Thread: American Graffiti Coupe, My Version

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Thanks Roger, I value your opinions and have read your posts on seat mounting. I think I'm going to mount everything to the body with metal strips under the car, but I still worry about them pulling thru the body in a crash, not that a fiberglass body would give much protection anyway.
Thanks for the tire chart.

Originally Posted by racerx1699

Thanks Roger, I value your opinions and have read your posts on seat mounting. I think I'm going to mount everything to the body with metal strips under the car, but I still worry about them pulling thru the body in a crash, not that a fiberglass body would give much protection anyway.
Thanks for the tire chart.

Donnie,
I think that it's all but standard practice for the floor to have "core mat" in the floor panel, which is quite stout. N&N says, "We use a core mat in the roof, doors, trunk, and floor." On the '32 roadster I'm working on I've made up four 1/8"x4" panels in various lengths with 3/8" Grade 8 bolts up through the floor, tacked to the bottom side of the plates, each catching two of the eight seat bolts (buckets) - one on each outside pair running front to back, one in front catching those bolts on both seats and another in back catching the two inner back. The plates will be epoxy primed, then stuck to the bottom of the floor with some body filler as "glue", and finished along with the bottom of the body, likely with a bed liner material again as I'm on a gravel road. For a seat to come out it will have to take most, if not all of the floor out with it, which means likely taking the whole body. Another option, even stronger, would be to take a sheet of 1/8" steel that covers the bottom of the floor, and weld your bolts to that, bonding it to the bottom side, but as you say a fiberglass body is going to tend to break up in a severe impact....

Graffitifreak
Thanks for the tire information, between what you and Roger sent me I now know which tires I'm getting. Can you tell me what lenght steering column and drop down you used?

Column is Flaming River, 30". FR20001BK tilt, powder coated.
Drop is Flaming River, 4-1/2". FR20104PL polished.

Again, My Body is a Downs Manufactured one. Your dash mount may be located a little different in the Bebops body.

Hey Racer, How's the build going?

Very slow, haven't touched it in a few months. I had surgery in Feb and couldn't do anything for 8 weeks so I'm getting ready to get back to it. I have plenty of parts to keep me busy thru the summer.

Hope you feel better soon. Post some pics of the progress!

Could anyone post pictures of how they mounted the fuse box and ignition box (if they have one). I'm getting ready to start wiring and am looking for great ideas.
Thanks

Are you mounting the fuse block under the dash, behind the seat(s), under the seat bottom on the floor, or somewhere else? If you're using the under dash area I'd recommend that you pick your location with the dash in place with all of the instruments mounted to show you the true space available. I did mine with the dash out, and the layout looked very neat and organized, but having a line of relays up high in the dark was not a good choice for future maintenance. Ditto the in-line fuse holder that's in the Edelbrock harness to the EFI - very hard to get to, and would have been much better about 6" lower, or even more. Think about ease of access, and if you use one of the methods to make the fuse block removable from it's mounting spot (hinge, magnet, velcro) leave enough slack in the big wire bundle to let it move, and consider that the insulation will stiffen as it ages.

P6140390 Parts.JPGP6140394 Driver.JPGP6140396 Pass.JPG
These are the parts I need to mount. I want to mount them under the dash by adding a plate above the two cross bars. I was going to mount the fuse box on the drivers side and the ignition and solenoid on the passenger side.

Originally Posted by racerx1699

Attachment 63865Attachment 63864Attachment 63866
These are the parts I need to mount. I want to mount them under the dash by adding a plate above the two cross bars. I was going to mount the fuse box on the drivers side and the ignition and solenoid on the passenger side.

If I understand your "...plate above the two cross bars" you're saying that they would be horizontal, beneath the cowl? That's the last place I would want them, as you're going to be on your back looking up into the darkest depths of your interior to see anything. I'd glue a piece of plywood or hardwood to the back side of the firewall, and mount them where you can see them clearly by ducking your head beneath the bottom edge of your dash panel, and don't worry too much about having them out of sight line, either. You can fabricate a cover panel, held off of the wood mounting panel by a few pieces of tubing, with long screws into the wood to keep things pristine.

Originally Posted by rspears

If I understand your "...plate above the two cross bars" you're saying that they would be horizontal, beneath the cowl? That's the last place I would want them, as you're going to be on your back looking up into the darkest depths of your interior to see anything. I'd glue a piece of plywood or hardwood to the back side of the firewall, and mount them where you can see them clearly by ducking your head beneath the bottom edge of your dash panel, and don't worry too much about having them out of sight line, either. You can fabricate a cover panel, held off of the wood mounting panel by a few pieces of tubing, with long screws into the wood to keep things pristine.

Tell me about it, Roger! I learned that the hard way. I may have to slightly drop my A/C unit if I blow a fuse. My fuse box, relays, etc. SHOULD have gone behind the seats. For a genuine, certified GS-13 military planner, I sure blew that one.

On my new car I fastened the fuse panel to a piece of plate steel with another 1/4" piece of plate aluminum with a 3" hole in it on the back of the steel both being as wide as my fuse panel and as long, then under my dash I went to Westlake Hardware and purchased a very strong 3" round magent and fastened it to the firewall, that way my fuse panel snaps onto the magnet and locates itself because the magnet sticks in the center to the steel and not to the aluminum (as well) I left the harness long by about 8" so I can grab the whole panel and yank it down to see what is going on as its up high behind the dash. This was a low cost variation of Ron Francis's system but works well for me and cost just a few bucks. Best of Luck

Excellent idea!
But be careful, the use of high power magnets around DC current can result in CAEMF (current amplified electro magnetic fields). In some cases where the CAEMF is strong enough and combined with IWPC (insulated wire proximity capacitance) a phenomena know as DTS (dilated time syndrome) can develop. If you start experience any feelings of doing something over and over again, then you are probably working on a hot rod. LOL, just my twisted sense of humor.

Originally Posted by 36 sedan

Excellent idea!
But be careful, the use of high power magnets around DC current can result in CAEMF (current amplified electro magnetic fields). In some cases where the CAEMF is strong enough and combined with IWPC (insulated wire proximity capacitance) a phenomena know as DTS (dilated time syndrome) can develop. If you start experience any feelings of doing something over and over again, then you are probably working on a hot rod. LOL, just my twisted sense of humor.

That's only when you turn on the flux capacitor!