Projects My roadster pickup project.

Likin this build a lot! I just subscribed too!

 

looking great Don

 

great job......
keep up the good work!

 

Thank you, guys. I kind of feel like we are over the half way mark on this build. The body is our focus right now, then we will build the bed and move on to stuff like the interior, getting the motor finished up, wiring, etc. At least most of the heavy duty welding jobs are slowly getting done.

Friday we worked on getting my subframe finished up. I got the final pieces of 1 x 2 tubing cut to the right sizes and angles, then Dan welded everything up for me. We are still going to add some lengths of 1 inch c channel under where the drivers and passengers feet go, and probably under where the seats go too, but the big stuff is in and the body is super rigid now.

We ended up where we flipped the body upside down so he could weld it from that side and after he was done I started cleaning the steel up with one of those 3M rice cakes on a grinder. There is still more to do but I was lazy today and just took my 27 out for a ride instead. Tomorrow is another day.

Here are a couple of pictures of the underside of the subframe. Surprisingly, when the rails were in place the two sides were not too different from each other. I thought that because of the odd shape of the TH350 trans one side would be out much further than the other, but it wasn't bad at all. That should make building the tunnel and hump a lot easier.

Don

 

Now that my subframe is pretty much done I have started on the tin work to close it all in and make a floor, transmission hump, and driveshaft tunnel. Because it has been in the mid 90's I have started going to the shop at sunset and working late, it is so much cooler at night in the shop. Last night I turned the body over and put it back on the frame so I could see what I needed to do to build the floor and tunnels.

The Olds engine has that 4 inches of bellhousing that extends into my cockpit and I wasn't sure the best way to close it in. What I finally came up with was a square box I made out of 18 gauge steel that completely covers that part of the transmission and it will give me a good flat spot to start shaping the transmission hump off of. The first thing I did was make a cardboard template to see if it would work, then I transferred the measurements to 18 gauge steel.

I am no Ron Covelle when it comes to tin work, but this one was pretty simple. I made it in 4 pieces so I could bend it up on the brake, and then I cleco'd it all together. Now Dan can do his magic with the welder and weld all of the seams up and also weld it to the existing firewall, making the whole thing one piece.

Here is the enclosure I made.



It also gave me a good, flat spot to mount my gas pedal. I am going to make a simple L bracket to hold the Lokar throttle cable to the top of the enclosure. I decided to mount it on top in case it ever needs replacing or adjusting. If it went through the box the body would have to come back off to do those things. This way it is easily accessible.





And here is the completed enclosure slipped into place against the firewall. Those little tabs on the enclosure will support the rest of the transmission hump that will weld to that area.









Those spots on the transmission where the paint is ground off is where I cut off a bracket on each side that the TH350 has as some sort of lifting rings. Not sure what they are there for, but it cleans up the transmission a lot to get rid of them and gave me a lot more room to work with.

And those burn marks on the transmission is where I set it on fire when I was torching out the old subframe !





Don

 

your build is coming along very nicely,very nice fab skills

 

Thanks, Mate. I found out one thing I forgot about tin work.......that stuff cuts like a knife. I sliced through my gloves tonight when a big piece slipped and am wearing some bandaids to show how good cotton work gloves don't protect you. The way I figure it, the car building Gods demand a certain amount of blood in every build and I am just giving them their pound of flesh..

Don

 

Hi Don Itoldyouso, how are you and the family? I have missed you all over on that other site so have subscribed to your thread here. Your workmanship is still amazing and Dan's welding is still inspiring. I look forward to following along with the build.
Sad that you felt you should apologize for the way the diff is set up and do I ask how the cats are or is that being to OT for this site? No sense of humor some here suffer from sadly. Take care of those hands my friend otherwise you just may have to have a tedious jab. Hope I have spelt that right.
Cheers Whip.

 

Don nice looking work as usual.That tunnel look's like it fit's pretty tight to the trans. Will there be enough room there for the dipstick . I'm sure you have that all figured out . Gregg

 

Whiplash !!!!! How the heck are you? I miss chatting with you, glad to see you are here. Cat's are fine, still have 2 at home and about 8 strays we feed every night at the shop. I'm trying to figure a way to claim them as dependants at the end of the year. Don't be a stranger.

Gregg, thanks. There is actually more room around the trans than the pictures show, I can get my fingers under it all around with room to spare. As for the dipstick, I am going to use the same shorty Lokar Dan is running on his rpu. It is only about 2 inches tall and has no hose that runs to the firewall. I am thinking about putting a little removable access door on the passenger side, right over it to make it easier to check the fluid.

Don

 

Subscribed! Looking great Don.

 

Thank you. BTW, I really like that pickup in your avatar. They make the coolest hot rods.

Don

 

Don, those "ears" are for locating the case in the fixture for the tooling that machines it. Once the case is machined, they serve no further purpose except to get in the way in a swap.

Bob

 

Ah, that makes total sense, Bob. It didn't make sense to me that they were for removing it from the car, and I had given some thought to maybe they had some purpose for when the trans was overhauled, like it fit into some fixture during the rebuild process. Now I know..........thanks. I guess that other ring back by the tailshaft is for the same thing.

Don

 

Yup, you got it! The rpu project's looking great, by the way! Really nice craftsmanship.

Bob

 

Thanks, Bob. It isn't going to be anything special, just an old hot rod and I want it to look like it has some age to it. Plus, being retired I don't have the luxury of lots of expendible income to waste on it any more. But if I make lots of stuff I should be able to save a few bucks.

Don

 

This thing is incredible, I love RPUs and I'm getting a lot of good ideas reading through this thread. You and Dan have great fab skills!

 

Hi back Don, yes I became a member here awhile ago but found it hard to click with some of the people and their attitudes on what a Hot Rod should be etc. but at one stage it was also the only way of keeping up with Steve Langy but he is back at the old Club now . I can relate to your comment on the money as I am a 24/7 care giver for my elderly Mum now that she has Alzheimers so work on the bucket has slowed tremendously. Now back too that RPU, you were saying that it would be build for under $3000. and look old school, yeah right, with Dan working beside you and looking back on your '23 T I just find that funny as you all turn out really good looking safe rides. I have subscribed to this thread so looking forward to seeing it through to the finish my friend.
Whip. .

 

Thank you, Cam, but I am the hack in the family. My two Sons are way above me in fabrication and mechanical skills.........I just kinda sweep up and take pictures.

Whip, are you saying I have "slightly" underestimated in the past about how much my project would cost ?????? I might have been off a few dollars. ( You notice I didn't name this one Project $ 3K) In any event, I'm glad to hear from you again, you were always a good friend and I enjoyed chatting with you.

Don

 

Hey, I'm a member of that club!

 

Don,what Trans adapter are you using?I am in the brain and parts picking phase of my rocket in a duece project.Cheers,NC

 

I'm using a Bendtsens adapter. It is a nice piece but it does have one drawback I have found. Because of the mismatch of shapes between the Olds bellhousing the the TH 350 bellhousing some of the TH 350 sticks above the flat spot on the Olds motor. Mine will be hidden under the firewall, so it isn't an issue for me, just mentioning it. Otherwise it is a very nice kit, and worth the $1000 price IMO.

I also think Tony (Goatroper on here) sells a modified 350 trans to go behind these, and I didn't know that when I bought my kit years ago. You might check him out too. He is the resident Olds expert from what I have seen, and I will be buying my starter from him when I need it.

Don

In this picture you can see some of that mismatch I mentioned:

 

Thanks,the mismatch should'nt be a prob for me either.I like your motor and trans mount as well.Thanks, Winston

 

Tonight I got some more work done on the interior tinwork and got part of the transmission hump started. The first thing I had to do was define what shape it would be while clearing things like my shifter and cooling lines. I used some TIG wire to make a temporary hoop over the transmission.



When I was satisfied that I had a shape that would do what I wanted I used some 1/8 x 1/2 steel strap to make a stronger one that would allow me to bend the 18 gauge steel over it without collapsing. I not only made a hoop out of it but I also added some extra supporting pieces so the tin would hold it's shape without buckling. This framework was removed once the tin was bent to shape.




To try to get the shape of the tin as close as possible I used masking tape to form a template, then I peeled it off and laid it on some poster board to make a better template.





I then transferred that shape to the 18 gauge and cut it out with a nibbler. I hate using that tool because it throws out all these little C shaped pieces of shrapnel that stick into everything, but it does make a nice cut and does it pretty easily.

FInally, I bent up two lips on the bottom of the tin and clamped it down to the subframe. It fits pretty well, but will take just a little grinding to make it perfect. I made it too long on purpose and am going to cut it about in half (at that red line) and start the next piece of hump off of that spot. Doing it this way will give the hump a little nicer shape and conform more closely to the transmission shape.






Tomorrow I will cut this first piece shorter and make up the second piece of tin to connect to it and continue the hump rearward.

Don

 

I'm still plugging away on the transmission hump. Today I shortened up the first sheet metal piece that I had built yesterday, and found I didn't have to cut as much of it off as I thought I might. Only about 2-3 inches off made it exactly the shape I needed so that I could start building the next piece.

I had figured that it would take a couple of pieces of sheet metal to get the shape I needed to completely cover the transmission, but Dan looked at it and said he thought we could do it with just one more longer piece. So we welded in a 3/16 x 1.5 piece that we heated and bent into a round top hoop that will also serve as the start of the driveshaft tunnel. Once that was done I made up a poster board template and taped it down to see how it would look.



Dan was right, one funnel shaped piece would be all we needed to completely cover the transmission, so I transferred the poster board shape onto some more 18 gauge and cut it out. We bent some lips on the bottom of it that will weld to the subframe, making the whole hump and tunnel one piece.

Here are a couple of pictures of how it ended up. I'm getting pretty stoked that the huge empty space in the cockpit is slowly starting to fill up with metal. As soon as we get the driveshaft tunnel done we can start on the floor.





Don

 

Nice work.
Loving the sheet metal skills.

 

Thanks, LIFESTYLZ. I really have never done much tinwork before, but I am just taking my time and making poster board templates to check and double check before I cut the sheet metal. It also helps that my Son Dan has done a lot of it in building his rpu, so he gives me tips that have been helping a lot.

Getting the hump done was a MAJOR hurdle because of the angles and shapes involved, the rest of the interior is just simple stuff now and should go along pretty easy. I am almost to the stage where the body can come back off to have all the interior tin welded in, but first I have to remount the steering box and punch a hole in the firewall for it to pass through.

Don

 

Hi Don, don't know how i missed you build thread before
Things on the Hamb move so quick I guess.

Its looking a lot further on than last time i saw it, great stuff mate.
I will be looking in now i'm subscribed

 

You can NEVER have too many clamps. Nice work, looks good.

 

Hey Don, really nice clean build work. I love RPU's.

One question: I can't quite see in the pic but the top link on the rear doesn't look like it has anyway of swiveling where it mounts to the pumpkin.