My concept for the general Vee - Page 3 - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

Palepainter · January 13th, 2010, 06:24 PM

Got the back part of the door tightened up and am going to start door glass frame next. Here is this eves progress.

I have been managing to sneak in an hour here and there. Thank god for the heater in the shop though.

**purplemyth** · January 14th, 2010, 05:00 AM

I like it with the stock rail, keeps the eye going long. Following the window, it makes the car feel short. Plus that lil area might make a nice place for a lil airbrushed scene later ;)

It's nice to watch someone building during winter, and thank you for posting so many pics!

Palepainter · January 14th, 2010, 05:21 PM

Finished up tacking and cutting the door window frame. I have a bit more to tack up on the driver side then I will go in and do all the finish welding. I am doing a bit at a time to avoid warpage. The convex curve of the new sail panel help keeping the shape, unlike welding flat sheetmetal.

Palepainter · January 14th, 2010, 05:23 PM

I ordered my beam extension today from Doug. I am looking forward to it. I have a friend down in AZ who builds buggies and is setting me up with a new rack and pinion steering system for the bug. He will have the entire set up available as well if anyone is interested. He will be sending me the Solidworks rendering of the mounting unit. I will post it when it is here.

DirtGhost · January 15th, 2010, 07:02 AM

Are you going to make the drip rail follow the contour of the window opening ?

Palepainter · January 15th, 2010, 07:48 AM

I have debated that heavily and am going to keep it where it is. I think it will flow better to the back of the car in a more sweeping fashion.

Palepainter · January 16th, 2010, 12:39 PM

Finished up all the welding and grinding on the outside of the car's roof. It is pretty sturdy with out the B pillar. The increased area in the sail panel seems to have stiffened it up nicely, I would imagine even more once the inner panels are locked down. I capped off the door and have a bit of shaping to do in the glass channel. I am going to do a few mods to the deck lid and the hood later. Then move on to the other side so I can cut out the bracing and then do the inner welding.

The car eagerly awaits the beam extension and rack and pinion mount. A friend of mine who is a great suspension guy is doing the rack set up for me. You can see his work here. http://www.fergfab.com/

I am looking into tires right now as well. I am happy with the fronts I have, but have not been able to find a widened smoothie rim so I can run a fattie. I am going to hold out for a while before I get the rear tires until I decide what to do there.

Gotta get back at it.

**purplemyth** · January 16th, 2010, 12:57 PM

Nice work Mike

is it dun yet?

briancustoms · January 16th, 2010, 04:22 PM

Lookin good man!

Palepainter · January 16th, 2010, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by purplemyth

is it dun yet?

HEHEHE...Slacka.....

Thanks guys,
I welded up all the trim holes today. Shaved the hood and the decklid. I will get pics tomorrow. The welder is really working well. I am going to get rid of all of the fender mounting holes on this side of the car while I have this side next to the fab table. Once I get finished with the majority of the heavy fab work on this side of the car, I will back it out and flip it around and repeat. I think this will work better for me in this kind of sequence.

I am up in the air on headlight treatments. I was considering mounting the early bug lights into the sides of the lower aprons but will not verify that until the beam is in it's final position. Oddly, I think one of the old bug lights would look great where the handle is. HAHAHA. Kind of a cyclops, but I do not know if that is legal on a car. I will have to do a mockup.

**purplemyth** · January 16th, 2010, 05:31 PM

and look at you, you come back 5hrs later with no pics~
yeah, slacka

(and then you edit, bad boy lol!)

btw~ what are you doing for door windows or will there be none? with the door more or less frameless now (which I think is pretty cool) just curiuos , sorry if I missed it in a previuos post~

Palepainter · January 16th, 2010, 05:44 PM

Honestly Carlene, I am up in the air on the windows. The rear glass will be permanent using the stock seal. I was considering making a front post that attaches to that glass. It would resemble that of something like on a ghia rear roll up window. That would provide the seal between the two. I have been trying to keep things in order enough to be able to do some kind of roll up. But the only problem is that the glass would have to be down to open the door. Not a big issue. I had also considered no glass at all on the sides and using safety netting in the rear attached to the cage inside. I had also considered using plexy on the sides and making a sliding opening on the door pieces. I figured with the ragtop, getting wind in the car wont be an issue, especially with a little rake. I am pondering a safari front window while I am at it too.

Lots of decisions, but trying to have some leeway until I am forced to decide.

Palepainter · January 16th, 2010, 06:26 PM

Here ya go Carlene. Just for you.

Some shots of this eve's progress. In the one pic, you can see the cyclops concept I was messing with for lighting. I will have to consult DMV for legality issues, but I do not think so. Kind of oddly cool.

**purplemyth** · January 17th, 2010, 05:40 AM

Hmm, the windows are gonna be tricky, but I like that mod for a car that wouldn't care if it got a bit damp inside. Could look into the snap in pieces like that in jeeps. But the safety net gives a bit more to the military feel though kinda mad max :)

Not sure of that cyclops look, yet lol!

And thanks for the pics of the lil tedious stuff of last night,

motivational for some. But for me? nah, I just like to watch you guys work

Palepainter · January 17th, 2010, 04:02 PM

Today I went in and got rid of all of the fender bolt holes and welded in little squares in their respective spots. I assessed the rust in the lower rear and the inner rear wheel well. I will need to do a bit there as well.

I also got rid of the trim holes on the rear deck lid and fit an earlier plate light housing. I messed around with the bees hive taillights too. Not sure where to mount them until I get the rear apron in. That will have to wait until I get the motor fitted later on.

Still up in the air on lighting in the front. I was looking at some later model Ford Taurus head lamps that could be made to look good on the lower apron area. Something that is going to be practical yet different.

I have a bit of weld flash today. I will give it a break for this eve.

Cutman · January 19th, 2010, 06:42 AM

So, you were able to chop the top without having to cut the roof up into sections (no need for a donor roof) by making relief cuts and making it fit? Do you think a guy could just move the front window pillar (B post) back if he wanted to leave that? Your technique seems to be much less work and less parts needed to complete a chop. I like what you're doing here.

Palepainter · January 19th, 2010, 07:07 AM

No donor roof needed. No welding in the roof at all. All the stock lines are intact. The reliefs were made in the A pillars and the rear sail panels. The B pillar could have been relocated, moved back about 2.5 inches and a piece of sheetmetal could have been bent to fit. Had I kept the B pillar, I would have angled it forward. I had considered that too.
This is the Capella method basically.

The crucial part is figuring out how much drop in the rear. The more you drop it, the tougher it gets to realign everything back up. I went with about 2.5 in the rear. But the way I am redoing the side openings makes it look a bit less of a slant chop. Even before with a 4.5 front chop and a 2.5, it doesn't look too slanted. If you are real careful and calculating, you would need no filler piece in the rear sail panel like mine. You would just need to move the lower section of the rear window forward and put in a filler piece of sheetmetal.

Palepainter · January 24th, 2010, 04:35 PM

Finished up all the welding on the driver side. Cut out a few rust repair areas that will have to wait until the pan is separated from the body. I backed the car out of the shop and turned it around then started the passenger side mods. I capped off the B pillar and started the new rear sail panel.

Looking forward to getting the inner supports cut out and then mounting up the beam extender and finishing off the front apron area. Then I will mount up the motor in order to finish up the rear apron before separating the chassis and body. My plans are to powdercoat the entire undercarriage.

rodderdan · January 24th, 2010, 08:50 PM

Great work but why is this thread so wiiiiiiiiiiiiide?

Palepainter · January 25th, 2010, 06:50 AM

You must have the resolution on your monitor quite low. The images are 800x600. I am not having any scrolling issues from left to right. If it is a problem for people, I will make the images smaller.

**purplemyth** · January 25th, 2010, 07:47 AM

the pics are fine Mike

Rodder, Steve did a bit of redesigning, the threads are wider than they used to be, so, dunno

rodderdan · January 25th, 2010, 11:19 AM

Most of the other threads are fine but I can only view about 1/3 of this one at a time.Guess I'll keep scrolling since I don't know Jack about changing things in my computer.Still nice work.

Palepainter · January 25th, 2010, 06:22 PM

Started on the passenger side sail panel and rear quarter reconstruction. After plasma cutting the template close to size, I ran it through the wheel to get the correct convex curve. I checked it compared to the drivers side for symmetry. Then started tacking it to the upper roof line.

briancustoms · January 25th, 2010, 06:50 PM

Go faster, I want to see it with the extender on it!

Lookin good. Is that a homebuilt wheel? Got any pictures and build specs for it?

Palepainter · January 25th, 2010, 07:08 PM

It is a home built wheel. It will handle 18 and 20 guage fine. I have only two different wheel set ups for it. One for putting arc in, and one for smoothing after beating with a bag and hammer. It is pretty basic. I will snap a pic of it tomorrow for you. I didnt really have any plans. I found some pics on the Hamb for a bench top wheel and kind of went from there. Grangers has a wide assortment of wheels and bearings that work great. I can not remember part numbers as it was along time ago when I put it together.

I think Doug shipped out the extender today. Weeee. I will get it on when it gets here. I am working on the R/P steering too.

I have yet to decide on tires. I am kind of looking at these on all 4 corners.
http://www.universaltire.com/truck-a...-sta-ndcc.html

The only prob is the fronts will be the same size as the rear. So...I am undecided. If I keep the radials I have in front, I want a tall profile tire for the rear. I have probed a few times about how tall of a tire I can put on stock rim, but have gotten no input. I am going to call a local tire co or Universal to see what they advise.