Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Teaser:

 

Hey, Tim;
Nice spokes, although I'm a fan of the AR 5spoke spindle mount. The T will look really good w/those spokes. If you're planning on running discs behind those spindle mounts, RacerX was kind enough to show the procedure + info he had done for his street nitro hemi cpe.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rebuilding-after-the-crash.991650/ .
pgs 3,4,7->11,37,51,67,68 are the related ones.
FWIW..
Marcus...

 

That's some jewelry right there!

 

I figured I would do a quick update on the 32 as I hit a milestone and reached my personal goal: I have a rolling chassis. Lots of the little stuff was left-over or cast-off parts from the T, so that helped a lot. What also helped is I learned the hard way on the T that I need pretty much everything to build the chassis up front - no buying things one piece at a time because nothing ends up fitting that way lol.

I began working on it Thanksgiving, and everything is just tacked together until I can get the body on to check steering and pedal locations, etc. I really had to hack the k-member and braces to get the T5 to fit, and there will be some strengthening to do once I check out how the body fits. Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone!

 

It's been said often and I know Tim knows this already but for those that have not faced this yet...........DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT finalize anything relating to seats/mounts, steering column/drop, steering wheel, etc until everything is mocked up (at least once).
And so that there is no compromising after the fact, tie your steering column length and engine placement/exhaust manifolds/header choices together.
Happy Holidays Tim

 

A couple photo updates. Still waiting on parts (yes, I am putting front brakes on the T), but I finally have both cars rolling, which makes navigating my small garage a lot easier.

 

Very cool!

 

NICE! Glad you're back.

 

And now you have 2 very cool roadsters in build mode, you need to get 1 of them driving real soon!

 

I’m trying, believe me!!!

 

I'm smiling!

 

I finally finished the taillights for the T. If you remember, I Frankensteined several things to make these LEDs with backup bulbs, brake/turn signals, and parking lamps, but the lenses were clear. I finally painted the red part and on the brackets, I finally sanded the flanges I welded on, then clear coated where I sanded through the chrome. I think once on the car it won’t be super noticeable.

 

The bucket looks great Tim!

 

Small, mid-project update: I am beginning the fiberglass process, starting with the dash. I cut the dash out initially, thinking I would make some sort of dual glove box thing. I could never visualize the finished product and decided I want the original dash back in.
Before I splice it back in, I needed to modify my gauge layout. I did some test layups with varying levels of success, then laid up a flat panel once I felt somewhat comfortable.
I then made a new layout template and used that to cut out the old dash panel, as well as cut in the new panel. I will use it a 3rd time to cut out the engine turned insert.
Overall it is going well. I am ready to lay up some more glass and cut out the engine turned insert, then I can splice the dash back into the bucket. At first I was extremely intimidated by the fiberglass process, but I feel confident in moving forward with the rest of the planned work ahead.

 

Hey Tim, if you need more confidence building I have plenty of material to practice on!

 

Nice work Tim !

 

A few updates:

I cut an engine turned insert for the dash, then I re-bonded the dash back into the car:









At some point I will flip the body over when it is more solid and add some matte/cloth to the backside for strength.

My floor was pretty hacked, and it turns out warped, and was never properly bonded to the body, which worked out in my favor. I cut a new one.




I have been scheming my wiring, what I need to control, how I want it to look, where I want it located, etc. I completely underestimated the wiring portion of this car LOL. Anyway, I needed a switch panel. I decided to make one by first bending up some 3/8” fuel line into a frame, then tacking 22 gauge (I think) to tie it together. I then laid out my switches and indicator lights, drilled them, then finished it off with an engine turned insert as well. I added a grounding lug, as well as a mounting bracket. Ideally the whole panel will be removable with a weather-pack fitting of sorts. More on that later as I’m not there yet.

 

Looks good

 

Next, I needed to start finalizing my interior pieces. Steering column, steering wheel, pedals, this new switch panel, etc. My mom took a great photo of me doing who knows what in the midst of this:



I ordered an Ididit column drop after seeing my early Ford column drop selection wasn’t gonna work without total hackery. Total hackery still took place though. When I was fiddling with the dash, I bonded a piece of steel strap to the lower curve of the dash to allow me to mount stuff to it, which was great for the steering column drop.








Next was my steering wheel. I wanted a quick release for a couple reasons, security and ease of entry/exit. I made a bolt-in 1/4” steel disc that mounts to the column, and welded the quick release stub to that. So my quick release bolts to column, wheel bolts to other side of quick release, and I’m able to go back at some point with no rework. I then made a sleeved cover to conceal this. You can also see some ongoing floor and dash bonding work in these.

 

The next thing that happened was to properly bolt the floor to the frame, then bond the floor to the body, first with fiberglass filler to close any gaps, then with 2 layers of 1.5 oz matte and 1 layer of cloth.
After that, my Dad began shaping oak 1x4s, which he glued an additional 1/2x4 in some areas to deal with the shape of the body. They are awaiting some more fitting before they get glassed in.

While he was doing that, I was working on getting the switch panel mounted. Once we got to this point, we were basically out of time for the weekend, so we mocked it up to see what we were looking at. This is more or less where we are at with the progress of the car.

 

Nice to see some progress on your T.
Looks great as allways.

 

Love both "dashes"

 

Wow! some more great work Tim, they look really good in there!

 

Really enjoying your build. The dash and switch panel came out great!

 

I really like the dash! The black on the gauges, the knobs on the switch plate, even the wheel and stick knob work so well together. Awesome stuff. We should meet up sometime being we are locals. You got any bourbon in the shop? If not, I'll slide you my address and you can run over for a boys night. It's about time I gave my HOA something to complain about.

 

We should definitely meet up! I have no bourbon in the shop, but that can change haha. Or I can come check out your roadster and pickup project! MAYBE I will get this thing going in primer with a plywood seat late spring or so and I can come upset your HOA so you don’t have to lol. I don’t have an HOA over here, but I know growing up the HOA in my parents neighborhood was not fond of my brother and I LOL.

 

I was able to make some progress this weekend. I made some mounting brackets for the fuel tank out of some 3/16” steel, that are stepped in a way to clamp the lip of the fuel tank to the floor.





I then experimented with my MIG welder by hooking up a spool gun and a tank of argon. I needed to weld the windshield frame together at the top, and bolt together at the bottom. I mitered the joints and vee’d them out quite a bit so I could get good penetration. It took a couple tries, but eventually I got it pretty good. I taped the rest of the frame so I wouldn’t scratch it too bad handling it. Of course, that didn’t really help me when I dropped it on the concrete floor LOL. Oh well, more sanding.





I then tacked together my windshield posts, leaning them back about 4* from vertical.

 

So Tim,any time you want to visit upstate NY, you are welcome here, as long as you have enough time to glass in a floor and some wood around the right side door of the Whatever project! Really nice work.

And I've said it before, I think I should sell everything and take up another hobby. All you guys do such great work, it puts me to shame sometimes...

 

Me first!