Thread: Lethal Weapon, Project A-Bucket

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You beat me to that comment, Yes Charlie you are selling yourself short, your doing a great job, keep it coming.

Originally Posted by oldrodder43

Well Charlie, I thinks you're selling yourself waaayy short. You have as much talent as most on this site, and others too! And you've done a tremendous job building that truck. I've just found your build earlier today, and I've spent several hours reading and viewing. I'm nobody, but my hat's off to you, both for your ingenuity and craftsmanship. You fit right up with the talented for sure. BUT, if you think you are unhappy with it ----- WELL, I'd gladly take it off your hands! WELL DONE young man! perley

Thanks, no not that unhappy............ I know I have a certain amount of skills. I guess you look at the magazines, and the likes of Roadster32's builds and it tends to make you feel as though you fall short. I'm sure most of us have an idea and feel the frustration of not being able to bring that idea to life. Either because of skill, or proper equipment. That's a lot of my frustration. And now it eyesight, hand coordination, and memory. I purposely do not show the areas that I messed up on. But I'll give you an idea. Those chrome vents I put on the cowl, well I looked at them for a day or so, then it occurred to me that I f'd up. Despite making a pattern and measuring and eyeballing, I forgot to look at drivers side. The steering sector exits the cowl right in the middle of the lower vent. So F Me......... I can't believe as much as I thought about this I forgot to look at the side I can't see most of the time in the shop.

By the way, what is happening with the Essex? I just realized it's been close to a year since an update, or am I missing something?

That is looking cool and yes the scallops do do that little magic trick that you wanted. Thanks for asking about my knees,second knee replacement happens on the 29th August so am counting down to that. My rehab on the left leg has gone really well and it is my right leg stopping progress now so I will have that sorted so. I am so looking forward to going back to work again and earning some money to be able to complete the few changes on the bucket so that I can use it again over our summer. I will not have it finished to where I wanted it but I have missed it so much I want to be able to use it again.

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

That is looking cool and yes the scallops do do that little magic trick that you wanted. Thanks for asking about my knees,second knee replacement happens on the 29th August so am counting down to that. My rehab on the left leg has gone really well and it is my right leg stopping progress now so I will have that sorted so. I am so looking forward to going back to work again and earning some money to be able to complete the few changes on the bucket so that I can use it again over our summer. I will not have it finished to where I wanted it but I have missed it so much I want to be able to use it again.

Thanks. It was so danged hot yesterday afternoon, but I still managed the heat to sit and stare for awhile. I have the benefit of the pictures to not show all my flaws and failings. But I still am mostly pleased. Remember this is only the second one I have built and am still learning, mostly what I can't do...... Glad to hear you will be back at it soon, even if slowly. When I tore my knee up I couldn't do much. I got determined enough to find stuff I could do sitting on one of those low roll around seats. Gained about 30 lbs that I still have not gotten rid of............

Not much progress. Today will tie the 1925 record of 69 days 100 deg +. Aparently Austin is centered over Hell............. But I have managed a few little bits. Made a throttle cable out of some saved pieces from bicycles of all things. Painted the steering wheel. My Grandson seamed very concerned that I put it in the oven to bake it. He is a hoot, 2 1/2 and loves his wheels..... On another note, nothing is made like it used to be, and in some cases I am glad. I put the windshield frame on and was looking back from standing in front of the car and it's crooked. F#$$$%%%%. Aparently I failed to measure Henry's cowl posts. Pass side is about 1/2" taller than
Drivers side. Posts were in tact good cond, no rot on bottom, and if one was replaced it was a long time ago and was rivited back in place. I do not know how I missed that one. And due to the way I construced the body it's gonna be tuff to fix. Anyone want to buy some scrap metal.....................

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Hey,that looks kool..Got that 50s look,which is probably what you were aiming for..Like your checkered firewall,too..Just about time for a test drive..

Looks cool, nice colours. I would lose the headrests though.

Originally Posted by roadster32

Looks cool, nice colours. I would lose the headrests though.

Thanks. I have to rebuild the back of the seat when I get to that part. I'll make it thinner and more round than square. And yes No headrests.............

I love those colors, and the checkered firewall gives it a nice 50ish touch. Great build. I also like that you extended the frame horns out over the axle. To me it gives a feeling of confidence that the front end won't play bulldozer IF the spring breaks. I also did that on my essex. perley

Originally Posted by oldrodder43

I love those colors, and the checkered firewall gives it a nice 50ish touch. Great build. I also like that you extended the frame horns out over the axle. To me it gives a feeling of confidence that the front end won't play bulldozer IF the spring breaks. I also did that on my essex. perley

Yeah, I don't really like the frame horns over the axle, thought maybe I'd bob them, but I'm also more paranoid the older I get............ I kinda copied the color scheme from a 32 roadster die cast I've got called Deuce's Wild. I am not a big fan of red cars but I think the cream makes it work for me.

I guess it's time for an update. I tried this a couple of times and the site wouldn't cooperate, hopefully it will this time.

First what you can't see. I scored a TH350 form a kid at the parts store for $50. It had a shift kit in it, and had recently been rebuilt, but he confessed he had been drag racing his truck and the 1-2 shift was a little sluggish. I pulled it apart and found the intermediate pack had been slipping. A new set of friction disks, some steels I already had, and a Kevlar band and it's better than new.

Also finished modifying the shifter. This was a Hurst slap shifter, but cable operated. Or I should say was supposed to operate. It was always hard to shift despite relocating the cable several times. The shifter was originally in my 66. I got tired of messing with it, threw the cable in the trash and modified it for std linkage. It worked OK, but the pattern in 1st and 2nd didn't quite match the shifter. So when I decided to use it in the RPU I took it apart and re-engineered it so it worked perfectly. Of course when I put it in the truck it required a re-work of the floor around trans tunnel to clear the floor. One step forward............two back and so on. I scored a Hurst handle and installed it. The original was one of those straight 8 to 10 inch jobs.

Brakes installed on all 4, brake lines run, bled, and most of the spewing brake fluid cleaned up before it ate the paint...........Dooohhh........... Fuel lines, and trans cooler lines run. Drive shaft shortened and installed. Carbs reworked. Two were supposed to be rebuilt...........supposed to be! I found one with viton accelerator pump, one with leather. Mismatched needle and seats. Used gaskets.......etc. Another problem, probably common to 94's is top gets bowed around front, side screws and doesn't seal around front corners of float bowl. Gentle massaging with a small ball peen hammer and filing corrected that problem. I scored some rebuild kits from Auto Zone. Surprisingly they stock them. $15.99 and look like nice complete kits. They come with the viton accelerator pumps, and also have a synthetic rubber pump in the kit as well. I had to make a couple of pump return spring, missing. So a trip to Tractor Supply, a spring assortment, and a little mod. and we have accelerator pump return spring in all carbs now. I think that covers what you can't see in the pics...........so on we go.

I didn't like the amount of pedal force it took to open the outboard carbs, so I found some aluminum the same thickness as the eelco throttle arm and made an extension so I would have more leverage, and less effort to open secondary carbs. It slips over the throttle shaft and is attached to the arm with one button head screw. Now the pedal feels really nice. I can even use a little stiffer return spring on the primary carb.

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I also ran all the fuel lines from filter to carbs. I used copper 3/8". Now before I hear the crud about using copper, copper work hardening and cracking, steel is better and so on. First this is refrigeration copper, not the thin Home Depot junk. Second this stuff is used where working pressures are 200 times the 2psi fuel line pressure. This stuff is subjected to more vibration, longer cycles, than a car engine will produce. Steel also work hardens......steel is cheaper that's why it is used. I used all flare fittings, I don't like compression fittings, they seam to like to seep, and the fittings were all re purposed, and free. I think I bought 1 or 2 flare nuts, I had some forged ones, but they don't match.

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And you may have noticed in that pic, the Fenton manifolds are gone....... After all the engineering to be able to use them, IE motor mounts, steering box placement, frame notch, and so on. I couldn't figure out how to run the exhaust and be able to remove the oil filter, and when I put the starter on, well the rear exhaust tube would run right next to the rear of the starter solenoid, about 3/8" away. Now I know how that will work when hot..........click.......click...........click.....ruuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmp........click.......click. You know the drill. So I sold em, almost got all my money back and bought some block huggers. Since they were almost 1/3 the price of the Fenton's I pony ed up for some stainless steel ones. I am sure they are Chinese but Ain't everything these days. They look nice. 7/16" thick header flanges, and the heaviest tubes I have ever seen on headers. I tried......and I say tried to dimple the tubes for a little extra clearance for header bolts, and well that stuff is tuff.......... I'm gonna run dump tubes, exiting under the cowl, in stainless, and the exhaust from the header to under the body in stainless and then plain steel from mufflers back.

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I used an 18" dual pass trans cooler, mounted to frame just behind the front cross member and under the radiator. I used steel lines from trans and just 2" of rubber hose to connect to the cooler. I did the same with fuel lines 3/8" inverted flare from elect pump to tank and to regulator/filter, with just the bare minim in rubber lines to connect to the regulator, and the pre filter that is in between the tank and the electric fuel pump.

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And here is a pic of the shifter handle.

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I'm running a mechanical fan, and it was really tight between the radiator hoses. So I made a pattern of the blade end, and trimmed each blade 3/4" and worked over a piece of 3" pipe to get the little flare back on the blade ends.

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I didn't like the look of the round pedal pad I had, so I made one out of some 3/8" thick aluminum and drilled and beveled some speed holes in the new one. You also can see I made the removable panels that finish the floors in the corners. I even found a washer hose that is perfect to cover the double u-joint and will give this a nice finished look.

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After much pondering.......... I tossed most of the bench seat that I had from a mini van. It just wasn't working. The way the back was made it was almost impossible to thin. So what I ended up doing was to strip the seat. Throw the back in the trash, and use only the bottom of the lower frame. Just the perimeter tubing and springs, and foam. I made some rails for the lower cushion to sit on, and be able to remove for access to under seat storage. And then just made a back from some 1/2" cabinet ply and covered in foam. The upholstery is just some old junk I had, just to get a visual and see how it sits. It's perfect. I do believe now I will extend the steering column about 2 1/2" though.

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Opps......missed one. I needed some way to mount a front license plate, and I had these old u-bolts from some rear end or another, so I came up with this license plate bracket/nerf bar/bumper/what ever for the front.

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Very nice look with that nerf bar.

Well I figured out I can MIG Stainless. So I decided that since the headers are stainless I bought some stainless dump tubes, a couple of bends and 5' of pipe and today I built the exhaust from header to just behind trans cross member, where mufflers will go. Driver side dump tube is slightly further back than pass side. Yup you guessed it. I built pass side first, and forgot about that danged pitman arm. But they are pretty close and with the pitman arm there unless you get a tape you cant tell moving from side to side.

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