Projects '36DD - (My Double Duty 3-window build.)

Nicely done on the trunk lip!

 

Good work..

 

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

OK, maybe I told a little lie when I said I was gonna' stay home for a bit and concentrate on the car. A great airfare deal came up which made it seem almost criminal not to come over for the California HRR and Vegas NHRA races.

I did manage to round up a few parts while I was over tho' - a scruffy '40 rear bumper which I plan to rework for the tail of the '36, and some '40 wiper towers, linkage and 2-speed motor so I can mount the wipers below the screen where they are a bit more discreet. ( we are required by law in New Zealand to run two wipers - sometimes three on a heavily chopped car.)


There was another area of the trunk surround which needed some repair



so I shaped up a patch to suit, then cut out the ugly and replaced with fresh metal.









Then I fully welded the whole area and hammered up the welds so they were pretty close to a finished profile. I plan on coming back to finish them off once I have had a bit more practice and am feeling more comfortable with the whole metal finishing thing...

With all of the rust repair around the bodyshell squared away, I could finally put the new floor and body together for the first (and final) time. I cleaned up the flange around the inside of the body, hammered it up till it was all nice and straight, then primed it where it would meet the new floor.



Made up a new section at the rear of each side to follow the contour of the raised rear frame rails





Then it was finally time to bring the two together. I bolted the floor down onto the frame, then bought a case of beer to lure some buddies from the hot rod club around, and we lifted the body and lowered it into place. A little bit of jiggling and levering later, and the chassis, new floor and body were united for the first time.

Of course, the very next thing was to bolt the seat into place - just to check that the driving position was right before anything was welded together



By the way, the positioning is perfect!

So I looked away for a moment to grab the guys some beers, and this happened...



Maybe my daughter Charley is finally starting to take an interest !

Bear

 

Outstanding! (Whoever said you can't make a purse out of a pig's ear, did not see this build transformation.)
And true to form, your stance WILL be everything!

 

Its awesome to see this build moving forward, a beautiful car it will be!

 

Great to see things moving forward again, really enjoying this build.

 

Wow! Car is looking goooood!

 

Thanks everyone. It's great to be making progress again.
Gave the shop a big tidy up on the weekend 'cos our local club, Surf City Rod and Custom, were having our annual 'round the sheds' visit. It's amazing how much mess that bodywork makes!
While everything was clean I took the opportunity to click off a few pics to keep me inspired.





















Bear

 

I had noticed fairly early on in the build that the body was out of whack by about 3/8" corner to corner, and as I have been working my way around fixing up rusted areas I discovered that it has had a big hit in the left hand side/rear quarter. The whole quarter and up through the rear pillar into the roof has file marks from a previous repair (very nicely done), and the driver's (US side ) door has had the inner frame cut out and stick welded back in (not so nicely) at some stage in its previous life.
I figured putting the new floor in was a good opportunity to pull everything back into square. When I first set the body back over the new floor, the body mount holes down one side didn't line up so well and the cutouts I had carefully measured and trimmed in the rear kickup area didn't look so great either...I started by cleco-ing (is that even a word?) the trunk floor to the rear of the floorpan...



Then by slowly levering and clamping the floor and body together, and progressively adding body mount bolts as I worked my way forward, everything slowly but surely began to line up how it should...







All of those reliefs around the fenderwell suages were pre-cut by measuring and marking from various reference points way before the two pieces came together. Pretty happy with the way it all worked out!

Once I got forward of the kickup area, I bolted the body up tight to the outrigger mounts on the frame to ensure the width was right, then worked my way forward clamping the floor to the body flange , and tacking the two together at 2-3" intervals, alternating from side to side.







I've got it to the stage where all the body mount bolts screw into the frame easily by hand, so I figure it's all back pretty close to square. Now I can go ahead and fabricate the transmission tunnel and front floorboards.

Bear

 

Bear , you never cease to amaze with the quality of your work.
Might steal a couple of your torque arm ideas for my sons tudor.

 

Great work!


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Thanks for the kind words. You're more than welcome to 'steal' any of the ideas from my build - I would consider it flattery!

Bear

 

Well done re-squaring the body. It will make everything later a bit easier i’m sure.

 

Let me come clean out your shed. I'll get all the other shit out of your way so you have more room to work.


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It took a fair bit of work to get it right, but I'm pretty sure it will pay off down the track.

When I got to start planning the front floorboard area, I found that there were a couple of humps on the inner flange of the cowl area that weren't going to work with my flat floorpan.





They were the same on each side, so I figured they had to be factory, but seeing as I never had an original front floor, I couldn't figure out why they would be there.

Jumped on the HAMB and asked the question, and in a matter of minutes I had replies from Brigrat and Rich B showing that the original floors stepped up then flattened at that point, but the hump was not put there to clear anything, which had been my main concern.
So I figured if I cut out the offending sections and replaced with a flat piece, the line of the front toeboards would work in better with my existing transmission tunnel and floorpan.



Because the 'hump' was made from 3 individual layers of sheetmetal, all pressed to shape and spotwelded together, they weren't going to hammer down flat without causing major distortion in the lower cowl area. So I formed up an angle section out of 1/8" plate to make the transition from the 'hump' profile to the flat floor.





Then welded these into place from the top, and sanded off the sharp edges.





The toeboards will require a small notch in the lower outside corner to clear this step, but I'm pretty sure once my carpets and kick panels go in , this should all disappear.

Bear

 

I rolled up a section of sheetmetal to form the main part of the transmission hump by laying out a bunch of tapering lines on the panel, clamping it to my frame table and gently 'tweaking' it over the edge of the channel, one line at a time... The radius changes significantly from end to end, and there is a flat section thru' the centre, as well as a reverse curve at the firewall end.



Once I had it formed up to the correct profile, I set the hump in place and scribed the firewall and trans tunnel areas.




Hammered a couple of tapered recesses into the front edge to match the suages in the firewall lip...







Then started tacking it into place.





The 'wings' at the front are there to follow the firewall profile, and provide extra clearance around the bellhousing bolts, in case I ever have to drop the trans out at a later stage.
Then I had a couple of tapered sections folded up to form the sides of the hump - real tricky to get the two opposite folds meeting nicely at a point - I had to finish off the pointed end with a hammer and block.



It took a bit of finessing, but I eventually got the sides closed in, with a nice ledge for the front floorpans to attach to. Final welding will have to wait until the body is back off again so I can get to the underside of the seams.





Bear

 

Made up a cardboard pattern of the passenger (left) side toeboard, and once I had that fitting right, transferred it to sheetmetal. I hammered a couple of folds into the edges to match the line of the floorpan and cowl edge.



Then I made the drivers side toeboard, which was 'almost' a mirror image of the left, and wheeled some suages to stiffen the panels. I left the suages shorter on the D/S to allow for the pedal holes.



The body was originally left hand drive, but I'm building it right hand, so I wanted to do something symmetrical to blank out the original column clearance hole.
I sat the column back in to help me make up a pattern for the matching column mounting plate and blanking plate for the L/H side.



Then formed these two pieces with the bead roller to give a kinda' 'factory coulda' done it' look..



Set everything back into place to check the fit...



Then plug welded them to the toeboard panels.



CAREFULLY marked and cut the clearance holes for the pedal shafts, and final welded the floor mounting plate to the column tube...



and drilled the panels for the mounting screws to locate on the existing cage nuts.

I made up a couple handy little tools by grinding a point on a piece of 1/4-20 thread and screwing them into the cage nuts, leaving them sitting proud, placing the toeboards into position and gently hammering on top of the thread to mark the hole positions. Worked out dead on!

Now I just need to fit some nutserts along the other flanges to finish off the mounting. (When my nutsert tool finally arrives in the mail...)




Bear

 

I can only dream of having such skills....attention to details that will never be seen takes it to another level.....a stunning build, thanks for sharing.

 

I see you're running parallel bones in the front, I like the idea of this...don't see this often on 35-40 chassis....is there any issues with the turning radius? how wide will your spring be?

 

The turning radius is probably going to be limited by the radius rod, but not before the tire rubs on the fender anyways. I just had a look and the wheel turns about 33 degrees from the straight a head position before it rubs the radius rod. (Don't know whether that's good, bad or otherwise!)



All I do know, is it ain't easy getting that low using traditional suspension, and I wasn't gonna' run a collapsed looking independent front end to achieve the same ride height! I also didn't want to end up with messed up geometry by trying to run the bones back under the frame.

The monoleaf spring that I am using sits at 31 1/2" centres at rest. Hope that helps...

Bear

 

Yes Sir....Thank you for the details.....very nice craftsmanship/car you have there....

 

Did anyone make this thread into a Hard Copy before PhotoBucket got their greedy paws all over it?

 

It will be a shame to cover all that work with paint

 

Howdy Bear . Remember me ?
First time on here in a , , , , too long a period !
Love ya work mate . The build is looking stunning for sure.
A quiet hint mate , , not a fan of rivenuts ! They have bad habits ! Wurth do a flanged weld on nut , been using them a lot with the race car Fabrication , strong in the thread , and don't rattle loose or spin in the hole if there's a bit of thread bind !

What steering arms have you got there ? Looking for options with my roadster.

Cheers
Shrappy

 

You will end up like me in the roadster, with a turning radius of two and a half acres!
I used hundreds of nutserts/rivnuts on the roadster, just make sure to put some antiseize on the threads. I made a little dimple die pair to recess the rivnuts and keep things flush fitting.

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I've probably got less wheelbase and definitely gonna' have a bunch more horsepower, so I think I'll get it turned around OK.

 

Turn it with your right foot mate!

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Yeah, I think I remember you! Aren't you that shy, quiet guy with the mad metalworking skills?
Was always a bit wary of the nutsert thing, but I've made sure they are crimped up REAL tight, and they are all accessible from behind if there is ever a problem. My only concern right now with them (prior to you raising the alarm) is that the amount of protrusion on the back side of the panel looks a bit 'modern'. I may even put a little tack on them later to avert your concerns.

Regarding the steering arms, I'm pretty sure they are the So-Cal deep drop version, which gets the tie rod down below the wishbones. Mine are the unpolished stainless ones.

Not much progress to report from me unfortunately, only been temporarily reinforcing the body structure





while the axe is out getting sharpened.

Bear

 

Um , yeah , shy quiet , , , what gave you that impression ?
Cheers for the mad skills complement , , just doing what I know , and learning what I don't Mate

Yeah , I figured you probably were up on the nutsert play , but , better to mention it just in case .

Cheers for the heads up on the steering arms . You wouldn't believe how many people see what's on the roadster and question how bad the lock must be ! But hey , 80s hot rod , we've all learnt a lot since then. Guys we're looking at it today , not realising it was previously a club car of theirs !

You can never have too much bracing for when the axe comes out !
Sing out if you want me to bring mine up , , , I think it's Left Handed so should help for an even cut !

Keep up the great work mate .

Shrappy

 

I get excited every time this pop's up on my sub's list! Such a cool thing!