Projects Track Roadster 16 yrs in the making

What kind of heat and noise coating?
Will the coating be applied 2 both sides
“birdcage” Sure opens it up under there.

 

Sorry about the delay in replying.

There are two thermal/acoustical coatings used. The first is a paint-like product in which ceramic particles are suspended in an acrylic binder. One brand on the market is called "Lizard Skin".

The other layer is a more traditional insulating sheet product with layers of rubber and reflective metal foil. Jack first applied the paint-like coating, then the sheet insulation, followed by a couple of layers of body paint.

Agreed, the instrument cowling is pretty far from the firewall and there is lots of room, this space is occupied by the EFI computer, the heater and the glove box, respectively, moving from the driver's side to the passenger's side.

I will be traveling out of the country for the next five days, so my communications may slow down.

Trakrodstr

 

Trakrodstr,
Let me know how the steering reducer gear works, my Schroeder is one turn lock to lock and I was looking at the Speedway steering increaser box and thinking "I wonder if that would work backward"? Well you have done it so let us know.

Rex

 

OK Rex, I will let you know. I think the car will be "on the road" by early August.

Trakrodstr

 

Just read this through in one go so the head's buzzin' with all the details.
Don't think I've taken it all in yet, it's all top stuff. Did think that the amount of suspension travel at the back looked a bit minimal, can't see how much is possible at the front, but you've made a comment on that. Smooth roads will be good I guess. The caps on your hydraulic cylinders look as if they need a vent hole but you might have hidden it in the knurling which would be neat.
A few jaws will drop at the debut, no doubt about that.

She's so fine, wish she were mine................

 

DeV8eD

I'll speak with Jack and get back to your question regarding rear suspension travel. Briefly I can say that the length of the rear torsion bar arms is at least 18in (46cm), which is a pretty long swing radius; thus, lots of travel.

More later,

trakrodstr

 

I have two steering wheel choices; one is a vintage appearing wheel, which clearly has a bit of homemade hot rod flavor (Photo A). The other is a Momo steering wheel I bought on Ebay five or six years ago, at a very reasonable price (Photo B).

In either case the steering wheel (hub) ornament will be an old Dodge Brothers radiator emblem. The Dodge Bros. (DB) logo will match the gauge logo on the instruments. [I will soon have photos to show the gauge faces.] The DB emblem will remain just as you see it, showing eight decades of patina.

In the case of the black-rimmed wheel, Jack made a plain circular surround out of segment of steel pipe (Photo C); whereas, the wood rimmed wheel shows a fancier trim ring that Jack found in his pile of parts (Photo D). He does not remember from whence it came.

A view of the quick release collar and splinned hub (Photo E). The spline on the steering column fits into the collar. To release the wheel, one pulls up on the flange and lifts the steering wheel off. This arrangement will be a bit of an anti-theft device; the main reason, however, is to aid entry and exit from the driver’s seat.

If, I repeat if, I choose the Momo wheel, I will remove the clear polyurethane coating and most likely stain the wood a bit darker. I may also reduce the diameter of the wood rim, as it is too thick for a 50s style steering wheel. Most likely we would coat the Momo spokes with same paint as used on the oil pan, transmission, brake drums etc.

On the other hand I may go with the vintage wheel. Obviously on the vintage wheel we will replace the dorky hex bolts with different (rounded?) fasteners and. The spokes of this wheel would/will also so painted as above. I am not sure what, if anything, will happen to the rim of the black wheel. I have been thinking of wrapping the wheel with leather lacing material…you know…just wrap the lacing around-and-around, as if one were wrapping the rim with friction tape. The lacing could be stained any color I wish.

Do any of you HAMBers have a preference for either of these two steering wheels? If so, let me know.

 

I think you should use the MG wheel wth nice hex heads.

 

wheel A is cool.maybe replace the Grade 5 bolts with stainless ones, throw them in a lathe and "dome" the tops a little.

wheel B is uuuggly.be hard to "de-seventies" it.

 

Pretty amazing piece of rodding jewelry your crafting there. It's like a fine watch taking shape. A really powerful one. What time is it? Time to punch it.
Great build photos.

 

very nice

 

I second the MG wheel with hex head's

 

Thanks HAMBers, it's all votes for the old wheel...so far.

What's kind of interesting about the two wheels is that a buddy of mine with impeccable Bonneville, dry lakes, and hot rodding experience, and whose daily driver is a 32 Ford, likes the modern wheel. His choice really surprised me, but that's why there lots of flavors of ice cream.

One idea I had was a leaf spring based steering wheel...well to be honest years ago saw a 20s vintage Lagonda or ?? that had a "leaf spring" motif for the steering wheel spokes. However, in the last few months I have sort of run out of gas. Ideas are easy, executing the idea is the hard part.

I bet that one could salvage the leaf springs off a small trailer or ?? and fabricate a cool steering wheel. Perhaps in my next lifetime.

trakrodstr

 

Oil pans are not the most talked about hot rod part; but in this case, perhaps the topic is worth a bit of discussion.

Earlier I mentioned that I bought a pile of Hemi parts that had been abandoned after an engine grenaded in a racing boat. Among the goodies was an Aviaid Metal Products, Co., (Van Nuys, CA), aluminum oil pan with lots of cool baffles and flap doors. I assume that the side loading of racing boats is huge as the vessels are virtually always in a turn. Also, I guess, the shape of the hull means there’s lots of side-to-side room for the pan, but not much room for a deep sump, common to the typical automotive oil pan.

Based on the Aivaid decal (not shown) I date this pan as late 50s or early 60s. This is because the address for Aviaid does not include a zip code and the telephone number is area code 213, which in the 60s covered all of Los Angeles County (I think); certainly in the San Gabriel Valley, where I lived, the area code was 213; and that’s quite-a-ways form Van Nuys, which is in the San Fernando Valley.

I don’t have a photo of the pan by itself sitting right side up, but the first photo (A) shows the bottom of the pan with the stiffening reliefs, and its rectangular shape. In the next two photos (B and C) you can see some of the elaborate internal structure of the pan and also some magic marker lines Jack Presse scribed on the pan; these are views from the front of the pan looking rearward. The black lines denote where the lower parallel arms for the front suspension will (eventually) lie with respect to the oil pan….hummm, looks like a major PITA.

This was one of those painful moments. Jack called and said “Cool pan, but it ain’t gonna work without major surgery.” ; and “…if that isn’t bad enough, the surgery will have to include cutting and re-fabricating lots of internal structure, not just the sheet metal of the pan itself.” Both Jack and I wanted to try to keep as many vintage parts in the car as possible, consistent with safety and usability. So I swallowed hard and asked Jack to forge ahead and conduct the required surgery. Now you, dear readers, are beginning to understand why this project has taken 14 years — ‘cause it took time to earn money to pay for things like “unnecessary” oil pan surgery.

Obviously, the “front corners” of the oil pan had to go; you can see the cuts Jack made on one of the corners (Photo D). Also obvious is the flap Jack created which will be bent toward the middle of the pan to join with the opposite side to form a wedge shape — thus creating room for the suspension control arms. The following photo (E) shows where Jack had to weld a tear in the pan created when the engine disintegrated (yellow arrow). The pile of parts I bought included several broken pistons and a couple of intact high dollar connecting rods (I think the rods “held” and the pistons failed). The ultra short dipstick is evident (green arrow).

I don’t have an isolated photo of the finished oil pan, but here are a couple of views with the pan mounted on the D500. It still looks like a 50s racing oil pan and I am glad I decided to stick with the program. However, it might get a little toasty checking the oil level.

Despite its fancy construction (baffles and trap doors) the possibility of starving the oil pick-up during a long hard turn is a very real concern. This is mainly due to the extremely shallow nature of this oil pan, which does not provide a nice deep sump for submerging the oil pick-up. To protect against oil starvation, I purchased an Accusump™ oil accumulator. If you are interested in how an oil accumulator works go to:

[ http://www.streetortrack.com/Accusump-Preoilers-Accessories-c-453.html ].

Very briefly, oil accumulates in a cylinder with a floating piston — while operating under normal operating oil pressure levels. Should there be a momentary catastrophic drop in oil pressure/flow the pre-loaded piston pushes oil out of the reservoir and into the oil system, under whatever pressure the user specifies. The ignition switch can also activate the device. In this case the accumulator will supply high-pressure oil to the system before engine start-up (pre-lubrication), which prevents metal-to-metal scuffing in an engine that has been sitting for a while. The real point is that even with a shallow oil pan, I won’t have to worry about oil starvation problems.

 

Now for some body work info:

As mentioned earlier the sheet metal is Brookville™ 29. The following photos capture some of the evolution from the stock configuration to the final shape (also, see earlier installments of this project).

The side profile of the Model A had to taper toward the front in order to accommodate the smaller and sleeker nose and grill. To keep the lines and proportions pleasing it was necessary to begin the taper at the rear quarter panels. Similarly, the doors had to be modified to carry the new profile from the quarter panels to the cowling and windshield area.

After a false start on door hinges (described earlier), it was decided to use reproductions of early stock Ford hinges. This arrangement allowed hinging from the rear of the door and the ability to open the door wider. The welds show that Jack Presse made a thin tapered cut at the top of the door. The downward sloping door line joins the quarter panel to the lowered cowling/windshield area.

The metal-in-primer photo shows the nice bodywork by Jack and the painter (Northwest Muscle Cars, Missoula, MT). In my opinion the final shape and the various character lines appear as if the body is a stock Ford production model, i.e., a factory “speedster” or whatever.

The last two photos show the final color coat. The taillights are repos of 1940s Ford parts; yeah the lamps are LEDs…I don’t want to be rear-ended — and the modern lighting will be much brighter and safer.

I’ll do a detailed write-up on the paint/finish later. Here I’ll only say that one of my goals from the beginning was to have the paint look like a showroom stock finish, as it would have appeared on a standard mom-‘n-pop 50s Detroit sedan. No clear coat and not ultra glossy — the final hue is a pale version of 50s Bell Telephone Company green. The lighting in the two photos makes the color appear lighter than it actually is, in sunlight.

Trakrodstr

 

No Momo no mo.

 

Ohhhhh WOW! This thing is going to be sick for sure!! I'll be watching!!

 

Tell me if there will be some rich dark brown leather to sit your back side on.
While putting the grip on the wrapped brown leather steering wheel. Man I just
eased it in first and was fixing to slip the clutch and woke up!

Who ever the prep man is he has done a super job on blocking it out.

 

Dam fine job on the oil pan.

 

The cockpit of a vintage racing car often has a fabricated instrument panel centered in front of the driver. Typically the instruments include a tach and gauges for oil pressure and so forth. Speedos were absent for obvious reasons.

I decided that my car would have an instrument panel with a big tach in the center. I am a Mopar and Ford fan, which accounts for the “ingredients” in the roadster. I am particularly fond of Dodge automobiles, including Dodge Bros vehicles. So I decided on a Dodge Bros logo for the instruments. The history of the Dodge Bros and Henry Ford were tightly interwoven. Indeed, one could argue that without a loan from the Dodge Bros. there might never have been a (successful) Ford Motor Company.

[In the early 1900s the Dodge Bros operated one of the premier machine shops and foundries in the US. As many of you know John and Horace Dodge made about 90% of the pre-1913 production Ford automobiles. The Dodge brothers were approached by Henry Ford in 1902 with his plans for a new automobile and contracted with him to become the exclusive supplier of the Model T chassis. The bothers agreed to produce almost the entire chassis (engines, transmissions and axles mounted on frames — everything but the body, wheels and tires). When Ford, who was initially short on cash, couldn’t make a $5,000 payment, he offered the brothers 50 shares of Ford stock worth $10,000, making them 10-percent stockholders in the new Ford Motor Company.

The brothers would remain as Ford Motor Company suppliers for the next 10 years, and John Dodge worked as vice president of the Ford company, until they began to manufacture their own nameplate in 1914. They founded their own car company with stock profits made from Ford and soon became a major competitor. The Dodge brothers kept their shares in the Ford Motor Company until 1919, when they sold it back to Ford for $25 million. See: http://www4.oakland.edu/?id=3093&sid=87]

Searching EBay I found a brass printer’s block, circa 1912, embossed with the Dodge Bros (DB) wing logo. I scanned the printer’s block in Photoshop and spent many hours “cleaning up” the image pixel by pixel. During the same period I won an auction for a late 20s DB speedometer. I cloned the fonts as image files and created text and numerals for a tachometer face and matching oil, water temp, voltmeter, fuel and speedo faces. I accomplished the later by reducing the size of the tach face, erasing unneeded lettering and “writing” new text, accordingly. I then had a digital printing company print the tach faces on the old Dodge 8 inch speedo faceplate. The other gauge faces were printed on a set of modern “hot rod” gauges, which had similar trim rings. The trim rings were all plated with nickel. The tachometer needle is the original DB speedo needle.

The instrument panel is brushed nickel, which was also treated with a “bronzing” solution. The back of the instrument panel shows Jack Presse’s gorgeous wiring job. Needless to say, the entire wiring job is equally professional. No color code, but Jack prints the identity of each wire in tiny letters at the terminus of each wire. In my estimation, unless I screw-up and wreck/damage the car, it will never need attention to the electrical system…such is Jack’s competence.

The final image in this section shows the instrument panel mounted in the cowling. The tan color of the gauge faces will match the cushions of the leather upholstery, which will be trimmed in dark brown. Planning and coordinating all the various colors and finishes so that they look appropriate, i.e., compliment each other, took major, major, effort…far more than I would ever have imagined. There were months when is seemed that Jack and I did little but TALK about colors, coatings and finishes. I would go so far as to say having the painting, plating and coating done was easier than the decision process.

 

Looking good so far.

 

LOVE the gauges!

 

LOVE IT!
GIANT tach
little speedo!

 

This is one of the best street rod builds ever on the HAMB.

 

Wow, beautiful. Gives me a new level of thought process and planning a wiring build.

 

Fellow HAMBers,

I appreciate the feedback. I'm traveling right now but, in the next few days I hope to add new material.

trakrodstr

 

Looking good

 

Beautiful car, really nice vision and design skills. Have to say,a 14 year investment in this project would have allowed most folks time for at least some hands on work. None of us does everything ourselves, but it seems like that kind of process has one missing out on a lot of what is really fun about hotrods. Can't wait to see it done.

 

hugh m,

Good point, I agree that most folks probably would have done more “hands on” work, given 14 years of opportunity. Nevertheless, and at the risk of using a less than perfect analogy...to what extent does an architect have to do "hands on" construction of a building to be able to consider the structure, at least partially, his own creation? There is no question that Jack Presse contributed a great deal to the roadster’s design (as well as the fabrication); on the other hand I think Jack would agree that if I had not had a specific vision for the my roadster it would never have existed in its present form. In other words, if I had been wealthy enough to give Jack a bunch of money 14 years ago and said..."build me a cool track roadster, I'll be back in 18 months to pick it up" ... the resulting automobile would not resemble the present car. Further, it is only fair to point out that I would have LOVED to do some hands on work, but for a variety of boring reasons I was unable to do so.

I salute and give full credit to every rodder who has the gumption to actually construct his/her own hot rod; I can only imagine that “hands-on” rod builders, such as yourself, feel a sense of satisfaction that I will never experience, because, as you point out…I didn’t do the work myself. Indeed, the reason I am careful to give credit, where credit is due, is to insure that none of you HAMBers think that I “built” the roadster.

 

That's a good analogy, my shop is across the street from the old Lippencott art fabrication facility, and a friend is fabbing a piece now for Red Grooms. The credit obviously goes to Red for his work, and it will rightly go to you for yours. But, to me, part of the essence of a hot rod is doing at least some of it yourself. Nothing wrong with a little fun along with working to pay for it. Have to say I'm glad some one is raising the bar, with really nice creative stuff, but a really fun aspect of hotrodding is getting a little dirty on some level. Still can't wait to see it.