Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Some of the stringers fit tight up against the body, and need no further attention. However, some have a big gap behind them because a T body has more curves and twists than the south end of a northbound cat. So you have to make the stringers thick enough and shaped properly to fill those voids. In some cases I had to laminate two or three pieces of wood together and shape them to conform to the body. I did this with stainless screws from the backside and resin between the pieces to glue them into one. Then I could belt sand them into the proper shape to fit tight.

This stuff doesn't have to be furniture grade woodwork, but the tighter fit you get the better the final job will be. I also didn't want the backrest flexing from constant leaning against it, so I built a backboard to go between the body and the piece of plywood backrest. I will glass that in to make it a very solid assembly when done.

My plans are to have all the glassing done by the end of the weekend, so that next week I can concentrate on getting the body off of the frame and begin finishing up the frame.

That's the PLAN, anyway..........

Don

"Rollin' along with the tumbling tumble weeds"

Jeez, Don, I go hospital for 5 days and come back to see so much progress I can't believe it. Looking great.

Thanks, but don't go to THAT extreme again. I'll keep working anyway.


Don

Love the motor. The first thing that went through my mind was 312 Ford. It must just be the valve covers.

Thank you Richard. Yeah, I agree about the Y block look. You are right, the centerbolts disquise it a little, don't they? I'm glad Moon and Cal Custom came out with this style valve cover for the Vortecs, otherwise the engine would have looked too "new", I think. In person the color reminds me of old Oldsmobile too, so that may help age the car too.

When it's all done I am going to beat on it with a chain to distress it and get some patina going. (joke)


Don

No pics of the "Patina" treatment for me thanks, It would be like watching someone stomping puppies! There are only so many things that a man can bear!!

It is great to see your work Don. It made me feel the need to start getting the 52 out. Should be able to drive it soon. I need to find a radiator and it will be rolling again.

That's really cool Rick, glad to see you are so close to getting yours going. Show us some shots when you get a chance, would love to see them.


Brick, you know you have to get that first scratch on a new car to get it out of the way.


Got the drivers side wood all glassed in today and that was as much fun as I wanted to have. Besides, the shop was a disaster from all the cutting and sanding wood, so I spent some time and got it cleaned now that I shouldn't have too much more wood to cut and all.

I might make my self-imposed deadline of tomorrow night to have the wooding done yet.


Don

Don---In everything I have ever read about reinforcing fiberglass bodies with wood, It has said that if you fit the wood right up tight to the fiberglass, with no gap, it will create a "shadow" on the outside of the body when the body is finish painted with high gloss paint. Any time I have reinforced a body, as you are doing, I made sure to leave a 1/8" gap between the wood and the body, and glass in both sides of the wood to the body by using a 2" wide strip of mat, half onto the body and half onto the wood reinforcing on each side of the wood. I hope that what you are doing does not give this "shadow" effect that I have heard of. I will be interested to see how it turns out---Brian

Great question Brian, and one that I've wrestled with also. I have heard and read exactly the same things, and was careful to leave that gap when intalling the floor. The plywood is about that far away from the body. But for the stringers I had to put them up against the fiberglass outer shell as there was no way to stiffen the body or attach them without glassing them right to the shell.

I did put two to four layers of mat as a cushion between each stinger and the body, and wetted it out so it is bonding the wood to the glass. I did the same thing on my '27 and never got any shadowing. I went one step further on the '27 that I won't be doing on this one. I glassed an outer piece of 1/4 plywood to make an inner shell, and then poured in expandible foam between the two layers. The thinking was that it would make a rock solid body. I guess it worked, as the car never got any stress cracks, but in hindsight was overkill.

I think as long as I paint everything between the stringers with the black bed liner it should provide enough of a light screen that there should be no problems. At least I hope so.

Just don't know another way to do it, and even Total Performance, in their wooding kit, provide instructions how to bond pieces of wood to the interior of the body. (by the way, don't ever buy their wooding kit. I got one with the T bucket I bought a long time ago from some guy, and it is nothing but cheap, crooked firring strips. And they get big money for them.)

Yeah, I know this sort of contradicts that rule you and I have come to accept, but since most boat have wood glassed up tight against the hulls, and I have also done this on my '27, I think it will be ok.

Time will tell.

Don

Oh, BTW, I mentioned that I put expandible foam in the hollow sections of my '27 body. Funny story related to that.

If you have never seen this expandible foam, it is a two part epoxy that boat builders use to add floatation to their boats. You take a hollow cavity, mix up the two parts, and dump it into the cavity. As the name implys, it expands to like 3 times it's size and fills every little nook and cranny. I have always joked that you mix it up and RUN.

So, I took a little hole saw and punched a hole into the inner liner, dumped in some foam , replaced the wooden plug I had cut out, and glassed it back in place. Later on I told my Son about the great thing I had done, and he said, "you really better check, because that foam will expand and push your body out of shape."

I walked out into the garage, and the door area of the body was bowed out about an inch from the pressure of the foam expanding. This stuff was swelling my body outward. In a panic I took the holesaw and cut a few more holes, and all this pressure escaped, and the body luckily went back to it's original shape.

If he hadn't said that I would have had the fattest 1927 Ford in history.

Live and learn.

Don

Great story Don and good save too! I know about the first scratch deal, I am going to be a nervous wreck for a while.

I was looking in a new "Old Dawg catalog" and they have a 27 lakes body in there with 2 opening doors, now that would be alot of fancy reinforcing wouldn't it? Whats the next step for you Don, start laying in the interior?

Don & Brian,
I have also read about the problem of "shadowing" or "read-out" whenever you wood the inside of a fiberglass body, particularly when attaching the floor. I have never actually seen it, however, even though I have painted seven different fiberglass bodied hotrods (3 of which were T-buckets). Either they (the owners) had already overcome the problem or it showed up quite sometime later. The only one of those seven cars that I know the whereabouts of is one of the T's that is still in the hands of its original builder and still wears the Candy Brick Red lacquer that I sprayed on it in 1979. It still shows no sign of "shadowing". I'm not saying it doesn't happen; I'm just saying that it apparently doesn't aways happen. Now we just need to figure out why it does / doesn't sometimes and we can take the proper steps to avoid the problem. I'll be going through this same process soon and I'd like to know.

By the way, can somebody tell me how to post a picture in these threads? I can put pics in my gallery OK, but when I click on the "insert image" icon here, it asks for a URL...? Huh?

Brick, Yeah, I have always resisted the temptation to put an opening door in my rods because of two things. First of all the extra work to get the jams and all right, and secondly, my buddy had a T bucket with a passenger side opening door. When you would hit a bump the gap would close up and pinch your arm that was resting on the door. I don't know if it was just improper bracing on his or what, but that made me decide that I and my lady would climb over the sides. (that's the acid test for me, if she climbs over and doesn't complain, she's a keeper )

As for my next step, today I got as far as finishing up the passenger side too, so all I have to do now is the backrest portion. I decided to let the glass get real cured so I left it for tonight. Then I can start on my tunnel. That is going to be a challenge, and I have some thinking to do on what I am going to do exactly there.

After that is done the body will get put aside and I will begin getting the frame ready for paint. (some final little welding tasks and sandblasting first)


Jim. I have to agree with you. As many fiberglass cars as I have seen, none have exhibited this problem, so maybe my concerns are unfounded. If worst comes to worst, I will just panel paint the car like they did in the '70's and lay some lace patterns all over it. Second thought, no I won't.


I will close out this post because I never know when this stupid computer will freeze up and I lose everything I have written, but I will log back on and tell you how to get pictures on here.

BTW, here are some shots of how I braced the stringers until they cured. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.


Don