Hot Rods Getting the bugs out -My T coupe build

It's now time to try and attack the interior. The reason I decided to paint the car orange is because I found new black bucket seats for sale at Princess Auto and I am way too cheap to recover new seats with some newer covers so therefore an orange car works. With the remaining things that need to be covered, one black is close enough to another black for me. Trying to do this without any stitching since I don't have the sewing machine either. I put on Kilmat sound deadening and was quite pleased that one box seems sufficient to cover everything. I bought black carpet from Amazon and noticed that this is cheap stuff, not like the regular automotive carpet I'm used to seeing with that plasticized woven back side. This carpet looks the same on both sides and I thought that's great. I can attach this to the floor with velcro tape if I just use the hooky side. Ordered cheap generic velcro tape that is 2" wide. That should hold it to that channel on the subrails.
Where do you go to find paper big enough to use to make a pattern for the carpet? I remembered that for the annual church Christmas supper, they used some long paper roll for a table cloth on those long tables. Called the pastor's wife, and she had a 6' piece left. Only problem there is that it was only 32" wide. Got around that one by marking a center line on the floor so that I only need a pattern for the one side, hoping the car is somewhat symmetrical.
Now for the next problem; upholstery glue. I read in other upholstery threads that the stuff to use is landau vinyl top glue and that other glues don't hold up that well in the hot sun. I can only find that available in a gallon can and that seems to be a bit much for how much I need. What would be a good alternative?

 

I put on the velcro tape and think that it should probably hold the carpet in place. I only need the hook side for this task and was thinking of what to do with the left over fuzzy side. The quarter window garnish moldings have a place along the B pillar and along the headliner for a trim piece. I would imagine that it was originally some upholstered piece of cardboard that pushed into place. Think that would be nicely covered with the fuzzy tape. I think that next on the chore list is to install the wire harness since that will go under the carpet. Normally, I would run this up the A pillar and under the headliner but the T just doesn't have enough room in the A pillar. I don't like wires under the carpet because there are too many wires and it is a pain to try to get them to lay flat. I made metal channels to cover the wires and to hold them in place, but just when I think that I'm done; I need room for some more wires. One of those project creep issues. Since I'm an old geezer, I want to listen to my old tunes. Need a radio that takes one of those memory sticks. Since I don't know where I'm going, I might as well get one with a GPS screen. When I took the car for a test spin around the block, I realized that backing up was a bit of an issue with that mailslot back window so now the car has a backup camera and that equates to more wires running to the back of the car. In order to listen to Hamb era tunes, I need post Hamb era technology and it sure is a slippery slope.

 

Lots of stuff to put in in a small bag.
I plan to route my wires back in the subframe on my build.
It should be enough space in there and use some clips to hold the harness secured.

 

Started laying in the carpet. Gave up on my pattern idea. The velcro tape works great with this cheap carpet. The carpet is very thin, definitely not the best in quality; but on the plus side, there is more than enough of it should I screw up. That blue channel laying on the floor is what I'm using to hold the wire harness in place - scrap that was available. Tried experimenting with a small piece of scrap carpet by heating up a small piece of welding rod and jabbing it. The carpet is definitely a plastic material so I'm going to try heating some up with a heat gun to see if I can mold it over my little hump over the shifter. The other picture shows this push on windlace I found on Amazon that should work out nicely on that edge over the door opening. Along the B pillar and quarter panel, I think that I will need to use conventional windlace. Haven't bought anything for that yet. Ordered a gallon of landau top glue so that means I'll have to live long enough to build enough cars to use up the stuff.

 

Your doing a great job!

 

Today I cleared off the top of my wooden work bench to get a working surface to do the various upholstery chores. Amazing the junk that accumulates there. Found my heat gun that I had been looking everywhere for and then bought a new one. Now I have my upholstery glue, 1/4" foam and some of the black vinyl but am waiting on the seam sealed pleated material. While I did have the car assembled to where I could drive it, it never had the upholstery in place. This introduces a new wrinkle to the assembly process. Now I have to be careful not to scratch the paint and poke holes were they shouldn't belong and such. The trunk lid goes in through the doors, the fuel tank goes in through the doors - maybe. There is also the seat belt/ shoulder harness anchor thing that has to go in along with the bulkhead divider I made that goes behind the seats along with the battery. That bulkhead divider has to be covered with carpeting first to make sure I don't run out before covering the last bit in the trunk. I only thought that I had lots of carpet before. At this point, it looks like it should barely make it. If I get the assembly sequence wrong, I will have to redo things. I had made the panels that go between the back window and the quarter windows but forgot to label them left and right. They may be interchangeable, but if they aren't, I need to determine which is which in order to get the glue on the right side. Where did I stash those quarter windows when I took this car apart? I'm getting closer to the finish line - I think.

 

I just ran across this thread, I'm subscribed! HRP

 

Work on the car was interrupted by home renovations but now I'm back at it. The floor is basically flat so doing the carpet is relatively easy except for the "bulge" for the Model A rear crossmember. I don't have an industrial sewing machine so I made a pattern for the bulge and sewed it with needle and thread since there isn't a lot of stress there. Hope it holds out.

 

Now that I have the carpet to the "good enough for now" stage, I have to carefully figure out the assembly sequence. I mounted the battery holder and the mount for the fuel tank since the fuel tank will go in through the door. Then comes the trunk lid which has been off and on countless times but now I risk scratching paint which it never had before plus the clearance issues that come from the thickness of the carpet and paint. The trunk lid needs to be adjusted properly before the fuel tank goes in because it will be nearly impossible to do with the fuel tank in place. Mounting the trunk lid, I am glad that I haven't installed the top wood yet. Last week, I went to the local swap meet and picked up an old Torker intake manifold that takes a filler tube/ breather which may come in handy to get this car on the road instead of the three deuces I currently have since I am absolutely pathetic at tuning. It would be nice to have this car on the road this summer. Also scored a visor made for a Model A that should adapt easily.

 

The theme of this build was to throw the whole thing together and take it for a spin around the block to get all the bugs out of the system so that I could blow it apart for the paint and upholstery and simply reassemble the car. Of course, that doesn't really happen in the real world. Not mine, at least. There is a definite order in which things need to be put back together. I have just finished mounting the fuel tank and battery tray and then progressed to the support for the seat belt/shoulder harness. The shoulder harness mounts go through the package tray/rear bulkhead thing. But before the package tray goes in, I need to install the Cobra flip type fuel filler door, but under it is a locking fuel cap and I can't remember where I stashed the keys for the car. I need to take that out so that I can paint it. I also need to put the top wood in, but I can't do that until I put in the headliner which I can't do until I find where I stashed the front wood header for it. What was I thinking when I bought that nifty Model A sunvisor - it was never in the plans but it attaches to the wood header that I can't find. Can't get the bugs out when the larvae are still madly breeding.

 

If it was easy everyone could build a hotrod.

 

You are definately going to like this hot rod!!!! My 26 coupe weighs 2000 lbs. and with the 500 plus stroker motor it handles like a go kart on steroids. A word of caution - these cars have BLIND SPOTS. To solve this problem I installed small spot mirrows in the upper corners of the windshield on the inside. What I can't see in my side view mirrow I can see in the spot mirrow and vise versa. Paint the back side of the spot mirrow flat black and you can't see them from the outside. Great build.............

 

26hotrod, yes, I know about the blind spots. The car now has a very non-Hamb friendly backup camera. Anyhow, since I can't do anything that doesn't affect everything else at this stage, I'm attempting to mount the newly acquired Model A sunvisor since it looks like it needs to attach to the top wood, which needs the headliner installed before it goes on, and the top cover over the wood gets somehow into the picture too. The new sunvisor seemed like a good idea because the Model T one no longer cleared when I mounted my wiper motor. I now have a garnish molding that goes above the windshield and its notch for the wiper is definitely lower than where I mounted mine. Had a hard time visualizing the mods needed to adapt the visor so I cut up a patch and tack welded it in for failure #1. At least it helps to point me in the right dire ction.

 

I needed to get the sun visor sorted out because I needed to finish the fabrication / adaption work on it before I installed the headliner and outer roof material. It is a major pain to try to mount and fit parts after the paint has gone on. Would have been so much easier early on in the build. The guy who built this visor did a very nice job but unfortunately I didn't ask him his name. The leading edge is rolled around a 1/8" wire and I had to scrounge up a short piece to fit the new end pieces I made. I didn't have a bead roller to form it so I heated it with a torch and bashed it into shape. I mentioned on here two years ago how I am battling with tigphobia and it hasn't relented. Haven't touched it since then but since I was concerned with metal warpage, I tried it again. I hit the foot pedal and nothing happened. It appears that kicking it around the shop floor had managed to break the wires loose at the connector plug. Soldered it back in place and it works again. I really need to make some sort of holder for it so that it doesn't happen again. I'm just too much an old school acetylene torch guy. Tig moves way too fast for me. I adapted easily to mig but then, that was a long time ago. Hopefully, I can now get back onto the upholstery.

 

The internet is a great help. I looked up Weldwood landau top contact cement and found this nifty way of making a funnel to pour out the glue with two strips of tape. Started spraying on the glue with a cheap spray gun and this is way easier than painting. I can leave the glue in the gun since I don't have to worry about hardener setting the thing off. For the door and quarter panels, I am using seam sealed pleated vinyl to give it a more finished look without sewing. I also installed the panel separating the cabin from the trunk. Took a while to remember how to put it back in. The package tray is attached with those tray like things under the shoulder harness support. The last picture shows the material that my interior panels are made from. They are old ad panels from the sides of the city's transit buses. Got them for free. Learned about them from my old upholsterer friend who had a contract repairing torn bus seats. Not as fancy as ABS plastic or luan, but if they held up to Canadian winter, more than adequate.

 

Onto the interior panels. First I glued on 1/4" closed cell foam onto the panels and then the pleated vinyl. The piece on the back side of the firewall was made out of wood so I managed to put the vinyl on with staples. Pushed it in place and it looks good. The heater should hold it in. As for the ones on the 1/4 panels, I previously made the aluminum plates at the leading edges and they fit the plastic panels good at the time. Now with them covered, the added foam and pleated vinyl was way thicker and they didn't fit anymore so I had to remove the foam and cotton padding in the pleats to get them to fit. I have no idea what Ford originally had there, but since there were 4 holes on each side that had 10-32 threaded holes; make something. I also put on black rubber windlace. With black upholstery, it looks good. There are 10-32 holes all over the insides of the body - most had screws in them broken off flush with the body when I first got this car. I did manage to get them all out so I was dead set on using them. I think the next thing to work on is installing the headliner. I purchased this from Classtique Upholstery somewhere in Minnesota. They have a Youtube video on how to install one in a Model T sedan so when I finally unpacked it, I thought they had made a mistake on mine since on the sedan, it is stapled in on all the header bows and the coupe only has places to staple on two of the header bows. Pays to read the instructions. Since they are in this business, they probably know more than I do on the subject.

 

You are making good progress. I am watching from the wings, like the upholstery. 14 here today so I won't be getting much done on my build. Keep at it.

 

If it was 14 here, that would be a nice day since we read the temperature in Celsius. 14 F - yuck.

 

I didn't get to the headliner yet. I went and purchased my window regulators - for the second time. No. That would be the third time. The first time I obtained repro Model T ones. They didn't work because the glass shop cut my door glass to my patterns. I didn't make my glass wide enough and they would get cocked in the window channels going up and down. Also, the window cranks would not clear my '40 dash with the door closed. The second time, I went to the wreckers and picked up a pair of manual window regulators for a '89 Jeep Cherokee rear doors. I was copying a technical thread posted here by Canuck; "Bear claw latch and window regulators - install in a 1930 Model A coupe". This time around, I mounted the window cranks lower in the door. Worked great. My downfall was in putting on the window cranks. Canuck mentioned that window cranks for a mid 40's Chev had the same spline. They do, but they are retained by the traditional wire clip while the Jeep has a plastic crank that just snaps on. I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to do the groove for the clip. I sent a message to Canuck after I had really messed them up. He said to find someone with the early Chev and copy what they did on the shaft - it was an easy fix; at least for Canuck. I didn't know anyone with the correct Chev. In retrospect, I should have just asked on the Hamb for a picture of the end of the shaft. Pride goes before a fall, I guess. Anyhow, when I finally made it out to the Pick a Part yard, the only Jeep Cherokee of that era had power windows. Not too much of a surprise there. Those cars are more than 30 years old at this point and manual window were beginning to get extinct. Fortunately, I met a fellow scrounger in the yard who told me that his father had one at his house. Since I will be redoing the window regulator install, I will post pictures soon.

 

I'm one of those guys that don't have enough patience to get an engine to run nice and since I am trying to get this thing on the road to make it to Deuce Days in Victoria this summer,I sent my intake and carb setup to Old Rek in Winnipeg to sort out. He does nice work. Still haven't got to the headliner. I have more respect for upholsterers, however. I made the plastic interior panels to fit nice and tight but didn't allow for the decrease in clearances when the foam and vinyl go on so there is still some fitment issues to deal with. I will have to pull some of the cover off and trim things. I think that the panel on the back side of the firewall is done. It is held in place by the heater. The panels that go on by the back window will definitely have to be trimmed since I think that I will add some black fender welting between them and the headliner to fill in any gaps that may occur there.

 

You r getting ahead of me!

 

Vtw: It's all an illusion. I'm no where near that point.

 

Since I removed my intake manifold and need to retime the distributor when it goes back on, I figured that I should buy a new harmonic balancer since the timing marks are way off. The harmonic balancer I was using was a freebie that must have come off a 350 with the long water pump where it is possible to shine the timing light between the water pump and the timing cover. My '47 Plymouth has a 1968 327 that has the short water pump and I never had any issues with the timing marks so I ordered a new harmonic balancer for a '68 327. It should work. I took pictures of the timing tabs on both engines to make sure that they were the same. As far as doing real work on the car, I went back to trying to get my glove box door to fit on the '40 dash since it is about time to mount that. I had previously given up on that when it just didn't seem to work. I was trying to install the door with my handmade steel glove box in place. This time around, I did it with the box off. I taped the door where it was supposed to go without the latch in place and bolted it up. Much better. I now have the dash tied up with wire above where it is supposed to go so that I have more room to hook up all the wires. Trying to do this laying on my back with the dash bolted in place is just too awkward and uncomfortable. Once the dash goes back on, I'll be able to finally see how the steering column looks in the car with its two tone '59 Impala steering wheel. Making progress.

 

Nice to see it comming together.
It reminds mee that i should go out to do some on my build.

 

Nothing nicer than a 40 dash! That is going to look very nice when finally installed.

 

Making progress putting this all back together. Intake is back on, then the radiator came back off to get at the harmonic balancer. Didn't put the new one on. Since the old one was a larger diameter and I was too cheap to purchase a new timing tab, I just used the new balancer as a reference to paint a new line on the old one and put it back on. Have no idea as to why my homemade TDC finder placed the mark in the wrong location. Since the rad was out, I took a picture of my fan shroud to show you. It came off a John Deere of some sort. After that, it was a case of plugging the wire harness back onto the dash and trying to remember where it all went. Since the back up camera is a later addition, I need to find existing wires in the harness to use to feed power to the back up light switch on the transmission that previously wasn't used. I'm using an EZ wiring harness in this car and it had a wire supplied for a third brake light so I'm using that wire for the camera in the back of the car. There was an alternator exciter wire going to the front of the car which I will use to feed the backup switch. After a while, it's hard to remember what extra wires went where since I seldom mark them, thinking that I could wire a car in my sleep. Whoops. I have a lot of stuff under the dash. At least I came to my senses and gave up on the AC evaporator when I realized that I don't fit under the dash like I used to when I was younger. Last thing I did today on the car was mounting the "videolizer"; an early 60's era transistorized ignition on the firewall. Unfortunately, I discovered that one of the tapped mounting holes in the firewall was stripped out and since I can't just leave it like that, there will be a bunch of disassembly required to place a nut on the back side. Time to quit for the day. Have a happy Easter.

 

Videolizer? where the heck did you find that? I have never heard of any. Had you run it before or is this something new? That shroud was a good find.

 

Old style transistor ignition. Long ago,you could get stuff like this from places like Heathkit or Radio Shack. Since I was running a points style distributor, I wanted something like this to prolong point life. Found the videolizer on Ebay and because it was made in Canada, just had to have it. I tend to complicate things; mostly to my detriment.

 

I'm hooking up all the electrical things so that I can finally bolt the dashboard back in place. This should be straight forward since I have had the whole car together and other than the new paint and upholstery issues, everything should just plug in but unfortunately, plans always change midstream. I added a tachometer because every proper hot rod should have one; never mind that I drive like an old woman. Also, in order for everything to look neat, it is necessary to mount ugly things where they can't be seen. I had mounted my ballast resistor the body mounts at the firewall but can't find the mounting hole that I drilled for it. Gremlins must have welded it up when I wasn't looking. Time to drill a new hole but it sure is an ugly situation. Got an angle drill in there with the shortest drill bit I can find but no room to get any leverage under there and my previously injured shoulder isn't helping one bit.