No other like it.

earthman said:

Excellent! Can they issue a vin for a vehicle that dosen't have one?

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I don't know. I suppose they can just like they do for trailers. I don't know what the state says about it. Trailers are easy. They ask you a couple questions about how you built it, and stick a number on it.

DJ3100 said:

Great idea for the tunnel, looks good. I don't know about that armor leather where did you get it?

I have always used acetone to form leather, didn't know alcohol
(actually, I probably forgot) did the same thing. Alcohol would be a lot safer.

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smallfoot said:

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/9099-12.aspx

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Alcohol might be cheaper too.

Yep, that's the leather that I bought. We have a Tandy Leather store over in Tempe on University Dr.
With the leather and rivets, and a rivet setting tool, it only cost me $3 extra to get the gold club membership. Now if you need anything from Tandy, I get something like 10% off. I also have a big expensive piece left over.

Okay, I'm gonna give about 3 hours for someone to talk me out of buying glass patterns to cut my own windows.

http://www.americanclassic.com/asp/...l&p2=Window+Glass&iyear=1942&ytype=to&exyear=

8literbeater said:

Okay, I'm gonna give about 3 hours for someone to talk me out of buying glass patterns to cut my own windows.

http://www.americanclassic.com/asp/...l&p2=Window+Glass&iyear=1942&ytype=to&exyear=

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Factoring in the time, tools, and frustration to do it yourself, plus buying the patterns and glass, I don't think you'll be money ahead, and you definitely won't be time ahead. Also, consider that you need to sand the glass edges smooth without breaking the glass after it is cut.

39-40 Door Glass
41-46 Door Glass

I worked at an autoglass shop and did some safty plate. I don't recommend doing it yourself and the finished window edges will need to be sanded on a wet emory belt like snopro mentioned.
Probably already did it didn't you.

I still haven't ordered anything yet. Either way, I'd like to have the patterns for future reference. They're only $19. I'll have to buy gaskets no matter what.

I have a friend that does auto glass, so I can get the buddy price on laminated glass, and help on installation. Even if I pay the $350 for a set of glass, I'll be working with him to put it in. My windshield frame is a little twisted out of shape, and there's no way a typical installer would work with it. A new windshield frame is $400 plus shipping.

Glasspro quoted me $800 to put a windshield in the 53 Ford, if I brought the car and a new gasket to their shop. Those people are absolutely bonkers.

I'll wait 'til tomorrow to hear what the glass sheets will cost. It might be worth it to order them already cut.

Success!

Congrats!!!

way to go on the reg.

suitable for framing [cl

In case anyone was wondering, that whole thing including a year of registration was $299.75. That's not very nice, but I'm glad it's over, and there were no problems.

I went ahead and bought a sheet of laminated glass to cut windows out of. A 48x60 piece was $88 through a friend so I just gave him 100. There's enough glass that I can make 1 or 2 mistakes, depending on which window I mess up. The patterns were $20. A set of glass would cost $350, so if things go right, I'll save $240.

05snopro440 said:

Factoring in the time, tools, and frustration to do it yourself, plus buying the patterns and glass, I don't think you'll be money ahead, and you definitely won't be time ahead. Also, consider that you need to sand the glass edges smooth without breaking the glass after it is cut.

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Snopro, good points. I was going to get patterns anyway, so I'll just see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I've been working on other things. I took the turbo off and took it apart to order a new carbon seal. If you didn't read it earlier, or don't know what it is, a draw through turbo setup has to have a different type of seal on the intake side, or it will suck oil in when you let off the gas. I ordered the parts a week ago, but still don't have them.

I just about finished building the gas pedal setup. It's a little tricky because of how I put the carburetor on. Instead of pulling the linkage, it has to push. So I had to make something work.



I also started on the seats. I had an idea of how to make the seat bottom, but no idea on the seat back.



The easiest option was to use new takeout seats that Earthman told me about. $50 for a pair is not bad, but now I'll have to cut the old seat tub down a few inches. More pics of that later.

I also finally got the door panels off. The screws along the bottom that were too rusty got a 3/8 nut welded to the heads. I ruined drill bits trying to drill them out, then I got smart.



Yeah, some pictures of old screws are more exciting than others. [ddd

It was going to take a while for spectators to look this thing over anyway. Now this throttle linkage. [cl

Okay, it's been more than a couple of months. It's time to show some progress.

A while back, I mentioned that I had to change the seals (actually only one seal) on my turbo from a dynamic seal, to a carbon seal.
The draw-through turbo setup actually pulls vacuum when the throttle is closed. This sucks oil past the seal in the turbo, and turns your engine into a bug fogger. The fix is to use a different seal on draw-through turbo setups.

I took the turbo apart, and took some pictures for anyone interested.
The dynamic seal is basically like a piston ring. The thing in the picture goes into that hole, and it spins with the turbo shaft. That little split-ring seal is supposed to keep the oil in.


Here it is on the shaft, with the bearing retainer and such. All of that gets tightened down with the compressor wheel on top. The pieces on the counter top are for the new style seal.


This is the new seal. What they do, is take a new plate, weld the hole up, and machine it out to fit the different seal. It may look like a lip seal, but it's not.


This is how it goes back together. The carbon seal rides against the smooth face of that spacer.


Now it's all back together. If anyone is doing turbo stuff, and needs parts, try www.lowbugget.com. They were honest and fair with me, not very timely, but honest and fair.

I haven't test run it yet, to make sure it doesn't smoke. I will, as soon as I get the fuel tank back on. I took it off to redo the rear suspension.



This was before:


I'm getting really sick and tired of stick welding. It works fine, until you have poor fitment, or tight spaces, or places that are impossible to chip or grind. After 15 years of using an AC stick welder for everything, I've gotta get a mig. That won't happen until after this project is done though.
What I'm trying to say is, there are some ugly welds on those brackets.

You're still hangin' in there. Cool throttle linkage. We need a video of it running!.

Well, it was almost ready for a test drive. Something isn't right with the turbo. It was drinking more oil with the new seal than it did before. So, it's back off, and going back to the turbo guys.
I did get the throttle linkage finished, and I sat in it with the tires jacked up, and went through the gears. I don't know if the rear brakes are going to be strong enough. I was power braking it to build a little boost and see how it acted, and the brakes seemed to not do much. Maybe it just has more power than I expected.

05snopro440 was right about the glass. It wasn't too bad cutting out the windshield pieces, until I tried to put them in. That's when I found out that the pattern was a little big. I tried to cram the first piece into the frame, and it wouldn't fit. It was stuck, and I broke it when I was pulling it out. So I trimmed the other one down, and it fits perfect. So I gave it a rest for a couple weeks. I had forgotten what I was doing, used the broken, oversized piece for a pattern, and cut a new piece that was too big. So I eyeballed it and trimmed it down a bit. Now it's too small. I stuck that sucker in anyway. I shouldn't have, but I just got tired of messing with it. I'll probably take it all apart and cut a new one this weekend. Since my turbo is messed up, and there's not a whole lot else to do.

Either way, my wife is glad to see the big sheet of glass next to the dining table slowly going away.
I got smart, and checked the pattern for the back window, and the rubber. It's not the right size either. I don't know why I paid for patterns, when I could just hold a piece of posterboard up to the hole, trace it out, and have a much better pattern.

And you were trying to talk me into putting a turbo on the Ford.

It's getting exciting, you should have it running and driving in no time. I have some goggles you can borrow - who needs glass anyhow!

This thing is ... simply ... aMAZING !!! Well done, lad. Wish I had such skills and talent.

DJ3100 said:

And you were trying to talk me into putting a turbo on the Ford.

It's getting exciting, you should have it running and driving in no time. I have some goggles you can borrow - who needs glass anyhow!

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Yeah, stupid turbo. Although, you know you'd like 600 horsepower in that thing! [ddd

AZRodDave said:

This thing is ... simply ... aMAZING !!! Well done, lad. Wish I had such skills and talent.

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Thanks a lot Dave.

I was in a mood last night, and decided not to wait to do the glass. I pulled it all apart, pulled out the windshield glass that actually fit right, and traced it out. I cut out another piece, being mindful to treat it like glass, instead of a piece of plywood this time. I used alcohol and fire for heating the plastic laminate, since it's below 90 degrees outside. That helped a whole lot, and I should've done it before.
I put it all back together with the pane that has the scratch in the middle, on the passenger side, and the pane with the scratch in the corner, went on the driver's side.

I didn't want to pay $50 for the center gasket and trim piece, so I'm not going to use one. Well, unless I find a cheap one. I don't know what the height of the windshield is supposed to be in the middle, but the way it is, it's a 13 inch opening all the way across. I put a turnbuckle and some wire in the middle to hold it all together without the center bar. I screwed it down to the hinges, and the edge fitment is pretty crummy.



I haven't trimmed the glass tape from the edges yet. The frame gasket fits real tight at the top center, not at all at the bottom center, and just fine everywhere else. I'm thinking of just trimming the gasket to fit the opening. That's a bad picture, but I finished at 1:30am.

Anyway, DJ3100, you can keep your goggles for now.

You can see in the picture, oil spots all over the place. That's oil that came out the exhaust the last time I ran it. I took a picture of the oil coming from the turbo.


Good grief.

I guess I should get to the seats. I still have no headlights...

You looking for headlight buckets? I have 2 or 3 sets I'd part with.