bar is somewhat beefy and part of the structure but mounting it lower will still keep strength in that area and of course a mount for the dash. I have an aluminum windshield frame on the 29...I like it and it does have a flange at the bottom part of the frame...I suppose that is for air deflection? I think it fits under the dash top when closed.

 

I also have a stock '51-'52 truck dash..
top 2 pix of a stocker to be rodded...
one pic is of another dash I narrowed, [cut out gauge cluster] butted it back together…
other pic is the '51 dash in a closed car cowl..
it smoothly flows from the A pillar out to the dash's configuration...
if lowered 1" it might do the trick... have to cut it up just to see how it fits... just went down to the shop an grabbed the '51 dash so I can mark it for cutting...

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Looking good

 

Dropped the coupester's dash bar till the dash looked …. "better"...
narrowed the '51 dash about 3.75" …
still got to fill part of the former speedometer hole and play with the outer flanges...
need to make new mounting brackets, but a '37, '38 or '39 car or truck speedometer will fit in the 51's gauge cluster hole...
'51 gauge cluster and speedo have different mounting bolt patterns... so I would have to change the mounting bolt pattern anyway...
by lowering everything and the dash being taller it sets the column lower... may need to weld in a chunk of exhaust pipe at the column's angle...
should buy back a couple inches of belly room...
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