Thread: I couldn't build it for $3 K either!

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Originally Posted by Hotrod46

I was wrapped up in two wheeled endeavors off and on during the summer.

Dont I know what you mean!!!! I spent most of the summer months on the ol Harley.....I made more progress on my T coupe in the last three days then I did ALL summer!!!!.....

T42

I see you're in Tenn. There is some mighty fine riding in your state. We trailered a bike to the Knoxville area a few years ago for the NSRA Southern Nats. Spent 4 days riding in the eastern part of the state. It was great and I want to go back!

Mike

I decided to use a Speedway column. The price seemed right for a stainless column and I wanted a simple look.

It's a VERY simple unit. Just a piece of 1 3/4" stainless tubing, a couple of 3/4" bore flanged bearings that fit the tube and a 3/4" shaft. The shaft has a double D machined on the bottom and comes with a quick release wheel mount up top. You could make one pretty easy if you have the materials and maybe a milling machine. But, it doesn't look bad and saved me the time building it.

I made up a dummy column out of scrap pipe and all-thread and bolted a steering wheel to the top. I used a piece of MDF screwed to the firewall to support the lower end. That way I could adjust the length and find a comfortable angle. After measuring the angle I screwed two pieces of 3/4" MDF board together and set them up in my drill press. I used a 1 3/4" hole saw to cut an angled hole in the boards. Those boards were screwed to the firewall in the right location for the bottom of the steering column. These then became a guide for the hole saw in my hand drill to cut the bottom mounting hole. This gives you a much better chance of getting the hole right on the first try.

I left the MDF guide in place and slid the steering column through it. It worked out just right. The fit was tight enough to hold the column in place so that the upper mount could be done.

The upper and lower clamps were made from 1/2" steel, but they could be made of aluminum. I just don't usually have much aluminum laying around. The hole was cut with a hole saw and they were drilled and tapped for a 3/8" fine thread clamp bolt. The last step was to split them through the top portion to form the clamp. The lower piece was cut on an angle to match the firewall. The upper bracket is just two pieces of angle iron with a piece of 3/16" plate welded between them for bracing. The dash hides all this.

After I got it all done, I noticed some side to side flexing in the cowl if you pulled on the column. I added a diagonal brace to the center of the firewall and took most of it out. There's just not a whole lot of rigidity in a T cowl.

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

T42

I see you're in Tenn. There is some mighty fine riding in your state. We trailered a bike to the Knoxville area a few years ago for the NSRA Southern Nats. Spent 4 days riding in the eastern part of the state. It was great and I want to go back!

Mike

Yeah, well you are right about EAST tenn......Im too close to Memphrica, and its not near as nice!!! The further east you go, the nicer it gets!

After the column was in place I made up the steering shaft. It worked out pretty good. The joints are not at bad angles and there's pretty good clearance between the shaft and engine. The picture makes it look closer than it really is.

In this picture you can see I've added the radiator support rods. These are from a 32 Ford. I had to cut them down some, but I think the A model rods would have been too short. I stuck the 3 duece setup on to check clearance. It's tight on the front air cleaner. I want to use the helmet style air cleaners and I hope they will fit. The open style will work with no problem though if I have to use them.

I've also been kicking around the idea of using a generator instead of an alternator. I think it fits with the look of the car. It's only 30 amps but since most of the time(daytime) I'm only going to be pulling an electric fuel pump and possibly a MSD box, I think it will work. The Carter fuel pump shouldn't pull more than 5-7 amps and MSD claims that their 6A boxes only draw 1 amp for every 1000 RPM's(seems low to me, anybody have any real world info?). Two 60 watt headlights should draw about 10 amps and I'm going to use LED taillights, which shouldn't draw much at all. That should leave me with about 10 amps to spare( I hope). The only real unknown is the MSD box and I can ditch that if I have to and just run the points. Of course there's always Pertronix

I thought it was about time to get the door hung and latched. Notice I still haven't fixed the windshield.

This body was setup for a fiberglass interior unit that gets epoxied into place and stiffens the whole unit up. You're not supposed to need wood or other reinforcement. Well maybe not, but the more I fooled with it, the more I thought it could use a little added support.

One area was the door. The original setup had the hinges screwed to the fiberglass door frame and relied on the box structure formed by the interior to hold everything aligned. If the hinges ever needed serviceing, you were just out of luck. Once that interior section gets glued in, it ain't comin' back out in one piece.

I fabbed up an inner door post out of 3/4" square tube and a peice of angle iron heavy enough that it could be tapped for the hinge bolts(1 x 1 x 1/4", I think). Luckily I had room to squeeze it in between the body and interior unit. It ties into the cowl bar at the top. At the bottom, I added a bolt-on bracket to the side of the chassis and the door post bolts through the floor to that. The door hinge support is now as solid as the car frame and independent of the body for the most part. If the hinges ever need to be removed, I will still need to cut an access hole in the kick panel area, but it's not going to weaken the door support or throw it out of alignment.

I also had to reinforce the hinges. They were made of 1/8" material and were already starting to bend, as you can see in the picture. I just added another piece of 1/8" flatbar and now they're pretty solid.