car is falling apart faster than I can take it apart

[mikeyr]

I finally got to start the wood work and wow! it is in worse shape than I thought it was, most pieces have disintegrated into multiple piece but progress at last.

First my life story, I got out of high school in 1975 and worked as a cabinet maker, nothing fancy, just kitchen/bath cabinets after 5 or so years, I developed a really bad case of asthma and could no longer breathe, it was decided it was the sawdust (these were the days where men worked like men and did not wuss out with dust masks or hearing protection) so I chose a new career, computer geek. I took on this wood work thinking no problem its going to be easy, I still have all the tools after all. Big difference in building faceframes and doors for cabinets, this is taking forever. I really thought that I could easily and quickly do this, I was wrong, its been easy but very time consuming.

After 3 days in the garage, I have 3 pieces of the body work done and 2 pieces for the other side are very rough cut since the other side is a mirror image, I made both sides at the same time but of course I can't cut the other side yet since I have not taken it apart. I purposely left the other side intact as my instruction book and "where did that come from?" I will re-assemble the drivers side and then do the other side but it will go quicker since I will have the rough blanks at least.

look at the bottom of the front cowl parts, fiberglass! Who knew that Singer was so advanced in the 1930's

The other side kept together for a pattern

That is going to be a fun piece to make, I plan on resawing lots of Ash and laminating new ones

Looks like fun (say yes)

the goal for this weekend is these 3 pieces, the long is curved.

one down

3 down, many hundreds to go

more work than I thought it would take

[mothy]

Well done, it's progress.
Remind yourself that what you do today (hopefully correctly...) you don't need to do tomorrow.
Keep up the photo documentation.

My main progress recently was fixing sticking brakes.
I thought it was wheel cylinders, until I noticed the brake lights were on when I walked round the back of the car.
Seized brake pedal cross shaft.
Much better now.

Oh, and the twin carbs are off the 1098 engine and a single SU HIF44 put on.
The difference improvement is night and day.

Cheers

Roly

[mikeyr]

at least you have your brake pedal, somewhere during the move I seem to have my clutch pedal assembly, I am pretty sure the remaining pedal I have is the brake pedal. I have searched high and low and I can't find the other pedal assembly. I was going to start working on the clutch assembly to hook up to the Sprite gearbox. Good news is so far that is all I have found I lost, I am sure its somewhere.

The goal is woodwork finished by Christmas, at least in a rough state maybe not ready for the alu body to go back on but finished enough to look like a body. Then I have to decide new alu skin or re-use the old one which is not bad but has a few cracks/rips and some missing corners from decades of abuse. I can weld on some new parts but it might be nicer to start with new.

[Peter McKercher]

You're at the fun part Mike. I have to wait until my garage is finished before I can tackle the body. In the mean time, my parts shelf fills with gleaming, restored Le Mans bits. I'm dying to put it all together.

[FORREST]

HI MIKE;

LOOKS LIKE A SUPER PROJECT THAT YOU HAVE. I AM JUAT STARTING THE WOODWORK ON A 52 4AD I AM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO PUTTING THE BAND SAW TO SOME WOOD. I WILL TRY TO PUT SOME PICTURES ON THE BOARD BUT IT MAY TAKE A LITTLE BIT AS I AM NOT A COMPUTER GURU LIKE YOURSELF. I DID NOTICE THAT YOU WERE GOING TO RESAW ASH TO MAKE YOUR WHEEL ARCHES. THE WHEEL ARCHES ON MY 4AD APPEAR TO BE MADE OF LUAN PLYS AND I THINK THAT I HAVE FOUND A PRODUCT THAT IS PERFECT FOR THE JOB. IT IS CALLED BARREL ROLL PLYWOOD MADE OF LUAN MADE TO BE BENT INTO BARREL SHAPES. THE SHEET THAT I BOUGHT IS 3/8 THICK TWO PLY AND I PLAN TO LAMINATE TWO PIECES TOGETHER ON A BUCK WITH THE CORRECT SHAPE (I HOPE) WITH MARINE GRADE EPOXY AND THEN SEAL THE WHOLE THING WITH EPOXY. THE 3/8 SHEET WAS RESONABLY PRICED AT $44.00 BUT IT WILL PROBABLY DO ABOUT 3 CARS, OR ONE IF I MAKE A LOT OF MISTAKES. I WILL WIND UP WITH ONLY 4 PLYS INSTEAD OF 5 IN THE ORIGINAL BUT IF SOMEONE IS COUNTING MY PLYS I THINK THEY NEED TO GET A LIFE. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR WHEEL ARCHES WERE MADE OUT OF BACK IN THE 30'S SO THIS MAY OR MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU. I DO LIKE TO KEEP THINGS ORIGINAL AS POSSIBLE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ONE PLY PERHAPS.

WE ARE GETTING A GOOD SNOW HERE IN MICHIGAN TIME TO HYBERNATE IN THE SHOP AND SEE WHAT I CAN GET DONE.

WISHING YOU THE BEST OF LUCK ON YOUR CHRISTMAS DEADLINE YOU HAVE SOME REAL WORK TO DO. WILL BE WATCHING YOU ON LINE AND CHEERING YOU ON.

FORREST

[mikeyr]

GREAT idea, I was thinking of using 1/8" luan door skin to make the wheel wells but since I have a big band saw and can resaw the Ash into very thin pieces and my originals were solid Ash that I assume was steam bent, I decided to go with resawn Ash as that will look close to original when finished (and YES I know they can't be seen when the car is finished). Your bendable plywood would save a lot of time since at 3/8 of a inch, I would only have to laminate 3 parts to get proper thickness. I could not find "Barrel Roll Plywood" on the net but I found this in 1/4" which will work, I like it. Now I have to decide resawn Ash or plywood.

http://www.plywoodcompany.com/applicati ... itemid=165

EDIT They do list it available at 3/8" also, I assume this is what you are using. Hurry up please and let me know how it worked out before I start mine

[Peter McKercher]

Guys
Luan is a product intended for interior applications only. Moisture tends to delaminate the plies. I would go with an exterior grade spruce plywood on the Roadster, as the arches are pretty significant. For the Le Mans, definitely go with the ash. The pieces are very small and you won't waste a lot of material by re-sawing rather than steaming. I did it with my Nine Sports and while I was concerned about the strength of the re sawn wood versus the straight grain of a steamed piece it has proven not to be an issue. Many drives down Carling Avenue in Ottawa (dubbed the worst street in the Capital) have christened it well.

[armsid37]

Strength to your elbow Mike. It would take me until Christmas to just get the measurements right, actually I never get the measurements right.

I am in Australia at the moment visiting the kids and have made contact with Singer souls here in Brisbane and also in Melbourne where we are going next.

I have been given some working diagrams of firstly the hood irons and secondly the trunk carrier over the fuel tank. They are for the 2 seater Le Mans. I can scan them in if anyone would like me to.

Cheers Brian

[Peter McKercher]

Hey Brian. Have you completed your re-wooding yet.

[armsid37]

Hi Peter.

Have I finished the woodwork? Well yes and no, I have certainly finished the front to the point where ally covered ply for the firewall and the footwells is all in place. The back end of the car is really in very good condition, however the nearside wheel arch will have to be redone, but I think that is all.

I keep putting off the recladding of the ally it really is most cowardly. You sound a bit like me , somewhat short of space.

Cheers Brian.

[mikeyr]

to those of you who have re-skinned a LM, how difficult was it ?

My concern is the 2 curves above the door on rear quarter panels, both of those are pretty tight and I don't know how to do them without wrinkles, the factory must have pressed them but i don't know how people do it now. My thinking would be to cut slits in the metal and then weld it up nice and tight and a little bondo, but I want to avoid that if possible and since the factory did it, I should be able to also.

My reasoning for new metal is that my old sheetmetal has been drilled for various screws and also at the door jamb worn away from ill fitting doors, so to re-fit the skin I have to weld a new "lip" at the door jamb, something about 1/2" wide and the height of the body, ok, i can do that but new metal would be easier. The second item is that my rear fenders (wings) don't fit very well. they are new from Dave but they have about a 1" gap in the middle of the curve to the body, enough of a gap that i think pulling it that tight would kink the fenders, if I do all new sheet metal I can laminate my rear fender wells to match my new rear fenders.

Anyone ever weld these bodies ? what alloy filler rod did you use ? I am going to try it out with 6061 and cut up a 4AD body into a thousand little pieces and experiment, hoping that the alloys from the pre-war to the post-wars did not change much. I have a week to make a decision, then I am on vacation for the rest of the year and will start full speed ahead.

[indian301]

Mike,
I reskined the doors on my 4 AD. The curve on the top of the doors is tight. I annealed the aluminum and started hammering. The old timer watching me said if the metal started to feel tight we would just anneal it again. I just took my time and the metal did not split. A light skim coat of spot putty and it looked great.


Dave V-6 AD

[mikeyr]

great now that you are a pro at it, you can drive over and help

I will let you know when I am ready

[indian301]

Mike,

I would be more than happy to help you, but a vacation to the cold reaches of the East coast for Christmas has already been planned.

Dave

[mikeyr]

no FAIR !

The left side of my car does not match the right side, I can't make one fender well, I have to make a left and a right wheel fender well. There is actually quite a bit of difference in the curve and the height. NO FAIR !!! I was hoping to make one pattern, not 2.

I guess I will match up the curve to my new fenders and make a new body skin...lots of pictures coming.