Projects My '32 5 Window Project - Done and Cruising!!!

Started cleaning up the firewall yesterday. Couple layers of fiberglass mat and cloth alternated to fill in the big area on the back side of the firewall. I started way high on my hole and it was huge! After that cured I added more mat to the front inside the hole to build it up. When that was cured I filled the majority of the remaining hole with kitty hair and left it to set overnight.

Worked today at closing up the gap around the steering column where it comes thru the firewall. Wrapped the lower few inches of the column with masking tape and stuck it in the hole in the firewall, held in place by the upper mount. Add a bit more kitty hair to fill the sides and top then twisted and pulled the column out when it was almost dry. Left a nice hole. Regular body putty will finish it off from here.

Finally finished up the steering column mounts today! Created a flat plate for the bottom mount with a 1.5" diameter hole drilled thru it at 51* from the surface of the firewall. Then made a rubber gasket to go between the mount and firewall to seal everything. 4 stainless button head Allen bolts will hold it to the firewall. Also welded the upper mount to the column on the back side of the drop where it won't show (it was suppose to use a 1/8" set screw as designed to lock the drop to the column). This made it really solid. The top mount is all behind the dash so none of it shows except the drop section. Not a single welded area of the mounting system will show when done.

Need to spend more time with body putty to blend the firewall back in but it's getting there!

Also made the decision to use button head Allen bolts to mount the tranny to the engine. Will give me a lot more room in the transmission tunnel/firewall area. All I needed was 6 - 7/16" x 2" button head bolts. No big deal, right? None of my normal bolt places had them, Fastenal didn't have them in stock and couldn't even order them. 7/16" bolts are getting hard to find. Most box stores skip that size now. Finally found them at McMaster-Carr but had to go to stainless. Also couldn't find any 5/16" x 3-1/5 or 5" flanged bolts anywhere. Needed them for a couple spots on the engine. McMaster had them, too!

Tomorrow it's the final fuel line routing in hard line so I only have a short flex line from frame to pump. All the fittings should be here tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

l

 

You do some nice work.

 

Great stance, great work, great car!

 

Finished up the steering column hole thru the firewall today. Really happy with the fit and finish there now. Good enough till it gets turned over to the body shop for paint. It's smooth and flat. Just a few sand scratches left.

Now to deal with the brake pedal hole.

Decided to order the Wheels Vintique ribbed trim rings. I don't trust companies that get bought by investment groups and decided I needed them anyway. Would rather have them before I need them than not be able to find them when the time came. Also, the style works well with the O'Brian's air filter setup! Ties it all together.

SPark

 

Just found this - great looking car! Wishing you the best in your health battle. It sounds like you are a real fighter - that won’t hurt you. Looking forward to more updates. (Now I’m going to check out your thread on the T.)

 

Spent some time with the painter yesterday. After the first of the year we take all the metal to him. Going to go ahead and do all the work and paint the frame, rear end, gas tank, steering column, driveshaft, engine/trans, dash, header panel in final color. Didn't want to put everything in primer, drive it, then try to deal with brake fluid, gas and trans fluid and paint those parts later. Still just primer on the hood and grille shell for now so I can work seams and body alignment issues. Plans change but we did mix what I think are the final colors. Sage green for the body/frame and celery green for the engine/trans, driveshaft, rear end and interior.

SPark

 

Man I love your colors!beautiful work on the car....excellent work..gotta get my butt in gear ..

 

Good grief. You're building 2 cars as well as highly detailed models of them all while you're sick? I can't imagine what you'll be doing once you're back to full strength. Keep it up.

 

Since it's part of a safety-critical system, it'd be advisable to add a doubler plate (or larger washers) on the engine-side of the firewall at the lower column mount. As-is, you're just relying on the heads of those button head screws to distribute stress to a small area of fiberglass, even though you have that thick plate on the interior side.

Otherwise, nice clean job on the upper and lower mounts.

 

It's in the works. Waiting on the bellows for the brake pedal and there will be a common plate around the steering column and brake pedal boot when it all goes together. Should spread the load even further.
SPark

 

I'm back at it!!! A couple hospital stays, took a while to get feeling well enough to even walk to the garage. Finally back where I can get some stuff done. Was really weak right before Christmas, no energy at all.

Cancer drugs made my blood pressure start going up. They added BP pills to control it. It didn't. BP got too high and triggered my AFIB. When I went into AFIB (right around Christmas) it made all the BP meds work extra well and I crashed. BP of 60/40 and they couldn't find a pulse. Emergency room, 4 more days in the hospital and a total re-arrangement of all my drugs. Oncologist reduced my cancer drug dose and Cardiologist re-thought all my BP meds. Everything went on hold while I was in AFIB. Finally got my heart reset 30 days ago and now I'm off the blood thinners (hate working on cars when on Xarelto, you could bleed to death pretty easily). Headed back next week for a scan to see how the cancer is reacting to this drug. Feeling about 80% normal right now, that's ahuge improvement.

Frame is stripped down, have about 12 holes to weld shut and a few brackets to finish weld and it's off to the painter! Decided to make a rotisserie for the frame. 2 HF cheapo engine stands and some scrap tubing. It's roughed together in these pics (sorry they are blurry, there is a lot of smoke in the air from a full day of welding and grinding). Put the frame at 32" height to work on. Using countersunk Allen bolts to mount it thru the spreader bar holes. That lets paint get everywhere except inside those 4 holes, nothing else is blocked. Should work well when it's all done.

SPark

 

Well it's good to hear you are feeling better.

 

Wow, you are one tough Sum Bitch! Great to hear that you're back at it, Carp.

 

I waded through the back yard last night to work on a 32 five-window too. Sure feels good to make some smoke and noise.

My Dad did the exact same thing to make a frame rotisserie. Must be an Iowa kinda thing.

 

When Ionia Hot Rod Shop built my frame, I told Dennis (who is extremely anal about period correct), that I did not need rivets and holes in the stock locations.
He put his hand on my shoulder and says, "you don't understand, my name is on this frame and its going to have rivets and holes and the indent in the top of the rail by the firewall feet holes, just like the original"!
Well, when Dennis saw photos of my finished chassis, I thought he was going to have a heart attack, because I welded up the factory holes and smoothed out the indent in the top of the rail! I did leave the rivets though. I guess smoothing out the frame isn't traditional!

Keep up the good work and hang in there the health. You will probably even get it done before my New Age bodied 32 is done. I have been building mine since 2013.
Bill

 

Sat down with the painter today. Shooting for dropping the frame, rear suspension, brake parts, steering column, hood, grille shell, and a bunch of small parts off Wednesday. With a funeral on the other side of the state Saturday, doctors appointment Monday afternoon and an all day doctors appointment Tuesday it may be pushing things. Lots left to do.

Tuesday appointment is a biggie. CT scan to see if the cancer meds are working.

After that stuff is in his possession, I have to create the defrost duct work and mount the windshield header panel. Then we’re going to paint the underside of the floors and the firewall. Once we get it all back and mounted on the frame, I won’t have to remove it again! Trying to speed things up.

 

Just noticed Pete and Jakes shared a link to this thread on Facebook. Looks like a cool build I gotta get caught up to speed on it

 

Finally caught up! Really enjoyed the build so far, car sits great

 

awesome you're doing better. glad to see you making progress

 

Car wise we're doing good. Frame loaded on the trailer and headed for paint in the morning. Frame, rear end, center section, wheels, rotors, calipers, caliper mounts, drums, backing plates, steering box, master cylinder, hood, grille shell and a few small bits and pieces.

Cancer wise it was good news/bad news yesterday. The Cabometyx did shrink the main tumor some over the last 6 months. Problem is I have a few new spots on my liver. Stopped the Cabometyx and start a different targeted immunotherapy next week. Hoping to stem the flow of blood to the new tumors and stabilize things.

At least we're making progress on both issues.

SPark

 

Prayin for you man.

 

Keep kicking ass on both fronts, pulling for ya.

 

Dropped the frame and suspension pieces off at the painter today! working on some details like gas tank reinforcing plates, defroster vents, etc. Should clean the shop!
SPark

 

Glad you’re out of the hospital and back in the garage! Praying for your health and looking forward to seeing more updates here.

 

Created the doubler plate for mounting the bottom of the steering column. Incorporated a boot in the same plate for the brake pedal. It’s a JJ Hot Rod Parts boot, slightly modified.

Also got the gas tank gussets on the tank. Actually plug welded them on thru other holes I drilled in the gussets then went around the original holes and plate edges with a steel based filler so they look soldered in place. Nobody I talked to was comfortable with soldering them on except one guy I don’t trust.

This should make everything for the first round of paint ready to go. Drop these pieces off tomorrow.

SPark

 

Great work and thanks for sharing it with the rest of us! Keep a great attitude and keep moving forward, one day at a time! It works!

 

Cleaned up the long block and tranny. Ready for final wipe down, etch prime then paint. Still need to change the cam to the E-303 roller before shooting any color.
SPark

 

Engine and tranny are both in etch prime. Also slipped in an E-303 roller cam, one piece fuel pump eccentric and Comp Cams dual roller timing set to work with the earlier timing cover setup. Next step is color!
SPark

 

Couldn't leave well enough alone. After priming the block/heads I stood there looking at all the casting flash, trapped core material and rough areas. The primer really brought out all the problems and shiny paint will just make it look worse.

Couple hours with a small cone shaped burr in a die grinder and re-prime. Was pretty rough on both sides, probably the WORST SBF block I have ever seen. Much better now.

SPark

 

Everything for the engine on the '32 is now ready for paint! Hoping to get my custom mixed light green paint later this week so it can all turn one color and I can assemble the rest of the engine. Cars that are taken 100% apart take up a LOT of room.

Probably should have shopped around for a better set of valve covers to start with. These were full of dents. 1964 Fairlane valve covers don't grow on trees anymore. The left one (with the stand pipe) was pretty decent but the right one was full of little dents and hundreds of rust pits. Spent a lot of time in the blasting cabinet getting rid of all the rust. Took a lot of hammer/dolly work, some putty and a lot of time to get them straight. I still find little issues every time I look at them but enough is enough. Time for paint!

SPark