Thunder Ranch build thread

Hopefully, you won’t get a “painter in training”, whatever that is.

And that pretty much sums up our cars.

Nothing ever, EVER, fits (Goddammit!)

Reddy1 posted:

I have used a cylinder propane style heater in my garage for years. It uses a large propane tank that I typically refill every 30 days . I also open the doors occasionally for ventilation and it seems to work very well, and cheap to use. I understand the concern for the fumes as my appearance has changed over the years, hence my picture below. Not to mention that I'm only 30..

Took a break from sanding this weekend and spent a few hours with the cardboard and the scrap pile and the welder.

Hopefully, making the receivers for these won't be too hideous.

I see you use a double burner propane heater..........Bruce

Yes, on occasion. Usually only one burner on low, with a box fan behind it. That picks up the bay about 15 degrees above ambient. This weekend I only used the electrics.

Ready for final dry fit and then paint.

Clam latches are done. These will be painted body color as original. 

Update. Thought I had a painter but he seems to have flaked. I might just put the damn thing together and get it titled and registered for Carlisle and paint it after.

While waiting for the painter to call back I started yet another fake authenticity project. 

Ed Call me tomorrow I have another guy near Chambersburg PA  that has painted a few of mine( reasonable ) when my regular painter was not available. 

Progress today. I talked to Alan's painter and sent him some pics. Waiting to hear back.

Spent about 4 hours in the garage, working on the tank cover. It's coming along without much trouble so far. 

Tomorrow I'll get into the side covers, and they could be a bit tricky.

Got the side covers roughed-in today. It's really fun and almost easy to work this steel, compared to the thin aluminum in the clam. 

Ordered my hold down straps and a couple of weave belts to complete the look. Which is

In my case the hold down straps will be attached to the outside panels, to cover the seams. The panels will be hinged low in front to give access to what I hope will be useable storage compartments.

Of course, after I cinch this down tight, weld all the corners and get it really fitting well I will also beat the crap out of it from the backside with a ball peen hammer to give it that extra dram of legitimacy.

“I might just put the damn thing together and get it titled and registered for Carlisle and paint it after.”

I kinda wish you would.  Since you plan to sell it I might otherwise never get to see it in the flesh.

Blogged the tank work in case anyone wants to follow along. 

You have become quite  the Craftsman......impressive  !

Fettling.

Bolted the center bit down, narrowed about an inch and got the side covers below the frunk "lip" so the hood closes without hitting them. 

Next up are the hinges, and a bit more hammering to make everything lay down relaxed and snug along the seams. 

What's the dent for about a foot in front of the gas cap?  EDIT: Never mind.  I saw the picture of the original.

Lane Anderson posted:

What's the dent for about a foot in front of the gas cap?  EDIT: Never mind.  I saw the picture of the original.

Ed’s handmade fauxtina. 

“FAUXTINA”

Would make a great license plate. 

Plan on the bogus sender will be hooked up to the real sender underneath, so you just wire the gas gauge to it like it's legit. 

edsnova posted:

Plan on the bogus sender will be hooked up to the real sender underneath, so you just wire the gas gauge to it like it's legit. 

Wouldn't that make it legit in some sort of bizarre replica world sort of way?

As long as it's not too legit to fit. 

And yeah this is all a bizarre exercise. The percentage of even 911 guys who would know to look for the big hand-hammered tank is vanishingly small—low single digits percentage, I'm sure—and the major "tell" is that the car is present, having been driven on the street. 

Everyone knows it can't be a "real" 550 just based on context.

But I absolutely get off on making things look right, even if they can never truly be right.

I had such a fun time doing every last thing to put Bridget through the uncanny valley and out the other side, I figured I'd just do that to every Plastic Clown Car (TM) I can get. And so here we are. 

Thanks to Cory Drake, who generously lent me his Hoopty All Weather Transport System(TM), and Alan, who knows several painters who will deign to paint these fiberglass monstrosities, Projeckt Spyder is now with the painter.

That's a big milestone. Congrats, Ed.

That is for sure a big milestone... a lot of work on that car... I don't think I could pull off such a build I might just run out of gaz.  

This one is going to be magnificent when complete.  I probably already asked this but is there any chance of it making it to Carlisle?

Trying like hell to get it ready for the big C, old man. It's been a journey.

Gonna spend the next couple weeks gettin' Bridget ready for the season, and maybe put the Spyder's engine on a bench and do the heim joint linkage mods and the dizzy lock-out.

I need to hem my tonneau cover too. Or get it hemmed. 

Fingers crossed this paint job makes my cheesy-ass alumi-cobbling look like it's supposed to. 

When the car comes back I plan to press Cory into service to get the drive train situated.

After that it's wires and finaling hydraulics and getting the state of Maryland to title it as a legal road-going vehicle of some sort.

So I took a minute this am to blog-out the failed/shelved fan shroud project. A lot of things in a car build don't work out the way you planned. This is one such thing.

For now I plan to back away from modding the Raby shroud. I may return to it later.

There are all sorts of reasons why a build becomes a moving target... mostly the budget  

"A lot of things in a car build don't work out the way you planned."

Now, THAT was funny!

And whatever my car build is throwing at me, my staircase project throws triple.  It took me 4 tries to build half of the curved maple handrail.  And I'm still not satisfied, but I think I may have a mutiny on my hands if I started the handrail over; again.

Todd M posted:

"A lot of things in a car build don't work out the way you planned."

Now, THAT was funny!

And whatever my car build is throwing at me, my staircase project throws triple.  It took me 4 tries to build half of the curved maple handrail.  And I'm still not satisfied, but I think I may have a mutiny on my hands if I started the handrail over; again.

Having bent wood a few times (shelves, barreled tin ceiling) let me just say that a helix maple hand railing like that is some major league stylings and not at all suited for the beginner with two bread boards and a tool box under his belt. 

I tip my hat.

edsnova posted:

Todd M posted:

"A lot of things in a car build don't work out the way you planned."

Now, THAT was funny!

And whatever my car build is throwing at me, my staircase project throws triple.  It took me 4 tries to build half of the curved maple handrail.  And I'm still not satisfied, but I think I may have a mutiny on my hands if I started the handrail over; again.

Having bent wood a few times (shelves, barreled tin ceiling) let me just say that a helix maple hand railing like that is some major league stylings and not at all suited for the beginner with two bread boards and a tool box under his belt. 

I tip my hat.

Looks like a tricky project. Do you steam the wood first and how to you calculate for spring back ?

Nice job.  I bought a harvest style table from them years ago  and I took a tour of a mennonite, St-Jacobs chair bending operation from Abraham Martin, now there are many with that name in that area :") BTW they are experts at chair bending.    

The steam channel I saw they had made to bend the wood was very basic but very impressive. 

Hats off to that skill. 

David Stroud posted:

edsnova posted:

Todd M posted:

"A lot of things in a car build don't work out the way you planned."

Now, THAT was funny!

And whatever my car build is throwing at me, my staircase project throws triple.  It took me 4 tries to build half of the curved maple handrail.  And I'm still not satisfied, but I think I may have a mutiny on my hands if I started the handrail over; again.

Having bent wood a few times (shelves, barreled tin ceiling) let me just say that a helix maple hand railing like that is some major league stylings and not at all suited for the beginner with two bread boards and a tool box under his belt. 

I tip my hat.

Looks like a tricky project. Do you steam the wood first and how to you calculate for spring back ?

I am so glad that someone asked about this, cuz everyone in my circle of family and friends is tired of hearing about it.

It may have not been so difficult, but the manufacturers of the laminations kits for making curved handrails recommend a radius of no less than four feet, and the inner radius of my design is two feet.  Plus, the hand rail kits that you can buy to make your curved handrail are expensive, so I had the bright idea of cutting the laminations and profiled pieces myself.  Yes, I steam bent, (compressed), the sticks, and glued them once they were partially compressed.  I say compressed because it turns out that if you try to steam bend maple into a helical curve with a radius of two feet, it will break.  Instead, you have to make a bendable metal jig to keep the outside of the sticks from stretching with the intent of all the bending compressing the fibers.  I didn't account for the spring back because I did not want to build a extra form with an even smaller radius, and when I first started I did not know how the maple would react to a two foot radius curve.  The compressed sticks sprung back, a lot, but when three or four sticks are glued, the spring back becomes negligible.

Anywhooz, after one test lamination and two concerted tries with my own pieces, I broke down and bought the sticks from a kit manufacturer which have a lengthwise keyway to keep the laminations in line during glue up.  And I bought the plastic outside forms which match the profile and keep the profile from being damaged from the clamps.  Yeah, I found that out from experience also.

This is way off topic, but the point is that y'all are helping me tremendously with my coupe build, and if anyone has a question about repairing or improving something on their house, please feel free to ask me.

You also have an impressive clamp collection!

Todd M posted:

"A lot of things in a car build don't work out the way you planned."

Now, THAT was funny!

And whatever my car build is throwing at me, my staircase project throws triple.  It took me 4 tries to build half of the curved maple handrail.  And I'm still not satisfied, but I think I may have a mutiny on my hands if I started the handrail over; again.

I'm a painter in construction, and in a  rather high end new house my brother and I were painting 25 years ago we watched the finish carpenters lay up the railing for a curved stairway with a landing in the middle. It was made of oak- they cut the material into 1/4 x 1/4" strips and laid/glued 1 layer at a time to deal with the multiple curves. They would do a layer in the morning and then another in the afternoon before quitting time- took 3 or 4 days. After it was machined, installed, stained and clear coated it was stunning!

My dad built a very impressive compound curve rail for his last house by building his own 12 ft long steam pipe, and putting a single piece of oak (no laminated strips) in it for 12 hrs or so, then bending and clamping the rail to a pre-made form.

It was an amazing bit of work.

U need to join the club E Clampus Vitus

I find this wood bending fun and interesting. I have plans to make a steering wheel for my Spyder. I'd like to have a "banjo" type that's a little smaller and not flexible like the one we all can buy. The following is a Helm wheel I made for a binnacle/helm I restored. The oak part of this wheel is laminated strips 1/8" X 1.25" in size. I used two sheets of 3/4" x 3' X 3' glued together with a 32' hole band-sawed out of the center. This was my form and laminated the strips from outside in. The " spring" of the unsteamed wood created it's own pressure without having to clamp it. The butt joints are end to end and staggered so no fuss was necessary to get tight joints. I made it oversize both inside and out so it could be trammel router trimmed once the average center was found again.

I can't imagine what thought had to go into building that hand rail but I'm sure it was a lot ! The end result being a work of art  for sure. The suggestion of using 1/4" X 1/4 " strips makes a lot of sense. I really like that suggestion and it went into my permenent memory bank

Geez.....   And I thought building a Speedster was a lot of work!

Gordon Nichols posted:

Geez.....   And I thought building a Speedster was a lot of work!

Geesh I read somewhere it would take just 40 hours ....