Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[Itoldyouso]

Jim, I mentioned your T build on another forum and some folks have come over to view it I think. The subject was 4 cylinder hot rods and how they worked out in one. You might be on the leading edge of a movement with gas getting the way it is.

Your cowl support looks good and will really stiffen things up. I'm so glad I did one in mine, nothing moves when I crank the wheel.

I went to that site you mentioned about the Smyna show, and was really shocked to see your Son's sedan.............he's really got it finished off nicely. I didn't know about the green paint and flames. Just looks super all the way around. He has to be getting stoked about having it on the road. When did he add the trips? Cool!!

Here are the pictures for everyone to see. Looks like it was a huge turnout of some really nice cars.

Don

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, Don. He's had the tri-power on there since day one. All the plumbing on it, as you can see, is done in copper and brass which he polished to a brilliant shine. He says he's going to put copper tubing in place of the radiator hoses and polish that too. We'll see... Those carbs are not the usual 2G's with side inlets; they are the more common (and much less expensive) front inlet type. The adapter that they sit on turns them slightly so the inlets are offset to allow the plumbing to fit. That setup draws a lot of attention.

The New Smyrna cruise-in takes place the second Saturday of every month and always draws a large number of nice cars.

The week after these pics were taken, we headed north to attend the cruise-in at Rossmeyer's in Ormond Beach. Unfortunately, about ten miles from home, my son's sedan threw its right rear wheel! I went back home to get my truck, a jack, and the necessary parts and tools so we could affect repairs on the roadside. No real damage other than 5 broken lug studs and a beat up brake drum, but my son learned a valuable lesson about wheel spacer adapters and why we use a torque wrench to install them...

[Itoldyouso]

Ouch! Was it torqued too loose the first time or what? Must be nice crusing with the Boy. My Sons keep asking me why I am not using my T much, but I am waiting until both of their cars are running so we can have our own rolling car show. More fun to cruise with others.

Don

[J. Robinson]

Not sure, but probably not tight enough... He slammed the adapters on with an impact wrench and then put the wheels on.

OK, for some of the newbies out there, here's a lesson in Auto Mechanics 101 (Sorry. It's the teacher coming out in me)... Have ya ever wondered why the lug holes in a standard steel wheel have that raised area around them? No, it's not to center the lug nut! That little raised area is actually a carefully engineered shape that compresses slightly when the lugs are tightened. It acts like a lock washer. You can drive around on a stock wheel with 4 or even 3 lugs indefinitely, but you can't do that with a mag wheel... If the lugs are tightened unevenly on a solid piece (like an adapter or a mag wheel with a thick center) it will seat with uneven pressure. It may not be visible or feel crooked at first, but as the wheel rolls over and over it keeps exacerbating the high and low stresses until something moves. If one lug nut comes loose, the differences in the stress loads becomes greater. Eventually, another lug will work loose, then another and another, etc. Pretty soon all the weight and stress is being carried directly by the lug studs instead of the friction between the surfaces of the wheel and hub. At that point, if it isn't re-tightened, the lug studs will begin to fail. My son said he encountered a vibration that was growing steadily worse (probably the lug studs shearing off one at a time) and then, suddenly, the wheel left...

When we got it back home that evening, I had him to take both rear wheels off so I could check the adapters. Bingo! The lugs on the left adapter were finger tight! To prove my point I tightened it with the impact wrench and then checked it with a torque wrench. The first two lugs I tightened registered 130 lbs. The other three ranged from 100 to 80 lbs! I loosened them all and reset them to 110 with the torque wrench.

OK. Lesson over.

Yeah, Don, it is kinda cool cruisin' with my young'un. Back when he was in his early teens, his mother and I were certain that one of us was probably going to kill him. He finally grew up and has become a good friend. We built our cars pretty much side-by-side like you and your sons and now we enjoy cruising them together.

[J. Robinson]

I finally got around to reassembling the steering and supports inside the body. In the picture, you can see the sector shaft support is just inside the body. Everything fits and works as intended, so now I can finish welding in the side bars and bond the roll bar structure to the body.

[Itoldyouso]

Yeah, those teen years can be a little trying, can't they? I know we had a few heated "discussions" when mine were that age. Problem is, they won't hold still for a spanking when they get bigger than you.

Nice to see you are getting more done on your T. That steering support is a good idea.

Don

[J. Robinson]

Well, it's been a while, but I finally got a pretty good day in on the roadster yesterday (Sat.). With all the modifications finished on the under-dash hoop, I was ready to weld in the side bars and then bond the whole assembly into the body.

I began by welding in the side bars. Since it is impossible to get a full 360 degrees around the tubes, gussets are a must. After finishing the side bars, I put a cross-bar in the main roll bar hoop about 3 inches below the top of the body. This piece is also gusseted at the corners and I included a bracket on each side so I can attach racing style shoulder harnesses later.

Once everything was welded in place (and cooled off) I moved on to bonding the cage to the body. To do this, I put a temporary "dam" of 2" masking tape on one side of the bars where I wanted to apply the bonding material. Next, I mixed up a big glob of Dynaglas fiberglass filler and packed it into the void between the bars and the fiberglass body. (It actually took 3 times to fill all the areas I wanted to bond; ya can't mix this stuff all at once or it will harden before you can use it.) After the the first round of filler was hard enough, I pulled all the masking tape, mixed up some more filler, and packed all the areas from the opposite sides. Finally, when all the filler was cured, I did some scraping and grinding to clean everything up.

There are a couple of areas where I will do some additional bonding when I "wood in" the body. When I'm done, the roll cage and body will be virtually one piece.

[J. Robinson]

Now that the side bars are in place, I was able to finish the side nerf bars. I built the bottom bars sometime ago, but I couldn't put the upper brace on until I had something to which I could attach the upper end.

First step was to make a couple of brackets and attach them to the side bars just inside the body. I fabricated these from 1/4" wall x 1 1/2" angle. After cutting them to length, I trimmed 3/8" off one edge. Next, I drilled them and welded a 3/8 - 16 nut to the back side. The finished brackets were then welded to the underside of the side bars so that they were directly above the rear of the side nerf. I got them even by measuring from the firewall straight back on both sides.

After the brackets were in place, I drilled through the body from the inside, using the hole in the bracket as a guide, with a 1/4" bit. Using the 1/4" hole as a guide, I then used a 1" hole saw to cut through the body from the outside.

Next, I cut two pieces of 3/4" tubing 1 1/2" long and welded a 3/8" SAE washer to one end.

[Itoldyouso]

Looks like everything is getting really tied together well Jim. That inner structure should come in handy to mount a lot of your stuff to.

How close do you think you are to firing up the engine?

Don

[J. Robinson]

I don't know, Don. I haven't messed with the engine at all yet. I still need to remove all the fuel injection stuff and get some type of carburetion for it. It was a running engine when it was pulled from the '87 S-10, so it shouldn't be too hard to get it going...

The inner structure also adds a little protection, but it's going to complicate the "wooding" process.

[J. Robinson]

The next step was to bolt the short tubing pieces to the side bars through the holes. Then it was a matter of bending and cutting the upper braces to fit between the short pieces and the lower bars. This was pretty much a "cut and try" process. Once I got one side looking like I wanted, I used it as a pattern to match the opposite side.

In the last picture, everything is solidly tack-welded together in several places. I will finish welding them when I disassemble the car for finishing.

[J. Robinson]

Aha! We're back! I 've been off to visit relatives in Indiana. I was too late to attend the Goodguys event in Indy (which was partially rained out), but I did make it out to the Speedrome to watch some figure 8 racing...

I was reading some of my previous pages here and ran across the one where I had bought a piece for my front nerf bar at the Billetproof run. I said I would keep it a secret until I was ready to install it. Well, I almost forgot about it altogether until I read that post. So.., I dug it out of the top of my toolbox, welded it into the front nerf, and here it is.

[oldrodder43]

Very Cool Jim. Actually, I did have a sneak preview back in April, but see----Never let it out. haahaaa. Glad you had a little vacation, R&R? Now for some real progress on the Track T??? Perley

[Hotrod46]

Lookin' good J.R.!

I've been wondering how your project was coming along. Glad to see I haven't missed anything.

Mike

[Itoldyouso]

We were just talking about you the other night........Dan asked how your T was coming. I like the nerf bar adornment, very cool. Do you think it will make Turkey Run?

Don