Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[Ken Thurm]

Jim,
Sometimes I should keep my mouth shut, but the theme you have I think that will look great. I was hoping you would do that. Maybe 2 extra hood sides fuel injection would look nice.
Ken

[FMXhellraiser]

That will look awesome, the louvers will look great too. If I had a louver press, holy crap, I think every piece of metal around my house would have louvers in it whether it looked good or not. Cabinets, cars, trucks, tables, electrical boxes.... haha
Also, did you say you are using a poster board like cardboard for the shaping of things? It looks like it from the pictures but not sure if it is as thin as I am thinking.

[J. Robinson]

FMX - Yes, just ordinary poster board. In the past I have used all sorts of things (corrugated paste board boxes, notepad backs, manila folders, pizza boxes, shoe boxes ). Thin and stiff is the key. Corrugated box material and pizza boxes were the worst - too thick to cut accurately and doesn't bend well. The others are OK, but don't come in big enough pieces for making body panel templates... So, poster board is my usual choice. It's stiff enough for most things yet easy to draw on and cut...

[J. Robinson]

OK, this will be pretty short. I left off last time with the pattern made for the left hood half. The next logical step, of course, was to make the pattern for the right half. Making these patterns is mostly a matter of "cut & try" until you get them to fit properly. A little extra time spent here can save a lot of time later...

After getting both patterns fit so I was satisfied, it was simply a matter of transferring the patters to the steel I am using and cut them out. Notice that I labeled them so that I would not confuse which was which or how they go later. I did this because the two pieces are not 100% identical (differences in the nose/ cowl from side to side).

Lastly, I cut them out. The good news is I got my air shears working again, so I don't have any blisters on my hands. Now all I have to do is form them to fit...

[OFT]

I like how you're doing the build with what's on hand. Really gave me idea's for my '27 project roadster for rear springs. Your ideas of using "common" parts on hand or local (for breakdown repair) is great. I have drove my '29AA all over the west and agree that breakdowns will occur and there is not "next day air" service to be had at all locations.

I will be keeping a eye on your build. If you want I will post a pic of the '23 dirt track style roadster I built a few years ago. Used the Chevy II 153" four with dual 45DCOE Webers and other go fast goodies (like it only got 9 mpg) It was a blast.

Keep your four banger stock for the best in mph. Which I could not do, just not in me LOL.

Earl

[J. Robinson]

Thanks Earl. Yes, I would like to see the pics of your T. Sounds like you and I think somewhat alike.

OK. I have my hood panels cut out, but the apparatus I was planning to use for forming them didn't work out, so I will have to put them on hold for a few days. I will explain more in detail when I finally get back to them. For now, I am going to move on to another little job that I need to finish...

Some time ago (and many postings) I fabricated a pair of matching plates with holes in diagonal corners, welded nuts to one of them, and then welded it to the frame under the floor near the firewall on the passenger side. The purpose of these plates is to provide the bracketry for attaching the removable center brace of the roll bar.

I began this episode by drilling up through the bottom plate's holes (with a bit small enough not to hurt the threads) through the fiberglass floor. After enlarging the holes slightly from the topside, I bolted the second plate in place.

Next, I made the bracket plate for the top by splitting a piece of tubing down the center, cutting it to length, and drilling a pair of 3/8" holes.

With the bottom plate bolted down and the top one C-clamped in place, I cut the brace to fit. This piece is cut from the same size tubing as the roll bar. Fitting it was just a matter of "cut & try" method. Once I was satisfied with the fit at both ends, I tack welded it to the plates. Then I removed it and welded the plates solidly to the tube.

Finally, I put it back in place, bolted down the bottom end, and then drilled through the roll bar for the top bracket. I put a pair of grade-8 bolts through the top, but this is just temporary. As soon as I get back to this, I will open these holes up and weld a small tube through each one to restore the integrity of the tubing and also to keep it from crushing when the bolts are tightened. Unfortunately, I ran out of time...

[OFT]

My T used a home built frame based on a plan by CCR (Cali. Custom Roadsters). Ran the Chevy II 153" four with a shaved head (.55) Cilfford 280H cam, Rhodes lifters, .30 over flattop pistons. Had a T50 non-overdrive 5 speed feeding a 4:11 8" Ford Mavrick rear. Unknow body with a CCR turtle deck. Homemade nerf bars (Your right on the think along same lines, look at "our" front nerfs lol).

[OFT]

couple more, also notice "we" used alum. sheet (mines plain) on firewal

[J. Robinson]

Nice car, Earl. Where is it now?

The split wishbones with the side-nerfs mounted to the rear ones is VERY traditional. If you like track-T's (obviously you do), take a look at "Roaring Roadsters" by Don Radbruch. If you had put a hood top and a simple roll bar in that car it would have looked like it fell out of that book.

The '23 style body with turtle deck on a custom frame was considered the "hot setup". These cars were called "California style", but were popular all over the west coast from Washington to Southern Cal and in the Indiana - Ohio areas. Most were powered by early Chevy four-bangers with Oldsmobile heads (I've never seen one; that's what the book says). The Ford flathead (surprisingly) didn't really take over until the last couple of years before the demise of the roadsters in about 1955.

Pic below from "Roaring Roadsters" by Don Radbruch:

[OFT]

Thanks,I liked the car. Sold it to a young (30's) guy in Ft. Collins couple years ago plus some other hot rods.

Agree on the roll bar-hood. Just could not fiqure out how to do it and look nice. Really like how you have done yours. Just wish I'd thought of it, or saw it before, when I was building mine.

I have both of the roadster books. Agree on the western style. The midwest were more of the jalopy look. And you are right. The flathead V8 was not the hot setup until the '50s. BTW I saw the races live in early-mid 50's (starting to give my age away LOL). By then the jalopy style was taking over and when SBC came out Speedway Motors '32 sedan had that and was wicked. Won almost all the races. (SE Nebr.)

Yours is really going together nice Keep up the good work and keep the thread updated as you can.

Earl

[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