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That is some pretty custom work. You are going to have a car again soon.
Ugg, I don't know. I was hoping to have something that looked a lot like a car this year but I don't think that is going to happen now. Don't get me wrong. I am very very glad that I took the time to work on the floor now over assembling the body. Doing the work that I did on the floor section would have been 100 times harder if I had assembled the car to it first. I can hardly wait for the day that I take it for a test drive but at the same time I enjoy going out to the shop and working on it also. Right now I don't even want to speculate how much longer that it will be. It has already been a lot longer than I originally planned or thought. All that I know right now is that in the end this is going to be the longest post in Corvette Forum history.
I think you may have a ways to go, Jacks trip across the USA must have had the record. It had daily updates for months and months. Then he added the European extension.
I think you may have a ways to go, Jacks trip across the USA must have had the record. It had daily updates for months and months. Then he added the European extension.
This is nothing new. Plenty of people have made rear panels for a variety of things. Usually speakers and amplifiers. In my case it will be used for the same reasons. I just thought that I would show you how I got the shape. Right now I have it made with 1/2" MDF. But I haven't decided if I am using that yet. I am also considering aluminum or fiberglass sheet. I will use the MDF for now because it is easy to cut and shape. Once it is done, if I want, I can use the MDF as a template for different material.
I had this old architectural drawing folder laying around. It is made from very heavy construction paper basically. You can see that I have several pieces taped together. I used a couple of pieces to get the correct inside radius for the bottom and then two more to get the correct outside radius for the bottom. Then I held and taped them together to get the outside shapes. Then I taped them to something long and straight to combine them to make the shape for the bottom. I traced that to the MDF and cut it with a jig saw.
I cut the 1/2" MDF at the bottom to fit. Later when the roof is back on I will make a template for the top and cut that shape into it. The side edges will line up with the side panels later.
Right now I have this piece of 1" aluminum angle at the bottom for mounting. I haven't decided whether or not I am using it yet. The very back of this area is not perpendicular with the bottom and I want the false panel to be parallel with the back. The back and bottom are not 90 degrees from each other so a 90 degree bracket at the bottom does not really work well. I will have to do something to make that fit better I just haven't decided what to do yet. I am thinking the long bracket at the bottom, bonding a couple smaller brackets somewhere at the top, and then tying together the rear panel with the side panels.
Call me silly but I am trying to figure out why you would be adding the new piece at the back of the luggage area? I like and understand the reason you created the new compartment with the lid on it but why the new wall in the back? Is it just for added rigidity? Thanks
Mark
Behind the rear panel I plan on two speakers, probably an amplifier, and the rear defroster. The speakers and amplifier will mount to the rear panel. The defroster is mounted to the back as previously talked about. This may change some with the stereo, especially since I have not chosen a system yet. In this post I am going to show you my rear defroster.
Here is the rear defroster mounted in place. It is fastened to the mounting studs. I have rubber isolators on the studs for noise isolation. You can see those in the last post in the picture of the lower panel bracket. I chose this location because it is near the rear vent blower. Right in front of the rear vent blower in the side panel there should be an open grill to allow air to exit the interior and be blown out of the car by that blower. I will make sure that there is a nice looking grill in the side panel and not that thing that looked like chicken wire that was originally there. That vent grill will either allow the vent blower to remove air from the interior and blow it out of the car or it will allow the defroster to draw air from the interior, heat it, and then blow it on the very back of the rear window while recirculating the air. No, I am not driving the car in the winter or in the extreme cold but there are some cases where weather may cause that window to fog up. This will help.
(Or maybe it fogs up from making out with the wife)
The duct adapter and the vent came from Vintage Air. I have two of these vents and they will be mounted in the rear panel near the top so that they blow air on the rear window. I made the mounting brackets for the defroster housing and will need to powder coat those later. The heater came with the flexible hose. I will need to get the next size larger hose from Vintage Air to go between the adapter and the vent.
I have 3-1/2" of space between the rear panel and the rear of the interior. This leaves 1/2" space between the defroster and the rear panel. I am not sure if this is enough for the speakers or amplifier yet and will have to finalize that space after I choose and purchase a stereo system. But I need at least the 3-1/2" for the defroster.
I bought this thing off of Amazon and like most items I get from there it needed some changes or re-engineering. I bought it mostly for the housing design and size. It had two out ports which was what I wanted and ran on 12 volts. I figured that I would buy it ($30) and see how well it worked. The heat was fine but the air movement was almost non existent. So I take it apart and I find the resistance (glowing red wire) heat element now laying on the left and two fans. I didn't like the glowing red wire heater and I didn't want it inside my car so I replaced that with the ceramic heater that you see in there now. I ditched the original fans and found two more that moved about five times the air. The speed of these fans can also be controlled for High, Medium, and Low settings if wanted (probably will). I wired it up and let it run in my shop off a car battery for over an hour and it worked great. The housing never got any warmer than warm and it moved much more air.
I am going to mount my amp panel to the rear bulkhead with bolts that come from the backside and carpet the panel. The panel will rest on the floor. One thing I have learned is you can make a decorative cover for your speaker box that is held on with magnets. I’ve seen YouTube videos and my upholster also uses them for panels. Here is a video to give you ideas.
Sam - curious about that rear defroster you'll be installing. What was the original application? Back about 20 years ago, when I was putting my 64 GTO back together, I added a few options to suit me.
Things like Tilt Steering Column (original GM unit), front disc brakes, 4-way flasher (from 66 Pontiac) and a 4-spoke 64-only Steering Wheel. The other option I thought would be nice to have
since I was intending on using it for the commute to work was a rear defroster. Back then, you could find a number of old GM rear defroster units at local swap meets so I added one to my 64 GTO.
Problem was, there was no heating element, it was nothing more than a fan unit. After a drive of about an hour, with the main car heater/defroster on High, and the rear defroster activated,
there 'might' have been an 18" by 18" clear spot on the rear windshield. Not that I'm commuting anymore but interested to hear what your new rear defroster was originally intended for.
Great build, by the way.
Mike T - Prescott AZ
Sam - curious about that rear defroster you'll be installing. What was the original application? Back about 20 years ago, when I was putting my 64 GTO back together, I added a few options to suit me.
Things like Tilt Steering Column (original GM unit), front disc brakes, 4-way flasher (from 66 Pontiac) and a 4-spoke 64-only Steering Wheel. The other option I thought would be nice to have
since I was intending on using it for the commute to work was a rear defroster. Back then, you could find a number of old GM rear defroster units at local swap meets so I added one to my 64 GTO.
Problem was, there was no heating element, it was nothing more than a fan unit. After a drive of about an hour, with the main car heater/defroster on High, and the rear defroster activated,
there 'might' have been an 18" by 18" clear spot on the rear windshield. Not that I'm commuting anymore but interested to hear what your new rear defroster was originally intended for.
Great build, by the way.
Mike T - Prescott AZ
It was marketed as a supplemental heating unit. They show them mounted to big rig dashes and under seats etc. They also had a bunch of bad reviews for not blowing much air which explains me rebuilding the thing.
I am going to mount my amp panel to the rear bulkhead with bolts that come from the backside and carpet the panel. The panel will rest on the floor. One thing I have learned is you can make a decorative cover for your speaker box that is held on with magnets. I’ve seen YouTube videos and my upholster also uses them for panels. Here is a video to give you ideas.
Good video Chris. I added that to one of my watch lists so that I can easily find it later.
So way back when I thought that I was going to start assembling the body I was trying to level the car on my lift. I had bought a lift, rebuilt it, and installed and leveled it. I rolled the chassis on it and was trying to level the frame to the lift by adjusting the suspension. WRONG !!
The problem with trying to level the car with the suspension is that every time you push on it, add weight, or wiggle it in any way the suspension will probably move and will knock it out of level. You would constantly be messing with it to re-level it.
My friend up north said not to mess with the suspension, but to level the frame (itself) to the lift, by putting it on blocks. That way the frame never moves. You can add weight and it won't change. And you can push, pull, or whatever is needed to it or body parts as you're assembling them without changing the level. You still want the basic alignment and the tires aired to the correct pressure which I did. Doing it this way will allow you to make measurements from the lift to the body or tires to fenders, etc. and nothing should ever change.
I used four motorcycle type scissor lifts, one under each birdcage mount. And two adjustable screw type jack stands under the front to support the engine. My friend said that if I had a stock frame within an 1/4" that I was really good. Using levels and a digital measuring tool I actually got three of the four corners perfect as far as measurement from the lift, with the fourth corner being an 1/8" taller. With levels everything looks perfect.
I used four of these small motorcycle scissor jacks under each corner of the birdcage and slowly adjusted each one until the measurements from the lift to each of the four corners were as close to the same as I could get them and the frame was as level as I could get it.
I used two of these adjustable jack stands under the front of the frame to ease the weight of the engine. Without them the weight of the engine wanted to pull down on the front of the frame. I had to adjust these also as I was working on leveling it.
I used this electronic distance measuring tool to take measurements at each corner and then make adjustments. Above the tool you can barely see a machinists parallel sitting on the top of the frame. I had four of these taped down to the top of the frame so that they did not move and I had constant measuring points.
A read out of my measuring tool. I ended up with three corners reading 11-7/16" and the rear passenger side reading 11-9/16".
The level says perfect with zero angle change. I measured level from front to back on both the driver and passenger sides. And from side to side at the front and rear of the birdcage. Everything was perfect or very near perfect when measuring on the birdcage after it was shimmed.
This is a picture from when I was trying to adjust the suspension to level the frame. Here you see the machinist parallels taped to the top of the frame. I was taking measurements from these points.
After the birdcage was set back on the frame I only needed one shim to level it. I needed to add a 1/8" shim under the rear drivers side of the birdcage. After I added that, the birdcage was perfectly level from all directions. Front to back, side to side. I then added an extra 1/16" to all four corners for extra clearance. I have installed the four mounting bolts for the birdcage and the two rear bolts for the floor section and have hand tightened them. The next steps will be to get the floor and birdcage aligned how I want them, snug them down, and bond the floor to the birdcage / firewall.
OK guys, I am all caught up with posts and you are up to date with my project. The bad news is that I am pretty much done for a while. We only had about two weeks of winter here and spring came early. I have been busy in the yard and outside the house off and on for the past few weeks when I was not working on the car. This Friday I am leaving to go spend another couple of weeks at my brothers working on his tree house. We are hoping to get it closed up with doors and windows. After that I am coming home and starting construction on a pole barn. My wife has finally given the go ahead for a 36' x 54' barn. It has been a long time coming and I can hardly wait to get it up. I am sure that it will be full quickly. If I get a chance to do anything to the car I will let you know but otherwise you probably will not hear from me again until the fall.
04-05-2024, 08:51 AM
