65 project progress

[John Mcgraw]

This week, I dropped the body on the chassis and cut the rear floor away for clearance for the new chassis and suspension. After making all the cuts, I stabilized the remaining floor with temporary bracing and put the body back on the rotissere. I then fabricated a mold to make the new rear flloor section, primed it with polyester primer, sanded it smooth and coated it with PVA mold release. I mounted it upside down in the body and then layed up the glass from the underside into the mold. After removing the mold, I layed in two additional layers of glass from the top side. Then I sanded the entire new glass smooth on both sides and have it ready for primer tomorrow. The new quarters came in yesterday, but the bonding adhesive has not arrived yet, so I will not get the new quarters installed this weekend. Here are some pics of the work.
http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1587268

Regards, John McGraw

 

[Mac]

Did you need to make it flat in order to clear the new suspension? Or will it clear by a mile now??

-Mac

 

[stepinwolf]

Nice floor John.

Do you happen to be using bonding adhesive manufactured by " AXSON ". If that is the case, you might want to get in touch with me for some strange, albeit interesting information.

Stepinwolf

 

[BarryK]

John, as you know, i know nothing about the level of car building that you accomplish and I'm constantly amazed at everything that I see you do but one thing I can easily recognize is the level of quality and attention to detail that you put into every little thing you do. that floorpan work, even to my untrained eyes just looks to be done to perfection, but than, from following your '59 project, i'm not in the slightest bit surprised!
I can't wait to see more of this '65 take shape.

I have to say, that I feel that I learn something new every time you show progess pics of your projects. I may not always know what i've learned, but I know that i've mentally stored what you've shown and that maybe someday that information could be helpful - even if it's only getting a better understanding of how these cars are put together from looking at your pics.
Thanks!
please keep the progress pics coming.

 

[John Mcgraw]

Did you need to make it flat in order to clear the new suspension? Or will it clear by a mile now??

-Mac

Mac,
If you look at this pic, it shows the area that has to be cleared. there is a torque arm that points forward and transfers the torque to the large tubular crossmember, and it needs clearance almost the entire depth, and the crossmember sticks up higher than the stock rear floor as well. I could have humped up around it, but I thought that the floor would be more usable if it was flat. There is still room for a couple of pieces of luggage back there. The tool wells would have had to be removed in any case, so I decided to keep it simple and clean. I have enough clearance to rivet some stiffening ribs to the underside of the floor to keep it from flexing.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/339303/P0001418.jpg

Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Nice floor John.

Do you happen to be using bonding adhesive manufactured by " AXSON ". If that is the case, you might want to get in touch with me for some strange, albeit interesting information.

Stepinwolf

Bob,

I am still using the old Ecklers bonding adhesive. I just have never found an adhesive that I like working with as much. A lot of the adhesives are just too thin and tend to drip off the bonding strips, but the Ecklers stuff is very heavy bodied. Several people have told me to try the Fusor stuff in the dispenser tube, but I just have not gotten around to it. I will try it on some smaller parts where the learning curve will not have such serious consequences. What is the deal with the Axson bonding adhesives?

Regards

 

[stepinwolf]

Bob,

I am still using the old Ecklers bonding adhesive. I just have never found an adhesive that I like working with as much. A lot of the adhesives are just too thin and tend to drip off the bonding strips, but the Ecklers stuff is very heavy bodied. Several people have told me to try the Fusor stuff in the dispenser tube, but I just have not gotten around to it. I will try it on some smaller parts where the learning curve will not have such serious consequences. What is the deal with the Axson bonding adhesives?

Regards

John,

From what I was lead to believe, " AXSON " is one, if not "the" premier adhesive manufacturer, and not only do some of the fiberglass manufacturers actually use it to assemble their clips, they will also sell it to you outright. I have purchased it from a few different suppliers in the past, and I have a feeling that some of the others repackage the product with their own label.

My problem in Canada is that most of the shipping firms consider bonding adhesive as being a " HazMat " and will not transport any regardless if it is shipped air or ground. For that reason I normally try and purchase a sufficient quantity when I am at the Carlisle show, and try to make due until the next trip south.

With a few projects on hand, this building season saw me with an insufficient quantity, and was obliged to try and source some locally. As luck would have it , after visiting their site and a few back and forth e-mails, I was able to find some less then fifty miles from my place. This turned out to be a Godsend, because I was made aware that they " AXSON " actually supplied many different bonding adhesives, and one in particular, was much better suited to our bonding of panels, then what was previously sold to me.

The regular bonding adhesive that I purchased in the past was labeled APF-7 and was the correct black color. However the technical info they supplied indicated that they had another version the APF-4, that was much better suited for " bonding " then the APF-7 that I was used to using. I then contacted one of my suppliers, " Sermersheim's " and was told that they carried the black version APF-7, because it was of the proper black color, for a correct restoration.

The technical information concerning the various applications indicates that the APF-4 is better suited for bonding panels then the APF-7, and that it has a lower shrink rate. They recommend that the black be used as a repair adhesive for fiberglass molds. The only inconvenience of using the APF-4 is the color which is light gray, which would be an incorrect color for a correct restoration.

For information regarding the above mentioned products, you might want to take a look at the following link, http://www.axson-na.com/Axson-NA_fillers.html and contact them for specific applications.

regards
Bob
a.k.a. Stepinwolf

 

[67HEAVEN]

Nice work, John.

This thread reminds me of a conversation I had with Fuelie some time back. He suggested that what we all need is a "Car Guys" neighbourhood.

To be eligible to buy a home in the neighbourhood, you have to be a certified car nut; have to love throaty exhaust; have to welcome grease and fiberglass under your fingernails; have to have a working shop/garage on the property; and have to be willing to help the neighbours' projects.

Get it off the ground, Brian. I'm a ready customer.

Oh, one more thing.........we'll need a 1/4 mile out back for those test runs.

 

[Fuelie]

Hi John,

That is a stellar job you are doing on that floor. I can't wait to see more updates as the project continues to progress.

I noticed that you cut the sides of the floor all the way back to the rear bulkhead and beveled the filler floor panel patch. Is this required to allow clearance for the upper rear frame tubes on the SRIII chassis? Or did you just do it to offer additional "just in case" clearance?


BTW Bob, you forgot to add that all garages must be larger than the homes and instead of a local community centre, we will have a shared media blasting area and a down draft paint booth

Now back to John's original thread.........

Take care,
Brian

 

[studiog]

John,
First class job as usual. You make it look so easy. Keep the updates and pics coming.

 

[John Mcgraw]

Brian,
The angle cuts on the sides of the floor are to clear the lower frame tube on the chassis. The tubes are not stacked directly on top of each each other for stength reasons. The upper frame tubes are eactly the same plane as the inside edges of the wheelwells. As soon as the tires would rub on fiberglass, they would rub on the upper frame tubes. I kind of have the neighborhood you are talking about. I have 6 Corvette guys within 4 blocks and 4 of those guys have more than 1 of them. I also have Street Rod, Viper, Ferrari, and several race car guys within a 4 block radius. We all have 1.5 acre lots and large garages. Saturday at my house is usually pretty crowded, as there are usually at least 3 or more guys either using some of my tools, or just sitting around shooting the bull! We just drive some of the bluehairs in the neighborhood crazy with our cars however.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[IH2LOSE]

John

You make it sound and look so easy, I know better though

I am copying your pictures again as it wont be long before works settles down and I will be looking for another project to keep me out of trouble.

Thanks again for the phone call the other day. I needed it as I was at wits end.

The ground source heat pump was air bound on the lower level. The loop was also under pressurized Design calls for 40 psi and it actually had 23 psi once I was able to get into the "Pete's plug" I was able to figure it out.

And the other job I have to have a defective Injector pump, as Taco said what ever temp you have going in will come out the other side. I installed 3 more tempering valves and as of Friday night all of my radiant areas were all ready up to temp and all 3 of the munchkins were needed to maintain the primary loop temp.

PS I am up and running on my new laptop and for some reason the internet explorer now has a spell check for me,So my Grammer and spelling will be much better then before

 

[John Mcgraw]

Larry,
I was pretty sure that the ground-source unit was laking sufficient Delta P, that was the only reason I could see for it icing up. I am glad that you have identified the problem with the secondary loop on the boiler system. I would have hated to see you scrap it and go with 3-way valves. The primary- secondary system has so much to offer in comfort, economy, and redundancy of boilers without manual intervention. I am confident that once you get it dialed in, it will perform flawlessly for years to come. I know that engineers almost always just spec "petes plugs" for finacial reasons, but I am a big fan of just spending a few more bucks and installing permanent gauges at the ports, it sure makes troubleshooting a whole lot easier in the future.


Regards, John McGraw