Projects Finally My '26 Chevy Roadster Build

That is a very good fit in pic's. Great pic's. of that also! On the metal rap around the seat Is that a flange, or is that a piece of the seat wood still attached? (I have copied these pic's to your file on my computer, so I can go in and adjust the pic to see better.)
When you said "The back is 4" high and the back is 3 1/4"." You were referring to the rear sill? 2 1/4" front to back and 43 3/4" max length. The 1/8" x 3/8" rabbits for the sheet metal to fit in really tells me a lot!! I can now make my rear sill cover!
I am sorry that I got you off track for the dims. that I needed, but the last ash that I picked up is not the quality of what I bought 20 years ago. Lots of nots and crooked grain next to them. I can utilize this part of the board by laminating it between two good boards like in the rear sill. I'll get the rear sill for both cars glued up and let them set for a month or so incase there is some movement.
I sure hope that you had your list started yesterday. I see a lot of prep work that can be marked off!!!! (That's progress!)

 

I spent this morning prepping the rear sill boards for gluing. The pore quality center board(s) cleaned up pretty well. I did run into thick and thin on almost all of the boards, It came out with two to three passes on the planner each side of each stick. They must have planed these green. Also got the seat front support(s) blanked out and brought down to 3/4" thick. Will put in the notches to fit down into the rabbit in the sills, the small tongues on the ends, and the bevel on the top next. Did a lot more just setting looking at boards, trying to figure the best cutting and gluing. Got to think about the longest pieces first. Like the big "S" pieces in the trunk and work my way down to the sandwich block size.

 

A lot is to be learned by just looking and handling these pieces. The seat metal has a small piece of wood still in it. It is held with screws. Glad you are making progress.
I spent the day with my son prepping a new flywheel to drill and tap for a 10" clutch. We got the old one dialed in on the mill so we can take measurements for holes in the new one. It will be a while before we can get back to it.
Tomorrow I'll get a new blade on the band saw and play with some scrap wood. I need to get the pistons on the rods and do more cleaning in the shop so I can do some wood work. There is a nice wood working bench in there if I can find it.

 

Six Ball
Member

from Nevada
"A lot is to be learned by just looking and handling these pieces." You are so right there! And a person can lose a lot of it in 20 years, have to relearn!
I found a few more blocked out ash. The short ones are the B pillars, but the longer ones confused me, so kept throwing them back until one rolled over just right... They happen to be the rear belt rail. I've got two trunk hinge pivot bolts started, just have to put the screwdriver slots in.
I also skeached up the rear sill as I think that it is. Sorry about the quality, but may drafting boards left many years ago and my CAD program left about the time that I retired! Am I thinking right on this?

 

As far as I can tell that looks good but don't cut up any good wood using my measurements. I get there and I think I know it all. I get home and It's all gone again. I edited the last post with measurements to put captions on the pictures so they make a little more sense I think. It took me hours to do it for some reason the pictures were not staying put.

I got my band saw working today. The new urethane tires were not tracking. They don't have a crown. It just took more adjustment. It's working fine now I'll check it again tomorrow. I made all the other blade adjustments. I made a few cuts on some scrap wood and am pleased. The saw is up to the task. I need a lot of practice. I had a hard time seeing the pencil line on the old wood. I'll use cleaner wood and put more light by the saw.

My son had to head back to SoCal for work. We'll finish the flywheel next time he's home. Saturday we mostly figured out how we will do it. Not sure yet if the mill and the rotary are where we are headed.

 

Wow! That bandsaw is working great! I wish that mine would do half that good.
Looks like you guys know what you are doing with the mill and rotary table. I wonder if you and your son could give me a few pointers on rotary tables sometime. I've got one, but know nothing about them.

 

My son is the machinist in the family. He has more tools than we have room for. My dad was a journeyman but he had limited access to a full shop when I was around. My knowledge is spotty and I'm trying to fill in the gaps. I found a set of shop books that I'm reading. It really helps. I'd never try this without my son.

 

I finally found the pics that I had taken of Ray Holland's 1925 roadster wood. Got a few up on the other sight, but it would not take the second or third page.

 

More 1925 roadster wood

 

page three 25 wood

 

page 4 25 wood

 

page 5 25 wood

 

page 6 25 wood

 

page 7 25 wood

 

Man that is a lot of wood pictures. Some of it looks familiar but some doesn't. I am missing a lot in the floor and seat area. The seat back and front of the trunk seems to be gone from mine. I'll have to study these some more. I got the parts I ordered and am happy that the metal sills under the doors are the right ones. I'll have an extra of those. These were the last two the seller had. I haven't been able to work on the car or tools for a few days.

 

I am kinda a one eyed jack right now, just put every pic up. I will have to go back and maybe delete some and blow a few up and lable the parts. I looked at them this morning, kinda overwhelming! It's really not that bad. I found a piece that I had forgotten about. The tack strip along the seat bottom to hold the quarter panel upholstery!

 

I think an archive of pictures here may help us and hopefully someone else. Even if someone chooses to replace the wood it might help to know what was there and which areas had support. There are a few more of these showing up at TROG and other events. Some are even being treated like Chevys.
I am trying to get in to the cabinet shop to look at some multi ply birch that I could laminate for the sills. He says it is very strong and works well. My concern is exterior durability. I don't want to do the work and have it come apart. I'll also have him check on ash. I should also go up to Tahoe and check out the wooden boat shops. I might find some scraps.

 

I put the pistons and rods back together yesterday and My son and I made some progress on the flywheel. Today I worked at getting the wood working bench uncovered and making room in my shop . I want to make something fun happen here.

 

I'm enjoying your build here. I like the way you are keeping as much of the original wood as you can. For what it's worth, I think the epoxy product that was discussed a few pages back is called Git Rot. I've never used it, so don't take this as an endorsement. We've always uses WEST System epoxy, and all in boatbuilding with new wood, never to fill in rotted pieces. Overall, I think your approach of replacing the rot is better than filling it in, especially since you are dealing with structural pieces. In my experience, rot in wood is like rust in metal. If you don't get it all out, it will keep on growing, no matter what. Good job on everything.

 

Thanks for your input it is appreciated. I don't think I would use the epoxy for anything except to stabilize a piece to get it out in as few pieces as possible. I hate that I'm bogged down right now with things that don't help keep the thread interesting. It'll perk up soon.

 

I'm fixin' to get ready to do somethin'.

 

I love the open floor! That is also a really nice wood working table!

 

My youngest son built it in wood shop in high school. It's been sitting in the corner of my shop for almost 20 years. When I'm done with this project I'm going to haul it to his garage in Reno. I need the room. He did a good job. Maybe he'll get back into wood work.

 

Make sure you can get good anchors in the ground for that tent garage!

 

Those things don't stay put around here. I got that on a clearance sale when I was working at Kragen. The idea was to take it to Bonneville but it didn't happen. I could have rented shade or traded shade for beer. It's not been out of the box.
The Fisher body repair book arrived today. The open car bodies were not Fisher but the book is full of great information. I know so little that everything is helpful. It is of great quality not like some of the other repo-manuals I have bought.

 

To quote one of my heroes , Sergeant Alvin York, "I ain't much for this practizin". I tend to jump in a screw a lot of expensive things up before I develop the skills I need. But I did a bit of what I can legamently call practice because it wasn't a finished car part. A few weeks ago some serious wind blew a porch rocker into the side of the house and broke one of the rockers. So.... if I fix that I can call it practice for the car, right? It did in fact show the need for using hardwood, a drum sander, and better vision. I finished rocker repair yesterday and I finished bottling a total of 45 bottles of Prickly Pear wine today. There is now an official Plan B. The worst thing that can happen here is that the rocker breaks again or I run out of wine before next fall. The friggin' Chevy should be a roller by then. Oh, I should say there was about 3/4 of a bottle of wine left and I had to decide what to do with it. I don't know why the last photos are so blurry.

 

Not much posting lately but some progress just the same. GG2 and I have been sharing a lot of picky little wood info that we think is of little interest here right now. We will get something together in a better form as we go. He took a lot of our pictures and numbered the pieces and put a name/number on each piece so we can easily identify what we are talking about. We are trying to add measurement of each piece and I have ordered some large graph paper so I can do tracings with measurements. angles. etc.... I have almost figured out where all the pieces I have go and how they connect. I brought a lot of parts back home and am woking on the wood part here. I brought the frame home to remove the stock rear spring mounts & rust. I'm still setting up wood working tools. Also looking for White/Northern Ash sources.
Here are some pictures of the seat area that also ties the main sills and the trunk and quarters together. The two blocks connect the long quarter top braces all the way to the rear, seat back across passenger area, top sides of quarters up to door lock pillars, and the bottom back of seat frame. Lots going on there.
This is kind of like buying a jigsaw puzzle at a yard sale. Some pieces are missing and some pieces go to another puzzle.
View attachment 4595753 View attachment 4595755 View attachment 4595757

 

I didn't want you to think we had quit. There is a lot of other stuff going on but not having to support the economy (local bar) has left me with more time at home. So besides watching all 6 seasons of Longmire, turning 6 old worn out pairs of cowboy boots into bird houses, and fixing the exercise bike I"m making some roadster progress too. I almost have my grandfather's table saw back together but the belt that came yesterday was not near the size I ordered. I have everything for the pressure washer-sand blaster and it is together. I got the pressure washer started today so on the next sunny day I'll see if it works. I have the frame, axle, springs, drums, backing plates. and other parts ready to blast. I took the rear spring perches off the frame today. It was easier than I expected. I have a much better understanding of how all of the wood fits together thanks to grumpy gaby 2 and his many pictures and measurements. So things are still moving.

 

Loving the progress and build overall. Did you chop the flywheel some? Also on your pressure washer, is the red line hooked up to a bucket of sand or hows that work?

 

The flywheel is a stock 14" Chevy. We are drilling it fo a 10" clutch because no one makes a stock one anymore and I got tired of looking for a good used one.
Yes the red line goes in a bucket of sand. The water from the presser washer siphons the sand and it mixes in the nozzle. The instructions say to keep the sand line on top so water does not get into it and clog the siphon with wet sand. The whole thing hopefully eliminates the need for a huge air compressor that my solar power system won't run unless I ran it on DC. The batteries are too far from the shop to make that practical.