Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Yea!

 

My head hurts. Carry-on.

 

I subscribed to this thread because I thought I was going to watch a bucket being built.
Call me when we get over who made the best grades in school and get back around to building cars.

 

My most sincere apologies. I'll have my best carrier pigeon sent your away immediately with a full refund.

You didn't leave your number for me to call, so I have been over here in Oregon screaming at the top of my lungs for the last hour or so in an effort to alert you the car building will commence again soon. I'm in the middle of my work week, so I have been scheming on the dash layout. I'm not sure how to go about this yet, so I have been tinkering with the windshield posts and windshield frame. It's taking a long time, so I haven't posted anything on what little progress there is...

Dash sketch...not the best but gets the point across...








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Tim
Have you been spending time in a Cessna lately?

 

Are you really going to have 2 "Jockey Boxes" ?

 

Yes, 2 boxes since there is minimal room elsewhere. Originally I wanted to shrink down a Lincoln Zephyr dash, or at least mimic one, but I don't have the real estate down by my feet to do that. So this is kind of a rough draft concept.






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Tim, I've been watching this thread since the beginning. and have always had nothing to say till the triangle graph paper in that sketch, made me think my brain had malfunctioned.....Lol.... Keep up the great build...

 

Hey, Tim;
You got further than I did in school - congrats.
Keep posting the "mind-numbing" tech. I *LIKE* it, as it's a very nice break from a lot of mindless threads here. Nice dash idea, btw. Same on your build - including it's proportions.
Marcus...

 

I, too, have really enjoyed your thread. I like that 3D paper, too. Never seen that before.

 

It's called isometric paper if you want to go hunting. Each line is one unit in x,y,z coordinates, so it is a little easier to bring a 3D object into proportion from an isometric view. That didn't really work for the dash sketch, though lol.

I got brave and hacked out my existing dash earlier today, then after I couldn't sleep tonight, came out to make a cardboard template. It's not exactly what I want yet, but it's better than the sketch. The glove boxes need to be a bit smaller or moved outboard or both. I envisioned the center part to "waterfall" into the instrument cluster, which I'm not sure how to do yet. The glove boxes need to be filleted to blend in with the rest of the dash. Also, I may need to adjust the instrument panel height as my rev. B steering wheel blocks some of the gauges.... which I may have to live with. Getting there, though.

@upspirate - you're finally gonna see that speedometer getting put to use! Keeping that part of the build under wraps has been difficult to say the least. I can't wait until I'm far enough along to show that portion of this build. Anyway, photos...









Also, I saw this on a thread of LARS.... isn't it bitchin? Whoever built this- I love it!




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Yup,me too on liking that little flathead V8 T on the trailer,awsome rod !!,
Like any rod I see though,I see things I'd do my way,like paint shiny,but looks like its on the way to that,an I really hate ever seeing cowel steering on any street driven hotrod=they nearly are always layed out bad as that one is. So better just to engineer steering right to start with,with as littler bump as canbe.
Loven your dash ideas!

 

Been tough not to say anything either!!!

 

Tim, looks like your Hollywood Panel is laid out the same as mine.
You'r car is coming along nicely, great work!

Mick

 

So many gages,Wow!,only rich guys could fill all those holes up. I was lucky just to add a tach latter on,too my oil n temp. LOL Actully love all those dashs.

 

Dana, I like the wood dash rail.....subtle , not in your face glossy ,classy (and I do love proper deep gloss spar varnish trim on boats)

 

Thanks, Mick! Your Hollywood panel looks great! I think Stewart Warner gauges and panels are the business! It's one of my favorite things to see on a car.

Dana, your dash looks great. I also love the wood rail you made. As for being rich, I am far from it! I have a decent job that pays for my car hobby, but my apartment is comparable to living standards in a 3rd world country LOL. Someday I hope that will change.... Ha!

The gauges can be expensive for sure, but the way I have been able to afford them is patience. It has taken me 10 years to complete my set of Greenlines, which I was going to use for this project, until I found out they are kind of a later '60s thing. So, they are staged for the next build. Notice the Manifold Pressure one? The next build is not gonna be a cheap one, but it will be a fun one!



After I found out about the timeline of my gauges, I got ahold of some literature to help guide me.



That 1964 book has Greenlines, but I think that was their first year introduced. It also has Twin Blues, and I later learned they were made 1958-1966. So I began searching for them a few years ago. I finally got a panel of 3 little ones and fell in love. They are pretty rare to come up for sale, so every day I searched the classifieds here, local Craigslist, and eBay. EVERY DAY A FEW TIMES A DAY. I got to the point where I figured the only way I would get a speedometer that wasn't out of a boat was to clone one, so I started figuring out how I would go about that. This was a really faded Deluxe series speedometer, so I sanded the display off, and used a modified reproduction Wings needle to mimic the Twin Blue.



Then @upspirate (Warren) was kind enough to trade me his speedometer out of his pickup for a Greenline plus some cash. Without that deal, I would still be on the hunt for one. Thanks, Warren!



I eventually got a whole set of them, too. Enough so, that they won't all fit in a Hollywood panel. I figured I would run some in the firewall or something, then I stumbled across a pic on here of this 10 gauge panel Stewart Warner made.



I don't really like the layout, but I kept looking at it thinking it was really close to a Hollywood panel. So I dragged out my trusty engineering paper and started drawing circles. Sure enough, it's a Hollywood panel they drilled differently from the factory. I decided maybe I could mimic one, but change the layout to something I liked a little better. My girlfriend Kim helped me with that, and I'm pretty excited for this!







Haneline reproduces the Hollywood panel, so I called them on Friday to see if I can order one blank. He wasn't in the office, but I think we'll be able to iron something out next week!





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Sounds like a hit !,Very nice lay out.
I got gages I liked a lot out of a wrecked 55 Studebaker,they were SW with chrome lips black background,but that was back in 1959,an over the years watertemp an my oil have failed,so got replaced by anything I could find that worked an fill the hole { so my dash is not dead on as I first did it in 59 do to running low in piggybank off an on. Really loving the looks of your sets Tim!

 

Glad we could get that deal done to both our satisfaction.That's going to look great !!

 

So is there going to be a coolant temp one in the final version?

 

Since I look every single day for gauges, I'll keep my eyes peeled for you!


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Yes. Initially I had an electric water temp, then I eventually got ahold of a mechanical water temp with the sender cut off, figuring I can repair it. Very recently I found a mechanical water temp with the capillary tube still intact. On my Greenline, the water temp is sensitive enough that if you hold the bulb in the palm of your hand, the needle will move from room temperature to palm temperature, and it is dead on in boiling water. I was pleasantly surprised to find this Twin Blue is the same way!

Another recent find is a mechanical oil temp. I had an electric one, then found a better electric one, then a mechanical oil temp came up on eBay along with another gauge in a set. I figured it was my only chance to get one, so I bid accordingly. It wasn't cheap, but now I can unload the spares. That's how I do it. One at a time or in small sets, then when I get enough for a 3 gauge panel or 5 gauge panel, I unload the spares. In a way it equals out and sometimes they pay for themselves.

When the time comes, I will cover pulling apart, cleaning, color matching, and small repairs. My way is barbaric, but it works.




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Being that you're a young person I'm surprised that you don't usr a CAD system for you're drawings ...

 

I wonder if I enabled your addiction!!!LOL

 

CAD programs are kind of a racket. For one, they are not cost effective for a hobbyist. For another, they come out with a new version every two years, and if you're not current, it's a foreign language - so much so that a company won't even hire you unless you're completely proficient in "xxx" CAD 2017. And one last thing, there's a half dozen popular CAD programs out there, so keeping up with the latest greatest is a total crap shoot considering there are about 5 or 6 different latest greatest a company may/may not want you to know.

My first job out of school was 100% CAD work, and I can honestly say I don't miss it one bit. I get asked all the time if I used CAD or a CNC or a water jet or a plasma cutter...etc to make my parts. For one off stuff like 90% of hot rodding, by the time you accurately designed, dimensioned, modeled in CAD, outsourced to someone, paid for it, figured out you screwed up, do it over, pay for it again, and finally get a working part...........you could have sketched it out on paper, made a cardboard template, death wheeled something out of steel and drilled some holes in 1/10 the time for 1/100 the cost. If you had to make 100 of the same thing, that's a different story, but to summarize my rant here, CAD systems are worthless to people like us unless you have free access to a system AND capable machinery.

 

My answer is, "yes, I use CAD - Cardboard Aided Design."

 

Ok, starting to get on the right track. I extended the top part 1" back so I could "waterfall" the center piece at a different radius than the glove boxes to blend it in. Think of the '40s era waterfall furniture. I'm sorta tempted to try this in wood veneer, but I really don't think I have the skills to pull it off, and I'm not sure that would be right for the car. Anyway, getting closer.


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Hey, Tim;
I'm going to be real interested when you get to the gauge renovation(s).
"My way is barbaric, but it works." ????? The acquisitions or the fixes-to-be?
Marcus...

 

And here I thought I was king shit with two greenlines and one twin blue

 

I haven't seen iso-paper since drafting class. I also appreciate the comments on notifying people about progress on the car, but I think you left out using semaphore, do better next time...