Projects "Fly'nBrian" '34 Roadsterproject.

Nice! Summit has always been good to me too.

 

Now THATS a parking light. The cool "Electro-Tac" didn't work, so I put a cheap 2" tac behind the case. Close enough.

 

Illuminating!

 

Quite.

 

Lights! Camera! Action! The headlights are DONE, and I'm happy to report my wiring was correct right out of the chute, a first! Tomorrow I'll hook up the tail lights, install the right rear wheel cylinder and bleed the brakes, and the mechanical part will be done. I have two months until Autorama at Cobo, I should be able to get the interior done and have it drivable, at least in and out of the trailer.

 

Let There Be LIGHT LOL

 

The glare from the lights makes it look like the car has spokes on it again. Weird optical illusion.

 

I know, right? And makes the tires look like radial black sidewalls. Weird man, totally weird what lighting will do to a photo. I think I'll put WW's and the painted steelies on one side, and the wires on the other for Detroit, that'd be sorta fun.

 

I'm waiting on the doughnuts in the snow pics! Joe

 

I have seen the light. Brian will soon be Flyn!

 

Does this link work?

 

Yes It Does. Sounds HEALTHY.

Just tell anyone that asks that hole in the headlight is a GUN PORT

 

Sounds great - when is the first drive?

 

"that will do very nicely" - FlyinBrian 2018
Yes, yes it will indeed sir! Quite nicely!

 

Hey look, I CAN stack the top with it attached To the body! I thought it'd have to have snaps to release, but no. It'll be MUCH easier to make the new top, knowing I don't have to make a hemmed, finished edge at the rear. I'll staple it to a tack strip, trim the excess, make a skirt, attatch that and finish it with wire on.

 

Sounds GREAT looks GREAT it is GREAT

 

Lock up the wimmen an' chillun, its loose!

 

Congrats on getting it this far along. Looks good in the snow.

 

Hell yeah!

 

Dang that looks cold.

 

Someone asked what was the matter with the headlights, they look too dim. Duhrrrp....

 

Hey Brian waiting on those snow doughnuts you talked about! Car sounds sweet and looks bad ass even with those wire wheels! Joe


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Brian, I long for that day! To finally not only start the car but to have it move under it's own power. Even neater that your first drive is on snow. Color me envious...but in a good way.

 

I got a couple of brass pipe 1/2" pipe plugs to fill the heater hose outlets in the water pump and intake, so I can polish those, put 'em in, fill it with 50/50 and let it run long enough to get warmed up now! I'm sure I'll find something leaks, like the water pump, the new swivel thermostat housing, the radiator hoses, something unexpected...

 

The wheels are especially bad-ass. Anybody can run painted steel wheels or Halibrands, but the cool kids run knock-off wires. I have two different sets of WWl's on two different style wheels, so I can be different, just like everybody else, when the mood strikes. ;-)

 

Great car!!! Hopefully I'll make it to Cobo this year.

 

I've reached the point in the project where I work all day, get several things done, and you can't see anything different. I made the little clamps that hole the gauges in the dash (they'd been just sitting in the stainless panel until now), and have lights mounted in them. This you take for granted when buying new gauge sets, but it's fussy work when trying to use old junk.
I made a panel from aluminum for the big square hole in the floor to go around the steering column and brake pedal, and put the trans tunnel piece in (which I made from cardboard and part of big shipping tube, encased in a couple layers of glass mat and resin). That'll be easy to finish up and get sealed. I think.
Not too surprisingly, I found that the thermostat housing had leaked a teaspoon or so of coolant onto the intake manifold, so I need to drain the radiator and figure out why that happened. So that will be a wild mess, but happily the floor is pretty well sealed with black urethane overspray from painting the body.

 

It's the little details that keep us involved in projects Brian. Car has come a long way! Joe

 

While you can't see it, I did get a couple things wrapped up today The gauges are DONE, and while you can't tell in the photo, they all light up. The floor panel around the pedal and steering column is done, made from a scrap of .040 Alclad aluminum from the body of our Spartan trailer (I never throw ANYTHING away), where I'd put a storage door hatch. I made a cover too for the master cylinder, and included, for good measure, a photo of the tail lights glowing, which required jiggling the wires on the crappy reproduction '46 Chevy housings. Man, are they junk. Anyway, one step closer.
In other news, I got 6 yards of saddle vinyl which ALMOST matches the seat. I'm not worried that it's not quite the same, as the seating surfaces are different from the bolsters, and the seat and seat back don't match exactly either. On the door panels and other little panels, it'll be close enough for who it's for.
I managed to drain the radiator without spilling a drop of coolant, and put a new gasket on the thermostat housing. Put a thing ring of gasket goop on the 'stat where it sets in the manifold, and buttered both sides of the gasket, which I hadn't done before. No leaks so far, so I think I've got it.
I have 6 weeks to get the interior done, carpet (or rubber mat, I haven't decided), upholster the trunk, and do something with the w/s frame. It's got pinholes rusted through in the bottoms of the upright pieces, the chrome sanded off with the DA and 80 grit. I don't know if I'll paint it black, base coat silver/clear, and lightly scuff the base so it looks like brushed stainless, or polish it once I braze all the holes full and blue it. I'm out of money, I don't think it could be plated anyway. I toyed with the idea of chrome vinyl wrap over paint, but maybe just gloss black would look fine.

 

The ongoing battle with the leaky thermostat housing continued today, I think I finally won the battle. I had put a "Mr. Gasket" swivel base housing on, but I could NOT get it to stop seeping coolant around the swivel neck. I've had it off 3 times, different "O" rings, sealant, a new stat, it still would leak a teaspoon of coolant out around the neck overnight. So, I pulled it off and replaced it with the neck that the Performer intake had on it that came with the 283, an oem Chevy piece. After wire brushing the black paint and filing the sealing surface flat, I got it on by tweaking the angle of the 2 piece upper hose a bit. After setting all day, no leak.
The rest of the day I spent getting ready to upholster the interior. I made all the panels, doors, kick panels, quarter panels and top well pieces out of 1/8" Luan and fitted them. My wife doesn't want expose fasteners, so I need to find those little "Christmas Tree" push clips to hole everything together. It looks nice, even in raw wood. We're going to put a map pocket in the door, with a flap, that'll look like a small saddle bag. She had the idea of using waxed canvas, which will give a bit of an accent, and take one's eye away from the no quite matching color of the vinyl I got to do the panels in. I noticed that the seating surfaces of the seats don't match each other, and they don't match the vinyl used on the bolsters, so the door panels may as well be different too!