Projects Tim's (aka anothercarguy) 1938 Ford Club Cabriolet Build Thread

I did a similar thing to a late 70 s Camaro column (free) with some 2 in. exhaust tubing. Nothing against the aftermarket suppliers, however you can do a lot with used parts that have been discarded. Really nice job fitting all that stuff together. I enjoy watching your fabrication.

 

Good job on the column. They can get fiddly once you decide to include turn signals. I have made a couple myself and have also included the wiring 'trough.'

 

Looks real good.

 

Thanks Joel.

Thanks...I need to go back to your build thread and look closely at the "demister" vents you made (we call them "defrosters" here) as I also need to make a set.

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.

 

That's because here we aren't dealing with some wimpy "mist" ; we're dealing with perma frost!

 

It all looks so easy! Ha, ha. One almost impossible repair and fabrication after another.
Great work, it's fascinating to watch. Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks. My next update will be a few/several weeks out. I currently have too many other non-car related projects going on.

 

very interesting... I plan on starting on my '38 cabriolet (not a club) soon. Looking forward going to be referred to you build posts. Thanks.

 

Cool, I look forward to seeing your posts and progress. I'm still neck deep in house/yard projects. So, our '38 continues to wait on the sidelines.

 

lovely work on that column and drop.

 

Where did you source your engine mounts from?

 

The mounts that bolt to the engine are from an early Camaro (67-69 I believe). The chassis section, I built from scratch ( 3/16" steel flat plate, and steel seamless tubing).

 

After seeing the "what not to do, why do build threads go cold" thread by @THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER ...I decided to post an update.

Nothing new to add at the moment, progress has pretty much ceased while other non-car related projects took priority. The non-car projects are almost completed, and I expect to be back on the '38 in about 2 weeks. Otherwise happy to report that all is well...and I've met my car related needs vicariously by following many others progress on the HAMB. Thanks for that!

 

Well, after almost 7 months of building a deck, garden fence and decorative steel gate, a greenhouse, raised cedar plant beds and the most time consuming of all projects, an elevator with an 18' rise from the driveway to the house...I'm finally back on the '38. WooHoo!!

So, getting back to where we left off, Next up is the dashboard. I have a 6 gauge set, and no matter how they were positioned, they wouldn't fit into the available space in the dash in front of the driver. There are a couple of vertical character lines flanking each side of the stock 2 gauge cluster. If the left side character line is moved as far to the left as possible without distorting the sides of the dash (which amounted to about 2 inches), the gauges will fit. I must admit that I was so excited about getting back to working on the car, I neglected to take any before pictures. Here's a picture showing the sideways section after having been moved 2" and welded into place.

The next task was to cut out and fill the area where the old gauges were located.

I bought this gauge set at a swap meet a few years ago. They were priced right and I liked the look of the gauge faces. But they have "tall" bezels. When placed on a flat surface they appeared to stand out too far and looked kind of googly eyed (I think that's the traditional term). The speedo and tack sat about 7/16" proud of the flat surface.


Next up, locating the gauges. I'm usually a fan of the symmetrical 2 small gauges stacked vertical on the left, 2 large in the center and then the 2 remaining small gauges stacked vertically on the right. But because of the limited space (the '38 dash gets smaller on the left side) the only layout that would work was 2 large gauges on the left, and the 4 small gauges clustered on the right. After laying it out, the hole saws made short work of creating holes. Then I spent way more time than I care to admit making 6 recess pockets to sink the gauges into. The goal was to have only the beveled edge of each gauge sit proud of the dash.


After tacking the recess rings into place, the obligatory trial fit of the gauges...yup, that's better than the googly eyes.

Next was finish welding and grinding.


And lastly, another trial fit the gauges.

There are a few more small holes that need to be plugged on the dash before calling it done. Boy it feels good to be back working on the car!

 

Aside from all the extra work, the recesses have a more intentional factory look rather than accessory or speedboat look.

 

Managed to make a bit of progress, filled a few unwanted holes (including the glovebox clock, a hole for the old spotlight and handle the car had, and a couple mystery holes that I'm not sure what they were for), hammered out a few small dents. cleaned up the art deco style bezels, removed the ashtray and modified the small arched housings. I'm thinking the 4 holes in the arches would be a good place to sink the light switch, windshield wiper switch, blower fan switch and something else still to be determined. The 2 holes along the bottom might be used for 2 pull out type cables for heater temp control and defrost/heater control. In between the 2 slider controls could be a good place for the ignition switch.

 

That looks sharp! Definitely worth the extra work you did to sink the gauges.

 

perfect!!!

 

That looks great. I agree with x38 about the recessed look.

 

Well where is the passenger ejector seat button going to reside?

 

Thanks guys.

Right beside the oil slick, smoke screen and revolving license plate buttons obviously!

It amazes me how sometimes the simplest tasks (at least in my mind they were going to be simple) can eat up a day or more! The next task was to install the newly finished dash, re-install the steering column and then (and here's the new part) install the steering u-joints, determine the length and cut the double "D' shaft and install. In my mind, this was an hour, maybe 2 at most.

Dashboard in, 10 minutes (check), steering column back in, 10 minutes (check), install Borgeson U-joint on lower steering column, slides on easily, 10 minutes (took more time to find it than it did to slide it in place, check), install U-joint set screws. here's where the time wagon began to fall off the rails! The lower column mount at the firewall protruded into the engine compartment by about an inch. The problem was, that the lower steering column protruded about 5/8". The extra 3/8" overhang of the lower column mount did not allow access to the set screws. No problem, just cut 3/8" off the lower collar mount and install the end cap retainer. I had originally made the collar long and didn't put on a cap retainer on it as I wanted to finish it in place once I had the steering column length and location finalized...now I remember!

To make room for better access, out came the mock up engine and the trans. While the engine and trans is out, I now also have room to grind/finish the lower firewall where it meets up with the floor and transmission hump. I'm no longer keeping track of time as we're now taking the scenic route for this task!

With the firewall finish ground and the lower steering collar correctly trimmed to fit, it's time to get back to installing the u-joints and shaft...upper u-joint installed (with set screws, check), lower Borgeson U-joint onto the flaming River steering box...lets' call it manufacturing tolerances (??)...no go! Two plus hours of carefully filing each spline with a small jewelers triangular file netted a correct fit (the actual process was something like 10 file strokes to each of the 36 splines, test fit, 10 more strokes to each spline, test fit, repeat). Long story short, U-joints installed, shaft cut and installed, turning steering wheel now results in wheels turning (they even turn the correct direction....not like those gag go-karts and bathtub karts etc. that were set up with backwards steering for those rod run events in the late 70's/early 80's (hold your hand up if you remember those!). Often the event/competition was a husband and wife team, the wife in the kart/tub (because most of the time she was smaller and lighter than the husband, though no guarantee of that), and attempted to steer the backward abomination around a tightly wound course with the exasperated husband pushing with all his might until he either coughed up a lung (we were a lot of smokers back then), crossed the finish line, or his wife drove into the nearby bushes! The husband would scream at his poor rattled wife, with the couple on the edge of divorce, onlookers would be highly entertained rolling in laughter. Oh the fun!

I didn't take any pictures of this in process, as it wasn't meant to be anything to write home about. But here we are, and here's a photo of the finished product with the mock up engine/trans still out because this is still the HAMB after all. Next up, should be front sheet metal.

 

Nice job! I seem to be having more and more of those 10 minute jobs that that take 10 hours or DAYS lately!

This looks interesting... Did you already cover this linkage stuff?

 

Thanks. Good eye! I haven't shown that as I put the body back on and the floor in before I actually started this thread...and I hadn't taken any photos when I built it. It would be difficult and confusing to photograph it from the bottom. It's how I adapted a set of '40 pedals to work. I'll show more once I get the body back off.

 

These things are set to test us. Nice job as it turned out.
I have also experience discrepancies mixing Flaming River and Borgeson parts (not by my choice I might add.) If I had to choose a side it would be Borgeson.

 

Borgeson vs Flaming River...I agree with your assessment of sides. I too would have gone Borgeson all the way, but I found a new Flaming River steering box at the Meltdown Drags swap meet a few years ago at a price I couldn't refuse. My fingers are crossed that I'll get a few miles out of it. It's made in the USA so am hoping that will count for something.

 

The only 5/8 x 36 spline uni joint I've found that's actually 5/8 not 0.600 is Borgeson 114921

 

Not much of an update...but still slowly making progress. I pulled all of the front end sheet metal down from the "mezzanine" level storage of the garage and carted it down to the shop.
I decided to start with the inner fender well panels. I'm not sure what this grey stuff is/was? I originally thought it was some sort of poorly applied body type filler, but when I began removing it with the abrasive wheel, it became kind of soft and gummy (almost like the tar coat on the inside panels of the Ford bodies). So, I scraped it off using a razor blade and heat gun. Was it applied by Ford as a heat barrier maybe?? I don't know. Both fender wells had it similarly applied.
Once the grey stuff was removed, out came the purple abrasive wheel/disc on the sacrificial $10.00 Harbor Freight 4 1/2" grinder and the metal cleaned up quite nicely (especially considering it's 83 years old). I suspect this car, while it had it's rust issues and minor fender bumps and bangs, lead a somewhat charmed life. The odometer had 84,000 miles on it, the last registration plate was dated 1955, and I know that it was stored inside a barn since the early 70's (I don't know where it was kept between 1955 and the early 70's). The factory paint on the wheel side of the wheel well panel was in remarkable condition. It stripped to shiny metal with very little effort. This is the passenger side.

And, after a quick pass with the da sander its ready to fit to the car.

The driver side unfortunately is not in the same shape. The car was obviously involved in some sort of driver side fender bender and the repair was less than stellar. I have some banging and hammering in front of me to bring this one back to shape. It's pretty much rust free (that's the good news), but it's been badly stretched! Anybody have a spare one in decent shape?

 

That panel IS pretty lumpy but I am sure you will hammer it into submission.I would probably end up cutting some of the worst metal out and welding in some new stuff. But I am not the metal magician you are.

 

Lol...I've been pondering my attack on this panel. In the back of my mind, like you, I'm thinking worst case, I could always cut out the bad parts and build new sections. Stay tuned, we'll see which direction this panel takes us.

 

I skimmed through your progress to catch up to current point. Lots of work, but it looks great! I'm looking forward to following along with the rest of it.