Cantedvalve

Last night we did nothing on the car. I did help my daughter do front brakes on her car. I showed her on the driver side, and she did the passenger side.
 

Tonight I worked on welding all of the inner structure together while Josh continued to strip EDP coating from the quarter panel. I got the inner structure welded to the wheel wells, and the rear seat support welded to the wheel wells and inner structure. Next is a pause on welding parts on so we can clean and prep and primer the whole thing.

Earlier this week we did some more mock assembling to make sure we had things in the right places. We put the quarters and roof on to make sure the positioning of the rear filler panel was correct. I measured my Fastback at 31-5/16” down the middle. The car we are building measured at 31-7/16”. I think it is in the roof. I also measured the trunk diagonal to corners and it came out exactly the same as my car, so I am confident enough that everything is in the right place. I stripped the inside of the filler panel and brushed on some epoxy primer. I also stripped the upper seat support brackets, primered those, and drilled holes for the plug welds. I’m hoping tomorrow we can weld some of this stuff together. 

Earlier this week we did some more mock assembling to make sure we had things in the right places. We put the quarters and roof on to make sure the positioning of the rear filler panel was correct. I measured my Fastback at 31-5/16” down the middle. The car we are building measured at 31-7/16”. I think it is in the roof. I also measured the trunk diagonal to corners and it came out exactly the same as my car, so I am confident enough that everything is in the right place. I stripped the inside of the filler panel and brushed on some epoxy primer. I also stripped the upper seat support brackets, primered those, and drilled holes for the plug welds. I’m hoping tomorrow we can weld some of this stuff together. 

Tonight was busy but necessary work of grinding down welds in the wheel wells and primering the bare metal. Nothing sexy.

Tonight was busy but necessary work of grinding down welds in the wheel wells and primering the bare metal. Nothing sexy.

Work continues.  Wheel wells are welded in place.
 

Did the same exercise with the heads. Clearly no work needed.
 

Inner wheel wells are welded in. We put epoxy primer on all surfaces first, then cleaned the back metal off through the hold via a flattened drill bit in a die grinder. We also got paint! Single stage urethane Grabber Blue.
 

Today was more of the same. Media blasting and primer on parts. We also let the parts bask in the sun. Tomorrow hopefully we assemble again and get ready to weld. Josh has been doing an awesome job with the primer. Parts are turning out very nice!
 

I also include a few pictures of our water and oil removal systems. I have what is essentially a transmission cooler on the compressor that takes the hot wet air and cools it off. You can’t touch the copper tubing going into it as it is way too hot, but the pipe coming out is quite cool. Ambient, maybe a touch more. Works well. There is a water and oil separator that takes out the condensed water before passing the air into the tank. Also, I have a desiccant dryer that uses 5lbs of desiccant beads. It is for spraying or blasting only.

Today was more of the same. Media blasting and primer on parts. We also let the parts bask in the sun. Tomorrow hopefully we assemble again and get ready to weld. Josh has been doing an awesome job with the primer. Parts are turning out very nice!
 

Did the same exercise with the heads. Clearly no work needed.
 

Yesterday we didn’t do much. We reassembled the desiccant dryer and then powder coated the distributor housing.  We are going for a cast look.  It came out well. Intake will get the same treatment.

We spent the morning drilling holes and sanding flanges. We also put the firewall in the car to test fit again, and to see if I can install the torque boxes the way I want. We ran out of 3 inch sanding disks, but they should be here today. The lower cowl panel export brace holes aren’t quite lining up with the firewall. I didn’t play with it too much, but we may have to relocate them. Driver side of the firewall needs to come up 1/4” to meet the cowl flange
 

We spent the morning drilling holes and sanding flanges. We also put the firewall in the car to test fit again, and to see if I can install the torque boxes the way I want. We ran out of 3 inch sanding disks, but they should be here today. The lower cowl panel export brace holes aren’t quite lining up with the firewall. I didn’t play with it too much, but we may have to relocate them. Driver side of the firewall needs to come up 1/4” to meet the cowl flange
 

Some recent acquisitions. We were able to find a nicely restored original Hurst shifter. Reproduction rods and handle, but original levers and T-handle. Also just purchased an original 1969 gauge cluster with tach and 140mph speedometer. Not sure I’ve ever seen a 140mph speedo before. Will obviously need to trade the panel for a 1970, but the gauges will work. 

The big day is here! Today we made sparks! Previously we drilled holes at 5/16” In the inner rocker. We are welding inside to out, as it offers much less area you have to grind on that will also be visible. We did have some exceptions back at the torque box area where we had to weld outside to in. We completed the welds on the passenger side. Truthfully, I did most of it while my son helped, but he did get in there and do some himself, but he wasn’t as confident as I was with rosette welding. We used 5/16” holes, but we could have used 1/4” holes particularly if we were welding outside to in. 

Our process was as such. We put epoxy primer on both the inner surfaces, including where the wells would go. We then drilled holes. We then positioned the body side back up on the car and clamped it. I took a burned up 1/4” drill bit and flattened the end to use as a scraper to remove the epoxy on off the back metal in the hole area and used it with a die grinder. Then we welded. Where you see scorch marks in the first photo was where we had drilled holes and used screws to hold it together. Turned out awesome. Still need to grind the welds flat. About 3 hours of work

Pictures…

Weather seems to be warming up.  We havent had much chance to do work on the car.  I've been rebuilding the engine in dad's mower (Onan P220 for the interested... couldnt talk him into the SBF).  That will be done Friday.  Next week will be warm enough that we can get primer on the firewall (which miraculously hasnt rusted), and continue mock up.  I did start purchasing engine parts.  We also tore down the block to the bones, and it will be headed towards the machine shop this summer.  I hope to start having more regular updates starting next week.

Some recent acquisitions. We were able to find a nicely restored original Hurst shifter. Reproduction rods and handle, but original levers and T-handle. Also just purchased an original 1969 gauge cluster with tach and 140mph speedometer. Not sure I’ve ever seen a 140mph speedo before. Will obviously need to trade the panel for a 1970, but the gauges will work. 

The big day is here! Today we made sparks! Previously we drilled holes at 5/16” In the inner rocker. We are welding inside to out, as it offers much less area you have to grind on that will also be visible. We did have some exceptions back at the torque box area where we had to weld outside to in. We completed the welds on the passenger side. Truthfully, I did most of it while my son helped, but he did get in there and do some himself, but he wasn’t as confident as I was with rosette welding. We used 5/16” holes, but we could have used 1/4” holes particularly if we were welding outside to in. 

Our process was as such. We put epoxy primer on both the inner surfaces, including where the wells would go. We then drilled holes. We then positioned the body side back up on the car and clamped it. I took a burned up 1/4” drill bit and flattened the end to use as a scraper to remove the epoxy on off the back metal in the hole area and used it with a die grinder. Then we welded. Where you see scorch marks in the first photo was where we had drilled holes and used screws to hold it together. Turned out awesome. Still need to grind the welds flat. About 3 hours of work

Pictures…

Finished up the mower engine today. It’s back in and running well.

Weather seems to be warming up.  We havent had much chance to do work on the car.  I've been rebuilding the engine in dad's mower (Onan P220 for the interested... couldnt talk him into the SBF).  That will be done Friday.  Next week will be warm enough that we can get primer on the firewall (which miraculously hasnt rusted), and continue mock up.  I did start purchasing engine parts.  We also tore down the block to the bones, and it will be headed towards the machine shop this summer.  I hope to start having more regular updates starting next week.

Ok boys n girls! First ones out of the mold ,a couple of very tiny flaws but i know what will take care of that . 
They are so small i have to be very careful when trimming them but i can guarantee they are a lot tougher than the original pieces .
Now for the rear seat panels ,i am going to completely re work my set ,re texture and make a new set of molds .  

Thinking out loud here... why not mount the shaker to the hood?  It's all for show at this point, it would be fairly simple to do, and it would look more "supposed to be there" than the current option.