1926 ford model t hotrod project

[langy]

John we already have ACE & the UK NSRA.
What is needed is to stop turning our noses up at each other and become 1 united voice.

You Hot- rodders need to get organised!

The Federation of British Historic Vehicle clubs lobbies government and the EU on behalf of the classic car movement in the UK.

You guys need a simmilar organisation to stand up for the rights of Hot- rodders and classic car modifiers! After all you guys are also part of our motoring heritage and history so your work needs to be recognised and protected and supported just as the historic original classic cars are by the FBHVC.

Something like the NHRA that they have in the US!

 

[chunkolini]

Lamgy.I am always humbled by the energy and time that goes into these projects.
One day I will do something like this myself.
But I know it would end up a rust covered sad looking heap. A happy heap though.
I admire this stuff.
'I sent it off to a mate for chroming' seems to be a motto. I hope he does it on his lunch hour on company equipment.

Cunko'.

Anyway, what is chrome?

 

[langy]

I'm lucky as my mate owns the company, He gives me a very good trade discount which helps lots.

I can also get quality chromework and polishing done much cheaper than anywhere else as i'm happy to pass on the discounts if anybody needs anything doing.

Lamgy.I am always humbled by the energy and time that goes into these projects.
One day I will do something like this myself.
But I know it would end up a rust covered sad looking heap. A happy heap though.
I admire this stuff.
'I sent it off to a mate for chroming' seems to be a motto. I hope he does it on his lunch hour on company equipment.

Cunko'.

Anyway, what is chrome?

 

[langy]

Seeing as i hate installing window mechanisms i thought i would get this job out of the way early on

The doors came with a crude Mini based system that didn't work that well to be honest and the window didn't go full travel due to the height of a tall T window.
I thought i might be able too reuse the runners but once i got into the door itself i realised they wern't great either so the door was stripped out, while there i removed the complete inner bottom as it looked like somebody had chewed it out

On inspection the doors wern't as accurate as i thought This isn't a dig at the mould maker as he probably hadn't a decent body to start with but nothing was really very square and there are dips and wobbles on virtually every surface

the easy way out would of been with an electric kit but I did not want electric windows as i feel its more old car with windups and i like them

Here's the door stripped out but still with the window runners in, The runners came out easily as they had been glued in with Gripfill but i then spent ages sanding out the Gripfill with a finger sander

Here stripped completely

Firstly i put in a 20mm x 20mm x 3mm box perimeter frame to keep things square, this is made in 2 pieces as it needs to be removeable, this is secured to the grp inner by various contersunk bolts that thread into rivnuts in the box section.

When i removed the runners i found a void in each corner so i managed to get inside and rough the glass up and filled them up with good old strawberry

The body came with horrible surface mounted locks that you get on landrovers and looked aweful so were resigned to the bin
I tried a multitude of different locks but none would work due to the T doors being thin and nothing would clear the window.

Gomez appeared one day clutching a pair of 1/2" thick locks that had double latching and were really smooth operating and were perfect for my doors, thanks mate

The lock was mounted temporally in the right place, A slot was cut into the steel box for the lock to sit into.

I have been installing window winders in project Fordson and i was using VW beetle mechanisms that were perfect for it thanks to advice from deudetuor & Mark Bull (thanks guys)
While installing i thought they may work for the T but were a little short on travel

The main problems with the T doors is they have really tall windows that need 20" of travel, also they are pretty narrow so any mechanism needs to be quite slim.

After a bit of thought i decided that if they were extended on the bottom they would maybe work apart from not having enough inner cable length, this was solved by moving the handle gear along the runner, this came out great as it now also put the handle in a more convenient place

Before doing anything i had to sort out the top of the door itself as it was all over the place dipping and uneven so the glass was ground for a key and a couple of lengths of steel clamped in place as guides. Then the surface was built up with chopped mat and resin till level with the steel guides. this also stiffened it all up as it was pretty thin.

Here's the mechanism laid in place.

The bottom stock brackets were cut off and replaced with pieces from some spare scrap runners, they are extended 5" here.

Securing brackes were made and welded to each end and bolted via rivnuts to the framework.

I now had the mechanism mounted centrally in the door so next job was to move the handle gear along the cable runner.
The gear was secured together with rivets so these were drilled out and will be replaced with 5mm bolts and nuts, The gear operates the cable through a slot 25mm wide so another slot was cut 5" further along and reasembled.

I now had a mechanism that had 22" of travel next job was to make up a winding hanle mount, this was made from a piece of 2mm steel sheet and bolts in place again via rivnuts installed in the box section.

Next a window was cut from some 4mm ply as a template for the glass, I'm using flexible window channel so that was countoured to fit and placed in the door.

Here's what i have so far

Next job was to operate the locks some way, luckily a mate came up with a pair of lock regulators so these were modified to fit and installed (thanks Paul). the handles themselves were made from 8mm stainless and made the same way as my exterior handles.

An operating rod was made up and fitted and it all worked really smoothly and perfectly Apart from a bit of cleanup it all works really nicely and smoothly.

 

[Robotstar5]

Nice detailed record of progress, my only niggle is the width of the photo's (I thought the forum automatically re-sized?) means I have to pan left and right to read the captions

 

[v8er6.6]

It`s been an annoyance of mine for YEARS, to pan the page for large images.
I used to save the image and reopen it in the windows viewer to see it as a whole.

Then about a fortnight ago, my 13yr old showed me a trick...

On your browser, right hand bottom of page, there`s a zoom level....click and adjust... 75% they fit perfect

 

[langy]

You can also zoom in and out by pressing CTRL and using you middle mouse wheel at the same time.

It`s been an annoyance of mine for YEARS, to pan the page for large images.
I used to save the image and reopen it in the windows viewer to see it as a whole.

Then about a fortnight ago, my 13yr old showed me a trick...

On your browser, right hand bottom of page, there`s a zoom level....click and adjust... 75% they fit perfect

 

[langy]

Fits perfectly on my 24" widescreen monitor

Nice detailed record of progress, my only niggle is the width of the photo's (I thought the forum automatically re-sized?) means I have to pan left and right to read the captions

 

[langy]

Someone asked me how i got the square hole in the handles, so here goes


I used a piece of 2.5mm stainless sheet, bent it to a tight 90 degree in the vice with the aid of a hammer, then clamped it around a square shaft and tack welded the 2 corners, then i fuse welded the 2 sides, this was then dressed to slide into a 17mm hole in the handle stub. once welded into the handle stub the face was dressed and the handle welded to the stub, Then polished the weld out.

.

 

[v8er6.6]

You can also zoom in and out by pressing CTRL and using you middle mouse wheel at the same time.

Now that I like, very cool....

You wouldn`t think I`ve been on the net since Dial-up was £20 a month

 

[davenport]

fantastic fabrication work..

so nice to see well made bespoke brackets/handles etc etc gives a project so much more character imo...

 

[langy]

Thanks for the kind comment

fantastic fabrication work..

so nice to see well made bespoke brackets/handles etc etc gives a project so much more character imo...

 

[langy]

While i had the doors on the bench i though i might as well look for garnish moulding as my body had none with it.

Did a bit of digging around and it turned out that there was a restorer guy doing a 27T coupe only 3 miles from my house, result

He kindly came over with his garnish's but as my body is grp it was a no go, it meant a lot of tweaking and as my car is hopefully gonna look like a 60's car i decided to make some custom mouldings, I'm sure my new friends 27T will be handy for reference though



First job was to key up the area that i had straightened at the top of the door and skim with some filler, It didn't need much and the Rage filler i use is so easy to rub down, its excellent stuff.



Then i cut some 6mm x 25mm stainless flat bar to the lengths needed, The bottom bar now sits at a slight angle compared to the stock flat, I think it looks better. Had to notch each end so it sat flush with the window opening so it will look tidy when i add a rubber finisher (I hate it when you can see the inside of the door through the window slot, looks untidy)

All the edges were radiused to look rolled.

The 4 parts were then attached to the door with countersunk screws ready for tack welding, had to be careful with the tacks as the GRP can catch light pretty easily

All the parts were rough polished before so to make the final polish easier.

the stainless i had wasn't the best so a fair bit of sanding was needed

Small tacks were done to keep it all together then it was clamped down to my welding bench for finish welding.

While on the bench clamped flat i decided to add rounded corners at the top of the moulding, I think it looks better.

Heres the finished job after the welds were polished out, they still need a bit more polishing work but i'm pretty pleased how they came out

 

[langy]

I had to do some diy painting yesterday :eek: so while i had the gun out i decided to see what my brake backplates would look like with the flake on them, i'm pretty pleased with them

The chrome was coated with 2 coats of 2 pack epoxy primer and allowed to flash off for 1 hour, then basecoated 2 coats, then 2 full flake coats and finally 3 full coats of 2 pack clear.

 

[mike os]

sweet

 

[langy]

Thanks Mike, its appreciated.

sweet

 

[Sanny]

Great project and those back plates look great

 

[langy]

Managed to solve a small problem today, The little pins that hold the brake shoes in place by being put through the backplates and held in place by a top hat and spring were bugging me as they always go rusty and spoil the look of the backplates, was thinking about what to do with them last night and it suddenly came to me

Firstly i ground the flat head off so they were just a 3mm shaft, Next i took some 6mm stainless rivets and made a simple jig to hold them so i could drill a 3mm hole in them, The jig was a bit of 20mm aluminium bar that i drilled and counter bored for the rivet and then drilled a 3mm hole right through, a hole in the side to hold the rivet in place was drilled & tapped 4mm for a grub screw.

(Sorry the pics ain't great, took them with my phone.)

The 3mm shafts were pressed into the hole drilled in the rivet and welded, then the heads were polished. The rest of the day was spent sanding the paint off the fibreglass body as it had never been primed

.

 

[davenport]

its all in the detail!!!

unless you`d have pointed this out i doubt 99% of people seeing the finished car would even notice it, i certainy wouldn`t of known the work that went into such a small part..

great work...

 

[langy]

Thanks mate, I like to make things look right even if its only me that see's them.

its all in the detail!!!

unless you`d have pointed this out i doubt 99% of people seeing the finished car would even notice it, i certainy wouldn`t of known the work that went into such a small part..

great work...