94 Cobra #3815

[SublimeRT]

1 hour ago, Steve-Oh said:

Damn dude, for one, great job on the cradle!  I love all your layout, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  You guys really utilize your space well!  It's weird seeing this space and how well it's organized, then I go to my friends shop (probably double the space you have) and it has barely the amount of room in half your shop size.  It's so cluttered and unorganized it's insane how they get shit done.  

 

Keep doing you, it's so awesome! 

 

1 hour ago, Steve-Oh said:

Side note, is that a specific layout paint or did you just spray it with blue paint?  Very cool / good idea for laying out metal, never used nor have I seen it in our shops. 

 

Thank you, sir, for the compliments and encouragement.    I gotta have a bit of order in the shop.  At the old Dodge dealer my boss would get onto me sometimes when I'd try to clean up/organize around there.  He'd tell me it wasn't my job.  A lot of the guys would leave so many damn messes around though, drove me crazy, lol.  Go to mount up some new tires and walk through a sea of old wheel weights on the floor, then spend way too much time looking for the weights needed.  Spend 10 minutes unearthing the tool I needed back in the tool room.  Etc.

 

The layout fluid is something called Dykem Steel Blue.  Also comes in red.  Comes in aerosols, brush-in-cap-bottles, and some kind of marker/roll on stick.  It works really well.  After it dries it won't rub or chip off, but when you're ready to remove it it's fairly easy with a scotch brite pad, acetone on a rag/paper towels, or they actually sell a dedicated remover which works pretty good, too.  Sometimes I've used a Sharpie for layout if I don't feel like going to get the Dykem, and I always end up wishing I just went to get the Dykem.  Sharpie works, but the scribe marks show up much better with the Dykem, and I think the Sharpie is a bit harder to remove.

[SublimeRT]

Alright guys, so kind of more of the same with the English wheel here.  Working my way up further.  I didn't take many pics during this for some reason, but I was snap chatting, so I went back and took some screenshots of it.  So hopefully there will be enough pics here to show and have things make sense.

 

So the upper wheel mounts, were really just two pieces of 3/16" or so flat bar hanging down.  These could be flexed with a little effort, and the holes for the axle were, you guessed it, sloppy.  So the wheel would rock around a bit in there.

 

I took these pieces of metal, which were feet/mounting pads from the original stand that the wheel came with.  Drilled/bored a hole in them on the lathe.

 

A long 1" threaded coupling nut was turned down a bit to fit the hole in the top plate.

 

 

I sliced off the stock upper mounts, and cut into the tube a bit, so that the upper plate will be flush.  

 

The nut was fully welded to the plate, then with some 1/4" plate a partial box was made.  This will meet up and be butt welded to the other 1/4" plate that was added to the frame.

 

Another view.  Practiced some freehand weaving on the outside corners.  Also can see some 1/4" set screws drilled/tapped/installed just like the bottom anvil holder, for fine adjustments to align things.

 

I cant find pics of it all welded up to the frame, but it can be seen later here.  Kinda lost the lines of that top plate mirroring the bottom, but still looks okay I think.  That's what I get for not fully planning everything out.  Something to be learned there.

 

So much like the bottom anvil holder, took 4 pieces of 1/4", but this time two plug welds per side.

 

After welding, to clean up the welds, the piece on the right was done with the grinder/flap disc, just trying to speed things up.  I tried to be careful and only grind down the weld, and then blend it into the base metal, but still got into the base metal some and left some low spots.  So, for the left piece, first I used the straight die grinder with some thick cut off wheels stacked and ground JUST the weld down, this is more precise than the flap disc.  After getting the majority of the weld knocked down, the angle grinder with 3" 80 grit disc was used to knock it down a bit more.  Held it flat as I could as to not dig into the base metal, as seen in second pic.  Finally finished off with the DA with 80 grit.  End result is much better, no evidence of any welding, nice and smooth.

 

 

So those pieces were too big to fit into the lathe for the holes for the axle to be drilled/reamed like the lowers.  This takes a 20mm axle like the lowers.  The 20mm reamer I have has about a 3/4" shank if I remember correctly.  It is too large to fit in the chuck in the drill press, otherwise I could have probably drilled/reamed these on the drill press.  After scratching my head for a bit and looking around to see what I have to use, I cut up one of the new bearings I have for all the anvils.  Got a bunch off ebay, so it was okay to sacrifice one or two, to get the inner race out.

 

The largest drill bit I have is 1".  So I thought, if I can partially turn down the inner race to size, drill a hole 1" hole in the new side pieces, this should work out.  I mounted the inner race on a mandrel that I had made to true up the lower anvils.  I quickly found out that a high speed steel tool bit does nothing to the inner race which I assume is hardened.  But the grinder came to the rescue again.

 

 

After drilling a 1" hole in the new side pieces the race fit good.

 

 

More of the same old procedure here.  Rough cut on the bandsaw, cleaned up/final shaped with the disc sander, flap disc, and hand/block sanding and filing.

 

All done. 

 

 

 

A few little tacks to hold the races in place.

 

 

Here you can see another one of those plates, that the side pieces are welded to.  There is that single 1" bolt in the center.  This way the wheels can be turned 90* if needed.  And I can make different upper wheel holders if needed.

 

 

So one reason I made the upper holder asymmetrical, was that if you took a plumb bob in the center of the top of the frame, it was way off from center from the bottom, about 3/8" IIRC.  I honestly don't know if this is my fault from all the welding on the frame, or if it was always like that.  So if I made that upper holder a symmetrical design, I would have had to offset the axle hole in it or something, to get things to line up how I wanted.  So I had to build some offset in that upper holder to get things to line up, and stay lined up if they were to be turned 90*, so the idea was to throw off the eye a bit so it all isn't so obvious.  I think in this pic you can still tell that the top of the frame is a bit left of the bottom, but it's not too noticeable I think.  But the wheels are aligned now, so that's good.  One thing I was really happy about here was that after final welding, the axle slid right in; I managed to control the distortion to where no adjustments were needed afterwards.  That may be a first.

 

Next I took a piece of cold roll bar stock, drilled/bored it on the lathe and parted it off.  To fit the end of the 20mm axle shaft.

 

 

Welded it up.  This is the last pic I have of this phase of the project.  I'll have to get some more.  Turned this down on the lathe though nice and smooth.

 

So at this point the majority of the work on the frame, adjuster, and anvil holders upper and lower, is all done.  I've turned my attention to making the anvils all true.  I've tried two different mandrels in the lathe so far.  On the lathe, runout of the anvils after turning is almost non-existent.  But when i take them out, stick an axle in them and into the English wheel, there is runout present, so there must be something wrong in my setup of the anvils/mandrel in the lathe.  I just got in some more bar stock, to make another mandrel.  So far I've been turning them on the lathe, with new bearings installed.  For this next one I will try with no bearings, and the mandrel locating the anvil with the bearing bores.  We'll see how it goes.

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2017 by SublimeRT

[Psychorugby]

Jesus. Wow. 

[95riosnake]

I agree, just incredible work. I love reading these updates.

[SublimeRT]

On 2/4/2017 at 7:22 PM, Psychorugby said:

Jesus. Wow. 

 

19 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

I agree, just incredible work. I love reading these updates.

 

Hey, thanks guys.  I really appreciate it. 

 

Here's just a few pics I snapped the other day to add to that last post.

 

Here you can see how the new upper mount was welded and blended in with the other plate.  

 

Here you can see one side of the upper axle.  Those races worked out good, I wish I used some for the lower.  The recess in this side makes it easy to push out with my finger.

 

Here's the other side.  That's the part I had welded in the end of the last post, just faced/cleaned up.

 

Pushed out with my finger.  Slide it out for easy removal of the upper wheel.

 

In this view, you can see the 1" bolt used to hold the upper holder.  It is a bit offset.  Because the frame is a bit tweaked, this keeps everything aligned when rotating the holders 90° CCW.  Also seen here, that upper and lower anvil had been turned on the lathe in an attempt to true up.  The runout i had talked about after turning and mounting up in the English wheel, is less than if I had not turned them at all, but still can be better I think.

 

And here's just a little scrap test piece.  Put a few shrinks on the sides and some stretch in the center and planished/wheeled it out.  The operation of the wheel is much improved and more predictable so far.  

[95riosnake]

So now the question is... what color is it going to be?

 

I'd love to see something with a hot rod feel. Something like the link below (a louver press made from a huge old cast iron bandsaw frame)... dove gray with pinstriping! Also, the link below is a very interesting read. The guy is super creative and talented.

 

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/built-me-a-louver-press-and-it-works.134701/

[Psychorugby]

1 hour ago, 95riosnake said:

So now the question is... what color is it going to be?

 

I'd love to see something with a hot rod feel. Something like the link below (a louver press made from a huge old cast iron bandsaw frame)... dove gray with pinstriping! Also, the link below is a very interesting read. The guy is super creative and talented.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/built-me-a-louver-press-and-it-works.134701/

 

Hey, I recognize that picture!

[SublimeRT]

11 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

So now the question is... what color is it going to be?

 

I'd love to see something with a hot rod feel. Something like the link below (a louver press made from a huge old cast iron bandsaw frame)... dove gray with pinstriping! Also, the link below is a very interesting read. The guy is super creative and talented.

 

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/built-me-a-louver-press-and-it-works.134701/

 

That is extremely bad ass!!  I'd have loved to use that frame for the English wheel.  Or a planishing hammer, or a bead roller.....lots of possibilities there.  

 

We're kind of on the same track here with the final paint.  I've been thinking I'll paint the whole machine a bright gloss white, and add some red accents, and pinstriping.  The only problem is, I've never done pinstriping.  I'll have to see if I can find someone nearby that does it when the time comes.  Maybe I'll try it out myself.  Some paint and brushes isn't too expensive.  We'll see.

[SublimeRT]

10 hours ago, Psychorugby said:

 

Hey, I recognize that picture!

 

A friend of yours?

[95riosnake]

If you add pinstriping to your list of skills alongside the metal shaping stuff, you'll have all the prerequisites to be a proper hot rodder lol. White does make sense to tie in with the lathe stand and such. Can't wait to see that painted up!

[Prokiller]

I vote matte white with black and red pinstripes

[RideTech_Ryan]

19 hours ago, Evilcw311 said:

Buy a detail pinstripers kit. The biggest thing is just learning to be patient and have a steady hand. You can expirement on flat surfaces with just straight lines first. Start by learning how different angles affect the brush stroke and how small twist of your wrist and different pressure at the same time can completely change the width and direction.  I use to have a cheaper set but I never replaced any of the brushes as they wore out.

 

to me it was almost therapeutic laying out lines. I have complete faith you could figure it out and do well. 

Back when i was in college I would spend nights in the garage having a cold drink and laying out pinstripes just because i found it to be relaxing.  After a while i got decent enough at it I did a couple of my buddies mini trucks and a few motorcycles.  Hell at one point I had an old plastic trash can that i put pinstripes on.  I miss when I had free time.

[95riosnake]

2 hours ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

I miss when I had free time.

 

Ugh, I couldn't agree more.

[SublimeRT]

On 2/7/2017 at 6:18 PM, Evilcw311 said:

Buy a detail pinstripers kit. The biggest thing is just learning to be patient and have a steady hand. You can expirement on flat surfaces with just straight lines first. Start by learning how different angles affect the brush stroke and how small twist of your wrist and different pressure at the same time can completely change the width and direction.  I use to have a cheaper set but I never replaced any of the brushes as they wore out.

 

to me it was almost therapeutic laying out lines. I have complete faith you could figure it out and do well. 

 

I appreciate that.  I'll have to give it a try.  Thanks for the other tips as well.  You oughta get back into it!

 

 

On 2/8/2017 at 5:04 AM, 95riosnake said:

If you add pinstriping to your list of skills alongside the metal shaping stuff, you'll have all the prerequisites to be a proper hot rodder lol. White does make sense to tie in with the lathe stand and such. Can't wait to see that painted up!

 

Haha, hot rodder messing with late model (though not really late model seeing as these cars are around 20 years old now, huh) Mustangs and old muscle cars.  I suppose they're still hot rods.  You say hot rodder though I think of a guy with like a chopped '32 Ford project or something from that era, greased back hair, white tees and jeans, maybe like an old Indian project too or something.  Just thinking about it though, it will probably get painted sooner than I thought.  I've been holding off because I was going to build some attachments to swap out with the English wheel cradles/anvils, that would also attach to some mounts I'd need to add to the frame, to do some bead rolling......buuuuut today I ordered a dedicated bead roller.  

 

 

On 2/8/2017 at 7:09 AM, Prokiller said:

I vote matte white with black and red pinstripes

 

I'll think about the matte white.  Black and red pinstripes though is right on track.  

 

 

On 2/8/2017 at 1:23 PM, RideTech_Ryan said:

Back when i was in college I would spend nights in the garage having a cold drink and laying out pinstripes just because i found it to be relaxing.  After a while i got decent enough at it I did a couple of my buddies mini trucks and a few motorcycles.  Hell at one point I had an old plastic trash can that i put pinstripes on.  I miss when I had free time.

 

That's cool stuff man!  You oughta try to get back into it, too! The free time thing though, yeah, it's definitely harder to come by these days.

 

[RedTwilight]

On 2/7/2017 at 7:18 PM, Evilcw311 said:

Buy a detail pinstripers kit. The biggest thing is just learning to be patient and have a steady hand. You can expirement on flat surfaces with just straight lines first. Start by learning how different angles affect the brush stroke and how small twist of your wrist and different pressure at the same time can completely change the width and direction.  I use to have a cheaper set but I never replaced any of the brushes as they wore out.

 

to me it was almost therapeutic laying out lines. I have complete faith you could figure it out and do well. 

 

+1

 I have been wanting to get into pin striping myself.  But I've hardly had time to do anymore airbrush work lately.

 

A lot of people practice pin striping on a piece of glass.  If you mess up, wipe it off and try again.  Then when done you can clean it all off and have a clean piece to practice on again.

[SublimeRT]

3 hours ago, RedTwilight said:

 

+1

 I have been wanting to get into pin striping myself.  But I've hardly had time to do anymore airbrush work lately.

 

A lot of people practice pin striping on a piece of glass.  If you mess up, wipe it off and try again.  Then when done you can clean it all off and have a clean piece to practice on again.

 

That's a good little tip there, thanks.  I imagine the glass replicates the behavior of some painted metal fairly well.  

[ttocs]

I too have been amazed as the steady hand of pin strippers and wondered about picking up a kit to play with.

[SublimeRT]

What's up guys?  Been a long time.  I hope all yall are doing well.  Haven't forgotten about yall or the car.  But the car has been on the back burner for some time now.  Been fiddling with it though here and there.  Trying to get the ball rolling on this again.  It's been a long time since this project started, so some things and plans have changed for various reasons.  This weekend I moved the car around in the shop to have a better view of things.  Also, it was up high on some jack stands, now I have it at ground level just to get a better overall feel for things.  I got it on the ground and said to myself, "Damn!  That's a small car!"  haha.   Gotten used to all these land yacht Mopars around here haha.  Seeing it like this though reminded myself that these cars have some great lines and proportions. Anyways here's a pic to get things going.  I'll post up stuff as I can.  

 

 

[95riosnake]

Love the new clear wheels, lol.

[RedTwilight]

8 hours ago, SublimeRT said:

What's up guys?  Been a long time.  I hope all yall are doing well.  Haven't forgotten about yall or the car.  But the car has been on the back burner for some time now.  Been fiddling with it though here and there.  Trying to get the ball rolling on this again.  It's been a long time since this project started, so some things and plans have changed for various reasons.  This weekend I moved the car around in the shop to have a better view of things.  Also, it was up high on some jack stands, now I have it at ground level just to get a better overall feel for things.  I got it on the ground and said to myself, "Damn!  That's a small car!"  haha.   Gotten used to all these land yacht Mopars around here haha.  Seeing it like this though reminded myself that these cars have some great lines and proportions. Anyways here's a pic to get things going.  I'll post up stuff as I can.  

 

 

 

Are those bare pieces of metal for the start of the wide body project?  

[SublimeRT]

5 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

Love the new clear wheels, lol.

 

Lol, yeah waited forever.  Manufacturer kept dicking me around.....    The rear tire is actually on a tool I made to mockup a wide variety of tire sizes and wheel backspacing.  I'll be making a V2.0 for the front.  Eventually looking to sell these for a reasonable price.  

 

4 hours ago, RedTwilight said:

 

Are those bare pieces of metal for the start of the wide body project?  

 

They are test pieces as I experiment with tooling and techniques.  They won't actually become part of the final product.  But it's a start! 

[SublimeRT]

So, some tool stuff to catch up on first.  

 

I took some long bolts with an unthreaded shoulder, cut the threaded portion off, turned and faced the hex head on the lathe, and welded them onto the English wheel frame.  5 per side.  For anvil storage.  I eventually cut the heads off of them though.  It was just too much of a hassle to get the anvils over the large head, and it wasn't really needed.  The anvils stay on the hooks just fine.  I actually welded them on at a very slight angle so gravity keeps the anvils in place too.  In hindsight I'd have just used some regular mild steel round bar.  

 

 

 

 

I've been bad at taking pictures here lately.  One thing I did and I can't find any pics of, is I tried to true up the original anvils I had.  Also there are two types of anvils, full radius and ones with flats.  I was taught that flats are generally easier to work with.  The Harbor Freight anvils are full radius.  The also had a lot of runout radially.  So I tried to fix this runout and add flats.  A few of the anvils, I was able to get to a satisfactory level, others were just horrible.  I'm not sure what the problem was as I am an amateur/hobby machinist noob but some of the anvils really turned like crap.  I threw in the towel.  I heard that the updated anvils from HF are much better.  Using one of their coupons I went and picked up a set, I can't remember the cost at this point.  $50 or so?  The set I bought was also on their clearance rack for some reason.  Anyways they were all pretty decent as far as runout goes.  Minor corrections only, then I made a huge mess on the lathe sanding and polishing them, but they will be a decent set of anvils now.  If interested go to youtube and check out Wray Schelin's Pro Shaper page and he has a detailed video on how to get the best out of these anvils.  I had two upper anvils, used the better one and turned/polished it.  

 

After a lot of sanding and prep I painted the wheel frame with some Ford light gray that I bought at Tractor Supply.  I really like the color.  I painted it with a non-foam roller.  The thing was shedding like crazy.  Look at it closely and the paint is very uhhh...textured.  It is consistent though and honestly I really don't think it looks bad.  Reminds me of the black crinkle paint on old air cleaners and things.  I know we talked about pin striping in previous posts.  Maybe I'll add some at a later date.  I'm fine with calling it done for now though.  

 

 

 

While we're at it, the wheel is kinda in this shot, but a while ago I took apart and completely rebuilt, painted, greased, adjusted the the brake.  Didn't take any pics of the process though.  Painted it the same Ford gray and painted the angle there Miller Blue.  Works better now.  Was crazy how much BONDO was used to make that thing look nice under the factory silver paint though.  I couldn't believe it.  

 

 

Little snippet before pic for comparison.

 

 

 

 

All the little hardware, handles, and pieces of the anvil holders were polished.  I originally had the 8 ball, cue ball, and red 3 ball.  I decided I didn't want white/red theme so I was just seeing what other balls were available.  I decided on the green.  Right now I have the 8, 6, and cue ball, but I'll be changing the cue ball to the 14, which is the striped green.  8+6+14=28 which is the day my daughter was born and her name is also Emerald so kinda neat there.  

 

 

So with the wheel finished and working properly finally I gave it a little test run.  The stock fender is 20-22 gauge.  But I had this piece of 18 gauge leftover from something else.  I don't have a buck for the fender yet, but just started wheeling and checking progress as I went.  So a little imagination and squinting and you can see what I'm after kinda.  I'll be making some dies for the bead roller to experiment with adding that detail line that runs down the side of the car.  And yes, wayyy too much camber on that front tire, ha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by SublimeRT

[95riosnake]

I really love the english wheel, turned out fantastic, as did the brake. I'm truly jealous of all your stuff these days lol. Side note, I don't think I've ever heard the name Emerald but that's a pretty cool and unique name IMO!

[SublimeRT]

Thanks Dan.  We call her Emma a lot also.  Middle name Elizabeth.  So she's got options on what she wants to go by when she grows up, haha.  

[Steve-Oh]

Yup, totally jealous of your setup.  I love that you basically create your own conditions, develop an environment to work for you and not the other way around.  Very awesome! 

 

[SublimeRT]

On 11/23/2017 at 7:17 AM, Steve-Oh said:

Yup, totally jealous of your setup.  I love that you basically create your own conditions, develop an environment to work for you and not the other way around.  Very awesome! 

 

Thanks man!  I'm glad that I'm able to get things to work better for me.  I'm always attempting to optimize; it's never ending.  I feel like anything that can be done in the shop that helps increase efficiency, make a better end product, and even just make it a more pleasant and creative place to be is very well worth it.  

 

That'll lead me to this next thing.  I built a stand a long while back, I think it's in this thread somewhere.  It's a 14" steel wheel on some small casters with a pedestal with a receiver hitch on top.  And storage for other tools to swap out.  I used it for the vise, bench grinder, and some railroad chunks and t-dollies.  Well if the grinder was mounted and I needed the vise, or vice versa, I'd try to make do without.  Or if I really needed access to more than one thing, say the vise and a dolly.  And as a vice stand, it is pretty small and light.  

 

So looked to see what kind of stuff I had around here.  Gathered some 1/4" plate , leftover horse stall mat from another project, a steel 20" spare from my truck, leftover 4x4x1/4 from the chassis table, and went and picked up some small carriage bolts, washers, cap nuts, and another receiver tube.

 

Laid out a pattern on the plate.

 

Busted out the big Makita and rough cut the baseplate out.  

 

Did a secondary cut with the old portaband. 

 

Set the wheel on and scribed a line for the hardware. 

 

Drilled holes evenly spaced all the way around then set it on the horse mat to transfer the diameter and holes. 

 

Cut it out on the portaband too. 

 

Drilled holes in the mat 

 

With a spade bit, drilled a countersink for the 1/2" carriage bolts.  

 

Cut a smaller plate for the wheel center. 

 

Fully welded the wheel to the baseplate then mocked up the rest. 

 

I wasn't content with the harbor freight receiver tube. 

 

Turned down a nut for a set screw/jam bolt for the receiver tube

 

Took the receiver tube, removed the original outer square tube piece, drilled another hole for the jam bolt, stripped the paint. 

 

I had a little bit of tube to make a larger outer piece then fully welded the top and put a little stitch on each side on the bottom. 

 

Smoothed the weld on the top, welded on the nut for the jam bolt, and tacked up some little bits of 1/4" to bring it all together. 

 

IIRC I did two passes on all the seams then smoothed out the welds.  Just the root pass on bottom of the receiver tube in this pic. 

 

Capped off the root with a weave. 

 

 

Everything all cleaned up, sanded, and ready to go. 

 

Welded the small disc from earlier into the wheel, then the pedestal onto it. 

 

And there we go.  Not done completely at this point but was usable.  

 

 

After some time I went to my metal supplier to get some things for another project and I inquired about having a disc for the top cut out of 1/4" on the plasma.  They were able to do it for something like $30 total.  Saved me a lot of work.  I cut a square out of the middle, fully welded the perimeter and around the tube, then smoothed the perimeter.  This is much better.  I planned to do this from the start.  It sucked dropping things into the wheel.  And the wheel itself is so large, I stand on it often to better get at things in the vise.  I also removed the swivel base of the vise.  It came loose often and I didn't see the need.  I sort of 'blueprinted' the vise at this time.  Disassembled it, took all the slack out of the screw, squared the movable jaw to the fixed (it can be seen in the previous pic of the vise that the jaws didn't line up), trued up and squared the jaw inserts, greased and reassembled.  It's much better to work with and when the jaws fully close, the handle is now straight up and down.  

 

I also welded up the valve stem hole.  The original plan was to fill it with sand, hence all the fully welding of everything.  I still might.  Honestly though it is heavy as crap already and very stable.  I just need to decide on a color at this point and then I guess it'll be done.  Gonna try a local powder coater out.  Might just take it to him and tell him to surprise me or try out something new he's been itching to do.  We'll see.  I love this thing though.

Edited November 28, 2017 by SublimeRT

[95riosnake]

I love it too! Beautiful work Blaise. Honestly straight up welding/fab porn every time you post an update in this thread!

[Yeahloh95]

yes those are some very cool tools you have now

[LWARRIOR1016]

You do some absolutely fabulous metal work. Im guessing this is what you do for a living?

 

When do you expect to put some time into the mustang again? Im not going to lie, youve made me consider ripping apart my engine bay again and making things smooth.

[SublimeRT]

4 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

I love it too! Beautiful work Blaise. Honestly straight up welding/fab porn every time you post an update in this thread!

 

 

3 hours ago, Yeahloh95 said:

yes those are some very cool tools you have now

 

Thanks guys!  

 

1 hour ago, LWARRIOR1016 said:

You do some absolutely fabulous metal work. Im guessing this is what you do for a living?

 

When do you expect to put some time into the mustang again? Im not going to lie, youve made me consider ripping apart my engine bay again and making things smooth.

 

Thank you very much.  And yes it is.  I have been messing with the Mustang here and there.  Pretty much everything I've done though, I think since posting about the engine bay and SFCs, is in the name of mockup.  Setting up ride height, wheel/tire size/offset, fuel tank location, seating/control position, etc.  Before I can make any panels I need a buck to pull a pattern off of.  So since spinning the car around and getting it on the ground, I have been working on a front fender that I can use to pull my pattern from.  I'll post up about all that jazz sometime.  

 

And as far as smoothing your bay......do it!!  

[Steve-Oh]

Dat weave doe!!!  Ugh, so nice! 

[SublimeRT]

Thanks man!   Was a bit of a nail-biter! 

[SublimeRT]

So in my quest to mock things up in a bit more permanent fashion and really make some decisions on things like wheel/tire sizes, ride height, etc. I fashioned up some adjustable 'shocks' and 'struts'.  I was tired of doing things like getting the rear end where I wanted it with a leaky little floor jack, blocks of wood, linoleum tiles as shims, jack stands, etc.  

 

So I dug around in my scraps and got some bits.  3/4" diameter black pipe from Lowe's, 1/4" thick steel flat bar, 5/8" nuts and threaded rod.  These bits are for the rear shocks.

 

This seems to be the only in progress shot I have of building these.  This is 4 pieces of the 1/4" steel flat bar, I drilled and then cut them on the bandsaw in this stacked fashion.  In an effort to keep all 4 pieces identical.  

 

And the finished product.  Two pieces of the 1/4" stock welded together for a 1/2" thick bottom eyelet.  The 3/4" pipe was stripped and cut to length and one end slotted for the bottom eyelet to slip into some.  A 5/8" nut welded at the other end of the pipe.  A 5/8" nut welded to the end of the threaded rod.  This will be the top nut, on the inside of the trunk.  And then two more nuts to the side there that will be on the underside to sandwich the metal that is the upper shock mount.  I could leave these bottom nuts off if I weren't planning to set the car onto the ground.  The top nut is welded so that I can adjust and raise or lower the rear end with a socket from inside the trunk.

 

Installed and adjusted to about where I wanted it.  Sorry for the not so good pictures, you get the idea though.  It looks like in these pics I've yet to tighten that bottom nut to sandwich the upper shock mount.

 

 

 

 

 

I have even less pictures of the front ones, so I apologize about that.  But they are pretty similar in construction.  If I remember right I built these to where there is maybe .6-.8 degrees of camber.  The lower tubes were made from leftover 1 3/4"x.187 DOM.  Again 5/8" threaded rod and nuts.  1/4" plate for the upper and lower mounts.  The upper plate mount is sandwiched, the nut on each side is welded so it can be adjusted up or down with a socket from the engine bay side, much like the rear 'shocks'.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you'll notice in the first and third pics the upper spring pockets in the stock k-member are gone and have been replaced by a flat piece of 1/8" steel.  Again I have no pics specifically of this, but I can get some better ones.  But again this is a mock up thing and something that has to be done before building front fenders for the car.  I know I want to extend the wheelbase of the car.  But I am undecided if I want to keep a stock style setup and do something like an MM K-member or do something more radical. 

 

But to mock up the extended wheelbase I removed the k-frame, cut out the spring pockets and spanned this gap with the flat 1/8" steel, and for the rear lower k-frame mounts I welded on a piece of 1/4" steel to extend it a few inches.  With these new bits of metal in place I was able to add some new mounting holes for the k-frame that move the whole thing forward in the car 1 5/8".  American Iron has a wheelbase limit of 103" for this body style Mustang.  This car will never be in American Iron, but I simply used this number as my baseline.  All the literature I find lists the stock wheelbase at 101.3.  With the extra 1 5/8 it should be right under 103".  I think it gives the car a good look.  

 

For tire size mock up, I looked at used tires in the sizes I wanted, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay the prices people wanted for used tires, especially when I'm not 100% decided on sizes.  I have 4 275/40-17s from this car.  I drilled a hole large enough to get a jigsaw blade in, then did just that and followed the tread all the way around till the tire was cut in half.  I cut a bunch of little strips of 18 gauge on the shear.  Just kinda eyeballed the sizes, didn't waste my time making them all exact.  And punched some 1/8" holes in them for screws.

 

With some angle iron clamped to the table and checking the gap with a tape measure, the straps were screwed into the tire with 1/8" sheetmetal screws.

 

 

 

I taped the gap in the tire with some dark duct tape.  The gap was messing with my eye, almost making it look like a dually with two small tires on one side, haha.  The tire is mounted and backspace/offset adjusted where I wanted it with a tire mock up tool I made.  The front tire still needs the same widening and mock up treatment before I get too far along with the fender.

 

Edited December 6, 2017 by SublimeRT

[Prokiller]

that's a great idea to cut the tire in half.  you just made yourself some adjustable tire size tools.  i was wondering why you were making shocks to hold the rear in place, but then realized you still have it mounted in the car.  i thought you removed that a while ago.  those should really help you fine tune the ride height without having to buy/install coilovers.  besides, even if you had actual coilovers right now, it wouldn't simulate actual ride height because you don't have much weight in the car.

 

 

[Blackmage]

i wish i had 1/2 the tools you do man.  love seeing your updates!

[SublimeRT]

3 hours ago, Prokiller said:

that's a great idea to cut the tire in half.  you just made yourself some adjustable tire size tools.  i was wondering why you were making shocks to hold the rear in place, but then realized you still have it mounted in the car.  i thought you removed that a while ago.  those should really help you fine tune the ride height without having to buy/install coilovers.  besides, even if you had actual coilovers right now, it wouldn't simulate actual ride height because you don't have much weight in the car.

 

 

 

Thanks!  I think if I were able to use that big chassis table I built a while ago I could use it for these things.  Set the car at ride height on the table, then set the front /rear axle centerlines and heights where I want and weld them to the adjustable crossmembers, etc.  I'll be pulling the Charger off the table soon, but another car might be going on it after that.  I've thought about, and would actually like to build a second one.  We'll see. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Blackmage said:

i wish i had 1/2 the tools you do man.  love seeing your updates!

 

Thanks man!  The tools are definitely a growing addiction, haha.

[SublimeRT]

I forgot to mention, the rear tire was widened to simulate a 335.  And the tire/wheel mockup tool was set to simulate a 12" wide wheel.  Final wheel choice will probably be 18s in diameter, but the outside diameter is pretty similar. 

 

Thinking of trying a 295 or so width on the front.  Don't want anything too massive up front since it'll be a street car.

Edited December 6, 2017 by SublimeRT

[ttocs]

the gap between the trunk and the pass tail light is messing with me what am I seeing there is it a gap or just a dark spot?

[SublimeRT]

You're seeing it right, there is a gap between the trunk lid and the light.  The light has been moved outward to line up with the projected quarter panel.  

[SublimeRT]

So guys today I got a piece of the front fender in presentable shape and I just had to share.  So real quick, what I'm doing here is I need a buck to pull a pattern from to shape the front fenders.  There are many different kinds and ways to build a buck; wood station bucks, foam sheet glued together and carved, wire forms (kind of like what I did with the rear quarter), wire forms covered in mesh, tape, foil whatever and bondo'd over, straight bondo bucks, expanding foam carved, etc.  You get the idea.  Basically do whatever you gotta do to get a consistent and accurate shape for your pattern.  

 

Well I really just wanted to shape some metal.  The English wheel has been calling my name and I recently made a mallet and carved a stump I had.  I guess this is kind of 'blind shaping' with no buck, but I thought well maybe I can get something in the ballpark and then skim coat it with filler and get nice and smooth and pull my pattern from it to build the actual fenders.  So far, I think it will work.  

 

The first thing I did a while ago was I sheared a 3/4" wide, 3' long strip of 18 gauge and with the shrinker/stretcher shaped it to match the original fender arch exactly.  This is my gauge for the fender arch. 

 

I mainly use the shrinker on the inside edge.  As the metal shrinks it bunches up and has to go somewhere.  This makes for an uneven surface.  The outside edge remains smooth though I still took a flexible sanding block to the outside to help out. 

 

 I sheared another strip, a bit wider, I can't recall exactly, maybe 1.5".  Bent it 90 degrees, and armed with the gauge, shaped the angle in the shrinker/stretcher to form a new wheel arch.  Since I have the front wheel centerline moved forward, I have located the new wheel arch about 1" forward as well.  Got it where I wanted it and used 1/8" sheet metal screws to hold it to that other little fender piece I made a while back.

 

With the shear, brake, bead roller with tipping dies, shrinker/stretcher, and kick punch, a flange for the front lower edge/bumper cover mount was made.

 

 

Bolted it to the studs on the bumper cover.

 

Got the bumper cover where I wanted it in relation to the fender arch and screwed them together with another 1/8" sheet metal screw.  Luckily, in pulling the bumper cover out away from the original fender, the arc of that action moved the rear edge of the bumper cover forward, and met up with the new fender arch location very well.  So, I might get away without any substantial modifications to the bumper cover.  The bumper cover, headlight support panel, steel bumper and foam filler, etc. are all bolted in place and adjusted normally as well.  

 

If you look at the widebody Saleen racecars, it appears that the front lights are all mounted in stock locations, and where the fender starts right after the side marker lights,  it bulges out a bit.  This is not bad looking to me but I wanted to see if I could get things to flow a bit better, more like the stock setup, just to help make this all look more natural.  I simply put some washers behind the mounting stud of the side marker light and snugged it down and it sat just how I wanted it to surprisingly.  Then I adjusted the edge of the headlight to match it and flow together.  I imagine if I keep the stock halogen bulbs, this would make the headlight aiming kind of cross-eyed, but at this point a project like this I think at least needs a HID projector retrofit, so these angles can be compensated for.  Also in this pic, the total amount of widening going on here on this side is 2".  The wire form on the rear quarter is about the same, maybe 2 1/8".

 

At this point I laid a piece of paper over the front section of the fender, cut it to shape, transferred to metal, cut it out.  With the new mallet and stump I put some shrinks on the edges, and stretched a lot in the middle and started wheeling it out.  I was on the right track, but did a little too much stretching in one area and just decided to start new and try to get a bit of a better paper pattern.  So just by hand I bent some 1/8" steel rod and taped it to the fender every few inches, wire buck style like the rear quarter.  I covered it in paper and the paper is slit and taped up where I want shrinks.  

 

 

 

So this second panel, I put a few shrinks on the edges again, but the rest of the work and stretching was done with the wheel.  Since I have no buck, this method allowed me to see the shape progress.  So after many rounds of wheeling, checking on the car, trimming bits of the edges here and there, etc. I have something pretty close to what I had in mind for this fender.  A few more tweaks, final trimming, tipping some edges, and then I will weld it to the flanges I made previously.  I may or may not weld it to the other little section.  Might make a new one that goes all the way back to the door, rather than have to add a small section to it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I know it'll be hard to really pinpoint if the shape isn't quite right without seeing it in person and really inspecting it from all angles, but let me know what yall think of the overall shape so far and if something looks off.  After welding the arch in and blending that in, that edge will all flow a bit smoother, not so squared looking, and then getting the rest of the pieces of the fender made and welded in will probably give a better feel for it all.  Also the accent line that runs down the car is not in the fender yet.  That's something I need to experiment with.  Going to make some dies for the bead roller and see how that works.  Thanks for checking things out.

Edited December 14, 2017 by SublimeRT