39 Ford Project

[Custer55]

Brian,
I hope you don't close the door quite yet, but will come back and try the fixes that are being incorporated.
Thanks for all your postings - I have learned a lot.
Thanks, Doug

I will try again. Hopefully this will get a lot better.

[Belair-o]

Brian,
I hope you don't close the door quite yet, but will come back and try the fixes that are being incorporated.
Thanks for all your postings - I have learned a lot.
Thanks, Doug

[Custer55]

I might be done posting on this sight. Just did a update on the project and it is a real pain to do anything on here with the new website. I have been posting on the other trifive site as well so you can see my updates there.
Sorry, Brian

[Custer55]

Then I used my homemade compass to mark where the flange to fit in the adjuster needed to be.

Loaded up in the bead roller to tip over the mounting flange. it took a couple of times around, trimming off some of the excess metal, and some stretching on the flange to get it where it needed to be.

Here is the pair pretty much done. They are not exact duplicates of each other but close enough as they fit in the adjusters just fine.

And here is a view from the other side.

The next step was to drill holes in the reflectors and the adjuster brackets to hold them in place. I clamped the reflectors together to the holes would be the same from 1 to the other. I used a 3 hole pattern and drilled the holes a bit off from a perfect pattern so they could only mount one way. The adjuster brackets also had a small tab built in so I notched the reflector flange for the tab and made sure it was the same on both reflectors so they will work on either side.

I have a couple more pictures but I can't upload them for some reason.
Anyway the final step was to polish out the reflectors by drilling the center holes out to 1/4" so I could mount them on a 1/4" rod in my drill press and sand them out spinning in the drill press with 80 grit progressively up to 2500 grit and then polishing them out. I then clear coated them with clear gloss wheel coating. Not perfect by any means but they should work good enough.
Brian

[Custer55]

For my next project I decided to come up with a plan for the headlights. When I took apart the headlight buckets to clean them up and repaint them they had 6 volt sealed beams installed behind the original headlight lenses. After some research I discovered this was not correct. They originally used a reflector that a separate bulb mounted in which mounted into an adjuster/aiming bracket.
20240811_163325.jpg
This is what the adjuster looks like in the headlight bucket. It has 2 clips to hold the reflector in place but those won't work because they were trimmed to install the sealed beam bulbs. Not a big deal as I should be able to just screw the reflectors to the adjusters. New reflectors are available for about $40. each so I am going to try to make my own before spending $80. on a pair of those.
Speedway Motors sells a halogen bulb kit that comes with the bulbs, mount base, and wiring pigtail for $40. so I am going to give that a try. Link is below.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-12-Volt-Quartz-Halogen-Headlight-Conversion-Kit,2980.html

20240811_110956.jpg
To make the reflectors I had an old satellite dish which was about 24 gauge metal so that should work fine. It just needs to hold a small bulb so it doesn't need to be heavy duty at all. Since I don't have an original reflector to go by I just used the old sealed beam bulb backside as a guide to what the shape should be.
20240812_110049.jpg
The first step was to drill and 1/8" hole in the center and put some layout lines on the metal blank after sanding off all the old paint.
20240812_112118.jpg
Next was to start the shaping process. I used my shrinking stump to get some tucks on the outside edge to start shaping the piece.
20240812_113429.jpg
After smoothing that out on the planishing hammer it has a good shape stated but still need more compared to my profile gauge.
20240812_114944.jpg
I then used my kick shrinker to bunch up the metal more on the outside edges.
20240812_115001.jpg
Next I hammered the center into my panel beater/sand bag to stretch the metal in the center to give it more shape.
20240812_143505.jpg
After a bunch of time on the planishing hammer it's looking much better.

[Custer55]

Fantastic work!

Thanks Gary,

[BamaNomad]

Fantastic work!

[Custer55]

My latest project was making a front fender brace that was missing and replaced with a piece that was functional but no where close to what the original brace was.
I know they should be the same because they do sell reproductions that are for the left or right side, no difference from side to side.


The top of the picture is what the brace should look like, the bottom one is the mangled rusty piece that replaced the original at some point. As I mentioned above you can buy reproductions of these for about $30. plus tax and shipping it ends up being about $45., so I will give it a try to make one.


The first step was to bend up some 16 gauge to the U shape of the brace and tack weld them together. The original was about .005 to 007 thicker than the 16 gauge I had left over from the running board repairs so close enough. Making this in 3 pieces due to the limitations of my bending brake on 16 gauge. Good excuse to get some more practice with the Tig welder though.


Here I have the 3 pieces fully welded together. Starting to get a little better at tig welding but still need lots more practice!! The nice part is no weld spatter like the mig and a lot less weld to grind off.


Here the welds are finished out (not perfect but good enough since this part will not be where they will be easy to see at all) and ready to start forming to shape.


Pretty much done at this point and pretty close to the original part. I just started at one end trimming and bending the end to match where it bolts the the lower part of the fender at the back of the wheel opening. (left side of picture) Then used my kick shrinker to form the curve to match to original. The only tricky part was shrinking each flange as equally as possible so the brace didn't end up with a twist in it. Sharpie marks an inch apart on each flange in the curved area helped with that.


And finally here is the new one next to the original. The flange is a bit wider than the original but that will not cause any clearance issues and will make up for it being a bit thinner metal.
Brian

[Custer55]

Brian,
Beautimous! What a great job you have done!
Gotta love all those complex curves.
Regards, Doug

Thanks Doug

That looks awesome all put together. You've sure done a lot of metalwork on that car. I notice there's no drivetrain in it yet....what's the plan?

Thanks Lazlo, I just have a few things left to get in primer. After that the plan is to start working on making it a running driving car. I want to get a set of upper and lower A-arms that eliminate the strut rods for one thing. I have a used engine that I am pretty sure will run for now but need a transmission and drive shaft. The rear end is a 57 Ford 9" I bought many years ago at a swap meet. It needs brakes and new seals but hopefully not much more than that. Still lots to do but at least most of the metal work is done at this point.

[chevynut]

That looks awesome all put together. You've sure done a lot of metalwork on that car. I notice there's no drivetrain in it yet....what's the plan?

[Belair-o]

Brian,
Beautimous! What a great job you have done!
Gotta love all those complex curves.
Regards, Doug

[Custer55]

Thats got to be a big inspiration to finish it, after seeing it all put together again. It looks great. You have a nice cruizer coming together here. Cheers!

For sure, really nice to have it looking like a complete car at this point. Still lots to do yet though.
Brian

[WagonCrazy]

Thats got to be a big inspiration to finish it, after seeing it all put together again. It looks great. You have a nice cruizer coming together here. Cheers!

[Custer55]

That looks awesome Brian. Great job.

Thanks Richard!

I totally agree... super job on reworking old metal...

Thanks Gary, as I have said before this has been a good car to learn on!

Man what a difference from when you started.

Thanks, I agree it looks way better than what I started with for sure!

Brian

[bigblock]

Man what a difference from when you started.