Projects Giant speedster project

Thanks for the offer but the springs are so heavy on the Seagrave there's only about 2 inches of movement. Like my '14 REO I think the friction between the leaves will give enough shock absorbment. Although Hartford shocks always look nice.

More Misc.

I partially dismantled and painted the carb and mounting pipe. Next, I began riveting the foot well together. I like rivets. There's something about such elementary fasteners. Just one step up from a nail. Aluminum and copper rivets are especially gratifying to bash with a hammer. I'll hang the carb and pipe tomorrow. Then I'll have to rework the linkage and fuel line.

Jerry

 

Are you leaving the exhaust wrap just on #6 pipe just to annoy me?

 

Muahhh!! My plan is working!

 

Cowl

I bolted the carb back together but I was missing some 3/8 NF nuts so I began on the cowl. I started by grinding off the welds where I lowered the cowl then I began on the corrosion. The corrosion came right off but it was tedious work. After I finished the outside, I looked inside. No way I could grind that off. Then I remembered the $35 dollar Chinese sand blaster I bought last year at a flea market. Now to track down some sand.

Jerry

 

Jerry,
Have you looked at the Duesenberg hood? On the SJ, the sides have mesh, split around the exhaust pipes. Sorry still to new to this to post picks.

 

If I can figure out how I'm going to do something like the Duesie but a little more 1923.

Jerry

 

Sandblasting

We swam, we cooked out, we said a prayer for our fallen comrades and now it's time to get back to work. Over the holidays they had another flood at the Yonah Station. A woman sat on the toilet, the toilet tipped, the feed pipe snapped off inside the wall and water came gushing out all over the floor. Luckily there was a plumber there and he shut off the water outside. So I had to cut short work at my shop to fix plumbing. I did manage to get the cowl sandblasted. The traveling paint guy sold me some epoxy primer. In my day you ground the sheet metal with 60 grit, wiped on and smoothed the bondo, then you sprayed everything with lacquer primer. No more, they tell me. DA with 80 grit, spray with epoxy primer, THEN wipe on the bondo. Okay! So I had to get the corrosion off the cowl--hence the sandblasting. I learned a lot about sandblasting too. Don't do it when it's 90 out. I was sweating like a pig. Took two large Mcdonald's sweet teas to rehydrate. (Cheap @ $1.07 each) Next project, remove all the sheet metal for sanding and painting.

Jerry

 

Away with the rivets.

I like rivets. I thought they'd look neat on the side of the body, and they did. But they're going to be a pain when it comes to body work. The body didn't turn out as smooth as I'd hoped. And one thing for sure, you can't put rivets over bondo. So I took them all out by welding threaded rods to the outer skin. Is that unconventional? I told you, I make it up as I go. It took most of the day, but I think it'll make the body work easier. I worked a little on the footwell too by welding nuts to the sheet metal so it'll be easier to attach to the cowl. Easier is gooder. I'm getting close to priming the sheet metal so I've got to clean up a bunch of loose ends. You don't want to be welding on expensive epoxy primer. That's what traveling paint guy told me.

Jerry

 

Leaving stuff raw/unfinishedwhere rivits and materials meet is swell... Just hilites your cleverness

 

Jerry,

I have found that you can turn the heads of hex bolts to look like rivets & use them where you are going through bondo or where distortion is going to be a problem. They usually tighten up without turning if the threads are clean.
It is easy to grind a cutting bit the right shape if you need to make a lot of "rivets".

Jack

 

I usually polish up a carriage bolt head, but I like your thinking.

Today was the last day of school here so I had to pick up kids early. Never the less, I did get a little done on the cowl. I'm trying to get all the attachments and fastenings figured out so I won't have to redo stuff that's already painted. I'm also dreaming about a dash. I have some walnut plywood but I'd really like to make it solid walnut. The dimensions will something like 14x40.

Jerry

 

the dash should be cockpit style group(pod with cover ) and another area for tools?schematic - operators instructions..... laminated USA map ....
one big flat area will look like dune buggy
a nice removable tool case , picnic container styled briefcase or a pouch to hold the tonneau cover

 

That's sounds good for a bomber style WWII speedster I had in mind. All aviation instruments and controls, bomber seats etc.

 

Jerry,

Have you ever looked at the dash in a teens Pierce Arrow? Lots of instruments & a couple of glove boxes. The shape of the cowl is almost like yours - even made of cast aluminum.

I am sure you need an altimeter, turn & Bank indicator, compass, etc.!

Jack

 

Oh i dont know its a pretty big car, the turn and bank indicator might come in handy

 

I checked out a bunch of pictures of teens Pierce's. They share a lot of features with the speedster. I couldn't download the picture but check out this dash.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjb4photos/3611400306/

Jerry

 

Here's another one.

 

Love the brass on the first one, but the second one's contours are better. Looks more vintage having the panel with different levels.

 

having the dash pod open with a tambour door like an old breadbox maybe some old aluminum briefcase or leather suitcase would work too

would be kinda spy like if the whole dash came out when parked

 

Jerry,

I would agree on both the brass & the contoured dash. I bet you could find that shape in the sump of an oil pan at your local big truck wreckers.

Jack

 

Jerry,

A stop watch on the dash would give it a racer look, and a Windermere kettle would be nice on cold days.

Don

 

Jerry,

Check this out.

http://www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad55453-3.html

 

I like the stop watch idea. Pod... I'm thinking. Here's some more pics of the ALF racer.
http://tomlaferriere.com/1917_American_Lafrance_Tourer_Speedster_Peking.htm
I see a glove box which opens to reveal a very large pistol, Ivers Johnson maybe. Pod...

Jerry

 

Loose ends.

I'm dreaming of paint and there's quite a few loose ends to clean up. The cowl had to be opened up on the side of the clutch pedal. Also the footwell needed to be fastened to the sides of the cowl. The next item is the gap under the doors. I need to make the door sills. But school is out and the kids are starting VBS, a long time tradition here in the south--elsewhere too I suspect. That means I have to pick them up at 12:00. How am I going to get anything done. Maybe I'll start work at 5 AM. BTW, according to the Seagrave archives the speedster was originally painted maroon over coach painters red (whatever that is.) What do you guys think about me reversing the colors. Maroon or dark red chassis etc and red coachwork?

Jerry

 

Wasn't it more common practice to paint the bodywork and chassis all the same color? That would seem more "correct", and pleasing to the eye. I see it dark maroon, but what do I know?

Brian

 

Jerry,

Coach painters red is what we would now call "Fire Engine Red" It was a standard color offered by Seagrave.

The following is from a very old book describing the making of the color. Way back painters bought pigment, white lead, keg lead, binder & oil & made their own paint as needed. This entailed grinding the various solids together & adding the oil & binder.



Coach Red or Coach Painters' Red. - This brilliant red, made on a base of orange mineral and eosine vermilion with alizarine red lake, is now supplanted by reds of the paranitraniline type, such as the autol fast red, asophor red, helio fast red, as the dyestuffs of recent development are named. The change is really for the better, and whatever fast red is selected is ground in a vehicle of gold size japan and rubbing varnish, and not in the ordinary color grinders' japan, as that would take away too much of the brilliant effect.

Your red & maroon idea would look very ritch on this car. If you used mahogany for your deck it could be stained to compliment the maroon chassis.

Jack

 

Red - green -blue- yellow -white -black

primary colors straight out of the can

walk into the hardware/general store your choices in 1905-1915?

 

Adolfo Scandroglio (El Pajarón) aircraft engine: At age 20 (1937) began to build his race car with a Belgian-made chassis truck brand "Minerva", which would change to adapt a jet engine. And what precisely it was the same model plane, which was first manufactured in the same year of his birth. That engine was a Fiat A-12, which expended a factory original output of 260 HP, but with modifications that would achieve a power of 320 HP.
The issue was to meet the 804 km. of the race as quickly as possible, using for this purpose as a vehicle ingenuity, audacity and the money available, often built with his own hands the same as it would fly. Stealing time from sleep, in his spare time reading and glanced briefly a simple regulation entitled "Freedom Force", gave vent to his mechanical ability to satisfy his passion for speed. Therefore it was no wonder that Cesar and Adolfo inventive take flight in a jet engine of an airplane Capronni mark Farman, robust machine than 21,000 cc engine, 300 HP, spread over its six-cylinder water-cooled. Without gearbox, with a ratio of a wheel motor 1-1, the brothers estimated that the car should be moved to about 198 km / h. The giant motor then placed in front of a truck chassis modified. They installed the huge radiator in the front and an extra large tank of water after the engine. -200 Liters fuel tank.

In the workshop in año 1937 Fonrouge, began to design the car, a Fiat aircraft engine "A" 12a, with 320 HP, 1800 rpm and 21 liters of displacement, chassis mount Minerva Belgian origin, he birth order in competition. The characteristics of the car only makes a circuit for such a potential: the 500 Miles of Rafaela.
The debut was in 1940 and ranked sixth. World War II halted a few years his activity but not the illusion of race again.
On October 7, 1947 he ran his second race, but was forced to break the gas tank.

The race in November 1940 was an exciting start to be detained at the start Don Ernesto Blanco. With a lap down, began an escalation that would be awesome to see winning four hours and 47 min. later. For 22 laps remained below the twin-engine Chiozza Mercury, another legend of that era. What about the "Pajarón? He gave up on lap No. 15, fighting a seat in the middle of the pack, after sowing the road covered with pieces of "dogtooth" shattered by the weight and power consolidated in its design (destroyed the tires). Nevertheless it was an auspicious debut for the brothers Scandroglio, who thought that with such a machine were not quite far from the triumph. It needed a little polishing its construction and the parentheses that forced the Second World War gave them the time to do it.