Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Tim, looking great from one "couver" to another.

 

Well, I went back through old posts - May 6th last year, I dropped this off to get powdercoated. There was some discussion about whether the pinion seal would disintegrate in the oven, so it was going to be pulled apart before coating. Well that never happened, so I went over there this weekend to pick it up. I had some flash rust to sand off, but since sanding is my favorite thing in the world, no big deal! I got it all slicked up yesterday with some 220grit, rattle canned about a can and a half of primer, let it sit overnight, scuffed it this morning with 400grit, gave it a bath, dried it off, and shot it with some cast iron color. I think it came out decent. I'll hopefully get the fasteners polished this weekend and perhaps.... there will be a rolling chassis!








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Turned out nice Tim. Bob.....

 

Like the color it will contrast with the housing real nice.

 

Where on earth does the time go??? Attempts are being made to continue progress. I got sidelined for a couple months due to an ankle injury skateboarding..... this may be a definitive moment in life where I have to say goodbye to something I love.... or maybe I just take a bit of a hiatus... time will tell. For now I'm working on eliminating distractions so I can focus on what I feel is important. The belly button bucket is going to get some minor changes as things progress, but I think I have a good idea of how to approach that. Thanks to all of you for staying tuned in to this madness lol.


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Since I love sanding so much...


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Since I don’t love sanding so much you now know why there was no way I was going to do that to my steering box

I cleaned it up really well and sprayed a nice coat of paint on it.
Done ✅

 

I'm assuming you and your lungs have a more loving relationship than me and mine do....


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Great to see some progress again.
At least all this sandingwork are going to take your car from great looking to fantastic.

 

UPDATES?

 

Happy 4th of July everyone! Updates.... I wish I had some! I posted a little info on another thread, but I’m really tied up with my ultra low budget house remodel- the goal is to loosely put it back to the early 40s within reason. I have considered starting a thread on that in the antiquated section, but I’m not sure if it would be something people want to see... plus, I don’t have a lot of progress to show there yet. I really want to get back on the belly button this fall or winter, but for now I gotta take advantage of the sun while it’s out. Stay safe out there today!


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I had a massive post explaining a little about the house but my phone froze up when I tried to add images. Anyway, the abbreviated version- I did some digging at the local historical museum and found a picture of my house with a badass Chevy coupe parked in the yard.



Then I was doing some literal digging in the yard and found an AC Delco starter tag. I looked up the number and it is most likely off that coupe. Made my day.



Blah, blah, blah, you get the idea. The long story short is I have found some neat stuff on the history of the house, found some cool shit to put in it, and have many more leads to track down. I’m having a blast with it.


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Make a thread about the house! Your attention to detail is always great to see.

 

Still loving the build Tim! (And the new digs!)

 

I think doing a thread on the house will keep me focused. Let me get a couple projects near completion so I can have some content to show off. Hopefully I can get something going early fall. Then I think I will need to implement the 15 mins/day to keep progress flowing on the belly button. Thanks for checking in everyone. I greatly appreciate it.

 

Have it in the background of pictures. Renovating a old house is very rewarding and you learn a lot of skills you did not know you had. I also use wood forms MDF works good .

 

Come on man, speed it up!
We get it, all been there, first house is pretty exciting.
How about some photos of the "T's" new parking spot.

 

Elaborate on the wood forms w/ MDF? I understand (generally) what you're saying but not in this context. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the house so far - exactly as you have said: I'm learning stuff I had no clue I was capable of doing. Having a COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS occupation, doing some self-worth activities is very therapeutic.

The garage is in desperate need of a cleaning. I have company coming to town this weekend, which means things will get cleaned prior, so........ I guess that's a good photo-op!

To all you PNW guys/gals out there... do you have any problems with black widows? I think in my lifespan I've seen 4 or 5 in person growing up in Idaho, but I've seen 5 or 6 very healthy females in the last couple months at my house, as well as some other widow type species (looks just like a black widow w/out the hourglass). I bug-bombed the crawlspace (where I saw 3 at the entrance and immediately lost track of 2), but I've seen 3 others in wood piles, hanging out in the garage, etc. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, and what, if anything I should do about it.

I'll get the house thread started with an introductory post on the general history in like a week or so. I gotta keep the fire lit while I can!

 

I just use Mediun Density Fiberboard and cut it to shape and form the metal on it. I just use it because it's inexpensive and comes in 4X8 sheets like plywood and works easy. Frank

 

I’m curious now as to what a completely meaningless occupation is.

I think I would have a hard time being committed to something like that

 

I use that Ortho Home Defense Insect Killer for Indoor & Perimeter (it's on sale on Amazon Prime rn, btw) around my house in the Spring and or Fall usually and it keeps a lot of bugs out. I just spray the foundation, doorsills and basement windows. I didn't do it yet this year and I've killed a few crawlies. I usually tolerate spiders but I don't have anything that can kill me to contend with here.

MDF is good for bucks from what I understand. I have also seen MDF used to make press brake stamps for sheet metal.

Are you going to make a thread over in The Antiquated about the house? I've got an old one too, no younger than 1926 and the foundation probably goes back to the 1780's or so. My garage was built in 1927.

 

Not to go all political but there is a segment of society that seems to embrace it.......if you catch my drift.

 

Lived along the Pacific coast most of my life.
Lots of Black Widows in the garages and dark cool spaces there.
For the most part, they are very shy and hide in the corners - don't go in their turf, no problems.
They also dine on smaller nasty bugs, so I tended to live and let live. Open cardboard boxes for storage are not good. Tape that stuff up or get the big tight seal plastic tubs. I'd try to sweep at least the circle around the car every week or two to claim "my space" and it seemed to work keeping them away from the car and back in the recesses.
If you have a bad aversion to 'em, the usual bug sprays will knock them down, but you have to keep spraying to knock down all the critters they had been keeping in check (and them from coming back too).
Just like when you get your house tent fumigated, the ants will follow to snack on the corpses and take over the now open range.
A full seal, drywall and clean area will make the garage less hospitable for them. The hard part is the big door.
A crawlspace on an older home where it rains is a haven for lots of little creatures. Short of waging constant chemical warfare or sealing the entire thing with technology I don't know exists, I would just work toward keeping the population to a minimum by keeping the area clean (go in regularly and knock down the webs, nests and anything that isn't dirt or house) and having rocks, pavers or cement around the foundation (no plant material=food right on the edge).

 

It’s completely off topic, but let’s just say careers in the technology realm using titles such as “engineering in research and development” closely resemble the intellectual realm of primates throwing poop at one other.... the latter actually sounds like a lot more productive use of my time. Thank God for hot rods and other similar projects requiring REAL innovation, design, research, development, etc.
It blows my mind a multi-billion dollar factory filled with armies of scientists and engineers could be the furthest thing from what it should and could be. I take great pride in saying I get more done in my days off using primitive tooling and manual labor lol. If there was a way to give myself a lobotomy each time I get about 2 miles away from work.... like if I could pull the core of my brain out of my skull to preserve what’s left in a hyperbaric chamber (or glove box) and re-install the core on my drive home... I could probably finish out my career there. I feel like I have early stages of CTE and continued head trauma is not recommended..... a career change is most likely on my horizon to say the least.

Thanks for the info on the critters and creepy crawlies. I’ll put that to use for sure. While I do love the PNW, I am so jealous of those on the east coast. You guys have so much history over there - the architecture is just stunning. I had a blast the couple times I was able to explore the east coast. I’ll start a thread in the Antiquated section on the house in the next week or so and put a link in this thread. Hopefully this thread will get hot rod related updates this fall. I desperately need the therapy of being in the garage lol.



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Well, the architecture is indeed stunning but most of the old houses, mine included, were entombed in vinyl siding decades ago. It's pretty heinous but the way things are up here with the weather and what contractors charge you, keeping a house painted seems to be a rich man's game (this is certainly not an absolute, mind you). Most of the truly gorgeous "houses" with intact exteriors out my way are actually mansions. The next town over from me, Winchester, MA is chock full of them. Then there's the lack of insulation in the walls, old oil furnaces, contractors wanting $20k to install four $1500 mini splits or $15k to install a $1500 heat pump... it's got its quirks out here.

And I can totally relate to the growing disdain for going in to work in an office. I'm not happy with it either and I can't see doing another 20-25 years like this being a worthwhile use of my remaining good years. These days it seems like companies just add managers on top of managers so they can reach the new business nirvana of having meetings filling up every conference room all day every day and none of them do anything else with their time. Folks who lack talent or competency these days seem to gravitate towards this term I keep hearing, "project manager" which one would think means they manage a project but ACTUALLY means they sit in meetings all day either talking about shit they don't understand or not knowing answers to questions they are supposed to at least know who to ask about. Office culture is a total joke. It's another cog in the Misery Machine along with open office plans and short walled cubicles. Being a task oriented type I am a staunch advocate of telecommuting; that way I can hang out with my dog and do my work from my couch... or my shop for that matter!

I highly recommend trying to at least putter around in your shop for a few minutes after work and on the weekends every day you can. You don't need to even do anything but anything you do is one more thing you've gotten done. I've found it keeps me from forgetting where things are or what I was doing. It makes me feel better too. It will help keep you in the habit. Otherwise once you finish with the house stuff, you might flop down, spent, and then suddenly realize you've been on the couch for 3 months and can't remember where you left your 7/16" wrench.

 

About 12 months worth of dust on it despite being covered up lol. I almost forgot what it looked like haha.

 

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I see you have " a hole in the water you pour money in" hard to keep up with both hobbies ...

 

Well it started pissing rain right in the middle of my “pocket planter” mortar project out in the yard, so I came into the complete mess that is now the garage to tinker on something. About a year ago I got this idea to Frankenstein some reproduction Model A taillight pieces to achieve a “modern bulb” configuration.

I started with the Speedway Motors Model A taillight, disassembled it, snagged some eBay LED Model A taillights with clear lenses and disassembled them, then grabbed some LED retrofit bulbs and a pair of dual contact pigtails from the local auto parts store.



The Speedway taillight assembly has light sockets pressed into the rear of the housing, so I lightly tapped the upper one out for modification.



The dual element LED bulb location pins are offset rather than straight across, so the socket needs some precision grinding.





I reassembled the Speedway taillights with the retro-fit LED bulbs, new dual element socket, and eBay clear lenses. The results are pretty impressive in my opinion.

Parking light:



Brake and Parking lights (more obvious in person):



Reverse bulb, Brake, and Parking bulbs:



Now when I’m driving this teeny tiny car and go to back up or put on my turn signal, the modern day morons behind the wheel should be able to see wtf I’m doing. I’m pretty pumped about this little project. Hopefully some small updates like this will trickle in here and there...


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Great Tim. What do they look like not lit up? Clear?