customline

Just sticking my nose in..... The gage is not as relevant as the thickness of the insulation on the AWG 30 conductor. The question is "what's the outside diameter of the insulation?"....that 30 gage wire can be had with very thick or very thin insulation. Just sayin' ?

Moving right along....I started on the firewall, first in card stock (we have a $h1T-ton of that around here) and then in .020 styrene. I have some .040, which would be more appropriate for this but .020 is much easier to work with (cut it with scissors). I braced it with some strip to stiffen it and give it a possible attachment point for whatever. I found a chassis in my junk yard with a nice big tyranny tunnel (no, not that kind) so I cut it out and it will be included, I hope, to set up a driveshaft tunnel, which is next. Im going with .005, which can be curled like ribbon. Gonna try it, anyway. But not tonight unless I can't sleep. ? Making a template Now plastic. The fitting process is tedious and repetitive. I'm going for a very slight over-hang where the firewall and floorboard meet. When I resume work, I will tack the firewall to the body and do a full test fit and, if I've got it, run a bead and zip-kick it. Below is the transmission tunnel stolen from Dirty Donnie's Dodge. It will need some work to get a tight fit with the firewall. Guess where I was yesterday..... Thanks for following.

Remember the "Outlaw" ? That was fiddly ! But maybe now...naaaah.....

A few more progress pix. Still some details to clean up yet but I've got to start thinking about the firewall and some engine bay stuff. I need to hook up a steering box and all that linkage. I need a radiator and electric fan set-up and a Moon tank mounting idea (gotta have a Moon tank, right?) Also the interior, roll cage, seating, etc. Thanks for looking.

You will need chrome jack stands and mirrors and lights with color wheels. ? This one woke me up. I'm tagging along.

Here's a mock-up. Axle and engine mount/crossmember. I will have more later, Google willing ?

Wow, Steve, that looks fantastic! ?

Yeah, the front plate mount is a good idea, Dave, but you're right about "more work". The reality here is that the engine was taken from the '29 roadster kit. A street rod. The stock-type mounts is what was used in the kit We could imagine the engine bolted solid to the crossmember with no rubber. Should be good enough. I just need to clean things up a bit.

That's the motor mounts, Dave. I removed a good portion of the original Dodge mounts because I thought they looked too.....heavy? Wide? I dunno, I just needed less for motor mounts. The braces were an afterthought because I figured they needed to look stronger. If you look back, you'll see what I mean (though you may not agree ?.) Anyway, there's still a lot of stuff to do on the foundation of this build like a re-do of the frame attachments for the front springs' rear mounts. Your questioning is making me re-think those braces, David. I'm thinking " yeah, why do I need those?" I tend to over-build things. I was a welder back in the day. Maybe just small gusset plates for reinforcement. When I do this sort of construction in styrene, I'm trying to do what I think I would do in steel on a 1:1 but I'm no expert. I'm going to revise some of this and I appreciate y'all helping. What do you think about connecting the two mounts with an under-the-pan span? That might look better, yeah?

It looks a whole lot better with wheels, JR ? and yes, it's a wonderful shade of purple ?. The white upholstery sets it up beautifully.

Thank you, gents. I'm giving my hands and eyes a break today. The hard stuff is ahead.

I've been wanting one of the Hudson kits. Their Chrysler kits are darn good too. I don't think I would two-tone it though, but that's because I hate doing it. It looks great the way it is right now, Steve. Dave is right about the value, too. You see these Hudsons very rarely as customs but I don't think I could stop myself from wondering.....?

Thank you Carl!

Doesn't look half bad, JR! Purple works well for the era.

A little update...scratched a couple of springs, set up framework for springs, added cross member to front and made clearance for bottom pulley of blower drive. Scratched spring mounting hardware. Wired engine and added blower drive. Thanks for your unalterable interest.

Some great work, Greg. I've got a bunch of 'Vettes to build but the '61/62 body style is my fave. I'm following ?

Well, I'm the only dummy in this house, just ask my wife. ? My collector is a fast-food soda straw. I grab extras whenever.....many different sizes....good to have on hand. I didn't even need to glue them on.

Thank you, Wayne, 10% should do nicely.

ATTENTION I made a correction to an earlier posting so in case you're interested..... I stated I used .080 styrene rod for the header tubes. I did not. I used 1/16" styrene rod. Which is not to say .080 wouldn't work but I can't vouch for it. ?

Just a few pix to keep it on the front page. I got headers! ? I found the blower drive is forcing the engine to move rearward. I'm concerned about the front cross member. Hearding cats comes to mind. I gotta make some room or I'm headed into "altered" territory. I think some gasser rules allow for a small amount of set-back. I'm sure someone will be happy to advise me. Thanks for looking! ? ? ? ?

Well....GET STARTED!.....thanks Brock. ? There's no way to use the tub as designed. I may need parts of it but can't use it whole. There's a lot of work ahead. Gotta make a new firewall and coordinate the interior floor with it. That transmission has a huge bottom pan and I had to cut away some of the Challenger's floor pan. I'm way down the rabbit hole now, Carl. I couldn't do this if I was totally sane. I surprised myself, Greg. I figured on trying styrene and whaddaya know? .080 rod will bend more without breaking than I thought it would. Cold. No heating other than my hot little hands....I took a quick measurement, made some pencil marks and simply bent the rod slowly. The two center pipes first to establish a foundation and then the outer ones which require a little more manipulation and I glued the straight runs together with solvent. The pipes are not glued to the flange yet. I will need to paint the flanges separately as they are glued to the block. The flanges are .010 or .015sheet and they were drilled before they were cut to size and shaped with sanding sticks while taped to a rigid backing. The heads were drilled first and the flanges were matched to the holes in the heads. This engine, because of the spark plug locations, is pretty difficult to do this with. Not much room to work. Thanks, Bob. The solder I have is just too big for this engine but I have made headers with it several times on larger engines but it's kinda heavy and I prefer not to if there is another way. The 1/16" styrene seemed like the ideal size for this one. It looks in scale. In 1:24 it's an 1-1/2" pipe.

Ta freekin da ?

Yeah, John, what Bob said. But it might be fun to just build another frame and use the kit frame for reference. Maybe just replace the rails. Use what's good and replace what ain't ?. Above all, Make Big Daddy proud! (and don't be a Rat Fink!) I'm following, get busy.

Yeah, I don't think I'd have jumped on that deal either unless the '59 was a ragtop and my Nomad was completely rusted out. ?. As far as solder goes, I have used it a few times on larger engines but I don't like it because it's heavy. I'm planning on using styrene rod this time. Wish me luck ?

Thanks, RRR, I'll try not to disappoint. Thanks for your interest, Bob. That Nomad - a phantom? Cool idea. The latest mock-up. I decided to go with the SBC from the '30 coupe kit, blower and all. But I gotta make proper fender well headers. ?. Ignore the wires ?