Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

Well, I keep hopping back and forth, but at least something's getting done... Back to the hood! I stopped after cutting out the panels for the hood tops because I had a problem with forming them to a usable shape. Some time ago I made the apparatus in the first picture below. It looks a lot like an ordinary sawhorse, but the top of it is made from a piece of 2" black iron pipe welded next to a piece of 1/4" wall 3" angle iron with a 1/16th" space between them. With this I can bend sheet metal with either a gentle radius or a sharp corner.

I initially thought I would be able to form my hood tops on this, but soon discovered that it wasn't going to work. I ended up with a bunch of bend lines or creases running the length of the piece! (Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture!) OK, I needed something with a larger radius... I was standing in the garage alternately staring at the ruined hood piece and gazing out the door when I noticed that the light pole out by the street might be about the right size. I screwed a piece of angle iron to the light pole with a washer under each end and used this arrangement to wrap the other hood top around the pole. (I didn't take a picture of this because it's illegal to attach anything to a light pole! ) Well.., this didn't work either. The pole was too large so it didn't bend a tight enough radius. Also, light poles aren't real smooth, so this piece came out with lumps and lines too! It was all this difficulty that prompted me to go buy my English Wheel. I've been wanting one of these things forever and this looked like a good excuse to finally get one. The $239 price tag at Harbor Freight is probably less than it would cost me to have a hood custom built and I get to keep the tool...

Having never used an English Wheel before, I thought it would be prudent to use the first hood top (that I thought was ruined) as a practice piece. After rolling it lengthwise with a mildly curved wheel, I noticed that the bend marks began to disappear! I switched to a flat wheel and started wheeling the piece from side to side across the bend... Holy crap, Batman! This thing was starting to look pretty good! I followed suit with the other side (the one I wrapped around the light pole) and it came out pretty nice, too! The final pic is of both pieces taped together on the car. They'll need a little "tweaking" by hand, but I am really pleased with the results of my first wheeling experience.

[Itoldyouso]

Glad to see you getting some use out of your new English Wheel. I'm like you, never had real luck bending sheetmetal over poles and stuff. I watched Chip Foose form that one hood on a round support column, but I guess that's why he is Chip Foose and I'm not.

Hood came out good Jim, finshes off the front of the car very well.

Don

[ford2custom]

Jim, when I wake up in the morning, as I’m sleep typing now because of pain and cannot sleep. I’ll send you a link to a site where a guy reinforced his e-wheel and polished his anvils. On some of the other sites they are completely against these but if we all had unlimited funds we could buy the better ones. I have one and it was get it or not get one at all and it is at least better then primitive methods.

Richard

Check out this site he made some improvements on his.

http://www.jamesriser.com/Machinery/...l/Finally.html

[Hotrod46]

JR

Your car just keeps looking better and better! It flows well and sits right. What kind of wheels are you going to use?

Glad you had good luck with the E wheel. I've been thinking about getting one.

Mike

[OFT]

I like how the hood top came out. Going to need to get a HF English wheel. Like the overall looks of the car. Just like hotrod46, I too wonder what the wheel/tire combo will be.

Earl

[BradC]

Hood looks good, did you buy a lotto ticket, being so lucky not to have scrap all that metal.
BradC

[J. Robinson]

Thanks for all the compliments, guys. It's turning out like I had intended so far...

Don - You know I couldn't resist playing with a new toy. I just wish I had had this thing a couple years ago when I was making body parts for my coupe and my son's sedan.

Richard - Thanks for the link. I have saved it to my computer and when I get the roadster done I may do those improvements, at least polishing the anvils. I agree, if it comes down to having this tool from Harbor Freight or not having one at all... no contest!

Mike - Go for it; I think you'll be pleased. I priced English Wheels at Biketoberfest a couple of years ago; major $$$$. They wanted $500+ just for the rollers and some plans. This thing is well worth the money even if I have to reinforce it later. So far, though, it's doing OK.

Earl & Mike - The wheels will be painted steel wheels. I am trying to replicate the look of the track roadsters from the late '40's - early '50's. I may add trim rings and center caps, but not sure.

Brad - Yeah, I buy Lotto tickets every week, but I ain't THAT lucky yet. I sure would like to make that phone call; you know the one that goes: "Take this job and shove it!" Seriously, I am really happy with the way this worked out; I'm out of shelving to cut up!

[J. Robinson]

OK, so I've got a couple of shaped panels. What's next? The center hinge, of course!

I used an ordinary piano hinge available at ACE Hardware. To strengthen the area, I used a strip of 1/8 x 3/4 flat stock on each edge. After drilling the flat stock pieces and the edge of each hood piece to match the holes in the hinge, I riveted the pieces together with large-head 3/16 pop-rivets. The hinge is sandwiched between the hood and the flat stock. I only put in every-other rivet for now in case I need to disassemble it. When everything goes together for the final time and I do the paint prep, I will intall the remaining rivets and fill the little holes in the center of them so they will look like aircraft rivets (pop-rivets didn't exist in the '40's - '50's).

[bluestang67]

Ok was it your the English or Math teacher who definitly should be a shop teacher . Well im sure job security is better where your at . But you really are a well versed sheet metal man also . I keep studying the Green Machine and following this thread with all enthusiasim ( no english major ) LOL but i love cars . Jim you have done some miraculous things please keep up the good work .

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, Bobby. I've been screwing around with mechanical things since I was a little kid and I'm still learning...

No, I'm not an English or Math teacher. My degree is in Industrial Arts/Technology Education with additional vocational certifications in Auto Mechanics and Auto Body Repair. I have taught Woodworking, Engineering Tech, Auto Mechanics (before computers), Auto Body Repair, and now Construction. I have worked as a Mechanic, Bodyman, Welder/Fabricator, Machinist, Carpenter, Framer, Technical Writer/Illustrator, and of course, a Teacher.

I'm not really trying to blow my own horn; just showing that I am truly a "Jack of all trades"... Oh, by the way, my wife is the English teacher, so I BETTER get the spelling and grammar right!

[brickman]

You are my kind of teacher J! The car is looking fantastic, the hood is just right. Planning any louvers?

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, Brickman. Yes, I want to put two rows of louvers in each side panel. I am waiting to hear from an old friend up in Indiana. The guy who gave me my first ever ride in a hotrod almost 50 years ago has a louver punch in his shop. I thought it would be neat if I could get him to punch the louvers for me since his roadster (which he still owns & drives [see below]) was part of the inspiration for mine. He's kind of cantankerous sometimes and picks & chooses the jobs he wants to do, so time will tell. If he doesn't come through for me, I'll get them done locally.

[bluestang67]

Just don't let her read this . I have to ask my wife on the big words LOL . Car and Hotrod are very easy one's . What I am learning here is what they call a ratrod is a track T in real terms low to the ground and center of gravity changed . Looking at Moe's garage the old time pics didn't use that technology back then . So correct me if I'm wrong a Track T is a mixture of 1940's vintage racing with some midget type style built into the car .

[J. Robinson]

Hmmm... Actually, rat rod is a fairly recent term and really has nothing to do with track-T's. Let's see if I can define this for you...

The track-style T as we know it now is usually a '23 or '27 T roadster body with turtle deck and sprint car or midget nose and a hood. In reality, probably only about a third of the post-war track-T's actually had race car noses on them. The rest often had Model-A or '32 grille shells on them. Apparently, according to the books I have, all of them had at least a hood top with the majority having fully enclosed hoods. I suppose there must have been rules that required a hood. In all the pictures I have, only one car has a pickup bed; all the rest have a rear bustle (turtle deck). I assume that the rules required that the fuel tank be enclosed inside the body, hence the use of the rear bustle. There were NO bob-tail track-T cars. Bob-tailed cars are more closely akin to the "lakes-modified" cars that ran on the dry lakes and salt flats. If you see a roadster that has a sprint car nose and a bob-tail, it's a sort of half-breed...

The car that I am building somewhat replicates the "California style" track roadsters that were popular on the west coast and in the Indiana - Ohio region. These were the forerunners of the modern sprint car. Unfortunately, although I grew up in Indiana, a veritable hotbed of roadster racing, I never got to see them run! By the time I was old enough to go to the track with my parents, all the roadsters at the local tracks in our area had already evolved into sprint cars.

[J. Robinson]

A few postings back, when I mounted the hood sides, I said I had more work to do to the bottom edges of them. What I meant was that I needed to do some shaping for frame clearance.

To accomplish this, I began by clamping the hood sides, one at a time, to my "shaping horse" (described earlier) with the inside facing up and the edge of the angle iron aligned with the top of the cutout (Look at the picture; it helps my description to make sense).

Next, I used the soft end of a dead-blow hammer to crease the hood side back about 7 or 8 inches. Then I held a body dolly under the bottom edge and used the dead-blow hammer between the crease and the edge to slightly curl the area outward. A few swipes of this area on the English Wheel to smooth the hammer marks and it's done. In the pictures you can see how the shape adds a little finish detail to the fit rather than cutting the hood side back further.

With everything fitting now, I installed the hood latches. These are ordinary draw-tight hasps (toolbox latches) available at any hardware store. I didn't take any pics of the installation; it was just a matter of locating the pieces where they needed to go and pop-riveting them in place.