Loosely set in the Steering Box in to locate for the column with a wood clamp. Once I found the spot that felt comfortable I welded the flange setting the angle of the Column. Then realized I needed the smallest column drop which I made from scrap I had laying around.
After locking the steering box and column into place, I was able to drop the steering arm, which allowed the drag link and tie rod to be set into place. Photos tell the story here.
Nice work ! We had a upholstery shop at Jet East that did aircraft seat refurb's and made it look so easy - hung out when I could get away with it.
Made the E brake bracket as well. Had some Angle laying around and used some pipe I had from an older pipe and flange shelf I made.
After fitting the Dash and steering column figured I work on fitting the cluster. I don't remember where i got this cluster but guy said it was from a boat, either way looks rad and was easy with the drill press and hole saws. Very glad I took the time to make the pattern. Love that aluminum face with he vertical lines.
Tackled the Tail lights. Went with the standard '50 Pontiacs, found a great set at a swap a year or so ago. Didn't want to remove that below deck lid piece so I used a hole saw with some clamped wood. Worked like a charm, was very easy. I like the easy wins here. I am trying to rework that Deck lid and it is outside of my skill set to be honest. I will post photos when I finish or give up and get another one. lol.
customer looked at my spare decklid setting on a project... bottom 1.5" is gone .... he says why not cut the top 1.5" from an easy to find, rusted, below the deck panel , flip it up side down? weld it on ? Hmmmmmmm ?
I tackled the Deck Lid and am ok with the results. I learned a lot and will most likely replace it with a nicer one, but will use it to move on with the project to get on the road. I had two skins I used to make this one which were both pretty bad off with rust and overall shape. The inner support was really bad and required a lot of repair. I bought a shrinker and stretcher half way through the project, which would have moved this along quicker from the start, but like i said, i learned a lot making this piece. I had to pie cut the 18 gauged sheet for the inner structure to make the curves/shape then went back and welded it up. The handle I used a 37 or 38 passenger handle. Only real change I made there was the threaded square rod needed to be to be deeper. In the end, I do have gaps that are not square and when I open and close it the lid shifts a little to the passenger side. The hinge and prop parts are just repos found at any after market site. I did have to add some material to the spot the hinge pin inserts through on the actual deck lid, which you can see in the photos. Below you can see what I started with and as I progressed.
Just saw your thread today. Love the parking brake handle mount, I have to make one of those for my car next year and I like yours better than the others I've looked at, the spacers are a good idea and necessary in my car. I saved that pic for future reference. I also love that you took on that trunklid even with so little left, and even re-used the old skins that were on it. That's the type of thing a lot of people would just throw away and order a new one, and I like to see those types of things saved, even if it is a lot of work. Looks pretty decent to me, too, I'd run it if I were you.
I like you emergency brake set up also. I need to get a brake handle. Do you know what that one if off of?
Pretty sure mine is a repop handle, I picked it up here in one of those extra purchases off craigslist. I went for a certain part and the guy happen to have alot of other parts laying around. https://www.macsautoparts.com/model...lashGo_OwdNenEnErpCrj-An5lQTn4QUaAldREALw_wcB
Tackled a little more with the pedal adjustments recently and went with an equalizer/shaft from an F1. Shortened it a little and worked like a charm. I bought the stabilizer piece that mounts to the frame from Macs. Also finished the Wood floor, just a piece of ply I had that I templated from a cardboard piece, not perfect, but will work for this car.
In the background over the last 6 months I have been trying to teach my self how to sew a cover for the bench of this car. My wife by trade is a jeweler and makes her boxes and inserts her self. She let me borrow her machine, which is a machine she uses to sew leather. I didn't have a table for the machine, so I just made a cardboard template of the bottom of the machine and cut a hole into an old table. Nothing fancy but will work for my needs. I found a great YouTube clip of a guy who teaches you how to tuck and roll the old way with cotton inserts not sewing through foam, which would never ever work on a home machine. Here are some photos of my progress. I have been buying cheap vinyl from Walmart to practice with for the top material and Muslin for the base material. I am working towards 2" pleats in my insert with a very basic boxing. You can see my progress as I go, basically failing and failing till i get better and better. Being a hardheaded person I hope to not outsource anything on this car and this was easily the hardest hurdle. Any upholstery people out there are worth there weight in gold. This craft is so so so so hard and tedious. I used some scrap copper sheet pieces i had from work to make the Cotton Tins. Used to basically shove the cotton in the pleats. At first i tried using rolled cotton that i would fold over and over to get the look in the pleat i wanted but then found a source of real untouched cotton batting from Amazon. You can see me putting down the lines on the top and base material, which is to help you keep straight lines, which is such a huge challenge. I put a leather needle and a walking foot attachment on my wives machine and it worked pretty well. As i progress through the project you will see a change in the machine i am using, this was because i broke her machine, fixed it and then ended up buying one to finish, which improved my abilities a ton. I do feel a person could do this kind of project on a home machine, however it is challenging for the boxing when all of the layers of material start adding up and you are trying to make good straight lines. Not to mention my wife was not to happy about the machine breakage.
After I start placing these test pieces in the car i start to realize i have no idea how to attach the cover to the seat. So I realize I can use what are called J clips. Essentially clips that would fasten to the bottom of a seat frame. So cut some flat stock pieces down to make some flanges to allow for something to attach the J clips to the seat frame, which here is just used the cut down seat bottom from the car. I also around this time found the better cotton, which I took a photo of if anyone on here would ever want to see it.
Making everything tight enough is a huge hurtle, and failing and resewing and cutting over and over is tough.
The Jalopy Journal
