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Old 05-08-2009, 08:00 PM
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Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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Default The Art Deco Imperial Project - Part 10

THE ART DECO ROADSTER PROJECT
9/26/07
After sleeping on it, I decided the rear cockpit hoop was too low. It took an hour or so to raise it and get the flow right.

If you look carefully you can see 4 hoops: Firewall, A pillar, Dashboard, and Rear Cockpit hoop.



I also decided to take some of the rear 'point' off the doors..about 4" to be exact.



You can see the new higher line and also where the door is cut. I also boxed the B pillar which REALLY stiffened it up.



This week is fall Carlisle and my friend Gator picked up a 95 Corvette C4 rear end for me and will bring it to Oblong so I guess that decision is made for better or worse. It's the Dana 36 version from an automatic car and even has a warranty!!! The Dana 44 ones go for BIG bucks.

Progress at last. Between building a few big machines, catching a cold, and getting ready for MM I haven't had much time to work on the roadster but really wanted to get as much of the structure done as possible before the meet.

Today I was determined to mount the aluminum 1/4x1 strips on the A and B pillars and shape and weld in the door skin flanges.

I tell you, shaping a three dimensional flange to a defined shape in x, y, and z is really interesting...read that hard!



Originally I was going to trim these in, butt weld, and metal finish the door fronts and rears. A big job! I talked to Dutch today and decided to rosette weld them to the existing panels. Much easier and won't have any visible difference.

Punching holes in the 16 ga was hard. Rather than drill, I used a HF knockoff Whitney hand punch. It works but you really got to get with it. A lot faster than drilling though.



The aluminum on the B pillar is bent in three dimension. I heated it with a torch and it curved right around. It did crack in one spot but it's bolted good on both sides so it won't be a problem. The photo below shows the B pillar and the rear door flange on the right hand side.



This is the A pillar. The gap between the aluminum and the flange will need to be trimmed once I find out how much I need for a gap.



Here is a close up of the above.



The reason for the aluminum strips is so I can rosette weld the aluminum skin to the aluminum strips which are bolted to the structure.

And finally this is a close up of the back of the right hand door.



I'm hopeful I can get the drivers side done tomorrow before I start loading the trailers.
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