Points are something I can fix plus it has the vacuum advance I want fir the carb. Electronic junk always breaks on me just tonight my coffee maker went south. i took it apart and it was another Chinese frigging Circuit Board. When electronic distributors go you cant fix them unless you are next to a parts store when you break. As far as what the car looks like I have a few full photos of it go back in my photos and see it was about 2 weeks ago I put one in here. I am going to get it outside for some photos soon. It is all home made and looks like no other car I think. As I need to get the Merkur back in the shop 1st for my winter project or two. My plans are in my head I add a piece then look and see where i am headed then do another after i figure out what it is I need at the time.
Scratch Building a Coupe
- Thread starter rsfyj
- Start date
Help Support Rat Rods Rule:
I spent about 4 hours figuring out the seat belts. The attachment points were critical to work properly. After I fashion I got the drivers side good. I sat in there a latched up. I'll have to shortened the middle catches when I am done with the seat. It needs to be lower to latch up my waist. I then duplicated the passengers side the same. I then roughed out 2 pieces of 1/2inch plywood for the bench seat. I glued two pieces together to get one inch thick seat. The wood should be ready to fit and cut some more tomorrow. I am pleased with the seat belt arrangement they are out of the way and functional.I have a bunch of photos, tomorrow is another day hopefully get after the seat.
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Well I didn't bolt or weld the brackets. I worked on the wood seat bottom and have it painted to stop the humidity from warping it. 2 coats of grey it will be covered anyway but it is sealed for the duration. I also painted my tubes in the cock pit area with black as they were starting to rust also. Then I fooled around with my radiator shell opening where a grill will reside. I cut some more out and shaped it a little. I wanted to keep the same lines as the wind shield cowl, back window trying to keep a rectangular look all the way through the car. It wouldn't look right with an odd ball shaped grill in my estimation. Any way I have what I have and that's the game.
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Snake Farm
Ol school snake charmer!
Still plugging away I see. [cl[cl
Just curious, what is the plan for headlights?
[P[P[P
Just curious, what is the plan for headlights?
[P[P[P
Headlights will be easy look on each side of the radiator shell you will see a frame end sticking out. I welded plates on the ends with 3/8 threaded bolt holes in them. I have designed 3/16 plates that will bolt there and incorporate the head lights through a bent round tubing to the headlight housing and then another going to the fender for a brace. I will also incorporate a bumper off the same catchment points. I will make the headlight housings shouldn't be to hard.
I did not do a hell of a lot today. I started the day off by putting some Poly on my seat base. And then I was going to mow the lawn before the next rain. I decided it was nice and cool so I would change the blades on the Riding lawn mower. When I started to take the 1st blade off I saw the whole assemble move from one side to the other. Come to find out the top ball bearing was shot and all destroyed. It wasn't to many years ago they always put grease fittings on these. So much for Lubed for life, hahaha. I had a 1964 Ford Galaxy and I put 140K on it I bought it new and with the 1st oil change I put in grease fittings on everything that was sealed for life. u joints, tie rod ends drag links. steering everything that needed grease fittings got them. I never replace any of those parts they were still passing state inspection at 140k Nerd engineers of today are not very smart and don't have much pride in their designs. Anyway I wasted most of the morning trying to free up the pieces of that bearing it could all have been avoided with a grease fitting. I finally got back to the car. I ordered 2 bearings a 7 day wait.I started to fit the dash gauges from a 1986 Merkur on my dash. I cut it down a little on length and now I have room for it. I will have to cut some tubing tomorrow to get it where I want it. I do some more surgery here and there to get it fitted. This cluster belongs with this engine package. Speedometer will fit with no after market cables or adaptors. I don't know about the tachometer I think i can get it to work by running it off the Coil like in the old days. I think it was run by the on board Computer for Fi on the turbo. if not it looks good in there whether it works or not. This car wont see much more than 3k rpms. Gas gauge is there but I wont use it just the temp, oil, amps. Short day got a few snaps
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Today I performed major surgery on the dash framing and dash sheet metal. I am trying to make room for the Merkur gauge cluster and its housing. I made many changes I cut out the 2 vertical bars coming from the transmission tunnel and going to the bottom of the dash frame. I found out I needed more room for my right leg when using the gas pedal. My leg had to rest against this one bar. So I deleted both. I cut a large rectangular hole in the dash metal to accept this gauge cluster and its housing. And now I am working on filling in the side of the Housing with sheet steel from cardboard templates . This will take a while I have to fit each piece then remove the dash to MIG weld then put it back and check the fit. I finally found time to weld and bolt my seat belt brackets that hold the spool. Well the seat story has changed, my Wife came out to see the inside and saw what room we had for seats. She has decided she didn't want a bench seat. She went shopping in catalogues and else where. She came up with 2 comfy looking seats in Grey trim and the exact sizes we need to have them fit properly. She found some seats made for skidders, tractors. forklifts etc. So I will hold up on the seat area and wait for these to arrive. they should be here around the 1st of Sept. Sept is closing in and that is the Cars anniversary of one year.
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More surgery but this time on the dash itself adding and subtracting pieces to get this odd shaped gauge cluster oriented. Most of the day spent fitting cutting, adding> I have some photos, more of the same tomorrow
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I took a break from the sheet metal work. I know I have to start thinking about electrical wiring for the car. I scrounged up the old Merkur fuse panel box I saved. I stripped it of all the relays and associated wiring. I wont use the relays. Just use the fuses. My car wont have any large amp draws other than Horn, lights. I don't trust relays the mechanical ones never last. And you never have the right one in your tool box. Fuses are easy fill a baggie up with them and your all set. Ill try to figure out a set up I can use under the dash. have a photo
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Dirtyrat
Got Fins?
[S[S
Whats wrong with relays? you would rather burn out switches, and other areas of your wiring?
Relays are junk in my estimation All my cars that never had relays done okay and never burnt anything out.They had no relays except for a horn relay. The last diesel truck i drove for 5 years was in international and I had to replace relays every year many of them. junk junk junk.. My largest amp draw on this car will be head lights probably and a 15 amp fuse can handle that. Even the junk relay on my 220v compressor has been replaced twice.What did we do before relays.. we survived it all
If all wiring circuits are properly fused and sized wire wise and switches are rated for amp draw, you wont have any problems. mechanical relays are always prone to break or malfunction. The newer electronic relays are much better but i think are more expensive, they have no moving parts to malfunction. My last hot rod had no relays, I did all the wiring from scratch and never had a problem. I personally don't like relays or computers in cars. I want to control my car . The Ford starter relay is massive internally and are worth their salt. Made well designed well. This is my view others can see what is best for their application.
Dirtyrat
Got Fins?
Well, I guess from your experience, I understand your route.
Just like anything else, there are pros and cons of each way.
Anyhow, back to watching [P
Well Dirtyrat you get one relay a 70 amper. I will use that to turn on my fuse panel when i turn the ign key. I have 7 of these relays so I guess i can gamble. I didn't like the Merkur fuse panel so I am making my own as i started today. I made the last one for my last, Hot rod. I will have 16 circuits but will probably only use 8 ,9 nine of them. If the 70 ampere relay goes Ill have 6 more in the tool box
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sgtpontiac
Older, Wiser and Still Buildin'
There is something to be said for simplicity....
If you aren't using heavy draw items then the old school would be the way...just curious....that 70amp relay you are using is it a continuous duty relay or simply a Ford type starter relay? I'm no Ford expert but are they rated for continuous use?? Might be a stupid question or did I miss something posted while I was on sabatical...lol.
If you aren't using heavy draw items then the old school would be the way...just curious....that 70amp relay you are using is it a continuous duty relay or simply a Ford type starter relay? I'm no Ford expert but are they rated for continuous use?? Might be a stupid question or did I miss something posted while I was on sabatical...lol.
relay was used to turn on an array of fuses in the Merkur fuse panel panel. I will soon see its a NO relay I tested it with 14 volts and an ohmmeter. I think it was the AC clutch and some other stuff not sure. big wire on it. Made in Germany for Ford. All the other relays are rated at 40 amps from that same fuse panel if I have a problem ill by pass it. Ford starter relay cant work for continuous duty as I tried them on my solar panels they got real hot. you can paralell relays to double the amps passing through them. This relay has very large spade terminals quite thick also.
GJunktionMike
Something's wrong with that boy!
Man you have made alot of head way. I've been out of the loop awhile. I'm not a relay fan also, a good switch and the right size wire=no problems.
