Thread: Followed Me Home II

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Interesting discussion on the steel, "planning" for a rear end collision raises a lot of questions that just can't be answered. Like the speed of the "offending" vehicle, or the size of it!

I am NOT saying you shouldn't go through the exercise of trying to better what you have! I'm just a curious and interested observer!!

Oh, in regards to color choices... you can use the "standards", you know... the been there / done that's.. or try and find something that's just a bit original! Like the rear axle, that was a unique color, curious if it could've been easily duplicated?

But it isn't my car, just my opinion! and no ones paid me to run their wheels ever!

Originally Posted by 34_40

Oh, in regards to color choices... you can use the "standards", you know... the been there / done that's.. or try and find something that's just a bit original! Like the rear axle, that was a unique color, curious if it could've been easily duplicated?

But it isn't my car, just my opinion! and no ones paid me to run their wheels ever!

Not my car either, but I sure do agree with Mike! Last "big" show I went to I got so tired of looking at all the "look alike" coupes and roadsters.....I think I saw every variation of red/buckskin cars imaginable!

It's going to take something unique to make the car look personalized. A personal note, when I got my '57 I had a few too many "experts" tell me everything the car HAD to have to be an old style gasser clone that I just flat gave up listening to anyone about it and decided to build what I wanted...Now the car is a fun build again!!!! Oh yeah, last 30's coupe I built was "back-halved" with 1 5/8" tubing, had a 12 point cage, an ex-sprint car style (ie all lightened up) Brodix aluminum block and heads and an old "mid rise" Offy dual four intake, narrowed up quick change (bought at a circle burner swap meet) complete with pinion yoke driven cooling pump, two aluminum drag car seats with some extra foam under the upholstery.

I seriously doubt you'll succumb to the pressure of "how it has to be", just wanted to toss in my 3 cents worth (up a penny due to cost of living increases).

Thanks for the comments, guys. I truly appreciate any comment that's about the build approach, what's being done, "should be" done, or might be cool! Those things plant seeds in the mind, and when I'm out in the barn all of a sudden become a new approach. I'm also very much in agreement about color choices. The cars that draw my attention are those that stand out because they're not just cookie cutter clones of something that "worked" for somebody else. I'm thinking more & more that I need to go get the paint chips and spend a morning with them

On the bracing, to me the bracing on a fiberglass car is there for only to stiffen the body and help prevent flex that's going to lead towards cracking down the road. The puny 1x1 mild steel tubing cannot be considered a "safety" feature to protect the occupants as it's just not beefy enough or there's not enough of it. I looked at the way the rear loop was done, decided it didn't add enough value to overcome the risks I saw (having been hit from behind with a 70mph differential) so it's gone. That's also why I think it's important to "glue" the body to the steel around the cockpit, to tie the steel and glass together into one integral unit bolted to the frame.

Roger, I've never worked on a fiberglass car, but on boats they use wood stringers for structural support that are resigned and glassed in that give quite a bit more strength to the vessel. Not sure if you can glass over steel, but you could definately get more stiffness and protection with some hard wood glassed onto the inside of the rear where nobody would see it.

Very Nice, it's coming to gether.

YES, do not bond the steel to the fiberglass. Would make a real mess of outside surface of your car after it heats in the summer and cools in the winter and goes through lots of heat/cool cycles daily during its lifetime. You are right, just there to hang things from and stiffen the door hinges and latches, to to stiffen body

As Gary said Rog, DON'T bond it. Nothing wrong with bolting the 2 together
Steel and fiberglass expand and contract @ a differant rate, causing lot's of problems.
That's the way Cheeeeeepie bodies are made, and most of those are done with a chopper.

OK, I've got the No Bonding point. I'm not sure if it's that this body sat on a flat dolly for five years, or if it's just a normal thing but the doors are about 1/4" wider at the top than the bottom and the passenger side has to be forced closed at this point. I was attributing it to not being anchored well enough but I guess that's not the case. I'm going to look at it closer tomorrow, but thinking that I need to shim the body mount at the back of the cowl up a bit,the one just at the back of the door, or both.

Originally Posted by rspears

OK, I've got the No Bonding point. I'm not sure if it's that this body sat on a flat dolly for five years, or if it's just a normal thing but the doors are about 1/4" wider at the top than the bottom and the passenger side has to be forced closed at this point. I was attributing it to not being anchored well enough but I guess that's not the case. I'm going to look at it closer tomorrow, but thinking that I need to shim the body mount at the back of the cowl up a bit,the one just at the back of the door, or both.

Roger take a look at the Wescott web site they have a good tech part about how to shim the body.... www.wescottsauto.com

Originally Posted by rspears

OK, I've got the No Bonding point. I'm not sure if it's that this body sat on a flat dolly for five years, or if it's just a normal thing but the doors are about 1/4" wider at the top than the bottom and the passenger side has to be forced closed at this point. I was attributing it to not being anchored well enough but I guess that's not the case. I'm going to look at it closer tomorrow, but thinking that I need to shim the body mount at the back of the cowl up a bit,the one just at the back of the door, or both.

This is your post that caused me to tell you about the support while working on it-----------I'll remove myself from this thread

Thanks for the Wescott link! That's a very well written guide.

Originally Posted by rspears

Thanks for the Wescott link! That's a very well written guide.

Yes i pretty much wore the pages out on that plan when i was shimming my roadster body for the first time... never having done one before it was sure a lesson by fire..

Good source, Wescott's have been at it a long time and sure do build some quality units!!

Hummmmmmmmm---post # 22??????????????


However---I don't agree with the article about supporting the frame at the front and back----it needs to be supported by the suspension or possibly at the wheel c/l areas so it has the natural flex to the frame--support at the ends causes a dip to the middle which distorts the roadster (topless) bodies severly in the door opening/door fitment area-----------an issue that doesn't show up as bad with a coupe/sedan-----

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Hummmmmmmmm---post # 22??????????????


However---I don't agree with the article about supporting the frame at the front and back----it needs to be supported by the suspension or possibly at the wheel c/l areas so it has the natural flex to the frame--support at the ends causes a dip to the middle which distorts the roadster (topless) bodies severly in the door opening/door fitment area-----------an issue that doesn't show up as bad with a coupe/sedan-----

Not to argue the point Jerry, but if you look at the cross section of the fully boxed '32/33/34 frame it's hard for me to imagine that there is much flex influence by shifting the rear support points back two feet to the rear spreader bar. The only force involved is gravity on the mass of the frame, and the article deals with measuring the static level points across the rails. I can't see that placement of the support points really matters as long as they are consistent and not staggered.