Page 2 The project begins
Page 3 Front end and doors
Page 4 Body framing
Page 5 Wheel tubs and more framing
Page 6 Door openings and more on the body
Page 7 The frame
Page 8 Steering, shocks and engine mounts
Page 9 CAD, lasercut parts and intake.
Page 10 Transmission and engine mounts.
Page 11 Roof and floor.
Page 12 Body and engine details.
Page 13 Fuel tank.
Page 14 Pedals and steering.
Page 15 Odds and ends, the frame.
Page 16 The body and more details.
Page 17 Dash, exhaust and engine.
Page 18 Bodywork and to do list stuff.

Karkmotuning

 

 

The body, more details

Plans call for Air-Maze stickers on the air filters. The top one here is adjusted to look more American, whereas the bottom counterpart is the original brittish version found on the oil bath filter housings.


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The body was jacked up onjackstands to make room for work from the underside. Some welding had been left undone before, because the frame was still bolted to the floor.

A few days went into designing, shopping for materials and making an ignition wire holdup thing. The ignition wires need to be held with something, since they run above the exhaust headers. This design utilizes the original loom inside a rectangular pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

When I got it in place, I thought it looked awful big and didn't like it. Even painted and decorated with brass acorn nuts, it looks too bulky, so a more simple approach with exposed wires was tried which was deemed to look better


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These things were from nylon and they hold the ignition wires nicely and scurely. They are held together with M3 screws and nuts, about 5-40 size. The plastic looks very light gray here, because the parts are sanded with coarse grit, but it's actually black nylon.
(May 2024)

We got a nice size parcel, which contained a radiator. It was tried it in its new place today. It's for a model A Ford and fits fairly well in the Buick grille shell.


This was going to be a large patch, here's how it went:
Templates were made from wood and wood screws, to have something to
check the shape of the sheet against while it was rolled it in the English wheel.
Back at home the new sheet was centered and levelled and fastened with four
sheet metal screws in lieu of clecos.

Then a lot of shrinking in the deep throat schrinker-stretcher was done. When the
shape looked okay, A 3/4" flange was made using a tipping die in the bead roller,
then the flange was shrunk with the shrinker-stretcher to get back to the right shape.

This is a 40 Ampere alternator, meant for a Kubota engine. The plans originally called for V-belts, but I thought the better of it, this project witll never be done if we're to alter every detail, so instead a new wide belt pulley was purchased and a 15-17 mm bushing to make it fit the axle. Of course the pulley was too thick for the short axle, so it had to be turned down about three thirtyseconds on my uncle's lathe for the nut to have enough threads. It's never as easy as it looks.



Some clamping tools to get 1/4" round bar welded to the wheel tub edges were sketched up.

Six of them were made, three and three, mirrored. Six turned out to be enough or this kind of job.
(June 2024)



Here's before, when tacked, and after. The edge looks much more like it belongs now, and the clamping tools worked great combined with vice grips.
Surprising how much easier the other side was to do than the first one.
Learning by doing.

The floor was sanded, top and bottom, and scuffed with 180 grit on the orbital sander,
shifting to hand sanding where the machine wouldn't go. Then washed with thinner.
The floor and the firewall with grey epoxy primer. Day 2, the top side of the floor was
epoxied too. In the evening all of it was spayed with 2K black industrial paint.

The drip rails were in the car when it was bought, but they were a mess, and deemed unusable.
The new base rails were cut out of 14ga sheet metal, 2mm thick. 86 holes were drilled for plug welding.



The old drip rail was about the size of a 10mm diameter tube (about 3/8"), which was used for this project. About a quarter of the tube was cut away along its lenght, two meters or 80" of pipe on each side.

Then the pipe was bent over a large Pontiac brake drum that happened to be of the right diameter.

Welding the tube to the sheet metal strips was tricky, as it effectively had to be done from the back side.
The drip rail was clamped to the roof, and plug welding from the rear, it was bent and adjusted along the roof line. After grinding the welds, it looks a lot like the original drip rail.



Some flaked chrome trim and the cowl lights had been removed from the cowl, resulting in 22 unsightly holes that had to be welded shut
The paint was sanded off the whole cowl area.

Time to make the windshield frame.
As this car came with a crank up windshield framed in wood, it was decided early on that we were going with a top hinged windshield. The opening itself was made some time ago, just the frame has been missing.
5/8" U-profile was chosen for material.



A couple hood hinges from a thirties car were used to make the wind shield top hinge.
The hinges were cut into two equal lengths and welded into one unit.

For opening mechanism some 3/4" round bar was used. A through hole was drilled and a sawn off bolt was welded to the other end of the hole, so there's something to screw the windshield opener to.
Obviously one for each side were made.
(July 2024)



After a bunch of measuring and finally welding, the windshield frame with its opener mechanisms is done.
Fun thing: The polished brass parts were found in a relative's shop when it was cleaned out.

Back to the accessory belts.
Same as with the alternator, the Mercedes power steering pump didn't fit. Some asking around revieled that Volvo pumps are much smaller with a remote reservoir, so one of those was bought from a scrapped car, and determined that it might fit, but only just.

This engine has a remote oil filter, and becasue thatwon't fit in among the headers and narrow chassis, that one still needs figuring out. In any case, the oil filter connections will be in the same 10 mm (about 3/8") thick piece of plate asr the pump mount here. More on that later on. Lots of grinding and drilling to make this part.



The plate with all its holes fit first try. Unbelievable. Usually it's hard to get more than two holes to fit. Then the pump mount was made. It will pivot on two bolts, to assure the belt runs straight. Also a mount for the mount was made from 8mm (5/16") plate.

The hard part was to get the little mount in the right position, so a buddy gave a hand, holding the pump in the right position while I scribed. All parts back on the work bench, holes were drilled and tapped, and the parts were bolted together.

Lo and behold, it came out spot on! First try. This never happens.
An old belt was shortened to a nice fit using a knife, a piece of sheet metal and some pop rivets.
Getting a suitable new belt will probably be easy now that we have one that fits and can be measured.



The belt tensioner for the power steering pump is done. Also the crank sensor (arrow) is in place, and things made so it can be replaced without removing more than one bolt.

Next up is the grille. The shape of the grille shell is nice, no need to alter that, but the original grille is not a favorite, it's just a stamped sheet, so it was decided early on to make a tube grille.



For tubing chromed copper 10 mm diameter waterpipe is used.
Holes were drilled to make a matrix for the top and one for the bottom. Since the grille shell is a bit wider at the bottom, the holes were drilled 0,83 mm (.327") farther apart in the bottom matrix. This resulted in holes for 31 pieces of tubing.

The botom matrix here. It took some figuring out to get a nice fit without it showing from the front of the grille, and to get each of the tubes fastened so the whole thing won't rattle. A box of very small sheet metal screws is used to get it all mounted.



All the parts and tubes trial fitted. It looks okay, the spacing of the tubes follow the shape of the grille fairly well.

The crank hole will get a filler piece, it doesn't look right as you can see the tubes going past it.

A small piece of sheet metal was missing between the windsheild opening and the roof.
Here is what was missing.
The piece going here is bent, it goes to the front of the roof and and is plug welded through the myriad original holes.
The bend isn't straight, it was bent using a tipping die on the bead roller. Then using the shrinker, the new part was straightened so it fits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new piece is lined up with vice grips, ready for plugwelding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The welds were ground down. Some welding still to do on the old "forehead" of the roof.
The arrow points at the hole where the axle for the viper motor goes.



The new aluminum radiator was mounted to the shell and as luck would have it, the mounting tabs for this radiator, meant for model A Fords coincided with some convinently placed original holes in the grille shell.

The fact that you can see through the grille around the radiator isn't a good look, so a shroud was fabricated from 19 ga (1mm) sheet metal.



An own version of a crank hole filler piece was made from a cut down Cragar wheel center cap that had warmed a shelf for far too long.

The radiator and grille shell done now, pending paint and assembly with the tube grille. Radiator and shroud will be flat black, grille shell gloss black and the tube grille chrome.



The radiator cap hole was deleted, and a piece of sheetmetal with a small peak made on the bead roller was welded in instead.

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