Canuck 289 scratch build

[old willy]

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[old willy]

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[old willy]

Hey there,

Well, only time will tell when I come south again.

I do believe, or at least keep telling myself that this will be "the last one" but life has thrown me a curveball before.

It makes me think of a time 20+ years again when I had an offer to build race engines with a fellow in the beautiful state of Tennessee.....

The path not taken, hmmmmm, sometimes I wonder how my life would be now?
Just different I guess.

Cheers!

[old willy]

Ok then, still trying to get caught up here so here goes.

Silly me, spending time working on the project rather than tell my friends about it......

Now that I had the door openings established I needed to get some doors, my body came with a pair but I only wanted the outer skins so I stared cutting.




WOW, Ok I was not prepared for what was inside, I knew there was some metal involved but I was not expecting a gallon of Bondo, just gluing everything together!

What the heck is that all about? Is this normal?
I mean it’s not even short stand fiberglass filler it’s just regular Bondo and lots of it, some thin wall ¾ square tubing tacked together and gobs of filler, no wonder they were so heavy……

I wonder how much is inside the boot lid…..

Well I just want the skins so sadly? just toss the rest but honestly that’s some fairly crappy work hiding in there, wow, just, wow……

So I went ahead with fitting up the rest of the tubes around the door openings thus tying all the cockpit tubes together at last.



The up side of making the opening a bit shorter is I can now trim the skins to fit and fix the rather large panel gap that it had before.
And with that held in place I can step back and see the shape from the cowl tube, along the door and to the rear tube, looks OK so far.



Now I needed to “frame” the doors, so with much fussing and fitting the inner and outer shapes were created.



These have been the most challenging tubes to form so far. And I did need to do them in sections and splice the tubes back together again. Also fitting them to the existing body rather than what AC cars did way back when and fit the body to the framework……



I thought about a few different ways to do it but in the end I have decided to bond the skin to the frame with some modern 3M auto body panel adhesive and have created a steel flange around the door frame for that purpose as I have seen others do.
It also allows me to hold things in place for fitting with those handy old Clecos again. I will do the same for the bonnet and the boot frames.



So then onto hinges, I started by making the pieces straight off the drawings to see where that got me, fingers crossed……





I made up the latch mounts and added them as well.



Then the moment of truth…………



Well it opens….but not really enough

Unfortunate yes, but not entirely unexpected.

My best guess is it has to do with the thickness of the fiberglass body vs. the aluminum one and some variations in the frame work.

So after some trial and error with cardboard cut-out pieces I determined that the hinge point on the chassis needed to be more forward and more outboard. It’s amazing how much difference some 1/8ths of an inch can make.

I also needed to rework the front of the right hand door a bit to help with the opening, again those fractions of inches make all the difference sometimes.




The orange stuff is just some corrugated plastic board, it makes a really nice door gap spacing.

I also added some spacers under the door hinge and latch for fit up.




I had been watching a video of a guy doing the top and interior work on an AC Ace and when he went to add the leather door pockets it changed the spacing on the door hinge causing the door to protrude slightly from the body
This is easy enough to correct at the latch by shimming the striker but there is no way to adjust the hinge inwards other than bending it. He compromised by skiving the leather as thin as he could to minimize the issue but knowing this ahead of time I am trying to allow for it somewhat.
Not the kind of thing you want to deal with after final body work and paint….like he did…..

So there, working doors! Very happy with that, much, much to much fussing around but in the end so nice to have done.

So now that I have doors I want to use them…….

Till next time,
Hudson





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[PDUB]

That's a labor of love, Hudson! Nice work!

[old willy]

Hello all!

So a pretty big moment in the shop…… I thought so...

Ok! So I have some working doors, well, I think they work, they open and close nicely. Open to a generous angle and don’t hit the body. But really how do they work?

The question was on my mind for a while so it was time to fit up some other stuff and find out.
So in with the foot boxes and pedals. In with the steering column and a quick dash mock up, then a seat, my seat.




Originally I was going to make the seat frames too as they are part of the drawing set but..... first off it’s a lot of tight radius bending and fit-up best done with patterns and jigs and secondly I was not having much luck finding anybody locally to pad them up and upholster them.

Honestly I really did not want to pay for someone to “learn” how to do it using up fairly expensive leather and shop time in the process.

Then there is the TIME issue, how long will it take me to make them vs. order from somebody else.

Also if I wanted black seats that could have been a bit more “off the shelf” but me being me I didn’t want black… or red…

In the end I decided to order some from a maker who seemed to have a lot more experience……

I knew I was going to need them for fitting up and honestly ordered them way back in February of 2023 and well........
I am putting it down to lingering covid 19 supply and manpower issues but they took a really long time to arrive, much too long but as the old saying goes….what’s time to a pig…..

I did some preliminary fitting when they arrived and figured out the approximate heights and position in relation to the pedals and steering wheel.
Bit of a head scratcher there though, every time I would try and go from the gas pedal to the brake my leg would contact the steering wheel kind of a bit tight if you ask me.

However thanks to some good folks here I got some good measurements and realized my dash mock-up was too low and the wheel perhaps a bit too far to the right, but some other things I was afraid were wrong were Ok.

I came up with some seat mounts/ rails that I can adapt, then put the seats aside for a bit, but now…….

Ok, my burning question, with everything sort of in the right spots ( I think) how do you get in and out of this thing.
I tried putting my little 3 step stool up to the side of the car to get in and out and that just made me more worried…..

Am I building a car that I can’t get in and out of?

Did I get something really wrong here?

I tried watching some videos, car reviews and such just watching for the “trick” but it really was unclear if there is a “trick” to it.
Honestly I saw a video of a guy literally crawling out of a 427 ( with a top) onto the ground then getting up, to be fair he was a fairly round guy, but I don’t want to be THAT GUY

Saw another where a lanky young woman demonstrated just stepping over the door and slipping down behind the wheel, looked easy enough but that’s not really a practical answer for everybody is it?

So I figured the best way to know was…….. to take it off the jig and set it on its wheels

Oh boy, so then out with the engine, trans and diff unit.
On with all the suspension bits, held with my “theoretical ride height” spacers rather than the coil over units.

Then lift, remove the jig and ……holly crap….a flying car….well, flying chassis I guess……




I added the wheels, steering column ( still not 100% sure there), steering wheel and seat again, then the doors and wow, its…..much shorter now….
And really cool too, I even rolled it back and forth a bit…..I did refrain from making engine noises however



So then…..the big moment, the question of ingress and egress.




Yes it can be done! and it is so much better when you have the ground to stand on at the correct height and not trying to pivot off a step stool.

I tried to be casual about it, walk over open the door, get in, sit down and close the door, settle in a bit, grab the wheel.

Then open the door, figure out how to pivot, what to grab and get out and close the door.

I did this about ten times walking around the shop for a bit between tries and approaching from a different angle too I guess. After about 3 or 5 tries it started to feel more natural so I am very happy to report, yes I can get in and out of this car… comfortably…. That last part was the important part…comfortably…..not crawling on the floor

SO while I was sitting and getting a feel for the seat I also was getting a feel for the steering wheel height and lateral placement.

It seems Ok but if I can squeeze it a bit more to the left I would be happier but of course that will affect things on the dash ect. It’s all about the follow on with these changes. I am really trying to stick to the drawings as much as I can but….

So sadly after being on its own wheels for just a few hours, the chassis is back up on the jig for further work to be done, sure was cool to see it rolling a bit though.

So in the process of removing the suspension bits again I decided to shorten the steering rack input shaft as per the drawings, much as I tried I could not form a good enough spline with a straight knurl so I went with plan “B” and sectioned the shaft…. A lot




I left one end long a turned it down to a peg then drilled the other part to accept it with a nice tight fit.




After a nice weld, some clean up and final paint it won’t be too noticeable.

I also found a suitable short .750 X 48 spline shaft section that I am going to cut in half and using a similar process to weld to a center shaft section and make the intermediate steering shaft. However I will wait until I have the steering column exactly where I want it to make the final measurement.

So I will just keep building on till it’s done.
In other news....... I believe I might have tracked down a fellow here in Ontario to mould me a smooth (no scoop) hood skin. Apparently he has the old Johnex moulds and still makes bodies, and says he is happy to do just do a hood for me. I will let you know how it goes.

All for now, back to work.

Cheers,

Hudson
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