'37 Ford 4x4 Back on the bench 12/30

[Alyn]

Hope this one doesn't stay on the back burner too long. It's a great project.

Did the hood hinge start with a photo etch part, or did you cut the pieces from scratch?

[Shardik]

Alyn,

The hinge is made from scratch. I started with .oo5" sheet brass, cut into 3/4" wide strips, which I then took to work with me and spent 2 hours on a Bridgeport milling equally spaced 1/16" slots in a stack of 10 blanks sandwiched between two pieces of aluminum. I'll post a picture of the blanks later.

Thanks for your interest.

Edited January 7, 2013 by Shardik

[Shardik]

As promised, here's a look at my hinge blanks. They're actually over-scale for 1:24, as I originally made them for a 1:12 scale Bentley, but I figured as long as I had extras I might as well open the hood on the '37.

Boy, was my arm sore after I finished these. Each notch required eight passes to keep the depth of cut to .015" in order to preserve my only 1/16 end mill.

[Alyn]

Those are great parts, Johann. That's the kind of stuff that turns a good model into a great one. Very nice.

Nice work on the truck interior too. I didn't slow down enough to notice the detail work you'd done on my first pass. It was well worth the second pass. My dad and uncle kicked around in an old 37 Ford pickup back in the day, so they always bring back good memories.

[Shardik]

Thanks for the second look, Alyn.

A lot of the detail in the interior didn't show up very well in the photos. For example, the duct tape on the seats, the stuffing peeking through the split seams and the worn carpet on the floor. I also made the bracket for the C.B. from .010" aluminum sheet with scale hardware bolts for the pivots.

For now, I'm kind of struggling with the hinges for the side curtains on the hood: getting enough glue surface without covering the louvers and still maintain strength in the hinge. Experiment #7 underway.

[Gluhead]

Nice work, Johann.

I'm curious...what was your trick to roll the brass tangs? I need to make a pair of these hinges before too long for a super-secret project (). I slotted the end of a piece of brass tubing for rolling the ends of aluminum strip, which works great...but I know brass would be too tough for it.

[Shardik]

Nice work, Johann.

I'm curious...what was your trick to roll the brass tangs? I need to make a pair of these hinges before too long for a super-secret project ( ). I slotted the end of a piece of brass tubing for rolling the ends of aluminum strip, which works great...but I know brass would be too tough for it.

Thanks for the interest, Glu'.

The brass I used is pretty thin, so it wasn't hard to form. To start, I used a PE bending jig to bend the tangs to 90 degrees about 2/3 from the bottom of the slots. I then interleave the hinges on a flat surface, and tape them down. Next, lay the hinge pin between the upturned tangs, and using a hard object, such as a micro chisel, bend one tang over at each end, to secure the pin, then repeat over and over and over and .....

I'll post some pictures of the process tomorrow to clarify what I'm talking about.

[Randy D]

Hi Johann, The work you are doing on the whole front end is just superb!! The louvers look great and the feed sack is awesome.

Those hinges are perfect.

Randy

[vintagedragfan]

some how I missed this thread, very nice work indeed Jonathan!