Projects Southeast Gasser 50 chevy wheel stander project

I had a few minutes to work on the truck today so I'm made the seat mounts for the other side of the chassis. Most of our followers know we custom make most all of our parts in house so I thought it would be a good idea to do a step by step of me making a simple seat bracket.
I started by making a pattern from paper then cutting them out of a sheet of .065 thick 4130 chrome moly plate. (it would need to be .090 thick if mild steel)Doing the cutting on an era correct ban saw that is probably 70 years old. Good friend of mine Wayne Swofford found it for me in a junk yard years ago. I restored it and did a transmission rebuild now it will probably out live me.

 

So they both will look the same I clamp them together then sand them into shape on a NOT so era correct Grizzly belt sander LOL, but I have had it a long time.

 

With the brackets still clamped together I mark where the hole needs to go then center punch it so the drill will go where I want it to. I try my best to center the hole so it looks like a little planning was involved whether it was or not.

 

When drilling brackets that are clamped together it's a good idea to double clamp them or the bottom bracket will pivot on the one clamp and walk around. Start with a small bit then go to size, adjust bit speed according to bit size. In the last pic with the brackets separated look close at how rough they are on the edge and around the hole.

 

To de-burr the hole this is a handy tool but it can ruin a hole if cut to deep. Just barely touch it enough to get rid of the burrs. Some people think it looks cool to do a big counter sink but it thins the material then over time the hole will oblong if it's loaded much at all.

 

I re-sand the brackets with them apart to give a final cleaning of the edges.

 

Now to mark where the bend will go. This will more than double the strength of the thin bracket. Even tho one bracket will be shorter than the other I still make them just alike then cut the one off.

 

I hate the way a 90 degree bend looks so I just go about 45 degrees unless I don't have a choice. This Break is older than me and I'm 60. All this proves it DON'T take fancy modern equipment to do nice work.

 

Final fit and welded on, don't tell anybody I welded chrome moly with a wire welder. I say anybody that can run a calking gun can run a wire welder LOL. It sure is a handy welder when doing a quick job tho. To really be era correct I should be using a torch on the chrome moly.

 

I'm going to try and make a carburetor work. If it won't it will be stacks unless someone wants to donate a blower.

 

The way the SEGA is growing I think we will be up that way before long. We are in Va. so headed that way. Also got one in Ohio this year.

 

Makes me wish I had a blower to donate.

 

Less than a month but the wheel stander won't make the first race. If I could lock the doors and lay the phone off the hook I could have it there easy but I just don't have any spare time. Can't believe I'm doing this build thread but this deal is just so different I figured y'all would enjoy it.

 

I think it would be cool with a blower but I'm not wanting it to be too fast. Don't need something to work on all the time. I want to just jump in it when it's needed for down time.

 

And I for one, do.

 

When did anyone show what is involved in building a wheel stander? No one that I have ever seen in my 64 years. Thank You for sharing this to us all Quain.
God Bless you, America and the Southeast Gasser Association.

 

There is a member on this forum that has a build thread, it's a A100 Dodge.

 

Found time today to start on the turn brake handle. I started with 1 1/4" X .o58 chrome moly tubing. Made a bushing out of thick wall 3/4" DOM mild steel. Drilled the center of the 3/4 out to 1/2 to accept a 1/2 bolt. (on my 70 year old lath) LOL.

 

Welded the bushing in the 1 1/4 for the pivot point of the handle. There will be a piece of 1 1/8 X .058 slid inside the 1 1/4 X .058 then a piece of 1 X .058" slid into that. It's designed this way because it needs to be stronger at the pivot point. I could have made it from really thick 1" but it would have been heavy and we need to keep the weigh down in the front of this deal as much as possible so it will wheelie with the junk engine I'm going to use. Notice the 1 1/4 tubing is cut on an angle. When welding something thin like .058 moly it's way stronger on an angle than if it was cut straight. Not worried about the weld breaking it's the thin tubing that will fail.

 

The same style 3/4 bushing is welded in the cross member to accept the 1/2 bolt that it pivots on.
In the pic it's all mocked up so it's gives an idea of how it will work and how the tubing slides into one another. At this point I can figure out how to make the bottom side where the brake cables will hook up. I don't have a clue what the ratio will need to be so I'm going to be guessing when it comes time to make the bottom arm. A foot brake pedal works best at about 5.5 to 1 but will need to be a lot more than that for a hand brake plus I'm planning to use the emergence brake side of the brake system for a turn brake so it will be mechanical and not hydraulic. Most wheel standers have two sets of calipers but remember we are on a budget to see how cheap and fast we can do this. Oh yea a lot of this project is built from scrap pieces of tubing that was left over from other jobs.

 

Y'all might notice in this pic the bar for the inside rear seat mount is way behind where it needs to be for the seat mount. The reason is I'm planning to also use it for a seat belt mount. Seat belt mounts need to be at a 45 degree angle to your body to work proper. In order to get the angle I needed I had to put the bar in a place for that to happen. I will place the brace that braces the belt mount in a way it will catch the seat mount also. That's all I got done today.

 

AHotRod, I think there have been some wheel stander restorations projects on here but I agree with you I don't remember a thread on one being built from scratch. Plus like all of my projects it's going to be used and abused.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/real-wheelstander-underconstruction.739693/

 

We found the stock steering column was just not in a comfortable spot with a deep dish steering wheel so Tom White cut 6 inches out of it. This pic is Tom White trying it out with the column at stock length.

 

So to fix the problem Tom simply cut 6 inches out of the column and then knocked the stock bearing back in place.

 

Shorting the steering shaft wasn't as easy because we wanted to keep the stock spline on the end. So Tom cut 6 inches out of the center. I made a sleeve out of 7/8 X .058 moly then welded it back together. I knurled the original (inside) part so it would be a perfect fit and not wobble. The last pic is the wheel in the new position.

 

Most wheel standers don't have front brakes because no weight in front and they would just slide and get you into trouble. So to keep the budget low we took the front brake drums off the stock hubs. My right hand man Harold Brady changed the 6 lug to 5 by plugging three holes, then drilled the stock hubs to a 4 3/4 - 5 lug bolt pattern.

 

Another problem we ran into was the register on the old 1950 hub was to big to fit the 1960's style wheel we plan to run. Harold machined it down to a modern day register size.

 

While all of this was going on I was making seat belt mounts and finishing the seat mount. Remember in a past post I put the rear bar way back so it could act as the seat belt mount and I planed the brace for the belt mount to be in position to be the seat mount. These pics show the finished product so you can see how the plan came together. I bushed the whole in the brace where the seat bolt goes. (first two pics).

 

Back to the reason I went to the trouble to move the seat belt bar back behind the seat. The lap belt needs to be at about a 45 degree angle for the belts to work proper. If they were straight up and down they would rotate forward in a front end crash. If they were straight behind the driver they would move up in a roll over. 45 degrees is the perfect position. The straight edge in the pics illustrate how I have these designed to work. This is another big issue that is often over looked by hobby car builders.