Thunder Ranch build thread

They're usually hinged, Gordon. The replicas have big swingin' hinges and the originals had flat ones that kept the front of the lid much closer to the body work (as seen above). The quarter-turn latches near the windshield are like the originals, which used a longish square-drive church key to undo both those and similar ones holding the front of the clam down. The Vintage and Beck variants have a more pedestrian pull latch in the center and (usually) a pair of non-functional turn-latch covers close to where they'd be on a real Spyder. 

My car came with (semi-) functional turn-latches in the hood, so they'll be retained....

Finished my battery hold downs today and made the gas tank straps.

Dayyum, Ed!  Your attention to detail on this thing is amazing.  

Ed wrote: "The quarter-turn latches near the windshield are like the originals, which used a longish square-drive church key to undo both those and similar ones holding the front of the clam down."

YES!  It had those square-hole latch thingies.  I found the square key hanging up under the dash.

Thanks!

Ed how are those fastened on the bottom of the battery? Pretty cool looking

Ray: There are 5/16 bolts from the bottom of the car. Big fender washers under the floor pan, then smaller washer on top and a nut, to make it act like a stud. Then through the edge of the "battery tray." Then the strap and another washer and a nylock to hold it down. 

Final fettling of my fuel tank cover. Damn it!

After painting my hold down straps I roughed-in the hinges for the sides of the covers, socked them in with a couple screws, then taped down the cotton straps and had Karen come out and help me reinstall the hood to make sure everything clears.

According to that shaving cream, nothing clears. We got five dots, and the hood doesn't latch.

The main culprit seems to be that brass thingie in the center. It's a replica tank vent, designed to be functional. And I re-soldered it lower and then ground it down pretty good after the last test fitting with Cory.

It's still about 3/16th too proud. 

We'll get there tho. 

Put the bump stops in. Took out the tank cover and removed the offending vent fitting. I'll fix that later.

Hood pins are in.

Hood closes. Gaps are even, panels are pretty level. 

Blog update. Everything mocked-up and it all fits. 

Need to extend the sides of my tank covers because the bottom edges are visible and that won't do. 

Gonna get another quart of kitty hair/filler to smooth out this mess in and out, and plug the holes I blew in it. Then we're into final prep and paint. 

I told you guys this would be special and I wasn't kidding. 

Fantastic!!

Just stopped by one of Chris' neighbors where the guy's 17 year old son wrapped the his 350Z in your color(?).  The kid did a Stellar job, too!

It looks good and a colour change to boot ..  

17 year old with a 370Z? Brave father.

Yeah, I was wondering that, too.   Seemed like a nice kid and his parents are nice, too, but way above my pay grade when I was 17.  I asked for a car and was told "you can use your brother's Bronco from time to time while he's away in the Service"......That's it.  

So, that was when I built my first Dune Buggy.  The rest, as they say, is History.  Nothing but good came from my parent's decision.

Oh, but don't feel too bad for me.  My mom got a new Ford Galaxie Convertible every two years all through the 60's so it wasn't like I had to drive "Ugly Betty" or anything like that.  This was my favorite, for a lot of reasons.  Life was good in the '60's.

Hey, @edsnova!

Finished the trailer, with help from "Five Cent Creations", Karen, my daughter-in-law and her versatile CriCut X-Y cutting machine.  She cut the stencil, I shot the paint.

It came out pretty slick, I think, but I'm still way behind keeping up with YOU!

"Caboose"

I dunno, Gordy. What you've made looks actually useful!

Here's the latest on the gas tank: I welded up skirts to the end pieces, filled them and then molded a new, functional, correct-looking vent for the back of it and glued that on with kitty hair (which it's made out of). 

Installed the vent piece in the filler neck with epoxy. . . 

(Those two pieces will connect with a hose under the tank cover so the vent will actually work)

Primed the tank cover

Fit the (functional, relay) sending unit

(The real sending unit will be wired to this one under the cover)

Nut-certed all the holes so when it's assembled it might hold together

Epoxied studs in on the driver's side when I discovered that neither nut-certs nor a reinforcement plate would fit without interference from the steering box. 

And then test-fit the whole mess one final time before paint.

Hood closes, and latches, and the hood pins work as they should. Snazzy, eh?

Now I just gotta paint the cover, attach the straps, shorten those silly studs jutting out from in front of the steering box, and source and install the actual fuel level sending switch so the gauge will work. 

Oh, yeah, and two bits of velcro for the top edges of the tank cover ends to keep them from rattling about when underway. 

That IS super-snazzy, man!

Looking great, Ed!

vs

Sucker's fighting me though. Fried two fuel level senders trying to test the new gauge. Don't even know how it happened. 

And now the hood won't close again.

Ah well, try again tomorrow.

Sleep on it buddy! You are doing great work.

OK, sorted. Just got to get the horns installed and the clutch and brake master cylinder reservoirs mounted and we'll have the frunk all done.

I also filled the trans with gear oil today. 

Looking good Ed !

"I also filled the trans with gear oil today. "

WOW!  

Sounds like we're getting whispering close to a "shake-down cruise"!

That car keeps looking cooler and cooler every single day.

Made the spare tire straps today. 

Amazing work Ed !

Hey Ed, did you use your nose ring for that  

Silly Ray!  Ed didn't have a nose ring.  That's from his belly button.

As a very good friend of mine used to brag, "I've got more rings through my nipples than poodles to jump through them."

Ed, I see a future internship for you at Dusty Johnson's Saddle-maker classes.....

edsnova posted:

As a very good friend of mine used to brag, "I've got more rings through my nipples than poodles to jump through them."

I'm not into self inflicted pain, so just thinking about how much that must hurt creeps me out...

PS- straps look good, Ed. 

Coil bracket is basically done.

It's set up to hold two end-to-end like the originals. Though only one will be wired in for this application. Nice to keep a spare.

With that dry fitted I added the other junk to see how everything looks in situ. . . .

Your CAD machine must really be getting a workout on all those brackets you're making !............Bruce

Tank finished, brakes bled, oil lines (almost) made, coil bracket fabricated, and a nice leather hold down strap

Spent about two and a half hours this am re-doing oil lines, shortening the short hose little by little, trial and error, until I got it too short. . . 

Kept at it and now they're almost good. 

I don't like how the top one impinges on the lower line though. May muck about with these some more tomorrow before lunch.

Tonight I got my new clutch fluid reservoir, flared the hard line sticking out of it so the 7mm braided cloth hose won't fall off, and made the bracket for it. 

Tomorrow I'll paint the bracket blue and give it three rivets, fill the cup up and that's done.

Amazing attention to detail, Ed! It's looking great.

I'm beginning to think half the weight of an old-school car is in the brackets.

Everything  is held where it needs to be by brackets - and often by heavy, steel brackets.

Just makes me glad the builders of my Speedster put so much thought into saving weight by brilliantly using plastic zip-ties and silicone stickum wherever they could.

The latest brackets are like 22 gauge sheet steel; very light. The "tractor seat" spare tire holder is part of an old aluminum frying pan (the originals were steel). I also made the brake reservoir bracket out of sheet aluminum, and also the central clam pins (those were steel on the originals too). 

Nothing I added is all that heavy, with the possible exception of the chassis tube extensions up front which by necessity (i.e. to be able to support the weight of the front end of the car over a jack) are DOM steel and weigh maybe 6 pounds each.

The gas tank cover is probably another 10-12 pounds.

I guess all-in I've added 40-50 pounds of nonsense to the car in my quest to make it look more like what Wendler released in 1955. Running the plastic windshield and alloy wheels probably puts it back close to where the kit would have been if assembled as McBurnie intended. 

Returned to the brakes today thinking I'd pull the front calipers off and tilt them a bit to get the last bit of air out. Instead, noticed a little drip where the passenger rear braided line attaches to a coupler. Tightened it up. Then I looked at the other braided line and it was wet at the T junction so I put a stubby wrench on that one as well.

Next thing I know it's raining brake fluid.

Got bad enough I put the car up and pulled the hose off the rear reservoir and drained it back into the bottle.

My God. Did I split that brass fitting??

The weird thing: all that stuff is off the shelf. The junctions I was worried about were the ones I flared myself. So far those are all dry.

Anyway, chime in, experts, if you see something idiotic I've done that needs fixin'. Otherwise I'll just order a couple more of those T-junctions and try again with the same stuff.

Are we having fun yet?

Also painted my clutch reservoir bracket and, while I was at it, the hood pin housings.

Still pondering those oil lines. 

Answer: Yes. I split the brass fitting. Me, reaching through full arm, crouching, with a stubby 14mm wrench, cranking the flare nut against like a 3/16th bolt through fiberglass. 

I must've put about 4 ft-lbs torque on this thing.

So I guess this sucker would've burst the first time I took the car around the block and tried to bed the pads.

Anyone else ever seen anything like this? 

Gets you to thinking, doesn't it?

Like about how many other parts from foreign shores are in our cars at critical places where a failure would send us into the weeds or into oncoming traffic.

Parts that may be the best now available because nobody would pay for what the real parts cost, so the guys who made the real parts went out of business.