Projects 26 T Roadster Pick Up build Thread

I thought of that, but with the stock hook type latch also sticks out a little.
Climbing into the small door isn't easy at the best of times.
I'm going to look at just how much the bear claw pins will stick out when the latches come.
I think that with the latches being quite small the pins will not be as big an issue , but we will see.

I don't know why I have had such a hard time with the stock style latches, they are in great condition and work smoothly, getting them to line up and latch smoothly and consistently without slamming the crap out of them or pushing excessively hard on the door has been driving me nuts.

The door is either too loose and when latched will rattle excessively even with pads or so tight that they won't stay closed or can't be closed without a real hard push.

As you can tell I'm frustrated with them

Maybe I would be better advised to order brand new T open car latches and door latch strikers from Macs
Do you know what kind of quality they are made to ?
I got new door hinges from them and they were nice.
Larry

 

I use a hardware store bumper on my striker plate. I haven't found a quality rubber bumper yet. I have to replace these every month or so but they compress and keep the door from rattling. They're peel and stick so all I do is clean with alcohol and stick a new one on. I carry a card of them under my seat.
They work well to keep the door gap good without touching the body.
They're clear but to get a good pic I colored them with ink.

 

Those strikers look much better than the ones I have.
Did you use new door latches too?
Mac's sell both latches and strikers.

 

The plot thickens ....

 

I found a couple of old pics. The latches and strikers are original. I soaked them in kerosene and "worked" and oiled them over and over.
After chrome I almost had to start over but got them to work pretty well.

 

And, the gears are turning Fred

 

Looks pretty good. I may just check Mac's again.....

 

Well , I just ordered the proper strikers and a pair of new door latches from Snyder's.
Strangely enough Mac's no longer has the correct striker plates.

Then I canceled the order on the bear claws so all is good.

I think a big part of my problem was the incorrect striker plates and the old crusty and worn out latches.
I'll try new parts and go from there.
Larry

 

Let us know how that works out, I'll be following your lead when I finally get to working on the body for mine!

 

I used my original latches and strikers on my T, I sandblasted then oiled the snot out of them. Never had a problem. I was going to say something about the bearclaw , blake 27 beat me to it. Theres not a lot of room to get in these little guys and I thought you might have a problem.

 

It was a valid point and I thought about it and changed before it was too late.
I know about how tight it is climbing in and out of the door as I spent quite a bit of time getting in and out getting everything set up.
My old latches have just made me not want to mess with them anymore, hence the new ones on the way

 

Were you able to use your Ogden chrome coupon for your soon to be shiny goodies?

 

Yes I was, thanks for that. It took some of the sting off but believe me this is not a cheap part of the build.
John Wright wanted mega bucks and Ogden Chrome was less but the cost is still high.
When I sent the parts in and got the call on pricing I just swallowed and said "do it"
They are working on them as we speak.
Larry

 

That gulp when you know it's something you can't do yourself, and you don't really want to spend THAT MUCH but you know you'll never be happy unless you do.

 

Larry,
Here is my first attempt at the lakes plugs. I had two discs of aluminum that were just a little under size on the O.D. I decided to shape them up a little and see how they looked. I have a couple of other slugs that I can make a little more shapely, but wanted to see the general look, first.

 

They look good to me.
I'm not sure on the acorn nuts though, for my tastes I like the stainless ARP bolts look better.
I liked the idea and stole (borrowed) it from NathanxStewart in his Y block powered model A build.
Mine will be polished up nicely to complement the bright silver ceramic that I am having my headers and exhaust coated in.

 

I dig the acorn nut looks period 50's to me. I did the same thing when I built the headers on my pops Av8

 

Since these are only 2 1/4" pipes the 9/16" acorn nuts seem a little out of scale to me. Traditionally, maybe wing nuts? But that is so far down my list of things to do, they may may never get changed.
I'm thinking that the silver ceramic might be the way to go for me also.

 

Bruce, If you would like I can send you some stainless steel round that you can machine into plugs. I have several diameters and can cut them to any reasonable length. Bib

 

Aluminum will work better as exhaust plug/caps because it ( aluminum ) has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than stainless steel.
That means that when hot the aluminum caps will expand and seal tightly for no leaks.
The stainless would not expand and seal as snugly and you could be left with a leak(s).

 

An update,
Jose at Ogden Chrome sent me some pictures of some of my parts that are on their way to the copper tank for their first copper bath.
Exciting stuff.
They did a very nice job on preparing the parts for this first step in the show chrome process.
This is going to be great.

As a side note, there are also some parts on the rack next to mine for Kindig-it-design.

Stand by for some more news as available
Larry

 

Thanx Steve,
I am just fiddle farting around with this. I might take you up on some stainless later.

Larry,
That's cool! I think it's exciting to see stuff you made, shipped off to another country and now posted on the HAMB, in process.

I really admire you and the others from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, etc. The cost and added aggravation you have to go through to get stuff done would probably cause most of us Colonists to take up another hobby.
Having dealt with customers from all the above mentioned countries as well as Japan, France and Germany, all I can say is your dedication is amazing. And I have never had anyone outside the U.S. complain about thr cost of parts or shipping. You guys rock!

Bruce

 

Thanks Bruce, we have to accept a number of things as you mentioned, as well at this time the low value of the Canadian dollar hurts badly.
But, it's either that or maybe taking up needlepoint

I'm thinking the fun in the end and now during the build too will be the payoff.

Keep in mind what I said about the better properties of aluminum when you consider plug material.
Larry.

 

I will likely stick with aluminum for the plugs. But, I have some other ideas for some stainless pieces.

 

Another little update. A couple more pictures of some of my parts from Jose at Ogden Chrome.
He sent me a bunch more pictures, the updates are great.

The first trip into the copper tank and then some fixes of defects around welds or other locations using lead and then more smoothing and blending and more copper....

They are doing a great job and my parts are looking very nice.
These guys really know what they are doing.

When they are done they will be beautiful

I also received my new door latches and strikers from Snyder's, very nice parts that will fix my door issues.
Larry

 

A few shiny bits. Got my headers and exhaust back from ceramic coating and laid them out for a couple of pictures before wrapping them up to store while other stuff happens
Larry

 

Wow, nice clean bits to play with soon. And is the snow there for the next month or so or more permanently ? I just wonder how long your summer period is as my brother lives in the north of England and he says if they get 12 hours of sun, that is summer.

 

Looks great Lary!

It's warmed up here now so snow probably won't last another month if the temps stay the same but we could get a snow storm in May so one never knows. Depends on what you classify as summer probably 4-5 months of warm weather (above 15 C constantly) would be the norm. We top out at about 17 hours of sunlight in June but July and August are usually our warmest months and by the end of September the cool fall weather is usually setting in again.

 

Our snow is going away now and it's getting warmer. We could still get more but for the most part the really cold weather is usually gone and the snow too by the end of May.

Summer and fall can be quite nice here, with any luck the snow stays gone till October maybe November .

 

Now that we have both said it we are probably fucked and it will probably snow within a week.