Hot Rods Curbspeed Coupe. "Holy Hell" 10/4/2020

Ya, This is one of those deals that might work and might not.You have to know when to pitch something in the recycle bin. At least now I have something to look at and noodle in my dysfunctional brain cavity. I think I can make it work.

 

cool idea, I'm on the fence on this one brother ! I think you should put the sunglasses back on LOL . My tach in the 35 is right in the middle were the radio would go. but the 34 dash is way different. I'm sure you will figure it with that abbie-normal brain ... LOl

 

I will let this one simmer for a while. I got other tasks at hand. I do have a vision for this though. I'll let it play out .

 

Cool but.....if you mount it way down low, you'll have to look away from the road to read it. That freaks me out. The older I get, the longer it takes for my sight to re-adjust from near to far...I gotta have my tach closer to my line of sight. Mine will reside on my steering column, up high, just under the column bell. I found a cool stainless cup at Walmart that it fits in. I dunno, I may paint the cup to match the dash paint.
Love your 34..it's coming together very nicely.............and a lot faster than mine is.

 

amen on the sight re-adjust ! Have the tach located in a spot on my 35 that's just right.

 

It's been a while since I've checked in , and I must say that you've made some amazing progress in a truely positive direction . Looking forward to more .

 

Got to agree with everyone fantastic build - thanks for sharing


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For the most part, the speedo is my primary gauge so I put mine above the steering column so it can be seen between the spokes. I mostly use the tach to check out rpms versus mph versus mpg, etc.. But putting the tach up high, within your scan of the road (or track) to use when things get more serious is the only way to go. If you don't like the looks of it on the dash or the A pillar, just use a shift light and keep the tach in the dash some place. Or a tach that has the shift light built in as they are bright enough to be seen off axis to your line of sight. The faster you go, the less time you have to do silly stuff like look at the gauges anyway! Gary

 

Most early MGs had the tach in front of the driver with the speedometer in front of the passenger.

 

My passenger will be scared enough without having to look straight at the speedometer!!Ha! Thanks for all your insight. I will listen to the motor more than I will look at the tach. I'm not too worried about placement. More to come. Hope to get some stuff done over this long weekend.

 

i like the yoke gauge. you're really kicking butt on this build dale.

 

I have been busy with household projects and some other things that have come up but I did manage to restore the heater unit that I will use in the car. Yes, we do need a heater every now and again here in Arizona. I plan to have some creature comforts in this hotrod this time. I will have some more update this week on few other things. Here are a couple of pics. I think this unit came out of a Willys Station wagon. I like it because it looks like a jukebox kinda. Small update I know but it's something. I may change the knobs if I find something better. Looking for some small chrome balls that are tiny and might work. Anybody?

 

Amen, brother!

Ditto.

 

`49 Ford dash knobs??

 

Tom, I have some of those and they are too large for the unit. I need something a little smaller to look right. I will be using 49 Ford knobs on the dash though. Thanks

 

Nice job with the heater Dale...have one in my '32, they do come in handy. Oh, and they do keep the wives happy......

 

Today would be a perfect day to use it if it was on the road. It dropped down to 48* today Brrrrr!

 

Haha... it's 48* here in Omaha right now. For December 15th, I call that roadster weather - time to go for a spin!

 

Pussy ! lol ! hell it's 35 here today ! Wool Pendleton shirts helps wonders ! Heater is cool !

I have one of the new heater boxes(Sacto Vintage Ford Parts? can't remember) they sell in my 35, it works great... set back it's hard to see.. being all black helps alot.. Oh it's 43 now sorry ! Time for a cup of hot coffee ! Need to go put some new license plates on my neighbors car for her.. She 80, and having shoulder surgery after a car accident last October.

 

Worked in the shop today instead of taking that brisk roadster ride today. Yes. It's official. I am a pussy. Arizona has softened me up too much and I can't stand being cold anymore. Decide to work on something today. Metal finished my inner splash aprons today and got them ready for the chromer. Man, It's a lot of work to get these things nice. I don't think these were ever intended to be a show piece. I do love these things chromed though.

 

You sure cleaned them up nicely. They'll look awesome chromed.

 

those are sweet Dale ! your such a big softy now ( oh that didn't come out right !) Chrome huh, wow you are a brave man... hope they come out nice. I haven't ever seen those panels chromed before....

 

Hi, I am currently in Victorville Ca area - our temp is probably low 40's. I hope to be moving to your area within the next 6 months. I have a lady friend in Tucson. We spend quite a bit of time together.

Have fun prepping parts for your coupe.

Dave

 

A little upadate here:
Spent the last week slowly working on louvered top insert for the coupe. After seeing the way Mart over on his 34 survivor thread did his top insert I figured i could do something similiar.
I have had a louvered top insert from Walden's that has a bunch of holes in it from Eric Vaughn. I went back and forth deciding if I wanted to make it fit or put a stock insert in it.Since the whole theme is basically a Bonneville style I figured what the hell. I can always put a stock style top in it later if I choose.
After scraping and chiseling out the black tar crap that fills the top channel I was able to get at the unique rivet like things that are in channel around the perimeter of the opening.This led me to the conclusion the channel was crap so I decided to pull that out and clean up the area with rotary wire brush. Had lots of holes to weld up in the groove.

 

Here a few pics of the next act
Also a picture of the steel top insert.

 

I decide to use some roofing felt to make a pattern of the opening. I then transfered that over to MDF to make a hammerform.
After getting that cut, I sat it up there for look see and sanded the edges as need to get it to a shape that was close.

 

Next I cut out a ring also to use as the clamping form. I had to do this as the louvers would interfere with another flat piece.
I realized early on that I should have trimmed off a little excess of metal before getting it clamped up. It would have made it easier to hammerform the metal around the template. I suggest if you try this to do so. The MDF is 1/2 inch and works out pretty good as the channel is about the same.

 

I trimmed off some of the excess and put a few cuts in the corners to relieve it a little bit so it would hammer down. I welded them up and did a little hammer and dolly work to shape things up some.
I set it up on the roof to see where I was at.

 

I then made a mounting ring to attach to the skin. I fit it to the skin instead of fitting it to the top opening. I drilled and tapped the holes for studs instead of flush mounted bolts.