Thread: Followed Me Home II

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I needed to get my dash drilled so it's ready for paint. Started with the bezel centered and secured, then outlined each gauge position with a fine line.
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Broke out the compass and struck arcs from the outline to pinpoint the centers, then I drilled a small pilot hole dead center to guide the hole saw drill. Worked slick, but it's always kind of stressful drilling into that nice, finished surface.
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Gauges mounted, bezel needing some polish!
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With the gauge box open I noticed the speedometer sending unit and decided I might as well put it on and string the cable, only to find that I put the exhaust pipe too close That's the sender connection, and while the sender fits the cable won't fit onto the sender without notching the pipe, or doing a rework. I came in and found that VDO has a nifty little GPS Sender that replaces the direct mount, and a note to VDO confirmed that it works with the speedo I have, but to the tune of $164 plus tax, plus shipping!
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Looking for options I found this nifty little 90 degree adapter used on '53 to '82 Corvettes for speedometer and also for direct drive tachometers! Priced at $39, shipping took it to $49 so I'm all in at 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of the GPS adapter. If the angle adapter doesn't last the GPS is always an option.
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Got my bulkhead wall in place and finished the little shelf for the battery. A hold down strap is next, then get the positive cable through the floor and in the clamps up to the starter, negative tied to a body bolt into the frame.

LOVE the dash! Looks awesome!

Dash looks good. The pucker factor is usually pretty high when modifying high dollar or finished parts!

Good find on the right angle speedo drive. I'll have to file that one away in case I need it one day.

Just saw this thread and noticed you have a 2" stretch body. Saw one of these at DesMoines Goodguys and really liked it. My roadster is cramped and I'm only 5'10". Would definitely use one of these if I built another roadster. Should be much more comfortable and you really don't notice the difference unless someone points it out.

Originally Posted by figure8

Just saw this thread and noticed you have a 2" stretch body. Saw one of these at DesMoines Goodguys and really liked it. My roadster is cramped and I'm only 5'10". Would definitely use one of these if I built another roadster. Should be much more comfortable and you really don't notice the difference unless someone points it out.

Yep, at over 6'1" I'd be really cramped without the 2" stretch! It's surprising how much smaller the '32 is compared to '33/34, too.

Heading toward paint, the bottom back corner of my passenger door was standing proud by 1/4" but good at the top. The doors adjust fore & aft, but the hinges are bolted solid so there wasn't an adjustment option. The door just has a twist. My first thought was "It's a roadster! Just paint it!" but I knew I'd not be happy with it so I decided to cut a little wedge out of the jamb and see if the outer would pull in to close the gap.
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I was happy with the way the gap closed, so I ground down the joint a strong inch wide to about 1/2 the thickness, and added three layers of fabric.
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Mounted after drying over night, the bottom corner was pulled in about 3/16", still proud by a bit, but the arch of the door skin didn't match the body, and the door was still standing proud in the middle. Again, my thought was, "It's a roadster...." but after looking at the other side I scuffed the surface and put on a skim coat of filler and worked it down.
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Also did the drivers side, higher on the body. They're not 100% gap free, but "IT"S A ROADSTER!"
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Last was cleaning up the passenger side door jamb, removing some of the ugly....
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Just a heads up for anyone who uses the 90 degree adapter for the speedometer drive, as it comes out of the box it's a reversing drive - spinning the input shaft clockwise gives a counter-clockwise rotation on the output side. I was fortunate to see a post on the internet, calling it out and commenting it was an easy fix. And before someone comments, yes, the input shaft & it's brass adapter seal has been removed so it didn't fall out on the floor while the part was in the vice....

To correct it, it's a simple process of taking off the brass grease zerk adapter, then on the other side loosen the brass outlet fitting and remove it, along with the spiral gear that's attached to the output shaft. Swap them, putting the output gear and fitting where the zerk adapter was, and installing the zerk adapter where the output shaft was. Badda Bing, Badda Boom, no more reversed direction rotation.
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It's a slick little part, and since the design was used for 30 years on Corvettes I think it should be just fine for my service.

Thanks for the update.

I finally got to the point I was ready to take a step or two forward, and got the car staged in the paint booth area, dropped the back wheels & tires off for access and masked off things that needed to be protected. I'd decided to pull the doors and trunk lid, spray the jambs and edges, then once dry remount the doors & trunk, and spray the outside all together. I added the hood retainers to the mix too. Got everything primed yesterday, let things dry overnight plus, and then today shot some color. Hoping the door jambs don't end up being the best paint on the whole car....
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There must be something mystical about jambs................the paint always seems to flow so nicely on them.

Here it is 5 days before Halloween and this stuff?
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We've had cooler weather for a couple of weeks, with one warm day tossed in as a teaser and now this! It's hovered around 29F all day, flurries off & on with less than 2" now, but calling for more during the night. Hoping that it's just the lead in to some Indian Summer, but not looking too promising at this point. Jim Robinson pointed out to me that it's not roadster weather around here now anyway, so there's not much point in pushing. I'll see what the coming weeks bring. It's blocked and ready for prime, color and clear; then wire, fire & stitches.

Same thing up here, supposed to warm up and melt the yucky white stuff in the next few days! I sure hope so, way too early in the year for this stuff! We had about 3" of snow, some areas north and west of here got in the 10" range!

We didn't get the snow, rain only, but it's been colder than a dead witches left teat.

Oklahoma got hit with a bad ice storm that looks to be widespread - OKC was having lots of problems, lots of power outages and lots of transformers blowing due to ice grounding lines. Here we've warmed into the mid-40's today, melting everything. Next week is supposed to cheat up towards 60F. Hoping for some sunny days!

Originally Posted by rspears

Next week is supposed to cheat up towards 60F. Hoping for some sunny days!

Maybe get some paint applied?

Looking good Roger! This week might be the last good week to spray any paint.